780 – QR Codes go mainstream: Tom talks QR Codes Revisited

Episode 780 – QR Codes Revisited
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode 780 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, we're going to talk about QR codes. I'm kind of revisiting this topic I did a couple years ago. Now, these codes are simple to create and can make it a lot easier for people to do business with you. We'll talk about that in a minute. Hope you didn't miss that Episode 779. That was Saeed El Jammal. He's from the A to Z podcast and talked about leadership and Lebanon. And he's a kind of a comedian wannabe, I guess. I don't know. That's what IMDb said about him. Make sure you pick up a copy of our automation book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. You will thank me for it because it'll save you hundreds and hundreds of hours and keystrokes into the future. Follow me at tiktok.com/@digitalmultimillionaire on TikTok and pick up a copy of our podcast app in the App Store at Screwthecommute.com/app.

[00:00:24] All right. Let's get into the main event. QR codes. Well, what are they? Well, they're the kind of a bunch. It looks like a Rorschach test, you know, and and people can scan them with their telephones or their cell phones. Smart phones. It's got to be a smart phone. And you can do all kinds of things. Send them all kinds of places, make it really easy for them. So that's what we're talking about today. Now, a lot of times on print media like business cards, flyers, books, postcards, it's hard for people to interact directly with those things, those printed materials.

[00:02:05] But it's not. Now, with QR codes, I mean, you can even use them on screens and even on billboards and and your print media. See, a lot of people are coming back to some using some print media in their promotional stuff because it gets a longer attention span. I'm sure you're all getting postcards in the mail for all kinds of roofing and whatever else they send you postcards for. So anyway, like I said, they couldn't take immediate action off of the postcard or the print media. So what they had to do is go to a computer or mobile device and type things in since QR codes came around, that's not the case. And a little sidebar. QR codes have been around for a long time, but the usage of them was minimal because the problem was, is in the past people had to download a special app to use a QR code. But several years ago, the ability to scan QR codes is now built into the Android and iOS devices and smart phones. As soon as that happened, the use of QR codes skyrocketed. Now, since the process has been so simple, it becomes so simplified. The engagement rates of people that see the code normally goes up significantly. This, of course, varies with the age range of your target audience. I get these postcards all the time, inviting me to a fancy steak house to listen to some financial experts tell me how to retire. Little do they know that I'm not retiring ever. Probably. I don't usually see QR codes on those postcards, but I suspect they will start appearing as more young people in tech savvy young people approach retirement age.

[00:03:56] But not for now. So not only can people take immediate action off your printed stuff, you can track your results to see how many people did and what they did. And it's much faster than you could ever do with printed material. So here's some of the things QR codes can do for your business. Well, they can drive traffic to your website or social media. You can send them to a sales page, a blog post, a video, or pretty much anywhere you want. Now, when it comes to social media, you can get followers and likes with social media, QR codes. They can pick the social media that they like best, click on it and follow you and like you and all that stuff. You can also use QR codes to offer discounts and coupons. People love a deal and they love a sale. And again, you're making it easy for them to claim and use your coupons. Now this means the coupon will be on the person's phone and they don't need to carry your promo physical postcard or flyer with them or cut it out and bring it in. It's already on their phone. Makes it easy. Listen to this. I've even seen giant QR codes on billboards. All right. Now, hopefully your billboard doesn't cause a wreck on the highway when people trying to drive and scan it at the same time.

[00:05:26] Now, if you happen to have a mobile app like we do, you know, I told you about at the beginning, screwthecommute.com/app. You can use a QR code to make it easy to download. You can also send people to a sign up or opt in form, just like on a website. Of course, then they do have to fill out the details and put them on and it'll put them on whatever list that's appropriate for what they signed up for. So it's. It's still a way to grab email addresses. Now about this, you can have a maps QR code that opens their map app with directions to your place of business so they don't have to call you. They don't have to hunt around for your address. It takes them right there. Or you could give them also an online business card. I mean, you can have those V cards as a QR code and it shows all your contact details and then it gives the person a button to add you directly to their contacts. Mean all kinds of stuff. Now you can get simple QR code generators for free, or the more advanced ones can be really beautiful. Full color. They can include your logo embedded in the crazy code. I mean, it's even, you know, it's really, really something. And of course it can track the results to see where people, how many people use the code and so forth. Now, if you want to hear more about this, we did this on episode 241 at screwthecommute.com/241 for more about QR codes.

[00:07:09] So it's a good thing to do. It costs nothing to try it out with a free QR code generator and you can print it out and scan it. I mean, it's send people anywhere you want. So. So check it out just by googling QR code generators and you'll have loads and loads of options to pick from you. Just pick out one you like and try it out. And then if you're really like to do fancy ones, like I said, you can do, usually the fancy ones are paid so you can make it full color and all kinds of stuff. So check it out now if you like, help with this and the other billion things you need to do to be successful online. Check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com, which also includes a scholarship to my school, the only licensed, dedicated Internet and digital marketing school in the country. And you can either use it yourself for extra training or gift it to someone, and that can be one of the most powerful legacy gifts you ever give to a young person. So check it out. GreatInternetmarketingTraining.com. Get in touch with me. I'm easy to get in touch with and I don't hide from you and you actually get one on one training from me and my whole staff. So it's the most unique, longest running, most successful internet and digital mentor program ever in this field. All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.