Right today I’m covering something that is fairly new but growing all the time, you need to be aware of this and trying to put into practice in your campaigns.

QR codes are the modern-day version of the bar code.

These are blocky black and white patterns with tons of data encoded on them. They’re encoded with your URL so that when you scan one with a smartphone or other mobile device, it sends the browser straight to the website.

Imagine this – you’ve got a print advertisement telling people to check out your website. They have to go to a computer, type in the URL, and hit click before they can see it. With a QR code, all they do is scan it and they’re there.

Plus, you can use them for more than just getting people to your website. You can embed the URL of your Facebook Like button onto the code so that with one quick scan, they Like you. You can also embed it with a URL that instantly subscribes them to your list. See how cool this is?

How to Use QR Codes

The great thing about QR codes is that you can put them anywhere.

There have been some famous marketing campaigns already where companies have plastered QR codes all over their merchandise to get people to their websites. You can put them on brochures, business cards, t-shirts, fliers, bus stops, kiosks, signs and more. Stamps and stickers of your QR code can be made and you can even put them on websites.

You can embed them with any URL you like. In addition to the examples above, you can send people to your Facebook fan page or Twitter profile, your YouTube channel or a specific video, your blog, your profile on any site, your landing page or absolutely anywhere else you’d like them to go.

Getting Your Own Code

You’re probably wondering how much this awesome new technology is going to run you. Well, here’s another surprise. You can make as many QR codes as you’d like to for free. This is a really simple technology and it doesn’t take much to embed one with a URL.

There are websites that create your code for you. 

One quick word of warning, though – You probably want to go out right now and start a massive campaign with your QR codes. But before you get started, make sure you’ve got a good purpose in mind. In other words, what do you want people to do when they scan that code? Make sure you’ve got it well thought out before you start investing your time in putting your codes everywhere.

Here’s to your ongoing success

Tony