QR code is short for Quick Response code and is basically a kind of barcode which many camera phones can read. The code was invented way back in 1994 by a subsidiary of Toyota. Denso-Wave came up with the idea to track parts in vehicle manufacturing. These codes can accommodate much higher data capacity than the standard UPC bar codes and that makes them pretty powerful as a mobile marketing tool.
As with many other inventions which have gone on to become ubiquitous, no one back then ever imagined these codes would be used in marketing via smartphones. That’s certainly changing as I’ve seen billboards with just a huge QR code on it. In the recent Canadian national elections, one candidate employed the codes on his billboards to draw voters to his website. We’ll be seeing them more and more as people become more and more mobile.
GetResponse has prepared a whitepaper which offers good advice on how marketers can leverage QR codes in their mobile email marketing campaigns. You do have a mobile email marketing plan, right?