QR Codes

[Martin Boekers]

Just curious.... Is anyone working with QR Codes? I am working on revising my product catalog
and FB Page. I'm thinking about including these codes on the back of my business card to make it
easier for this new genration of Smart Phone and pad users. Any thoughts or ancedotes?

[Michael Hunter]

Go for it!

QR codes have been around just long enough for people to know what they are, but without having had time to become "old hat".
Makes you look up-to-date and just ***may*** get extra people to look at your website.

[Tim Bateson]

Yes, I alternate placing the QR Code for my Mobile Web Page and one with my phone number on the back of my cards.

[Martin Boekers]

Next question, anyone using this for inventory control?

Being new to this I see potential, but not sure if they have hand readers (maybe a Pad would work with the right software)
And if the data can be exported to Excel. I see the advantage with this as it could bring up a photo and info of the product
to make sure of accurate counts.

[Steven Cox]

I think the QR codes can be useful, for business cards I would suggest printing in smaller quantities and putting a different code that points to a specific page on each lot. This way it will be quicker to mearsure the effectiveness. A friend who uses QR codes in his marketing (flyers, brochures etc...) makes the code for a page on his site that's not publicly available and also restricts search engines visiting that page in this way he gets daily stats from his web server to see if its working. He also has on his pages a comments section to get feed back from customers. The QR codes he uses points to a specific offer that's only redeemable from the resulting page.

[Martin Boekers]

I think the QR codes can be useful, for business cards I would suggest printing in smaller quantities and putting a different code that points to a specific page on each lot. This way it will be quicker to mearsure the effectiveness. A friend who uses QR codes in his marketing (flyers, brochures etc...) makes the code for a page on his site that's not publicly available and also restricts search engines visiting that page in this way he gets daily stats from his web server to see if its working. He also has on his pages a comments section to get feed back from customers. The QR codes he uses points to a specific offer that's only redeemable from the resulting page.

Thanks for the thoughts, I have a very limited purchasing market, but I thought about the coupon idea to. The main thing is access to a catalog page and my FB page. I do print my own cards in shop
I have a great little cuuting machine that trims the cards, so I print them up on demand, and change for discounts etc. I do like the idea for discounts etc, that it's easy to replace the info in the URL from the coupon
or information to a re-direct or a notice saying what is updated or the discount is no longer valid. I do see this is a great tool not only for my working life, but personal use also... I know I'm a bit behind the curve on this,
but I see more and more being used on Base and with digital marketing starting to evolve here, I will be on the upper end...

[Duncan Crawford]

Martin,

As they say, "there's an app for that" for iPad, iPhone... I use Qrafter on the iPad. Not only can you scan codes, you can create several types, and either print (if your printer supports) or email to a real box for printing. I use them, engraved and paint-filled, on the back of signs for the Appalachian Trail... day hikers or others then get info on Leave No Trace and local phone numbers for maintainer clubs. Corel will complain that the image you're printing is lo-res, but it will engrave and scan once filled. The codes are slowly getting more common, now that smart phones are the 'big thing' -- coupons, product ads, and more. Easy to code in your website, and a kilobyte or so of other info if you have the space. In all a nice way to add some value and capitalize on all those new phones.

duncan

[Jim Beachler]

I have used QR codes with a limited response. What I have found out is that a lot of people have smart phones but they aren't smart enough to work all of the things that you can do with it. When I point it out to people on my marketing materials, the vast majority of the people didn't know how to use one, don't have the app nor how to get the app for it.

It might be with the people that I have as my customers, but I have decided to drop it and use the space to put in more product pictures.