Marketing with QR Codes

QR Codes have been described as the doorway to the Internet for mobile phone users. For businesses like yours they are also a doorway to many more potential customers.

The chances are that you will have already seen a QR code without realising what it is. In their current incarnation, QR codes are an ingenious way of integrating with your customers or potential customers. They are able to scan the code with a camera phone or other QR reader. The process is a simple one…

1. Your prospective customer sees a code something like this…
   
2. They take a photo of it using the increasingly commonplace barcode scanner available on phones (you may have seen the adverts on TV extolling the benefits of such software) or as a download available for most phones.
3. The scanned code works in the same kind of way as a link on a website and your potential client is offered the opportunity to view the information or mobile webpage that it links to.

A code can be used to display virtually any item and has proven especially popular as a means to link to:

• Text
• Website URL
• Telephone Number
• SMS Message
• Contact Details (VCARD)
• Links to Google Map’s

Let’s be honest, the average consumer is lazy (don’t tell them that, though) so anything you as a business can do to make their life easier is a feather in your cap or an extra string in your bow. Potential customers will be more inclined to view your information and remember your business because you took the extra time and effort to make their life easier. You could even include a QR code on your newly designed business card.