5 Ways to Use QR Codes to Increase Your Online Visibility

QR codes have now found their way into mainstream marketing. They offer some great opportunities to increase your traffic and your online visibility by linking the physical world to digital marketing. Here are 5 ways you can use QR codes:

Written Jan 19, 2012, read 1254 times since then.

You may have seen some funky looking symbols recently in newspapers, flyers, magazines, or on products. Most of us here in the U.S. have no idea what they are or what to do with them, but I see that the tide is slowly turning. They're called QR codes, or Quick Response codes. They are a 2-D bar code that can be scanned with smart phones to retrieve information like a menu, phone numbers, videos, URLs, and more. Its grid consists of tiny squares that contain much more data than a conventional bar code.

First developed in Japan to track car parts, QR codes have now found their way into mainstream marketing. While they're too new to determine their staying power in marketing, they offer some great opportunities to increase your traffic and your online visibility by linking the physical world to digital marketing.

Since many people are not familiar with QR codes, you may need to educate them a bit by also giving them a site where they can download a QR code reader for their smartphone. I suggest sending them to GetScanLife.com, as it automatically detects your mobile phone and suggests a QR code reader for your phone. And, one of the most versatile QR code generators is BeQRious.com.

Here are 5 ways you can use QR codes in your marketing:

1. Contact information. Rather than overload your business card or brochure with links to everything that you do and all the ways to contact you, the QR code on your business card can link to a video on your site, your contact information, your mobile web site, or to your social networking profiles.

2. Specific Product Information. If you're a car dealer or a real estate agent, QR codes are ideal to give a prospect more info about a car or a home during the times your office may be closed. So, rather than limiting yourself to your office hours, your QR code can "talk" to prospective customers for you 24/7. Grocery stores can display QR codes that send customers to recipes using a product, and home supply stores can send customers to a video demonstrating how to use a product that they are considering buying. A winery can place QR codes on their labels so that someone drinking that bottle of wine in a restaurant can read about the winery and perhaps even order a case of that wine for home delivery before getting the check for the meal.

3. Store Displays. Google creates a QR code that links to your Google Places page, and sends many businesses a QR code flyer that can be displayed in storefront windows so that window shoppers can get more information about a business when window shopping.

4. Special Offers. If you're speaking at an event or at a trade show, you can create a handout or flyer of your QR code that links participants to a special offer you have created just for them or to the handouts for the event.

5. Build Your List. If your goal is to get someone to opt into your list, your QR code can be directed to an opt-in landing page so that the visitor joins your list in return for the free incentive that you are offering.

This is a very brief list on the usage of QR codes. Essentially, you can use add QR codes to most traditional ways of marketing to give your prospects a bit more information. If you determine that your business will benefit from QR codes, then start creating and using them today for an increase in your online visibility!

Learn more about the author, Donna Gunter.

Posted by Matt Brennan, Aurora, Illinois | Feb 03, 2012

All good ideas. It's a good idea to put one on your business card, or marketing materials anymore!
Posted by Pam Johnson-Bennett, CCBC, Nashville, Tennessee | Feb 07, 2012

Ok, I think it's time to bite the bullet and incorporate this into our business. Thanks for the information because I had absolutely no clue.

Pam
Posted by Donna Gunter, Orange, Texas | Feb 07, 2012

Hey Pam, Glad I could help!

Matt, it is a great idea for a biz card!
Posted by Sally Sharp, London United Kingdom | Feb 09, 2012

Some good ideas, here. We suggest including QR codes on direct mail pieces. However, many QR codes have not been used properly, so we have suggested a few tips...

/QR-code-mistakes.php
Posted by gayle barr, Boca Raton, Florida | Feb 09, 2012

Love the idea's.. I had my QR code made for the company with a whistle in the middle- very easy to spot and recognize. Great from Branding.
Posted by DeBorah Beatty, Beaverton, Oregon | Feb 09, 2012

Great article. I use them on plain pieces of paper and leave them with a tip when I stop for coffee with anyone. I have a link to my latest blogpost on them.
Posted by Donna Gunter, Orange, Texas | Feb 09, 2012

@Sally--including QR codes on direct mail pieces is an excellent idea!

