Recruitment tool: QR Codes

Top Referrers QR Code

One of the projects that has kept me away from blogging recently has been volunteer firefighter recruitment. I’ve been working with several other people to put together some posters to increase our application rate for the upcoming recruit academy. Creating recruitment posters for a fire department were not very difficult. In fact, with the right people involved it was actually quite fun to see the end product. The hardest part of the process was moving our future applicant from interest to action.

It’s one thing to create a snazzy billboard or poster. It’s quite another though to get an audience to actually follow through with your intentions. Here’s our goal: create a snazzy poster that will hopefully catch a persons interest AND THEN get them to go to our website to fill out an application. The problem: lots of things happen between when a person sees the poster and they get to a computer. Can we really make a poster that is so powerful that the message stays with them til they get access to the internet?

The problem is that we can’t. Instead, we need to transfer that interest when they see the recruitment poster into action immediately! How do we do that: QR Codes. Several businesses have begun using these in their advertisements to direct consumers to more information about their product. All the consumer needs is a smartphone with a camera. Download a QR Code app, take a picture with your phone, and you’re immediately directed to whatever is hidden behind the QR Code image. Now, you’re potential applicant is transported directly to your online application page where they can fill out their basic demographic information.

If you’re interested, feel free to try it out yourself. The QR code image from above links back to one of the leading referrers of readership to our blog. Or if you’re up to it, spend 30 seconds over at the Kaywa QR Code Generator and make one yoursefl. Enjoy!