Tracking, QR & Attribution
What Happens When Someone Scans a Yotru Postcard?
A scan sets off a short, mostly invisible chain of events: the code resolves to that recipient's record, they land on a page that can be built around who they are, the scan itself gets logged against their account, and, where it's turned on, a rep gets notified while the conversation is still fresh. Here's what happens at each step.
Practical guide · Published August 22, 2026 · Written by Jeffrey Huis in 't Veld
The sequence, step by step
The path from a phone camera to a sales notification happens in a matter of seconds, but it's worth breaking down because each step is doing distinct work.
What the recipient sees
From the recipient's side, none of this looks complicated. They scan a code, a page opens, and if it's set up well, it doesn't feel like a generic landing page bolted onto a mail campaign. It can carry their name or company, echo the message on the postcard they're holding, and point them toward one clear next step, a form, a scheduling link, a phone number. The personalization is possible specifically because the code that got them there already identified who they were before the page rendered, so the page doesn't have to ask.
What gets logged on the account side
On the account side, the scan becomes a timestamped event tied to that recipient's record rather than an anonymous line in a web analytics report. If the landing page includes a form and the visitor fills it out, that gets attached to the same record. Over the course of a campaign, this is what builds into usable attribution data, not a single scan count for the whole run, but a record of which specific accounts engaged and when, which is what makes it possible to connect a scan to whatever happens next in the sales process.
When sales gets notified
The real-time alert is the step that turns a data point into an opportunity to act. Instead of a rep reviewing a report of scans from last week, they can get notified within moments of the scan happening, while the recipient is still holding the postcard or has just set it down. That timing matters more than it might seem: a call or email that references the postcard specifically, sent while it's still top of mind, reads very differently to the recipient than the same outreach arriving days later with no apparent connection to anything they did.
What if nothing is set up to receive the alert?
The alert only reaches someone if a rep or a process is actually assigned to receive it. A scan on an account with no owner, or during a period when the alert routing isn't configured, still gets logged, the data isn't lost, but the timing advantage of a real-time notification only pays off when someone is positioned to act on it right away.
Frequently asked questions
The landing page and the campaign should be transparent about data collection consistent with applicable privacy practices, but the mechanism itself works the same way any tracked link works: scanning and visiting the page is what registers the event, nothing hidden happens beyond that.
Each scan gets logged as its own event tied to the same record, so a rep or report can see repeat engagement, which is often a stronger signal than a single scan.
Yes, the destination content can be updated without changing the printed code, since the code just points to a URL that resolves to current content. That's useful if messaging needs to be refreshed partway through a run.
The alert is designed to go out close to the moment the scan happens, not batched into a daily or weekly digest, since the whole point is reaching the recipient while the postcard is still fresh in their mind.
The event still logs against the original recipient's record, since the code was generated for their piece specifically. Whether the person holding the phone is that exact individual is a separate identity question, covered in can you tell which prospect scanned a postcard.
Related topics
Work with Yotru
How Yotru handles the moment of the scan
Yotru ties each recipient's QR code to their record from the moment a campaign mails, so a scan resolves instantly to who it belongs to rather than showing up as anonymous traffic. That resolution is what drives the personalized landing page, the logged engagement event and, where enabled, the real-time alert that lets a rep follow up while the postcard is still on the recipient's desk. .