Direct-mail glossary

QR code tracking

QR code tracking is the practice of placing a unique QR code on each mailed piece so that scans can be attributed to the specific card, recipient, or campaign that generated them.

Why it matters

A plain QR code on a postcard tells you only how many people visited a URL. A unique QR code per recipient — or per campaign — tells you which specific cards were scanned, when, and by how many unique people. Combined with a landing page that captures additional data, this turns a physical postcard into a measurable touchpoint in your marketing mix. For small businesses, this is often the clearest proof that a direct-mail campaign is driving real response: you can see exactly when the scans came in after the mail landed, and compare response across different audience segments or creative variations.

CardCadence

How CardCadence handles it

Every CardCadence postcard design ships with a trackable QR code, rendered at print time and pointed at a link unique to each recipient — no extra setup required. (You can remove it from a design if you want a card without one; the proof step warns you that scan tracking will be off before you approve it.) Your dashboard shows when each code was scanned, from which campaign, and how many unique scans a mailing generated — attribution at the individual recipient level, without any personal URL printed on the card.

Ready to put this into practice?

CardCadence handles the printing, postage, and mailing from $0.75 per postcard — no subscription required.