5 Ways to Use QR Codes to Increase Your Online Visibility

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, (link to http://www.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. (link to http://www.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!