Above the fold is an old newspaper term. It refers to the top half of the front page of the paper. That’s what sells the paper because it’s the part you can see without paying.

photo by Wayne Wilkinson www.flickr.com/photos/waynewilkinson/

Heck, there are probably even some other pages you could peruse for free.

So, don’t cram everything above the fold. You’ve got infinite amounts of paper and ink to work with. Use what space you need to make your point. After you’ve made your case with good, well-reasoned copy it’s time to seal the deal.

There’s a trend these days to put a big signup form or checkout button up above the fold on the home page. It’s like showing up for a first date with no pants on.

If you want to take your pants off around someone, you should take the time to convince them that it’s a good idea first.

Just like you should take the time to let your visitors learn how great of an idea it is to give you money.

Now, I mention this “fold” concept atop my own website. It is an important idea, but it must be understood properly.

The above the fold area of a website is like a headline. It’s your chance to grab the reader’s attention, to tell them they’re in the right place to solve their problem, to make them feel like reading what you have to say is a good use of their precious time.

Remember that when you’re planning out what to put at the top of a page. Use the space to flirt. Make a good first impression by dressing sharply and speaking well. By that I mean you should include:

• A compelling headline that connects with the conversation inside your prospect’s head and generates curiosity
• A picture that includes a human, preferably a human that is pleasant to look at
• Evidence that you’re trustworthy like credentials, testimonials, nice typography, polished design, proper spelling, and maybe a toll free phone number.

People know how to scroll down. There’s no need to make the sale in the top 600 pixels of your site. You just need to build enough interest and trust that they’ll want to scroll down for a second date.

There’s whitening and 24 hour protection. There’s Pro Health and Total. There’s cavity protection and stuff for sensitive teeth. Then they have every combination possible, different levels of whitening and your choice of paste or gel.

I find it pretty annoying, and I’m yet to find anyone who thinks otherwise. But, there’s a lesson here you can apply to your email marketing… without annoying anyone.

First off, let’s look at why are there so many kinds of toothpaste.

It’s market segmentation. They make an option to fit every desire and every budget. Supposedly, they’ll get more satisfied customers by meeting people’s needs more precisely. In the case of Crest and Colgate, I think they’re causing more frustration.

Either way, they are squeezing every last penny out of each consumer. If you’re willing to spend a lot on toothpaste, there are high priced options to let you… and don’t forget the special mouthwash, whitening strips and toothbrush to match. The same goes for folks who are up for moderate and low budget options.

There’s a price point for every budget.

Hardly a penny of profit is missed. Whatever you’re willing to spend on toothpaste, they’ll take it. Plus, a retailer has to devote so much shelf space to Crest and Colgate that other options are easy to overlook. (I suspect they ensure this by making retailers sign contracts detailing minimum shelf space coverage.)

That’s annoying market segmentation. You’ll see it in pet food, too, and even yogurt! But, that doesn’t mean market segmentation is a bad idea.

When you’re communicating with a customer, client or donor, you’re speaking to an individual. When you send out an email blast, you’re speaking to a bunch of people at once. Segmentation can help make your communications more personal and profitable.

Time for an example.

Say you’re doing email marketing for a non-profit. It’s time for the year’s big fundraiser. You can send out an email to your whole list asking for money and it will resonate with some of them. You’ll get some donations.

What if you sent out 4 emails? You divide your list of email addresses into 4 categories: long time supporters, donors, people served, and everybody else.

Now when you send out your emails you can speak precisely to your audience. You can thank long time supporters for their years of support and generosity. You can ask donors to give a little more. You can show the people you serve what it takes to bring your services to them. Everyone else can get the generic email.

What do you think that would do for your response rate? I think it will be much higher than if you send the same message to everyone.

Here are a few tips for making list segmentation work for your email marketing:

• Make your segments reasonably sized. You don’t want to have to come up with too many messages, and you don’t want to creep people out. Start with broad segments and refine them as you see fit.
• Use an e-mail marketing service to manage everything. You’ll go crazy trying to keep up with everything using Excel or such.
• Base your segments on things that make sense. For example, prospects vs. clients; VIP status; age; location; product preferences; time since last sale/donation/visit.
• Watch for opportunities to get more data about your subscribers. You may be starting with a list that’s tough to segment because you just don’t have much data associated with each email address. Look for opportunities to flesh out your database. You can capture detailed information when someone makes a purchase, fills out a survey or inquires about your services. Don’t let that data slip away!

This isn’t too complicated. Just start small — maybe a segment for customers and one for prospects. As you gain experience and data you can further divide your list.

Remember, the goal is to make your communications more relevant to your subscribers. The profit comes as a result. Relevance first, profit second.

What list segmentation tips do you have? Is there something stopping you from implementing this for your organization? Leave a comment below.

Pinterest is a social sharing site that’s been around for a little over two years. In that short span of time, it has become the 15th most popular website in America. That puts it right above ESPN and right below Bing, as I write this. (Alexa updates these rankings daily.)

So, how can such a popular website be so unknown to so many people? Take one glance at the site and you’re sure to see fashion tips, attractive men, and something baby-related. As a man, I’ve found it hard to engage with because of this. I feel out of place there.

But, I shouldn’t. There are plenty of more gender neutral or even male-oriented posts on there. They just aren’t in the majority, so they don’t show up much on the home page.

And, you shouldn’t avoid it because you don’t feel like you fit the demographic, either. The fact is Pinterest is generating tons of traffic and buzz. I suspect the user base will become more diverse over time.

Enough introduction. Here’s how it works:

• It’s a place to share links from around the web.
• You can log in with a Facebook account. (or not.)
• You “pin” interesting things you find around the web.
• You create “boards” to organize your pins.
• Each item that gets pinned comes with a big image taken from the site it originated from.
• You can comment on pins or “repin” them to share with others.
• You can follow people or boards to be updated when new items are pinned.

It’s like a visual guide to interesting content on the web. Simple. Yet it’s still kind of overwhelming.

You’ve just got to dive in and use it a bit. When you first sign up it will help you find some things to follow for starters. Then, I’d suggest doing some searches for things you like — and follow some of the boards you find.

For example: Sushi, Sci Fi, Humor, Llamas, Espresso, Advertising

If you’re a Facebook user, you’ll probably find that some of your friends are already on Pinterest. Follow them there and see how they use it.

Keep an eye out for pins that get lots of repins, likes and comments. The more of those, the more traffic heads to the site that was pinned.

Obviously it’s very visual. You’re never going to get your blog posts to be popular on Pinterest if you don’t have good images in them. You should already be on top of this, though. Facebook uses the images on pages that get shared to help grab attention too.

Of course, you don’t want to just sign up and just pin things from your own website. Remember, it’s social. Pin things from all over the web, and try to stay focused on things that would interest your target market. Pin your own content in such a way that it fits in with the other things you’re pinning.

Ready to get more in-depth? Already know the basics and totally bored by this newsletter? Check these out:

• 10 Best Pinterest Practices
• Turning Pins Into Purchases
• Everything You Need To Know About Pinterest Infographic

Your writing will affect the impression you make. It will impact how quickly people are able to start acting on your instructions and how well they’ll understand you. It’s easy to forget how much it matters.

Find 7 minutes in your week (or everyday if you’re up for it!) Use that time to read 500 to 1,000 words. Then, keep what you’ve read in mind during the week.

Anyone can read a book about writing. It’s what you do with that information that counts.

Take in just a bit of instruction and, if you actually incorporate it into your thought processes, it can make a huge difference. Do that every week and you’re sure to see steady improvement.

You won’t become the next Shakespeare this way. Practice can’t turn you into a virtuoso, but it can help you improve. Every little bit helps.

You’ll need a starting place for your 7 minutes. Here are some books that I’ve found especially potent.

• On Writing by Stephen King – I just finished this one. It’s the reason writing is on my mind today. There are some interesting autobiographical parts with a very solid writing guide in the middle.
• The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White – King’s book turned me on to this one. It’s full of short sections (perfect for 7 minutes) about all aspects of writing clearly and vigorously.
• The AP Stylebook – This is more of a reference book, but I find that I can usually find something worth knowing by flipping through it for a few minutes.
• Persuasion: The Psychology of Influence by Robert Cialdini – It’s not a writing book, but so much of business writing involves persuasion that I think it belongs here.

Of course none of the advice you’ll read is written in stone. Writing is communicating. The correct way to write something is the way that gets your idea across with clarity. Rules and advice help you do that better and with less effort.

Why don’t we make this post count as your 7 minutes for the week? For the next week, keep these things in mind when you write.

Omit needless words.

–William Strunk Jr.

Use short sentences.

– Kansas City Star style guide (where Hemingway got his start)

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

–Thomas Jefferson

Do you have a favorite writing resource? I’d love to know about it.

First off, you may remember the Page Like Story and Sponsored Story ads I’ve discussed. They’re the ones that tell your friends that you’ve “Liked” something in hopes of getting people to follow your excellent lead. They do work well, but Facebook had a bit of legal trouble with them.

It turns out there was no way to opt out of having your “Likes” shown to others. A handful of users sued Facebook about this and the case was settled for $20 million — half for lawyers, half for charity. Also, you’ll now be able to opt out having your “Likes” publicized.

If the case had gone forward, Facebook could have been looking at a class action with 100 million members. I think they’re pretty happy with the outcome.

The other thing you should be aware of is that Facebook ads are really bad at sending traffic to your website.

My experience with this echoes what I’ve heard from others. If you set up an ad on Facebook that is a link to your own website rather than your Facebook Page, it’s not going to do you much good.

When people are on Facebook, they don’t seem to want to leave. If they do click your ad and land on your website, they won’t stay long. I’ve seen bounce rates over 90% and average time on site less than 10 seconds from these ads.

It’s a big waste of money.

It’s a different story when your ad leads people to your Facebook Page. Assuming there’s something beyond self promotional content on it, you could convert 30% or more into fans.

Once you have a fan, you can reach them over and over again. That’s how you get them onto your website — get them to “Like” you first, then invite them over for milk and cookies.

Just be sure to keep the blatant self promotion to a minimum.

Here are a few things you can post to get Facebook fans onto your site:

• Interesting blog posts
• Photos
• Engaging videos
• Contests
• Coupons or discounts (You know, self promotion disguised as a favor.)

Mix that with some curated content — good stuff you find on other websites — and you’ll have a better Page than most.

Speaking of curated content, you might find these links about content strategy helpful:

Facebook Marketing Down to the Core – 4 Factors of Post Optimization
There are a lot of variables to figure out when posting to your Facebook Page. What kind of content should you post? How often should you post it? What time of day should you post? Read this article for a guided tour through these factors.

8 Attributes of Content That Inspires Action
Posting boring content isn’t going to do you much good. So, read this article for some great pointers for making content that will make an impact.

So it goes with the digital age.

Let’s have a quick look at the new interface and I’ll show you how to find the Page Like Story option that I raved about previously. Then I’ll show you another kind of “sponsored story” and how to use the two types of ads together.

We’ll wrap up with the reason you should have a Facebook advertising account even if you aren’t running ads.

The New Ad Creation Flow

When creating a new Facebook ad, you’ll initially see just one option — a prompt to select a destination.

Click in that field and you’ll be able to select your Page or type in a web address.

When you select a Page, another option appears to ask if you’re promoting the Page or a post on it.

When you specify that you want to promote your Page, you’ll finally be able to pick what kind of ad you want. The old Page Like Story is here as “People will see: Stories about their friends liking [your page].”

From there on, everything works the same. You’ll create an ad that shows to friends of your fans and tells them that their friend likes your Page.

The Page Post Like Story

To make a Page Post Like Story, you’ll select “A specific post on [your page].” when asked what you want to promote. After selecting a post, you’ll choose “People will see: Stories about their friends liking the selected post above.”

This creates an ad based on something you’ve posted on your Page, for instance a link to your blog. If anyone has clicked “Like” on that post, their friends will see this ad. They’ll see a list of their friends who have liked the post — Facebook will even try to put their closest friends first on the list. Below that, the ad will show your headline, summary and thumbnail.

It’s a great way to get traffic to a specific post. That social endorsement works wonders.

Is it any good for expanding the engaged community you’ve built for your Page? It is if you use it correctly.

Sponsored Story Synergy

Let’s say you just gave a presentation at a conference. You write up a blog entry about it and then post a link to that on your Facebook Page. Some of your fans “Like” the post because they were there and enjoyed your presentation.

Now, you make two Sponsored Story type ads.

1. Page Post Like Story that will show to the friends of the fans that “Liked” your post. Surely some of them were at the conference, too.
2. Page Like Story that will show to friends of fans. When you get new fans from the first ad, their friends will see this ad.

Between those two ads, you’ll be truly advertising through a social network. The ads will only show to friends of people you’re already connected with. Then their friends will see it when they connect. Do you see the potential for exponential growth?

Targeting for Fun and Profit

Maybe you’re not interested in actually advertising on Facebook. That’s fine, but you should still have an account even if you’re not running ads! The reason is their targeting options.

If you haven’t looked at Facebook’s targeting options, you’re missing out. You can get extremely specific, and personal. Want to know how many people in North Carolina between age 20 and 40 are single and like to play video games? There are 212,660 of them on Facebook. With 900 million active users every month, you have access to a lot of data.

So get on there and make use of it, whether you’re running ads or not!

Thanks to Marty Weintraub for helping me figure this stuff out in the first place. This post first appeared in my email newsletter.

Seriously. Facebook gets as much traffic as Google. Despite this, people don’t really like it. One survey found that user satisfaction with Facebook was on par with the IRS or airlines. That’s pretty bad.

Here’s the good news: You can succeed on Facebook, no matter how much you dislike it. I’m referring to success in a business sense, of course. I’m sure you can find some help elsewhere if you’re worried about succeeding socially.

First off, let’s be clear about your objective on Facebook. Bring in more money? No. That comes later. To succeed on Facebook, your goal has to be to build an engaged community with a common interest.

People aren’t on Facebook to be sold things. There isn’t usually commercial intent with a Facebook user. There’s social intent. Engage with your audience socially and they’ll be more likely to remember you when they do have commercial intent.

So, you know your objective. How do you get there? If you want to skip to the advanced stuff, scroll down the the Sponsored Stories header below.

First, you need a Facebook Page for yourself or your organization. That part’s easy.

Next, you need to put content out there. Remember, you’re not selling. You’re connecting. Share useful articles, fun pictures, interesting videos, or news items that will interest your target audience.

How much to post and how often varies. You’ll have to experiment, and don’t be afraid to ask your fans if they’d like to hear from you more or less.

Now you’ve built it. They’ll come, right? Wrong. Your Facebook page is not a Field of Dreams. It needs to be promoted just like any other web property.

Here are a few ways to start promoting your page:

1. Put a link on your website — visitors to your site are hopefully in your target audience.
2. Share the page with your personal Facebook friends — they may not be your target audience, but you need some “likes” to get started.
3. Post viral content that people will want to share with their friends
4. Buy some “likes” if need be — don’t count on these being useful connections, but they can help get a new page off the ground.
5. Display QR codes at your physical location or at events
6. Run a Facebook Ad
7. Run a Sponsored Story

Numbers 6 and 7 will mean giving Facebook some money, but they are also the most effective ways of promoting your page. Sponsored stories are particularly potent, though widely misunderstood.

Since regular ads are fairly self explanatory, let’s jump right into Sponsored Stories.

Sponsored Stories

[Note: The interface for setting up sponsored stories was changed between the time this post showed up in my email newsletter and when it was posted here. It all works the same, but the interface has been rearranged.]

If you’re like I was, you’re thinking, “but I don’t have a story worth promoting.” Forget what you know as a story. Facebook has co-opted the word and is using it to describe something else. (Have you noticed they have a habit of doing that sort of thing? Ugh.)

There are a few kinds of Sponsored stories. I’m going to focus on just one of them, Page Like Stories.

My friends might see an ad like this.

They are ads that come with social endorsement. Everyone has developed some ad-blindness these days. Our eyes are hard to catch. Show us a picture of a friend and we’ll look. That’s what makes these sponsored stories so powerful.

It gets even better, though. Not only are you targeting people who are one degree of separation from being a fan already, but you can further narrow down your targeting by interest. How about an example?

You run a business in lovely Chapel Hill, North Carolina. You sell lots and lots of UNC gear — jerseys, bumper stickers, sky blue face paint, that sort of thing. You can run a Page Like Story to expose your Page to the friends of your current fans. Lots of them are probably in and around Chapel Hill, so that’s great. But, as anyone familiar with this area knows, there are other schools that people like… and they tend to feel quite strongly about this. A Duke fan will never like your page, even if they happen to have a friend who does. So, you target your Page Like Story to people interested in UNC, Tarheels, The Daily Tarheel, and anything else that makes sense. Now your Page Like Story will only appear to friends of fans who actually like UNC.

Can’t You Just Get Your Fans to Spread the Word

Once upon a time, Facebook would expose your page to people every time one of their friends liked something you posted. No longer. They are trying to monetize now, as they stare down the barrel of an IPO.

Around November 1, 2011, Facebook Pages started getting more paid impressions than organic impressions. It was the other way around for a long time prior. Now they show more ads and make it harder for you to get organic impressions. It will probably get worse, too.

Advertising on Facebook is pretty affordable, though. It’s also pretty easy to get up and running with it.

Just remember to Always Run Tests and make Data Driven Decisions.

