[Offline Marketing] Window Fliers - Billboard Postcards - QRcode Novelty

My area in north central Florida is ripe with Retirement Villages.

I, myself am retired, but often find myself being the Youngest person in line at the stores, and yes, we do roll up the sidewalks at 10 p.m.

In 2006 I found myself in line at the local Computer store behind a gentleman who was a bit older than me, exactly how much, was soon to become apparent.

The young lady behind the counter politely asked him to swipe his bank card in the reader, and, as computer cash registers sometimes do, it asked her to verify his ID before completing the sale.

He quietly passed her his Florida Drivers license, and as she keyed in a few digits she stopped, looked at him, and in a near whisper asked, "You were born in 1904? You're 102, with a valid drivers license?"

Without so much as cracking a smile or missing a beat, he replied, "I have to drive, sweety. Someone's gotta take my mother to her appointments."

To my chagrin, the centegenarion was purchasing a new smart phone and some other computer related items. It didn't quite sink in at the time though, as I tried to calculate how old his mother was, but eventually it clicked. At 102 yrs old, this gentleman who had seen both world wars, was buying a smart phone.

As you can imagine, the area is in no way saturated with high tech mobile devices. In fact, the latest figures from the US Census Bureau actually list Citrus County, FL, as the Oldest County in the country, with the AVERAGE age of residents being 72 years. Yes, 72 is the Average.

Since then I have focused "my hobby" as my girlfriends call it, on building better websites and mobile sites, for the older members of the community.

I will often ask shop owners to post fliers for my business in their window, with QR codes big and prominent, 4-6 inches, backed up by my own Mobile Video and lead capture technologies, I have found many website clients.

For locations who allow business cards to be placed on counters or public billboards, I place 5-7 inch postcards which are likewise, boldly displaying my QR.

More often than not, when placing a flier or postcard, I ask permission. This way i call attention to myself without being at all rude or unprofessional. Generally, I get more than a few inquiries about the "special" bar-code. The simplest answer is to simply show them.

I ask if they have a smart phone. If not, I bring out my own (making sure I'm logged out Facebook). I instruct them to select the QR Reader app, and center the bar-code inside the target lines. QuickMark automatically opens the mobile page and begins playing my video, which ends in my call to action of LIKEing my page.

Most times, without further instruction, they tap the great big Facebook Button.

They are surprised when the Facebook login page pops up, and sometimes here I have to reassure them that it's ok, they can log, in my phone wont remember their login information. (actually i found that it does, but it can be deleted, which I do.)

Once the LIKE process is completed, the page automatically returns to my mobile site's thank you/ confirmation page. In this second video I let them know that I will be contacting them about my business, but I also provide four great big buttons for them to contact me first.

I have only had ONE person NOT take my postcard business card or allow me to post it on their billboard. The stated reason was that, they didn't like my phone on their internet line, and didn't want others using their internet either.

Hey, you can't please everyone.

Have to go. It's Saturday, and I have two new clients to see this afternoon.