Signup for Email Newsletters with QR Codes

Is it a clever crossover use of technology? Or potentially cumbersome and kinda lame?

There are now QR codes that are automatically generated by MailChimp that lead scanners to a special page for signing up for your email newsletter.

My initial reaction is that because this is still new, it’s novel enough for early adopters to try it for sheer novelty. But when you are on a website, you can tell if it has content that you want to fill your inbox with, and you would likely decide to manually type in your address (especially if they provide a simple place for you to fill it in, as in the box on the right…)

But I have also put the QR code there, not because I think it is the best way to engage with my website (especially from a mobile phone – you would need 2 to use this code) but because I think it is novel, and wish to try it.

As to whether anybody else will, I will wait and see.

I think the key is that using this should not be limited to websites. If this QR code were set upon a sticker, and put at a clever location (like the end of a treasure hunt, where you had to enter your name and email address to be entered in a raffle to win a grand prize) then there would be some potential.

As of yet, this is merely a dumb tool, waiting for the clever use that will allow it to exponentially increase the reach and effectiveness of the user.