Read this if: You want your business to keep pace with the newest marketing techniques that are quickly becoming mainstream
Gain: Draw potential clients’ attention to your company’s message, website, contact info, etc by turning physical objects into your marketing locations and making the interaction easier as people won’t even need to type a URL or anything!
Quick Response codes are two-dimensional bar codes that can be interpreted by a mobile phone camera equipped with a code-reading app. Once the QR code is scanned, the content (web address, image, etc) embedded in the image appears on the phone’s browser, saving the phone’s owner some typing.
Nowadays QR codes are used in magazines and newspapers to give additional advertising information in a space-saving way, as a technique to enhance web site traffic, to share a video link, at the back of business cards, in outdoor advertisements, on product tags and packages, on convention name tags, in menus, on signs providing directions to a store, etc.
How Mogotix saved a lot of money with QR codes
Paper tickets have a lot of cons. They have to be printed, often with holograms or foil stamps to prove authenticity. This increases the costs for both company and customer. Moreover, paper consumption imposes environmental costs by using valuable tree resources. Last but not least, it’s highly impractical as paper tickets are short-lived, one-time-use items.
Mogotix has found a great way to solve these issues. It invented a virtual ticketing system that is greener, cheaper and more convenient.
Their tickets are essentially individualized QR codes. They accomplish their purpose with efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Another plus for Mogotix’s clients is that it’s very hard to lose the tickets as they are no longer a piece of paper but are images stored in their smartphones.
Frustrated by unreliable post office services? If you are living in Croatia, it’s no longer the case
Croatia’s Hrvatska Pošta has utilized QR codes on their stamps to solve the 
wide-spread problems with delivery. The new stamp makes it possible for users to receive instant delivery confirmation for the mail they send, as well as details of when it was shipped, how many kilometers it traveled and when it arrived. More than 200 of the new stamps have been used so far.
A special website provides a variety of statistics about their travels plus an interactive map showing all the points they’ve visited.
Feel bored while waiting at the airport due to flight cancellation? Why not download a free book?
FirstBank’s QR campaign in Denver International Airport gives an opportunity 
to stranded travelers to fill their time with something useful and pleasant – solve free Sudoku puzzles or read full versions of free books by scanning the QR codes placed on large posters.
What do surveys show about QR codes popularity among smartphone users?
* MGH commissioned an online survey of 415 smartphone users to find out current and planned user behavior with regards to QR codes. It indicated that 32% of smartphone users have scanned a QR code, while an astounding 70% responded that they will scan a QR code again, or will scan a QR code for the first time.
* A ComScore’s study reports that some 14 million people in the U.S. used a QR code in June.
The study reveals what the main target group of QR code marketing should be at the present: QR code users are more likely to be male (60.5%), between the ages of 18 to 34 (53.4%) and have a household income in excess of $100,000 (36.1%).
Magazines and newspapers are the preferred vehicle for scanning QR codes (49.4%), followed by product packaging, (34.3%). The preferred place to scan was at home (58%) and then retail stores (39.4%).
How to create QR codes
- Decide carefully on the content you’re going to share with smartphone users. The shiny package can’t compensate if what’s inside is banal or too pushy for customers.
- Check out sites like Zxing Project, delivr, QR Stuff, or Maestro for some different approaches and specific feature-sets.
- Kaywa offers one of the simplest and most popular non-commercial services.
- You can create an “all-in-one” QR code on JumpScan.com which includes your web site address, phone, contact info, and social media feeds.
- If you want color gradients and rounded corners, check out http://uqr.me.
Two users share their opinion about uQR.me:
“They have the best qr code generator worldwide”, Michel, Palo alto, CA
“I’m a Realestate broker and I’ve been using uQR.me since it launched for my signage. It makes me stand out from the rest when the signs to the homes I’m showing have a QR attached to them. They have like a Business Account where you can buy more recyclable QRs and manage them under one username. I link my QRs to pics of the interior of the homes and my info. Never thought I would be so “tech savvy”, but they made it easy.”, Lucas, Miami
- If you are looking for branded QR code images, check http://www.advancedtele.com/qr-codes.php.
One of the critical remarks regarding QR Codes has been that they are not providing any branding to the promotion. This has changed with the implementation of Custom QR Codes. You can have your logo or message added to the QR code.
- When you’ve generated the QR code, make sure your code works the way you want it to before you use it on your site, card, etc. You’ll need to download a reader app in order to access the buried content. Most sites that generate QR codes also offer a reader.
- You can add this code by sharing its permalink (as you would any other link), embed it into your blog, or save the image to a file which you can print on flyers, business cards, or any other physical object you can imagine ( termed as hardlinking or object hyperlinking).