What To Do With a QR Code

During the month of July, I was a guest blogger at Melody Steiner's site, where I focused on marketing. I'm fairly certain not all my readers hopped over there to read my posts. That's okay. I didn't expect it. But my last post over there, about QR codes, was pretty good. I'm re-posting it here today. So if you've already read it, you're caught up. If it's new to you, please leave a comment at the end and share your ideas. Here it is:

If you're a tech-moron like me, you have no clue what a QR Code is. You've probably seen one, though. It's that funky square of black and white gibberish that, when photographed with a smart phone or tablet, takes you to a website about whatever product they're selling. Here's a picture of one:

I took this photo off the blog Marketing Christian Books, posted December 28, 2012. The QR Code is printed on cookies. Little bite-sized yummy cookies. (Excuse me while I go find a snack...) If you had access to one of these cookies in this photo, the QR Code enabled you to get a free trial copy of an ebook. The ebook store that came up with the idea encouraged businesses to hand out the cookies for free in a campaign called "Eat What You Read." If you had the cookie, you scanned it, got your free book, then ate the cookie while you enjoyed your new book.

The company handed out 8,000 cookies and spent $5,000. Their website traffic increased by 45%. Their sales rose by 12%. To them, the investment was worth it.

I don't have $5,000 to invest in cute little cookies, but I can use this example to come up with other ways of using the QR code to generate traffic to my blog, my website, or my book. I could put a QR code on a bookmark that features my name and the name of my book. The absolute minimum size a QR code should be is one inch, so don't put them on pencils or thumb drives. They'd fit nicely on book bags, though, or coffee mugs. Or homemade muffins wrapped in cellophane. 

Do you have any good ideas of stuff to put QR Codes on? Have you tried them? Did they work for you, or are they an out-dated marketing gimmick that's not worth the time? Please share your expertise!

-Sonja