Professional Mail Services, Inc. Blog

What Are QR Codes?

QR (Quick Response) codes have been around since 1994 but have only recently become popular with consumers, especially in the United States. QR Codes are now being seen everywhere from retail stores to advertisements in newspapers and magazines to billboards to coupons to business cards to direct mail marketing pieces to billing statements. With the increased use of smartphones utilizing the camera and a downloaded application, many consumers can now scan QR Codes thus they are becoming more effective among marketers.

What exactly is a QR Code? A QR Code is confined to two dimensions, so you can't see a real picture of it. QR Code was manufactured with the intent of decoding it at very high speeds, so the third dimension was not necessary.

What type of information can a QR Code contain and how much of it? QR Code can handle alphanumeric, character symbol, binary and other kinds of code. QR Code can hold up to 7,089 numeric characters or 4,296 alphanumeric characters in a single symbol.

Look at the various data types that can be incorporated in a QR Code and you will quickly begin thinking about how you can implement a QR Code program into your marketing material.

Text	Website URL
Email Address	ContactDetails (VCARD)
Event (VCALENDAR)	Google Maps Location
Paypal Buy Now Link	Social Media (including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
iTunes Link	YouTube Video

Another important aspect of QR Codes in regards to marketing is judging response rates. Since each QR Code can be unique, you can accurately obtain response rates and also determine exactly which prospects and/or customers are using them. And if that isn't enough, unique and dynamic URL's can be used thus giving a custom message and/or experience to each individual customer.

While it appears that QR Codes are here to stay, marketers must carefully implement them and ensure that they are accurate or consumers will quickly become annoyed with them. One personal example of this is from a magazine I recently received in which an ad contained three QR Codes with a clever heading for each one. Upon scanning the QR Codes, I was directed to an empty web page for each. I'm not sure if this advertiser was strictly using the QR Codes to judge response only and didn't care about a message but I highly doubt it as I expect that there was a lack of implementation of the web pages associated with each QR Code. If marketers expect consumers to be receptive to QR Codes and use them accordingly then those same marketers must provide engaging content to consumers when they use them.

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Raleigh Durham Research Triangle Park Chapel Hill	919.354.8800

Charlotte Greensboro Hickory Winston-Salem	800.897.7674

Email	sales@mailpros.com

Professional Mail Services, Inc. Blog

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