Quick response codes (QR codes) are easy-to-use tools that help people quickly find a website or other online platform. They are exploding in popularity, with creation of QR codes increasing 433% in the past two years.1
Businesses of all kinds are adopting QR codes as a way to connect with their customers. This article reviews the top five reasons your veterinary practice should use QR codes to guide clients to your online storefront.
What is a QR code?
A QR code is a small, often square symbol that works like the barcodes you see every day in grocery and retail stores. The symbol contains a unique pattern of dots, and the pattern is associated with unique data, often a link to a website.
To use a QR code, a person opens their smartphone camera or a QR app on their smartphone. They point the smartphone at the QR code, and the camera scans the image. It automatically reads the data and translates it. Then, the smartphone displays a link, which immediately links the user to the intended destination online. The process takes only seconds.
Think of a QR code as a bridge from an offline platform (such as a printed brochure or invoice) to an online platform (such as a website). In this way, your veterinary practice can use QR codes to help clients quickly and easily find your vRxPro™ practice-branded online storefront.
#1: QR codes help you engage with your clients
Offline marketing materials are passive. A customer can look at them and quickly forget them. But QR codes inspire action. They encourage your clients to interact, rather than just move on.
To use QR codes for marketing your veterinary practice, simply:
- Ask your Covetrus® Customer Success Manager to create QR codes for you.
- Put the QR codes in multiple places to encourage your clients to engage (see #2 below for ideas).
- Watch how sales increase because you actively engaged clients and led them to your online store.
Covetrus can help you use your QR codes to better understand your clients. For example, we can track important data, such as:
- When your clients scan your QR code
- How often clients engage with your storefront
- How many scans are converting to sales (conversion)
With this information, Covetrus can help you adjust your marketing strategies, build client loyalty, maximize your storefront’s potential and build stronger revenue streams.
#2: QR codes are easy to use — for you and your clients
It’s easy to use QR codes to promote your veterinary practice and storefront. You can place one anywhere your clients and potential clients might see it—printed on paper or used digitally.
For example, your veterinary practice can use them on:
- Invoices
- Appointment reminders
- Brochures, postcards, and direct mail
- Waiting room information screens
- Entryway door mats and exam room floormats
- Posters and table tents
- Kitty and puppy welcome packs
- Product packaging
- Stickers
QR codes are also easy for your clients to use. All a customer has to do is point their phone at a QR code and click on the link that appears. Shopping habits are changing, and consumers want and need this type of convenience. When something is not convenient, your clients may shop elsewhere.
#3: QR codes can generate sales, even when your practice is closed
Your clients shop at all hours of the day and night, including when your practice is closed. QR codes can drive traffic to your Covetrus online storefront 24/7. The codes allow clients to easily find your storefront and buy what they need without additional help from your staff.
#4: QR codes are cost-effective
Covetrus is here to support your marketing efforts—with no extra impact on your budget. We’ll help you create your customized QR code and link it to the most effective place on your online storefront. Then you can place the code anywhere.
We use dynamic QR codes, which can be updated in the background even after they have been generated or printed. So you can make updates or fix mistakes anytime.
For example, say you print brochures that list the products you offer on your online storefront. What if you want the products you feature to coincide with the season or a manufacturer’s promotion? With dynamic QR codes from Covetrus, we simply change the information online, in the background. No need to reprint marketing materials.
#5: QR codes eliminate the potential for user error
We’ve all made typos when typing lengthy, complicated URLs into our browsers. QR codes eliminate the need for clients to remember long website addresses and the possibility that clients will get your URL wrong. The code leads them directly to your online storefront.
Covetrus is your partner in veterinarian digital marketing
There are more than 310 million smartphone users in the United States.2 And more and more people in every age group are using their smartphones to engage with QR codes. These codes are an excellent way to actively engage current and potential clients. They make clients aware of your storefront and make it very easy to find.
Covetrus offers support to help you get started with QR codes. We can create your custom QR codes and link them to your vRxPro online storefront. Then we can help you leverage the data to better understand your clients and build revenue.
Check out our additional veterinarian marketing tips.
To learn more about using QR codes to connect clients with your online storefront, please reach out to your Covetrus Customer Success Manager. They can help you create QR codes and share best practices for marketing your online pharmacy.