What is a Web Key?

A web key is not a USB flash drive, though it may look like one, and it also connects into the USB port of a computer. That is where the similarity ends, however. A web key has no accessible memory. It does have a very small memory, but only enough to hold information about a web site so it can launch the computer’s default web browser and connect to the web site it has been programmed to open.

A web key can be very cheap to purchase, which makes them ideal for giveaway promotional items at trade shows or by direct mail. A USB flash drive can be used in exactly the same way as a web key, but it is usually much more expensive to buy, making it unsuitable for the same kind of inexpensive promotional use.

What is a web key?

Web keys can be almost any shape and size

Web keys can take on almost any shape and size, within reason and are great for clipping onto a key chain. They can incorporate a company logo, or other promotional information. One popular shape is that of a credit card. The actual key can either slot out of the card, or swivel out to be used. Most people have wallets or purses with compartments to hold credit cards, so a card web key can easily be kept handy by almost anyone.

A web key has a strong curiosity value. Anyone who receives one will very likely want to find out what the web site is that the key features, and will therefore plug it in to see. When you combine that with the fact that web key activity can be tracked to see how many of those distributed are actually used, it is easy to see how powerful the concept is.

A web key does have the slight disadvantage of there being no good reason for the recipient to keep and reuse it. Once they have visited the web site encoded on the web key, they really have no further need for the key. If they like the web site, they can simply bookmark it in their web browser to visit again later.

That is why it is important for any company doing a web key internet marketing promotion to make the offer on the web page the web key takes the recipient to as good and compelling an offer as possible. Ideally, the visitor should feel persuaded to sign up to receive something free, so that the company doing the promotion has a way to contact them again with further information and promotional offers.

A paper web key is ideal for direct mailings

Web keys are ideal for direct mailings as they can be made very thin. They are sometimes called a paper web key as they can be practically as thin as paper. This makes them easy and cheap to mail. It also makes them easy and cheap to mass produce and distribute.

A web key has been likened to a QR code for a smart phone, and in a way they are very similar. QR codes are usually strange looking small square designs that a smart phone can use to connect to a web site. They too have a strong curiosity value and can be displayed in public places for any smart phone user to discover.

If a company has a big launch of a web site, distributing web keys is an excellent way to drive traffic to it in the initial stages. A launch can have compelling offers for visitors, and the web key can direct the visitors to any desired page on the site.

Sending out an unwieldy URL that requires the person receiving it to type it into their browser is fraught with problems. Sending them a web key that starts the connection when it is plugged into a USB port eliminates all the problems. They can directly increase customer loyalty, and the shape and design of the web key is only limited by imagination.