QR Codes - Why they're still useful

October 20, 2013
How to use QR codes for digital marketing

Although they have now been around since 1994 many businesses are still just beginning to understand the potential behind the innovative QR codes that are found in many places today. This article explains what QR codes are and why they can still be used to benefit your customers.

In a nutshell, a QR (short for Quick Response) code contains data encoded as a series of shapes, these shapes can be interpreted by a device using a camera and a QR code reader. A QR code reader can usually be obtained for free from the app store.

QR codes often link to web pages, video content or other interactive media, the idea is that they allow an individual to access something beyond the media on which the QR code is displayed. Effectively a QR code is a link between the digital and physical world.

There are tons of innovative ways to use QR codes to enhance your business, here are a few...

Give directions to your business.

Lots of companies rely on customers stumbling across them on the high street, well why not give them a helping hand by letting them download your address to their satnav using a QR code?

Showcase exciting product information.

Some products need more than what you can print on the packaging, maybe a video showing the product being used, or an interactive game engaging the customer with the brand. All of this can be achieved using a QR code.

Offer Exclusive Downloads.

For example, an aspiring musician could give fans a taster by allowing them to access video footage of a live performance through a QR code printed on a gig poster.

Allow customers to buy something then and there.

Studies show that users are more likely to get bored and leave a website if they have to go through a whole rigmarole to buy a product, so instead why not link them directly to the shopping cart via a QR code?

While there are many new technologies that are beginning to replace QR codes as the dominant means of interaction with print media, one thing QR codes still have over newer methods is recognition. The QR code is still seen by many businesses and consumers as a standard for accessing rich media content through a tablet or mobile device.

For more information on innovative uses of QR codes and other marketing techniques please get in touch.

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