@Deborah--also a very unique idea!
Posted by Mike Pritchard, Kirkland, Washington | Feb 09, 2012

Good ideas and comments (@Deborah - neat).

But QR codes aren't yet living up to the promise - partly because of what marketers are missing, but also because the technology is getting in the way.

http://www.5circles.com/qr-codes-not-hitting-the-spot/ is a post I just did about market research on the topic. Even college students aren't using QR codes much.
Posted by Donna Gunter, Orange, Texas | Feb 09, 2012

Hey Mike--

So very true -- I'm just now seeing QR codes in print media and on television, but not to the degree that they're used elsewhere. Thanks for the article on the research -- great info!
Posted by Tom Parker, Rock Hill, South Carolina | Feb 10, 2012

Great info Donna. While the use of QR codes in marketing may not have 'taken off' like some expected or predicted, I think it's here to stay, at least for a long time until something better comes along.

It's much like the old saying "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink", applies here. Marketers have been slow to use it, and technology has been slow to integrate it seamlessly.

I read your article, @mike-pritchard, and the surveys are interesting, but I'm not sure how important some of that data really is. The first survey is from a year ago, and internet years are kink of like dog-years, ha. The rise in mobile over the last year is simply astounding.

The second survey from Quark, Feb 2012, is surveying college student use, because they think that demographic is necessary for QR codes to be successful. However, an August 2011 survey by comScore, show the the highest reached demographic is males 25-34 with incomes over 100K, and that those and others using QR codes do so mostly from print media vs other places. (Search Engine Land has an article on this survey and also a neat infographic for a UK survey with similar results).

QR codes have great potential, and I think it's going to catch on pretty strong, it's just been a little slow out of the gate.
Posted by Donna Gunter, Orange, Texas | Feb 10, 2012

Hey Tom -- Thanks for chiming in. Yes, I wish we (Americans in the US) would hurry up and get on board with QR codes--they have so much potential! :)
Posted by Mike Pritchard, Kirkland, Washington | Feb 10, 2012

@Tom - yes and no.

The Archrival study covered students because that's the agency's focus. Archrival said this is the demographic that can make or break a trend. Yes, but it depends what's being marketed. The point that Quirk's made that caught my eye was if the group with the highest smartphone penetration and comfort with technology aren't able to use QR codes or finding them appealing, there's a lot of ground to make up.

The comScore results (6.2% scanned a QR code in June 2011) seem consistent with Archrival's (17.8% of the students said likely or very likely to scan - published Nov 2011).

I'm not sure about the internet years analogy. QR codes are a case where progress has been very slow. And technology is at least partly to blame.

It will be interesting to see the trend next time comScore updates the study.

http://www.5circles.com/qr-codes-not-hitting-the-spot/
Posted by Tom Parker, Rock Hill, South Carolina | Feb 11, 2012

In April, nearly half (48.7%) of smartphone owners in the U.S. were between the ages of 25 and 44, with those in the 25-34 year old demographic making up the largest segment of the smartphone population representing 27.2% of owners. While younger users between the ages of 13 and 24 represented nearly one fourth of all smartphone owners (23.8%)
Posted by Tom Parker, Rock Hill, South Carolina | Feb 11, 2012

All of my prior post didn't publish for some reason, just the part I had in quotations. This was in response to @mike regarding Archival and Quirk. The data is from comScore Data Mine published last June.

@mike The internet years comment was half jokingly, I realize we have to use data that is a year or more old sometimes and project the current numbers the best we can. The problem I see with Archrival and Quirk, is the focus on the college age group in this matter.

The college age group didn't have the largest market penetration of smart phones last year, ages 25-44 did. I don't think it's going to be the college kids who make or break this trend.

It will be interesting to see more recent results published. In my opinion though, it's going to show a large increase in QR code use throughout 2011. I think you would have a hard time finding someone now who hasn't seen a QR code, even if they don't know what the heck it is, lol.