QR Codes for Small Businesses – How to Create & Use them

Chaitra Joshi
Last Updated: September 22, 2020

Need a QR Code menu to replace physical menus in your cafe or restaurant? Check out our complete guide to QR Code menus.

Did you know there is a World Record that exists for QR codes?

Carved in a wheat field in China, the World’s Largest QR Code measures 36100 square meters based on the Guinness World Record data. While a QR code that huge might seem entirely deviated from the original functionality of QR codes, it does explain the extent of potential entrusted with a QR code.

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How to Create and Use QR Codes for your Small Business

QR codes when rightly synchronized with the marketing efforts can help expand your organization from a relatively unknown small business to a thriving one. The significance of QR codes has been time and again proven by brands that are using it right!

Creating a functional QR code for small businesses does not require a large wheat field or any intricate efforts; all you need is to make a couple of right choices and execute them.

Create a QR Code for your business

How to create free QR codes? A Step-by-step guide for your small business

Step 1. Choose a QR Code Generator

The key to creating a successful QR code campaign is to find the right QR code generator. The right QR code generator is the one that will allow you to create free QR codes that you can use forever. Choosing a QR code generator like Beaconstac with an intuitive platform to instantly set up your QR code campaigns is helpful. Turning to a ready-to-use platform for generating free QR codes makes things more comfortable as they do not require you to have prior coding knowledge.

Step 2. Choose the content

Once the QR code is generated using the chosen QR code generator, businesses then need to decide what would be the content linked to the QR code. Here are some examples of the content that SMBs could utilize to connect with the QR codes based on the type of business.

Business consultancy: Add QR codes to Business cards and effortlessly share contact information.

E-commerce: Drive traffic to your store page by linking QR codes with your business website. Beauty & Lifestyle: Link your QR codes to ‘how-to-videos’ that help customers understand your product better.

Real-estate: Connect QR codes with an image gallery of the properties for sale.
Publishing house: Use QR codes that connect to a pdf of a book sample.

Learn more use-cases of QR codes in proximity marketing

Beaconstac provides both static and dynamic QR codes based on your requirement for scheduling single or multiple campaigns.

Buy the QR code marketing solution for your business.

Step 3. Choose your design and customization

A QR code is no longer all black and white. Businesses can design and customize QR codes based on their specific requirements. Beaconstac provides you the option of changing the color of your QR code’s background and foreground based on the theme and color scale of your campaign or business. You can also include business logos in your QR code design. When it comes to customization of QR code designs, the only limit is the extent of your imagination.

Businesses can choose to print these QR codes on any marketing material that is best suited for the category of business.

Step 4. Track campaigns

Keeping track of your QR code scans is an excellent way of defining the success or failure of your QR code campaigns. For businesses with QR codes printed on different marketing materials, tracking scans of each QR code help to identify and rank the marketing tools from most to least effective thereby optimizing the results obtained.

The following are some fantastic uses of QR codes that can apply to almost all small businesses irrespective of the categories to which they belong.

QR Code best practices to follow

1. Include Call-to-action:

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It is always important to give your customers a valid reason to scan a QR code. Incorporating a catchy phrase as a call to action with your QR code is the way to persuade customers to scan them.

2. Insist on high quality and right size:

For your QR code initiatives to work, always ensure that the QR codes are scannable. A QR code that is too big or too small for a smartphone to detect is just a wastage of time and money that SMBs cannot afford.

3. Pay attention to positioning:

Another important aspect that you cannot afford to ignore is the positioning of your QR code campaigns. Place your QR codes where it is easy for people to see and scan them.

Here’s an example of wrong QR code positioning

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An example of right QR code positioning

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4. Test it before you print it:

Spending some time to verify the design and functioning of your QR code is an important step to take that will help you avoid mistakes that might result in poor customer experience.

5. Make it rewarding for your customers:

Including something useful and engaging to reward those customers who take time to scan your QR codes is an excellent way of influencing them to scan the next time.

How small businesses can use QR Codes

1. QR codes with giveaways to drive loyalty card memberships

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Incorporating QR codes with giveaways and freebies is an effective way for small businesses to increase loyalty card subscribers. Giving away a few samples of your product and offering access to member-exclusive discounts and freebies are useful in building a loyal customer base.

2. Use QR codes on windows to boost app download

If you are a small business that has newly launched your app, placing QR code embedded posters on display windows and storefront is a brilliant way of creating awareness and boosting app downloads.

Add QR codes on posters and flyers to gain social media visibility

Posters like these can create visibility for your social media presence and enhance the number of likes, shares, and followers for your business profile pages on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Creating flyers can be an arduous task. Try Venngage to create beautiful flyers for your business within minutes.

4. Use QR code embedded billboards to help customers locate you

If you have a newly opened outlet that customers are not quite aware of, you can help customers navigate to your store by linking QR codes to your location on Google maps. Placing such QR code embedded billboards on busy high ways and densely populated areas can boost your in-store traffic.

5. QR codes on receipts and labels to get customer feedback

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If your business has just started picking up, you should be looking at considering customer feedback that would help you improve. QR codes can help you gain valuable customer feedback if you link them to customer feedback forms and deploy them on the customer purchase invoice receipts and product labels.

Here are 15 QR code examples from brands that are killing it!

Want to create free QR codes for your small business? Explore Beaconstac’s QR code marketing platform or talk to our proximity marketing expert who can guide you!