Thanks to nowadays technology, consumers spend more time on their mobile devices (including both Smartphones and tablets) than ever before. Because of that, there are many different businesses as well as Mobile Apps that resort to the use of QR codes, not only for advertising campaigns, but especially for marketing purposes. Essentially, QR codes provide instant interaction between businesses and customers, as they allow companies and businesses to very easily store and track information, either about different services that they offer, or in most cases, about products that they currently have available for sale in their supply chain. These QR codes are created with a QR code generator.
Now, because of how popular QR codes become at a worldwide scale, they’ve recently become one of the most important marketing tools nowadays.
With that said, let’s talk a little more about why QR codes and QR code generators are so important in the 21st century.
WHAT IS A QR CODE?
Firstly, let’s talk about what is a QR Code. To put simply, QR Code stands for “quick-response code”. Basically, a QR code consists of a type of two-dimensional matrix barcode that’s used to store information as a series of pixels organized in a square-shaped grid.
Their unique barcode format not only makes them both faster and easier to read in comparison to standard UPC barcodes (meaning the type of the barcodes that come in most supermarket products, etc.), but also allows them to have a greater storage capacity than standard UPC barcodes, as each QR code is capable of storing up to 4,296 characters at once.
All that ultimately makes QR codes a truly versatile tool for various industries.
WHAT ARE QR CODES USED FOR?
Now, it’s safe to say that you’ve most likely seen QR codes in the most recent 3~4 years, as they’re used pretty much everywhere, including not only in websites, but also in magazines and billboards, as well as in shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants, museums and art galleries, and even in check-in points at venues.
Because of how easy QR codes are to read, they’re actually a great way to streamline a customer’s user experience and ultimately ensure that each customer can access information about a product or service as easily, quickly, and as efficiently as possible. In other words, QR codes offer a quick and easy way for customers to interact with brands from all over the world, whether that’s to get information about a product, to easily perform a purchase, or even to get access, join, or even subscribe to a service.
QR codes are mainly used to make contactless purchases of one or more products. Nevertheless, they can also be used to seamlessly download an App, to access information about a location or item (such as information about a food item in a restaurant menu or information about a museum piece for example), or even to perform check-ins at a venue or even at a hotel.
More recently, QR codes have even played a crucial role in helping different organizations and businesses to trace and evaluate the level of exposure from people attending different events to the SARS-CoV-2 virus that’s responsible for causing the COVID-19 disease, which ultimately allowed those organizations to slow the spread of the virus in a very significant manner.
HOW TO CREATE A QR CODE?
To create a QR code, the only thing a company or business owner needs is access to a QR code generator. This is basically a type of software that’s ran online which is used to generate / create said unique QR codes in which the company / business or person creating each QR code will be able to store a variety of data / information inside that QR code’s two-dimensional matrix (i.e. its square-shaped grid) barcode format.
Depending on each company’s purpose, a QR code generator can be used to create QR Codes that allow their future users to either access a website, view a PDF file, listen to specific songs, watch YouTube videos, visualize one or more image files, to connect to a Wi-Fi network, or any other sort of action that’s accessible / doable with the use of a mobile device (whether that’s a smartphone or a tablet).
To create a QR code, all that you (or any company / business owner) have to do to generate a QR code through a QR code generator is to input the specific URL link (including for downloading an App), text-file, image-file, or any other sort of digitally-encoded content that their QR code is supposed to bring users to when scanned, then customize their QR code’s look either by choosing between different default templates or by ultimately customizing their QR code’s look according to their own personal preferences, and then simply generate that QR code and download it in one of the most common image file formats to ensure that it can be easily used and also seamlessly read by any mobile device.
HOW TO SCAN A QR CODE?
Now, when it comes to scanning an already-existing QR code, that’s also something that’s fairly simple to do, as QR codes can be scanned / read easily by any digital device equipped with camera that supports QR code reading, with the most common examples being smartphones and tablets, of course.
All you have to do is open your device’s Default Camera App (usually already pre-installed in the device), then point your device’s camera at the QR code that you’re looking to scan, wait a couple of seconds, and voilà. All the information you were looking to get from said QR code will be automatically displayed on your device’s screen.
On a side note, it’s also worth to mention that due to how popular QR Codes have become, more and more smartphone manufacturers have started to release their new smartphone (and tablet) models with cameras that integrate built-in QR readers, for which they are used quite often by today’s digitally-connected society.
WHY ARE QR CODE GENERATORS SO IMPORTANT NOWADAYS?
Because of how widely used QR codes are nowadays, QR code generators have obviously become one of the most important marketing tools that businesses can currently resort to in order to promote their advertising campaigns as well as to provide their customers with services, and also to sell their products.
What’s more is because of the fact that QR code generators are so easy and straightforward to use, that only promotes their usability even further.
All in all, QR code generators are extremely important nowadays for any company or business that’s looking to achieve a noticeable business growth in the upcoming years.
