Work Less Do More With the QR Code
Vacationing last week, far away from any computer except my iphone, I tried to disconnect so I would not do any work at all. I know that when I do this I end having the most profitable experiences. Well, through our trip through the City Museum in St. Louis and the Science Center, I found out about the QR Code. This code for mobile users has been around for about the last 2 years in America and steadily gained momentum over the last year. It started out through Japan in 1994. This code will help you tremendously get a better message to a better audience for you.
My daughter brought this to my attention as she has seen a lot more of these than I had. We found them on many print advertisements at our hotel. We scanned the code at the City Museum and received paperless map of the floor layout. And at the Science Center, we were able to download games, and a blog site that gave 101 uses for the barcode.
Given the millions of new smart phone users, this trend will inevitably increase in the future. And it’s amount of impact in your work has immediate benefits for you. The code is now operating free of license and is easy to generate and use on your website, product, or other personal endorsements–such as a business card-or ashcan handed out at conventions.
Benefits of the QR Code
The benefits of the QR code is immeasurable. Especially when showing your artwork away from the online world. This little imprinted code can be placed on your comic book (or within it), or webcomic or business card to bring people deeper into your world. When they scan the code into their phone. It can take them to a PDF or a URL of your choosing directly on their smart phone where they can learn more about you and your project.
The great news is that this new code is even generating more hits than typical banner ads. It creates a greater involvement from the person you are trying to reach. They have to get out their phone and hold it up to the code. They don’t even have to click. The code reader takes them to the content you want them to see. You control the content your audience goes to.
Check out this article on the statistics for using the QR code:
http://www.kaywa.com/company/the-qr-ad-a-new-way-of-banner-advertising.html
Engaging your Prospective Customer with the QR Code
Ever wanted your business card to say more than your name, address and phone number?
Now you can link to a YouTube video engaging your prospect–or your comic page detailing the benefits of your services. All this is continually driving more and more people online. This is a great time to be promoting your comic product, or service.
Immediate, personal contact is the most prevalent use of the code, I’ve seen so far through magazines, print advertisements, and comics. However even in the online world the scans seem to be generating higher click-thru rates than its normal banner-ad predecessors–perhaps to its newness. I imagine at some point people may get tattoos of their code, so people would only scan your tatoo and then they have everything they need from you stored on their smart phone.
Can you imagine a person interested in your comic book at a convention and instead of walking by or taking a picture, they scan a code imprinted on your booth? From their smartphone, they get all the resources from your product, what the characters are about, the creator’s vision, and mission, and perhaps the entire 1st issue of the comic along with order information. The possibilities really are endless.
Check this comic out about how it works:
http://reader.kaywa.com/tmpl/default/web/popup.php
Get the QR Code Reader
The reader I got from the AppleStore for my iphone is called SCAN. It is free. (From QRCodeCity) You can find it from your iphone by searching the appstore.
Get the QR Code Generator
There are many quick QR genereators out there, you can google them to find the ones you find most beneficial to you. Here’s a place to get you started.
Experiment and let me know which ones work best for you and what you are using them for by leaving a comment below.
I’m way ahead of you. I found out about QR codes myself…and I’m putting them to work for me. Now, I have a two-sided business card, the back of which has a QR code to scan. The URL to my own blog is within said code.
You are way ahead of me, Max. Good job. I hope others are too. I can’t wait to comics embedded with these. It is going to add a whole new realm of engagement for the reader.