What Are QR Codes & Why You Need One

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Ever come across a weird square that looks like a Rorschach Test for nerds and couldn’t figure out what it was? Congrats, you’ve had an encounter with a QR Code!  In Japan, where this 2D barcode was invented, it is  a common part of everyday life since the mid 90′s. In other countries, QR Codes are becoming more and more popular as the use of Smartphones rapidly grows.

The name stands for Quick Response Code, and that’s exactly what they are – they encourage a quick response from people. How? Very simple. The codes contain information. If you possess a camera-enabled Smartphone, you can scan each QR Code and gain immediate access to that information, be it a link, an email address, a phone number or an image .

Basically, QR Codes provide an amazing shortcut from the offline to the online world. For example: You walk down the street and see an ad for an awesome show. For sure, there’s not much time before all tickets are sold out. On the ad you see a QR Code and scan it with your iPhone. The browser on your phone opens immediately and takes you to the website where you can purchase your tix – all on the spot!

Use QR Codes to Promote Your Business

QR Codes are already being used as cake decoration, as art, as boarding passes in airports, as discount coupons and even as tombstone engraving. There are so many ways to deploy QR Codes for your business and creativity is the name of the game.

There’s one thing to take into account:

• Where you place the code – Location, location, location. Placing your QR in a newspaper ad, on the street or on your packages all imply different purposes. If you post the code on your website, you should have it directing your visitor your offline base, like a Google map with instructions on how to get there. If you post it on a product, have it redirect to a website where people can rate and buy it or other related products.
• Alternately, you might want to engage your code to generate more “Likes” on your Facebook fan page (using services like Likify). This is a likely scenario if you have a great fan page. If you don’t, you can create a Facebook-customized Wix site and add it to your fan page. If, however, you only want to share a video, you can use posters with QR codes instead of paying a lot of money to interactive media ads.

Want to Give It a Try? Create Your QR Code

Creating a code is easy. You just need to use a QR Generator, feed in the content and grab the code.

The best generators (like Delivr, QR Stuff or QRifier) will allow you to choose the type of content (link, video, text, map, downloadable media, PayPal, etc.), as well as give you the option to print the code, receive it per email or get a high-res version of it.

It is important that you use a generator that provides tracking and statistics, so that you can measure QR Code’s success.

If you’re bored with the usual B&W look, you can use a generator that has a color palette and pimp your code. If you really want to get fancy, you can even hire a designer to create a customized and branded QR Code especially for you, like these ones: