QR codes on mail: what a scan tells you, and what it doesn't

A QR code scan is one of the cleanest signals print marketing has. It's timestamped, it carries campaign parameters if you set them up, and it lands on a page you control. It's also easy to overrate. A scan is a visit. It isn't a lead, and it certainly isn't a customer.

This section treats QR codes as measurement tools: editable versus fixed codes, tagging destinations with campaign parameters, landing pages built for one mailing, sizing and placement on the printed piece, and the follow-through from scan to form to sale. We also look at what happens when codes break, expire, or point at a vendor's short link that stops working when the subscription lapses.

Restaurants on the Grand Strand, real-estate teams, retailers and nonprofits all use QR codes differently. We try to show the number that matters for each, like scan-to-form rate, instead of celebrating raw scan counts.