Nonprofit Uses QR Code, Quora to Make Cause Marketing More Transparent

Back in January I talked about Quora and how it could be a resource to consumers who had questions about a cause marketing promotions, and an asset to causes that wanted to be more transparent about their programs.

This month my fellow Dummies writer Joanna MacDonald and I are putting Quora to the test with a QR code on our latest pinup that will be sold at iParty and Fuddruckers locations throughout New England.

When consumers scan the code with their smartphones (try it yourself!) it takes them to this Quora page where they can comment or ask a question about the campaign.

We plan to monitor the page regularly so we can answer questions quickly and accurately.

To answer common questions about the program we also included a link to a  frequently asked questions page on Quora.

How many people will scan the QR code? I'm not sure. A small percentage of shoppers most likely. But they may represent regular givers that want more information about the programs they're supporting at the register.

Will Quora be confusing to shoppers that don't know what the heck it is? That's a good question. Probably like 99% of the people out there have no clue what Quora is. But if they view Quora as it tool that gets them the answers they want it might not matter what the name is.

What else can we do to make our Quora page more effective? I think we could include a link to a video on the SPARK Center, the program at my hospital that will benefit from the program.

To make our program easier to find, I also added some tags to the top of the entry, although I really don't expect people to find our page by searching Quora. Most will go to the page directly from the QR code.

Or they may find the page via search engines.

A Google search on "spark center bmc" lists our Quora page as sixth on search results. Queries on other words and terms associated with the promotion also showed up in the top results.  If consumers are searching online for information on this cause marketing program, they'll most likely find it via their favorite search engine thanks to Quora.

That's another good reason to give Quora a try.

I'm interested to hear what you think about this experiment!