QR Codes & Links

A QR campaign turns a physical or offline touchpoint — a flyer, a standee, product packaging, a shop counter, a printed ad — into a WhatsApp conversation you can actually measure. Someone scans the code, a chat opens with a pre-filled message, and Lynkist captures them as a lead attributed to that exact placement.

Why not just a plain wa.me link?

You can hand-make a wa.me link for free (we even have a free generator for it). The catch: WhatsApp doesn't report scans. A raw link is a black box — you never learn which flyer or counter started a conversation, the contact isn't captured for you, and there's no follow-up.

Lynkist QR campaigns close that loop:

• Attribution — a hidden tracking tag rides in the pre-filled message, so the first reply is matched back to the code that produced it.
• Lead capture — everyone who scans and messages is saved to your contacts automatically.
• Analytics — scans and leads are counted per placement.
• Follow-up — every lead is grouped and sourced, so you can broadcast to them later.

Creating a QR campaign

Go to QR & Links → New campaign. The wizard walks you through:

1. Campaign details — a name (e.g. Diwali flyer) and the WhatsApp number the chat should open to.
2. Opening message — the text pre-filled into the customer's chat when they scan, e.g. "Hi! I saw your flyer and want to know more." Lynkist appends a short, invisible tracking tag to this message — leave it in place; it's how attribution works.
3. Welcome auto-reply (optional) — an approved template sent the instant someone messages from this campaign (a greeting, a menu, an offer), so no first touch goes cold.

Save it, and Lynkist generates your QR code and short link.

The three messages, kept straight

It's easy to conflate them. There are three distinct messages in play:

• Opening message — pre-filled into the customer's chat by the QR. The customer sends it.
• Welcome auto-reply — an optional template you send back automatically on their first message.
• Broadcast — a separate campaign you send later to the leads this QR collected.

Getting your QR code and link

From the campaign you can:

• Download the QR as an image to print. The QR is rendered from a durable link, so you can re-download and reprint it any time — it won't expire.
• Copy the short link to use online — in a bio, an email, an ad, or a button.
• Open the standee view for a print-ready layout you can put on a counter or table.

Place the same campaign across several spots (counter, flyer, ad) and each scan still rolls up to the campaign so you can compare which placement pulls best.

Where your leads land

Every contact captured from any QR campaign lands in one shared, seeded system group: QR Leads — the QR equivalent of the Unknown group for inbound senders. You don't create a group per campaign.

Per-campaign distinction is carried by an auto-created source named QR: <campaign>. So a contact from your Diwali flyer campaign is:

• a member of the QR Leads group, and
• stamped with the QR: Diwali flyer source.

Each lead also records the campaign, the specific code, and when they were acquired.

Reading the analytics

Open a campaign to see:

• Scans and leads, both overall and per placement.
• The leads themselves, so you can jump straight to a conversation.

Broadcasting to your leads

This is where QR pays off. Because every lead is grouped and sourced, you can message them again:

1. Go to Campaigns → New campaign (the broadcast section).
2. For the audience, select the QR: <campaign> source to target one campaign's leads — or the QR Leads group to reach everyone captured from QR.
3. Pick your template, review, and send.

No extra setup is needed — the source and group are populated for you as leads come in.

Next steps