QR Codes and Custom USB Drives Working Together

QR Codes and Custom USB Drives can significantly boost your results in your marketing efforts - Getting you more 'bang for your buck.'

One of the newer trends in digital marketing is the Quick Response Code, or QR Code. They work in a way similar to a barcode. Once scanned with a QR scanner or reader, the code is read and the relevant information is produced.

They were first used by vehicle manufacturers to track parts. Their uses have more recently moved to marketing to mobile phone users. QR readers can be downloaded onto smart phones or computers using apps such as QR Reader, KAYWA reader or i-nigma reader. The code is scanned by taking a picture with the phone’s camera or the computer’s web camera. The QR code directs the phone to do a variety of things — open a website, display text, write an SMS message, show a location on Google maps and many more things.

These QR codes have been used on marketing campaigns, on billboards, in newspapers, on business cards and even on chocolate.

QR codes are free to generate and can be made on sites such as www.qr-code-generator.com and www.qrstuff.com. A minor setup however with QR codes is that mobile phones and computers do not come with QR reader software already installed. An application must be downloaded onto the devices before the code can be read. This issue becomes less of a factor as time progresses as more people, including the general consumer, are becoming more acclimated with what QR codes are and how to use them. QR codes are great for marketing because they mean that static, traditional advertising such as billboards and magazine adverts can become digital and mobile —only by taking a photo.

The key efforts in utilizing QR for a marketing campaign is getting viewers to snap the pic to activate the code. Devices like promotional flash drives, which have both digital and static marketing benefits can become that little more digital and mobile. We think that this product was a great idea and should be very effective as a promotional USB memory stick. A USB drive is something people will keep and take home with them. With a QR code imprinted on the flash drive, you now make it easy for them to access the information you want them to.

One of the best ways to make a QR code work with flash drives is to print it on a USB business card. These card flash drives offer a large space for your custom imprint. Your can put contact information and a logo on one side, and a QR code directing clients to your website on the other.