by Julia Camenisch
Interested in promoting your small business or freelance services using a free technology with recent growth rates of 1600%? Yes, the customers are flocking to a new advertising medium. The cost for you to implement it is zilch. Oh, and did I mention the enormous potential for effectively engaging customers and adding value and efficiency to your operations? What’s not to like? It’s all about the power of 2D codes, often known by their more popular incarnation, QR Codes. These small black and white boxes are becoming a key offline marketing tool for businesses both large and small.
First, a quick primer. 2D codes are a variation of the standard barcode, often seen on the back of various retail products. The difference between these codes and their striped cousins is the amount of information that can be held in them. 2D codes can hold roughly 1700 to 7000 characters, depending on the type of data stored. In real world terms, these codes store A LOT of information and are very versatile data containers.
When a 2D code is scanned by a smartphone, it can send the phone’s user a variety of information. The code can direct them to a webpage, provide an ebook, link to a video, dial a phone number, be used as an e-ticket with an airline or even become an invoice in a mobile payment system. There are several flavors of 2D codes, with the primary flavors being QR (quick response) Codes and Microsoft Tag Codes.
Those are the basics. But how can you effectively utilize these codes for your business? Here are 3 ways to get you started: