Email before Download or Not?

[Zippy-Bungle]

I'm designing an exhibition stand at the moment and am going to be putting QR codes that link to a technical specification on the products.

The question is - do I just allow them to download the pdf or do I ask for a name and email address before they can do that.

As its an exhibition stand I should get the business cards anyway - but to know exactly what products each person is interested in would help

I'm not sure how many people use QR codes in Asia, have a QR code readers..... and would adding the email request just be too much?

Whats your opinion?

The product is an industrial one and mainly engineers and procurement types from the oil and gas industry will be visiting the stand.

[Matt-Williamson]

I personally would ask for a name and email address, as this is common practice online and it will allow you to know what each person is specifically interested in as you say. I don't think that is too much information and the data gathered would be valuable. In my experience this won't put people off and if it does are they really that interested in your product in the first place - I think you a separating the wheat from the chaff that way!

In terms of QR codes and their use in Asia you may find this article about China's use of them useful - http://techcrunch.com/2013/05/29/people-actually-use-qr-codes-in-china/

[DeanAndrews]

Personally I wouldn’t put barriers in the way of a download, however I'm sure you will get a lot of debate about that one and at the end of the day it's what you consider to be of more value, the fact that the pdf is being downloaded or you have the information from the people who then know your going to contact them after a download.

Either way I would use a combo of QR code / printed shortlink and include analytic tracking data. Then if you do chose to collect email data first you can measure the conversion from who went to the data entry page from your exhibition any how many email addresses you collected ie:

In htaccess:

#Product 1 QR code (have your QR code point to http://www.domain.com/qr-p1)

Redirect 302 /qr-p1 http://www.domain.com/shop/product_one/doc.pdf?utm_campaign=Exhibition&utm_medium=QR Code&utm_source=Banner Stand&utm_content=ProductOnePDF

#Product 1 Short code (print your short code as to www.domain.com/widgets)

Redirect 302 /widgets http://www.domain.com/shop/product_one/doc.pdf?utm_campaign=Exhibition&utm_medium=Short Code&utm_source=Banner Stand&utm_content=ProductOnePDF