Nearly all consumers have smartphones, and QR codes are the way to take full advantage of this technology with everything you print. With just a few simple steps, you can create a 2-dimensional bar code, called a Quick Response, or QR, code and put your info right at your customers’ fingertips on their smartphone. This little bit of code can take your potential customer straight to your website, right on their cell phone! What does that mean for you? A whole new marketing avenue that printers don’t always think about- digital advertising!
When your business focuses on print and physical marketing materials, it can be easy to overlook the power of the Internet and the clout of harnessing it to incorporate digital marketing into your company. By using QR codes, you can have both. A Quick Response code is a simple 2-dimensional bar code that you can add to anything- a brochure, a flyer, even a T-shirt or an outdoor sign. The QR code can be scanned by any smartphone and take the customer straight to your website where they can learn more about your company, your products and your contact information. Why settle for simple print when you can harness the power of technology to add a new marketing venue to your business.
QR codes have been used in Japan since 1994 but just over the past couple of years have become popular in the United States. You can begin using this remarkable technology today, providing your customers with access to a technology they’ve possibly never seen before. A smartphone does need to have special software to read the QR code, but the software is readily available and as consumers become more aware of the technology, they are adding the software to their camera phones.
While bar codes carry information from side-to-side, a QR code also stores information up and down, allowing it the space to retain much more data including URLs, text and even some low-resolution images. In fact, the QR code can store up to 100 times the amount of information a standard bar code holds. While the iPhone and other smartphones are needed right now to scan the codes, you can bet that techno geeks for every cell phone company in the world are scrambling to bring the QR reader ability to every cell phone on the market. This little piece of code is likely going to explode in popularity and the printers who make it available first are going to be remembered when it does.
