What comes from Japan and looks like some kind of an eye test or possibly a quilt pattern? It’s a QR code. That’s short for Quick Response.

A QR code can be read quickly by your cell phone. Think of a barcode that can store much more data than you can imagine. Scan the code with your smart phone to read the data. Simply download an app for free that reads QRs.

You will see QRs in more and more advertisements. A company can use a QR to show you such information as directions to their business, direct you to their BBB Company Report (also known as BBB Business Review), or show you a URL that you can click to receive a coupon. The QR can be placed on shirts, hats, mugs, ties or other products.

You can even put a QR on your business card with a link in the QR that takes the recipient directly to your website. Or add a QR that contains your contact information making it easy to add that info to a cell phone.

Marc Lyne in his column What Is a QR Code and Why Do You Need One? advises adding the QR to any advertising, flyers, posters, invites, TV ads etc. containing:

• Product details
• Contact details
• Offer details
• Event details
• Competition details
• A coupon
• Twitter, Facebook, MySpace IDs
• A link to your YouTube video
  

You can find his article at www.searchengineland.com/what-is-a-qr-code-and-why-do-you-need-one-27588. Pretty impressive that he wrote this article in 2009.

Marc also states that when you add the QR to your website, “the search engines will see that your pages have changed, and that you are updating pages.” That’s a good thing for your SEO.

How do you generate your own QR code for free? Here’s one of many sites that allow you to do that --- www.qrstuff.com.

QR is one more tool to help you connect with your customers. Check it out.

How are you using QR codes for your business?