HOW 2D MOBILE
BARCODES WORK
2D mobile barcodes bring printed
pages and static marketing to life allow-ing authors to connect with customers
in a new way. Here is how it works: The
customer uses a 2D barcode reader appli-
cation on their smart phone to scan a
picture of a barcode embedded in book
pages. Turning a mobile phone into a
barcode scanner, the reader then ana-
lyzes the 2D barcode and typically opens
a mobile URL.
2D mobile barcodes, therefore, allow
you to connect readers from the static
page of your book to an interactive page
on the Web. While reading printed books
may be on the decline, we know the
Internet is doing nothing but growing.
However, putting a URL on a printed page
is bulky, and people won’t often take the
time to manually enter them into their
computer’s Web browser.
2D mobile barcodes are easy—you
scan a picture and you’re instantly con-nected—spanning the gap between
digital and physical worlds.
TRY IT FOR YOURSELF!
SCAN THE 2D MOBILE
BARCODE BELOW
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A recent study found that the majority of customers actively using social
media also use 2D mobile barcodes with
57 percent having scanned a code at least
once. Likewise, an overwhelming 97
percent of them find 2D barcodes useful.
With these approval numbers, 2D barcodes must not be ignored as a powerful
marketing device. We have permission to
engage our readers with this new tool.
Snap Tags are not the only 2D
barcode out there. There are a number
of other options like QR codes and
Microsoft Tags, with each solution
offering different capabilities. Clearly,
my favorite solution is the Snap Tag.
While QR codes primarily connect users
to a mobile website, Snap Tags operate
on a platform, delivering interactive
multimedia videos, messages, and other
information and offers.
Snap Tags can be accessed by anyone
with a camera-enabled mobile phone
with picture messaging capabilities (88
percent of mobile phones), while QR
codes can only be accessed by people
with a smart phone with a downloaded
QR code reader ( 13 percent). Snap Tags
also work without mobile Web access
whereas QR codes do not. QR codes only
allow 30 percent variance in the code for
branding while your brand logo or icon
becomes the centerpiece of the code with
SnapTags.
Above all, Snap Tags provide us with
an opportunity to engage our readers,
collect data about their behavior, and
ultimately sell them our product. With
Snap Tags, readers and customers can
opt in to receive more information and
updates or participate in your member-
ship programs. Whatever the strategy,
the result is a database of custom-
ers who want to hear from you. With
Snap Tags, messages can be customized
based on prior customer behavior and
information provided by the customer,
making direct marketing campaigns
more relevant, effective and engaging.
Here are some key benefits to consider.
1BRING THE PRINTED PAGE TO LIFE
Snap Tags can turn simple words on a
page into to a meaningful and powerful interactive experience for readers.
So let’s not ignore what’s really happening here—you’re now engaging
your readers on their most used device.
Mobile is growing at a scale industry
leaders couldn’t anticipate. For example,
Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion
simply because of their power as a stand-alone mobile application. Mobile, mobile,
mobile! Don’t be left behind.
2GET TO KNOW YOUR EADERS
Snap Tags provide insight into how your
readers are engaging and responding to
the content in your book. The Snap Tag
platform provides deep analytics to tell
you how many people scanned the tags
throughout your book, allowing you to
identify popular chapters and concepts.
Also, by giving you the ability to collect
information from readers, you can then
segment the data based on demographic
information to create actionable insights
for future engagements.
This benefit has been tremendously
helpful to me. In my latest book, I
included a Snap Tag at the beginning of
each of the book’s 35 chapters, offering readers a direct connection to unique
video content to further explain core concepts of each chapter. Based on the usage
data Snap Tags collected, I was able to
identify what chapters in the book really
engaged people. I could see not only the
percentage of people who snapped the
Snap Tag for that chapter, but I also knew
the percentage of people that snapped
it more than once because they wanted
to see the content again—which told me
they were very engaged!
I was then able to use this information to form content for other parts of
my business. For example, I focused on
popular content during speaking engagements and was able to determine which
