Mobile marketing is getting more and more popular as market share of the smart phones continues to grow. Whether you are into the whole aspect of using your Android based device or iPhone for browsing the web or not – you shouldn’t ignore the opportunity. While there are many ways to make your WordPress blog mobile ready – today I want to talk about marketing it using what is becoming one of the more popular options – QR Codes.
I don’t claim to be the expert when it comes to using mobile marketing as I’m just getting started with the process and quite frankly don’t have enough stats to show for it but as a blogger and Internet Marketer I just can’t ignore the possibility of getting more traffic and readers. What’s even more – I have read quite a few articles and guides on the topic over last few days and noticed some missed opportunities.
In this post I will share my own idea for a very simple marketing using QR Codes and also free QR code generators you can use absolutely FREE (my favorite price)!

What Is QR Code?

Here is definition from Wikipedia QR Code page:

A QR Code is a specific matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.

In a nutshell – QR code is a way to encode a very specific information into image format that is readable by Android devices or iPhone with a bar-code scanner application. An image you can use in some very specific ways to promote your site, business or just share the information of your choice.

Free QR Code Generators

While doing research I have found quite a few paid product that will allow you to create almost any type of QR code but quite frankly – why in the heck would I pay for something I can get for free? Convenience – may be, but it is still not worth the $30-$80 I have seen these QR Code generators been sold for…
So here we go – some nice, web based QR Code generators for you:
QR Code Generator from the ZXing Project
This nice small web based application allows you to generate multitude of QR code, should be more then enough for any marketing needs, absolutely FREE.

QR Code and 2D Code Generator
This one is quite a bit more advanced and gives you options to generate not only QR code but several other encoded formats. Page also contains some very useful information on how to use the multiple options provided:

QR Code For Blog Marketing Ideas

Obviously these ideas are based on my own needs and business priorities so how you choose to use it – is entirely up to you but perhaps it will spark some ideas of your own you will be interested to share in comments.
First of all – before I proceed to creating QR code for my blog I sat down and identified my goals:
Answer in my case was surprisingly simple – get subscribers, readers, leads, customers. But this simplicity was simply a logical extension of my overall business plan and place of the blog in it. I’m a strong believer that implementing proper email marketing in combination with your blog is not just a MUST to be done, but is absolutely essential to overall blog and business success.

Once my goal was identified – I proceeded to aweber and created a new web form to collect subscribers. I did it by simply copying the pop-over subscription form you get to see when visiting this blog for the first time because it has proven highly effective. This step was done so I could track the statistics properly and also – to embed this form on a page that is more modile device friendly!
When I had my form completed I created the new page and published it and then created a “Navigate to URL” QR code you can see in the very beginning of this post. Simple, inline with my overall goal and at same time – separate for tracking results.
But my implementation of QR code is just the beginning of what could be done!

• Because you can encode quite a few different types of messages, including your contact info – QR code becomes a very convenient form of sharing you details easily by placing this code on your business cards, flyers, printed materials.
• Instead of just sharing your contact info – you can also use image to lead prospects from printed materials to your subscribe page. Just offer something of value and then encode that url, much like I did for the blog but spread it offline.
• You can create codes to integrate Twitter and Facebook marketing into your efforts. Just imaging if instead of a link to the subscribe page – you create a link to Facebook Like option,
• If you are running coupon discounts – you can build a targeted list of repeat customers by encoding that specific url, segregate your list to get more efficiency and better performance.

There are many great ideas just be sure to stick to some basic principals:

1. Any page you send your mobile customers to via QR code should be mobile friendly
2. If trying to get subscribers – offer incentives to do so
3. QR codes on printed materials can be extremely effective if you target audience actually uses those devices! So before you go overboard – evaluate your niche and perhaps start small at first: you contact info, Google maps location, subscribe squeeze page.
4. Do a split test – always to see which marketing option works and which doesn’t!

That should cover some of the basics and I’m looking forward to your comments and ideas! And do share this post on social networks if you like what you read.