'Net Features : qr code

QR Code Popularity Improves Experience, Increases Risk

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 01:30:00 GMT

By now you’ve not only heard of QR (Quick Response) codes, but chances are you’ve also used them to drive traffic to your website – or at least thought about it. Your competitors have too, which is actually good news.

QR codes took off in the U.S. in mid 2010 and have shown considerable growth since. Among the early messengers of the technology is QRStuff.com, a company which has helped businesses ‘get their codes out there’ since 2007. Its owner and CEO, Greg Slapp, says recent improvements in the field are not about the QR code technology itself, which is a stable, self-contained technology around since the early 1990s; instead, the growth and advances come from those using it. Marketers are beginning to understand what the user experience needs to be, after they scan the code. Sending users to a mobile experience, not a non-optimized desktop website, tops the list of providing a quality user experience.

Unfortunately for site owners and QR code generators, the two parties can’t control which scanning app a consumer uses. However, an ISO standard is in place.

“In the last 12 months, I’ve seen an improvement in the quality of the scanning apps,” says Slapp. “Over the last couple years, there are quite a bit of apps out there that have been playing fast and loose, treating standards as suggestions rather than rules, which impact the user experience.”

The same can be said of non-functioning QR codes. With the popularity of QR codes, also comes an onslaught of free generators available on the Web. Marketing campaigns that use QR codes, run the risk of being around longer than the code.

“I’ve been doing QR codes long enough to see a lot of them come and a lot of them go,” says Slapp. “There’s a large turn rate among the smaller QR code websites. Do your research, see who has a good track record and who is consistent.”

Slapp also declares that the availability of QR codes is not about free versus paid. It’s about reassuring yourself that who you partner with is going to be around for the duration of your campaign, which can be said about any vendor.

Most free QR code generator websites also have paid services. Anyone can use the websites to create fully functional QR codes, but features like the ability to create high-resolution artwork images, obtain analytics, edit QR codes and more, are typically reserved for subscribers, like on QRStuff.com.

Psttt! Check out our list of best QR code generators from 2009. As you can see, most stood the test of time!

Mongoose Metrics Launches QR Call Tracking

Michael Garrity — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:00:00 GMT

The hottest ticket of the fall was to the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit, and it was there that enterprise-level phone conversion optimization company and call tracking solutions provider Mongoose Metrics announced the launch of its QR Call Tracking solution.

QR (Quick Response) codes are rapidly growing in popularity as more and more consumers begin purchasing smartphones. Recent studies indicate that about two-thirds of all potential consumers have been in contact with QR codes, and about one-third have used them.

Marketers, for their part, are finding many innovative ways to incorporate these bar codes into their campaigns, and now Mongoose will allow these them to integrate QR codes into call-tracking campaigns, as well.

Mongoose Metrics claims that their technology will "maximize conversions via Web and mobile devices," as QR Call Tracking will immediately connect smartphone users and advertisers "at the right time in the buying process," and also provide the advertisers and marketers with behavioral data.

Whenever marketers attach QR codes to advertisements to link users to content on the Internet, they are also be able to drive a number of phone-based actions like email, SMS and simply connecting a mobile device to the Web. Mongoose Metrics will add another layer of depth to this process by integrating these bar codes with call tracking technology. Combining these technologies will help marketers "understand the behaviors of their prospects." The idea being that if a markter and/or advertiser knows what drives conversions, they can refine and optimize their QR efforts to continue to increase them.

More information about QR Call Tracking can be found here.

Dynotag Launches Free QR Service

Allison Howen — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:15:00 GMT

Dynotag has launched a free quick response (QR) service, which enables consumers and small businesses to create shareable QR codes that link to associated online content, and can include text, images, audio and more.

This service provides a way for businesses to electronically link to marketing material, such as Facebook, Twitter product manuals, coupons, contest details and other customer information. Which can be very useful, especially since QR codes are a growing market — already reaching 14 million American mobile phone users by June 2011.

Dynotag codes provide the necessities for creating physical and digital QR codes, and are readable by most mobile devices with a camera and QR code reader.

“The bulk of quick information lookups is increasingly happening on smart phones,” says Murat Divringi, CEO of Dynotag. “QR codes are helping us all make the leap from keying in cumbersome URLs to superfast scans that connect us to what we want to know about a place or object, when we want to know it. Dynotag brings this powerful kind of information-sharing to smaller groups, and even a single individual.”

Additional benefits of Dynotag QR codes include templates that creators can choose from, the shareability of content, objects and locations to the Web, the ability to protect information pages with a PIN, as well as the ability to update or remove information page content at any time.

Best QR Code Generators

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:56:00 GMT

Now that Google has placed its virtual blessing on two dimensional QR (Quick Response) barcodes, you'll need to create them for use on your brick and mortar store or in your print marketing materials if you really, really want to be in their good graces.

Here are a few resources that we here at Website Magazine have used in the past (in our print magazine) or have come across during our routine travels on the 'Net that we're immensely impressed with.

ScanLife: In each and every edition of Website Magazine, you'll see two-dimensional QR barcodes on a few of our editorial and advertising pages. There are a few reasons that we use ScanLife over their open source competitors - namely that it covers the broadest number of mobile phones/smartphones and that some very valuable analytics come with it. If you have anything to do with advertising you know how important that is to the bottom line. Creating barcodes (for non-commercial purposes) is free and the rates are reasonable for commercial enterprises.

Kaywa.com: One of the more popular QR code generators on the market and a mainstay for many users (and believer in these codes). Users have the choice between multiple content types include URL, Text, Phone number of SMS. I personally use Kaywa routinely, even using the generated barcodes as my Facebook profile picture (yes, I do get some strange comments but my fellow geeks seem to love it).

ZXing (Zebra Crossing): If I didn't know any better, I would say that ZXing is going to be the de facto standard for QR Code readers and generators. Originally, ZXing was limited to decoding software but this Google hosted application has made major strides in the past year and it's generator is one of the absolute best. Users can choose from a number of content types (URL, SMS, Calendar, Event, Message, etc) and download or embed the rendered QR code.

I believe those listed above to be the best quick response code generators available. Others however include QRStuff.com, Mobile-Barcodes.com, INVX.com and Heroku.com.