Using Your Own QR Code

QR codes were first used in the automotive industry to track vehicles during manufacturing. They are similar to barcodes because they show information when scanned. Today, they're gaining popularity among businesses. QR codes are used for promotional purposes. Some businesses even post big QR codes on buildings. They can be as large as billboards, so when people pass by, they can scan the code with their phones and get the information.

As a personal brand, you can make use of QR codes to help your business. You don’t have to necessarily use it for promotions or giving out discounts to customers. You can also use it to direct people to your blog or social media websites. It’s still going to be a part of your marketing strategy, but in a subtle way. You are directing your customers to information that they might find useful, directing them to your blog where they can find more information that might strike their interest. It’s a way of reaching out to an audience and possibly converting them into customers. You don’t have to use billboard-sized QR codes; you can be creative in where you put them for people to see.

Before you start generating your own QR code, here are some tips on how to be successful in your marketing campaign:

Know your strategy – like anything else that we want to include in our marketing strategy, we have to carefully study and analyze how we are going to make use of QR codes and how they fit in our business plans and goals. We need a clear definition of our purpose for using the code. Jumping into any campaign just because everyone else is doing it is not always a good idea.

Verify that your QR code is working – before spreading your QR code and posting it online, make sure that you have a working code. The last thing you want is people having problems with your code, it’s going to make or break your campaign. Imagine having QR codes posted everywhere with your brand name. When people realize it’s not working, they’ll never bother checking any of your marketing campaigns again. You have already created a negative reputation towards your brand.

Mobile accessibility – make sure that all the sites that your audience are going to be directed to are mobile compatible. Remember that QR codes are scanned using mobile phones. Once your audience starts scanning your code, they must be able to read your content or information right through their mobile phones.

Value added information – because you are not going to give your audience promotional codes or discounts, you have to make sure that you still give them something valuable. When you post your QR code on the articles that you write so that scanning the code will direct them to your profile or vice versa, they have to find something more than they already know. A QR code on your profile that only leads to another one of your profiles with the same information does not add value to your audience. It’s going to be useless for them because they’ve already seen that same information before.

Research tools you can use – there are many ways to use a QR code and you can choose the information that you want to be seen in the code. Do some research on the tools that can help you generate different codes with different information encrypted in it.  This will let you choose the best tool that will help portray you and at the same time add variety to the information on the QR codes that you are spreading.

With a working QR code and readily available information for your audience, you are giving them a different experience.  Yet, like any first impression, it can either work for you or against you. What unique value does your QR code give?