QR Codes – What they are and How they work

What are QR Codes?

Have you spotted a square black and white square image in a magazine, on an envelope in your mailbox or on a business card and wondered what they are? Welcome to the exciting marketing tool of QR Codes.

QR Code to R & R Web Design LLC’s Web site URL

QR Codes – or Quick Response Codes are not new. They have been around since 1994 and were created by the Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave and are very popular in Japan. They were initially used for tracking stock parts in vehicle manufacturing. What is relatively new is the growing trend to use QR codes in marketing.

Similar to price barcodes found on the packaging of grocery store items, the smart code of QR Codes hold a great deal more information with up to 7,000 alphanumeric characters (both vertical and horizontal directions). Examples of the types of information that QR Code can hold include website addresses, phone numbers and business card information as text (Name, position, address, etc.)

How do QR Codes work?

QR code requires a scanner. To scan a QR code, you will need a smart phone with a camera and a QR code reader. The QR code reader snaps a photo of the QR code and directs you to the information in the code such as a website URL, a phone number or a vCard (electronic business card) with text.

Of the QR code readers we tested for iPhone, the Quickmark QR Reader for $1.99 worked the best.  If you scan the QR Code above, you will be taken to R & R Web Design LLC’s Web site URL.

What are your thoughts? Do you think that QR Codes will be an effective marketing tool?

You may also like to read:

• Bio
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Google+
• LinkedIn
• Latest Posts

Robin Strohmaier

Lead web designer and owner at R & R Web Design LLC

Fascinated with the growing potential and power of the Internet, Robin founded R & R Web Design LLC in the Chicago area in 2000. As creative director, she is passionate about helping others reach their Internet objectives through a strategic online presence with results driven custom web design, ethical SEO and marketing.

@rrwebdesign

Michigan web design company offering results driven custom web design, search engine optimization and marketing.

Savvy 7 Interview Series: Brandie McCallum - Social Solutions Collective http://t.co/oZaASAoQHj via @collectivess by @carriejkeenan - 6 hours ago

Follow @rrwebdesign

+Robin Strohmaier

Latest posts by Robin Strohmaier (see all)

• Google Penguin 2.0 Webspam Algorithm Rollout Complete Says Matt Cutts - May 23, 2013
• How to Set Up Google Authorship in WordPress in 3 Simple Steps - April 19, 2013
• Google Panda to Evolve into Real-Time Algorithm - March 16, 2013
• 5 Ways to Stand by Your Clients and Keep Them Coming Back - February 23, 2013
• Top 5 U.S. Social Networking Sites – Share of Time Spent – comScore - February 21, 2013