Episode 6 QR Codes for Marketing and Promotion

Shantay (0:04)

You are listening to the Call to Action Podcast, where we aim to inspire, educate, and inform entrepreneurs and self-starters on tech and tips related to navigating this ever-changing world.

Hello, everyone, thank you for tuning in to episode six of the Call to Action Podcast. My name is Shantay, and I'm your host. I am the person that runs the blog ctamarketing.biz, and I'm here today to share some information with you about QR codes, which I think are awesome. I've been using these for a long time, and I just really like how they work and what we can do with them. So listen in to today's show, because I have some good information that I think you're really going to like. As I do on all of my podcasts, before I go into the actual topic, I'd like to start with a motivational quote. Today's motivational quote is from Swami Vivekananda, and here is today's motivational quote. Take up one idea, make that one idea your life. Think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success. Let's take that quote with us as we go throughout our journeys as an entrepreneur. It's really about being focused. That is what really helps. And keeping your mind focused on the goal and on what you're doing, and the end result is what helps us get there as entrepreneurs. Before we get to part four of the four part series of Creative Marketing Campaign Ideas for Small Businesses, I'm going to give you just a really quick overview of what I covered in parts one, two, and three. Part one was about using giveaways as an incentive. And in that podcast, I just talked about doing giveaways for your business. Part two of the series was about using social media to market your business. Basically as a way to create brand awareness, and to bring more awareness about your business, your products, your services, and your website. Part three, I talked about how to do a giveaway using social media. And this was an interesting podcast because I shared information on some paid services that you can use to manage it for you. And I also gave a couple of ways that you can do it yourself. So I have something for those companies that would prefer to pay. But then I also gave something for the do-it-yourselfers. I like to help everybody. So make sure you check out that podcast because I did put the links to the services on my website. And some had a pretty decent cost, and some were pretty pricey. So it just all depends on where your budget is and what you want to spend. Now that brings us to part four, which is today's topic, which is about QR codes. And if you don't know about QR codes, you're going to love them just because they're so cool. And I have been using QR codes for probably 10 years now. When I first launched my site back in 2009, late 2009, I was just getting into QR codes. And ever since then, I have been using them and they're wonderful. And I'm going to share some ways that you can use them for promoting and marketing your business. So for those of you who don't know, a QR code is a matrix code or a two-dimensional barcode. And it was created by a company called Densowave, and they were created back in 1994 And the QR stands for quick response, because when they were created, it was intended to allow for the content to be decoded at a high speed. And that's why it's QR code, or you may hear them be referred to as quick response codes. I actually have QR codes on my website, and I also put a QR code on my newly designed Twitter banner. So if you're following me on Twitter at CTA Marketing, then you will be able to see my new banner with my QR code that I put on there. When you scan the QR code, it actually takes you to a page on my site that takes you directly to all of my podcasts. So it's really easy for you to now go and get caught up right there on your phone. Now QR codes are totally awesome. If you have not used them for marketing yet, especially if you provide or you have printed material, which I'm sure you do, I'm sure you have business cards or a brochure, or even a shirt. I mean, you can get really creative with QR codes. I've done it all, trust me. And I will be sharing that on my podcast. But what I'm gonna do today is give you some examples of ways that you can use QR codes to promote your business or your product. So one way that you can use QR codes is to use them to lead people to your YouTube videos. So if you are a YouTuber, then you can use QR codes to lead people directly to your YouTube channel. Now QR codes are great for connecting people with your content on a deeper level. So for example, if you have a book, and if you have an interview, maybe you did an interview with someone on a video, then you could have a QR code inside of your book that someone can scan and take you right to your video. Now just think of the richness that that now adds to a piece of printed material. Then you will be able to share information about yourself, what inspired you to write the book, for example, or who you did it for or explain some of your favorite characters. But you can get really creative with that and just connect with your readers and your audience on a deeper level. Another way that you can use QR codes is to put them on your business cards. I have done this and this works great. The thing about a business card is you don't want to put too much information printed on the card itself. You have your email address, maybe your address will be on there. Of course, your name is going to be on there, your website, but you can't put a video on a business card. You can't put a slideshow on a business card. You don't want to crowd it with too much information, but guess what QR codes allow you to do? They allow you to take your offline content, bridge it with your online content, and make a really rich experience for people that use or look at your business card, and they can connect with you again, just on a deeper level. You can have that QR code lead to a slide presentation. It can go to your website or a specific page on your website that you want them to see to learn more about you or your product or your services. You can also have it lead to a podcast. So if you have a podcast that you want people to listen to, then have the QR code that you have on your business card lead the person to your podcast. The possibilities of what you can do with these are endless, and it's just really, really cool. It's just a matter of how creative do you want to be. The third idea that I want to share with you about how to use QR codes is to print them on a flyer. If you print your QR codes in a flyer, again, it does the same thing that it does for putting them on your business cards. Or if you put them on a printed item, such as a book or a brochure, for example, what it does is basically at its core, it's bridging your offline content to your online content, and just making a much richer experience for potential clients, or for just your audience. If you're an artist, for example, and you just want to just share more of yourself and what you do, then the QR codes allow you to do that. So I hope that you have found this inspiring. I know you're probably wondering, all right, this is great, Shantay, but I need more information. So I already have plans to do more podcasts on this topic, just because there's so much more that I can share, and I've been doing this for a very long time. So I'm going to share in more detail ways that you can use QR codes for marketing. And we'll do some really cool things and combine some things as well. Now, I did mention in the beginning of the podcast that I have a QR code on my Twitter banner. So if you follow me on Twitter at CTA Marketing, you will see the new banner that has a QR code on it. I'm going to give you some really quick instructions on how to scan a QR code, just in case you have never done it before. So luckily, all of the new phones have this feature embedded in it. To scan the QR code, it's really easy. All you have to do is open your camera, place your camera over the QR code, and then either your iPhone or your Android phone, whichever phone you're using, it is going to decode that code. You're going to see something that shows up on your screen, like maybe a white bar with some text, which is really just the web address that the QR code goes to. You tap on that bar, and it's going to open up your web browser, and then you will be able to see the content that I have for you behind that QR code.