Are you using QR-Codes in your Marketing?
QR Codes are rising everywhere and you can do lot of cool Things with them. They are great to bring Offline Marketing and Mobile Marketing together.
If it comes to create QR-Codes for your Marketing you will find many sources Online. The possibilitys are endless and you can find lots of different places. We use QRStuff for our QR-Code Marketing. QRStuff offer lot of different QR-Codes like Facebook “like” Code, Youtube Video, Google Maps and much more.
You can print QR-Codes on T-Shirts, Mugs, your Bills or wherever you want and where you want to get connected with your Customers.
A QR Code (it stands for “Quick Response”) is a mobile phone readable barcode that’s been big in Japan forever, broke into Europe a while back, and is now getting traction in USA.
In its simplest sense think “print based hypertext link” – simply encode a URL into the QR Code and then point a mobile phone (or other camera-enabled mobile) at it. If the device has had QR Code decoding software installed on it, it will fire up its browser and go straight to that URL.
But it doesn’t stop there – a QR Code can also contain a phone number, an SMS message, V-Card data or just plain alphanumeric text, and the scanning device will respond by opening up the correct application to handle the encoded data appropriately courtesy of the FNC1 Application Identifiers that are embedded in the encoded data.
QR Code Smartphone Apps And Phone Software

For your phone to be able to read QR Codes you will need to have a QR Code scanning app or QR Code scanning software installed on it.
- Optiscan – The best QR Code scanner for iPhones – it understands all the trickier encoding types and has definitely kept up with development in QR code technology.
- QRafter – “Best of breed” as far as the free iPhone apps are concerned. Fast, reliable and broad range of user features.
- For Android devices the choice is clear – it’s either QR Pal or QR Droid. Both are solid performers and well put together by people that clearly understand QR codes at a technical level.
- I-Nigma – Popular and reliable QR code scanning app that’s been around forever and comes in all the popular flavours – iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile.
- Quickmark – Another name that’s been synomous with QR code scanning for years. It has the mandatory iPhone, Andriod and Windows Mobile version, but Quickmark is also available for a wide-range of other phones including Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony-Ericsson, Kyocera, Fujitsu-Siemens, LG, Vodafone and Huawei. It’s even got a version for the Palm Treo!
- Kaywa Reader – Supports an extensive list of Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson Java and Symbian phones, as well as having a Windows Mobile version.
- Nokia Barcode Reader – Most Nokia’s now come standard with the Nokia’s own scanning software, but this is good for the ones that don’t – N78, N80, N82, N93, N93i, N95, N96, E66, E71, E90, 6210 Navigator and 6220 Classic.
- Blackberry Messenger – Comes standard with most Blackberry’s these days.
- Esponce QR Reader - An honourable mention to Yalla for putting together a good Windows Mobile scanning app that does most of the things you need and supports most of the QR code data types that you’re likely to come across.
While QR codes themselves conform to an ISO standard, not all app developers are as diligent with standards compliance as they should be, so, sadly, there are a lot of QR code scanning apps out there that aren’t all they could be and tend to become challenged by QR codes containing anything more complex than a simple website URL.
Our blog post Not All Scanning Apps Are Created Equal presents a general discussion of the situation, however a quick browse through the user reviews for QR code scanning apps in the iTunes App Store, Android Market or Blackberry App World will highlight which ones are worth having, and which have known issues.
To start your own QR-Code Marketing just go to QRStuff.com and create your QR-Code.