QR Code Labels and Stickers

QR Code Marketing Ideas:

• QR codes are now being used at bus stops and transit stations to show users schedule and reservation information.
• QR codes can be used on interactive walking tours, displays or in galleries and museums.
• QR code labels on flyers, handouts or business cards.
• QR Codes are an excellent tool to enhance residential and commercial real estate listings. A QR code can send users to virtual walk-throughs and important listing information.
• QR codes are great for building a subscriber list. Simply direct the user to an online sign-up form and let your mail service or auto-responder service take care of the rest.
• QR code labels on product packaging can offer valuable additional information for the shopper – such as recipes, instructions, how-to’s, best uses for or testimonials from happy customers.
• Producers of sustainable and organic products could help shoppers understand the health and environmental benefits through videos, images or direct comparisons between conventional and sustainable practices.
• A QR code could connect a hungry shopper to a hotline for fast food delivery.
• QR codes are used in place of name-tags at conferences and set up to supply virtual business card contact information.
• Gain interest in your specialty food or beverage product by offering valuable entertainment ideas, serving and recipe information.
• For a “greener” wedding or special event, invite your guest list and have them RSVP directly through a QR code.
• QR code labels in elevator, public washroom or public transit ads. These could offer anything from discounts on dry cleaning service, taxi pick up, pizza delivery, concert or event information, restaurant and attractions etc.
• QR codes are an excellent tool to gain community support and awareness through petitions and newsletters.
• QR code labels on disposable coffee cups, water bottles and napkins.
• Put a QR code on your office stationary and mailouts to provide your customers with change of address, discounts, sales or new product information.

Types of QR Code Labels: How To Set Up Your Data

QR Codes are a great marketing tool that can be used to communicate a variety of information. Familiarizing yourself with some of the basic QR code formatting standards will help you get the most out of your marketing and tracking efforts.

QR Code reading applications (such as the free QR code reader “app” for the iPhone) can vary in how they process the bits of data that make up a QR code. Although you can’t control exactly how an app might process the code, correct formatting will improve the chance that it will be scanable by the wide variety of handheld devices in use today.

Types of QR codes:

It’s easy to find free software online that will make a downloadable QR code from your requested data. We even have a link to a free QR code generator.

Some common types of QR codes are:

URLS:
The browser of the scanning device will prompt you to open to a specified web page. This could be a company homepage, a YouTube video, a signup or sales page or an online petition.
For a URL QR code to scan, it’s important to include the “http://www.” followed by your web address when setting up your QR code.

Email addresses:
A QR code might include a contact email address. Prefacing the Email address with “mailto:” will prompt most QR code reader applications to send an e-mail to the address encoded in the QR code.

V-Cards:
V-cards are essentially digital business cards that may contain company or individual contact information such as Email address, phone numbers or a street address. Scanning this type of QR code will automatically enter this contact info into the Contacts database within the device.

Calendar information:
Event dates and times can be encoded into a QR code. Scanning this will input the information into the devices Calendar or Scheduler application as a reminder.

Variable Data QR Codes:
If you need each of your labels to have a unique QR code – check out our page on variable QR code labels.

More information on standard formatting for actionable text can be found at the following link:
http://code.google.com/p/zxing/wiki/BarcodeContents

We have also produced a short video on Marketing with QR Code Labels that provides more information as well as many great QR Code marketing tips.

If you need each of your QR code labels to be unique – for example you would like each QR code encoded with a different company name and URL – then you need variable data QR code labels. Though the set up for this product takes a little more time, a well-formatted Excel spreadsheet is all it takes for us to get started.

Variable QR code Labels: Character Specifications:

Set up your Excel spreadsheet (Microsoft .xls 2003 & earlier) with the variable data set up within a column in the order you wish the QR code labels to be printed. If you wish for your QR codes to contain multiple lines of information, additional columns of data can be provided in the same file for each additional line you wish to be encoded. All data from a particular row will be compiled into a single QR code. If multiple columns of information are provided, there needs to be data in every cell of each column.

As long as the characters are standard printable ascii (ascii codes 32-126) with the exception of ascii code 94 (carat symbol ^), the information from this file will be encoded exactly as it appears. In layman’s terms, if the character appears on your standard English keyboard, it should work fine (except the ^ symbol above the number 6). Extended ascii characters (such as “¥”, “©” and “ë”) require specialized formatting. A full list of printable and extended ascii codes can be found at http://www.ascii-code.com/. If you need to encode extended ascii characters, please contact Customer Service TOLL FREE at 1 866 474-1095 or use our Contact Form to request further details on the special formatting required.

Tips for Setting Up Your Variable Data:

Limit your data to as few characters as possible. For long URLs consider using a free URL shortening service such as bit.ly or goo.gl. The bit size of your QR code is determined by the number of characters in your data – so the more data there is to be encoded, the smaller the bit size which inevitably makes your QR code more difficult to scan at small sizes.

QR code scanability is dependent on multiple factors, some of which are controllable and others that are not. The uncontrollable factors lie mainly with the end user. For example, the quality of the camera used to scan the QR code and the distance the user is from the code when scanning. Because of this, we cannot guarantee that your QR code will always scan. It is important to ensure that your size, the amount of data encoded and colors are taken into consideration when building your QR code. For best results, we recommend the basic black code on a white background as it offers the greatest contrast.

An Example Excel File:

We have provided an example spreadsheet in the images below as a guideline. We encourage you to give us a call before setting up your spreadsheet as every data set is different. Our print specialists are here to help you, just call TOLL FREE 1 866-474-1095.