QR Codes, also known as portals, are a tool that will change your business forever. Over 40% of adult mobile phone users have smart phones.  With all of the apps available, you can get a tremendous amount of information immediately. Information is literally at your fingertips.

Japan has used portal technology for years, but within the last few years, they have been popping up all over and I am starting to see them on marketing materials everywhere. And I will tell you why. Portals can direct interested customers to a URL, phone number or text. So they can take you to any information you can place on a web page, immediately call you or to a text. Social media pages, special offers and coupons, instructions, videos, and most importantly; your contact information are all at the click of a button. 

Portals are free to register, although there are several services that will gladly take your money to set them up. Portals are also completely trackable, so you know where your marketing dollars are best spent and where to save. You are able to create your code and log in to check your statistics and reporting, and the results post immediately.

It is much better to know the response of your advertising than it to be a guessing game. The portals can be tracked and reports can be downloaded in different formats, giving you lots of helpful information. Let's not forget, that if a person is interested enough to scan it, you already have their undivided attention to get your message across. So make it a good one.

Used as an electronic business card, they are invaluable. And electronic business cards have a 40% more response rate than a traditional paper card. That is because it is a lot easier to have the information electronically stored than to try to remember where you physically put someone's paper business card, hoping it didn't make it to the washing machine.

Designers have gotten quite creative with the portals and there have been gallery shows featuring portal design. The few I have here I threw together for the purpose of this article, but I encourage you to research other ideas. Some of them are amazing. If you have a design, please share it with us. I love to see what other people come up with.