Check out part two of this guide to learn how to use different kinds of Facebook ads together and why you should have a Facebook ads account even if you aren’t running ads.

Imagine what Bach would do with an electric guitar... it would probably sound a lot like Van Halen.

Ninety years ago a book was being written by a man named Claude Hopkins. That book would reveal an advertising secret that revolutionized the industry. It was called Scientific Advertising and it’s been a “must read” ever since.

And, it’s even more useful today, online.

There are two components to this method, and I have a pair of acronyms to help you remember them.

ART – Always Run Tests.

3D – Data Driven Decisions.

Let’s dive in to these old concepts and see how they can drastically improve the performance of your marketing campaigns today.

Always Run Tests

What do I mean by “run tests?” I’m talking about showing two different ads at the same time, or running two versions of your website.

People tend to put something up on their website, or write an online ad and just let it sit there. Then they’ll try to improve it by making some changes and letting those sit for awhile. This is a tough way to learn what really works — you’ll never know if your sales changed because of the changes you made or the change in season.

Split testing and multivariate testing are the solution to this problem. You test multiple messages at the same time. You can do this on the web and it’s not too hard. In fact, if you’re advertising with Google Adwords or on Facebook, it’s really easy. All you have to do is make two ads.

In Facebook you’ll make two Campaigns. Keep the targeting the same and change the ad text or image. Or you can keep the ad the same but change the targeting. Either way, only make one change between the campaigns. Watch the data, and when you have a winner just retire the other campaign and make a new test.

The same goes for Adwords, but you’ll make two ads within the same Ad Group. Change something in one of the ads and the data will tell you what works best.

In online ads you might try testing:

• the wording of your headline
• your call to action
• different kinds of punctuation
• capitalizing the first letter of each word

You can run tests on your site, too. The easiest way is to use the Google Website Optimizer. You’ll make two versions of a page and the tool will give you some code to paste into each one. Then you’ll add a bit of code to the page visitors land on after conversion (e.g. the “Thank You” page or Receipt page.)

The tool will show your visitors one version or the other and track the conversion rate for each one. When a winner has been discovered you’ll be notified and it’s time to make a new test.

By Always Running Tests you’ll ensure that your online marketing is constantly improving, step by step, bit by bit. That’s what matters. Whenever you’re running tests you’re improving your return on marketing investment. If you want to always improve your ROI, you should Always Run Tests — A.R.T.

Data Driven Decisions

A test will give you empirical data and it’s up to you to make sure your decisions are based on good data. In the case of advertisement and website tests, you’ll have click rate data for your ads and Website Optimizer will track conversions on your site.

You should also have Google Analytics running.

The best data to make decisions on is full conversions: which version got more sales / donations / sign ups? If you don’t have a good way to measure that, you should get to work fixing that. In the mean time, make testing decisions on what data you do have.

It’s not just finding the right metric that counts, but gathering enough data points. This is easy to illustrate.

If I flip a coin 5 times I might get heads 3 times and tails twice. Based on that data, I could say that a coin will land on heads 60% of the time. That’d be wrong, of course. I’d never make a profit spending my time placing bets on coins landing heads up.

So, don’t go running an ad just because it made 2 more sales than another.

Statisticians have a formula for figuring out how much data is enough. You don’t need to know the equation, though. You can use a calculator or one of Google’s tools that takes care of the math for you. You can do a search for [split test calculator] or check out this one.

Aim for a confidence of 95% or better. If you aren’t getting a ton of traffic you might have to settle for less, but the higher the confidence score the more likely your data is meaningful. If you aren’t getting a good confidence score, drop the newer version and test something else. Don’t retire a winner without good data to back up that decision.

As you may have guessed by now, more traffic means better testing. The amount of data you gather is like a multiplier for this whole process.

More traffic will:

• make each improvement even more profitable
• let you discover winners faster
• allow you to run more tests at the same time
• give you an advantage over competitors who can’t test as efficiently as you

And your traffic will grow as long as you make Data Driven Decisions — 3D.

So get to testing! If it’s all too overwhelming, just start small. Run one test in your pay per click ads. Expand from there to all your campaigns. Then you can work with Google Website Optimizer to start running tests on your site.

OK, Hopkins probably didn't use an abacus. He would have had access to a mechanical calculator like this one from 1914. But, you've got the power of millions of those in your phone. From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comptometer#Model_E

It’s going to be way easier for you than it was for Claude Hopkins’ readers back in the 1920′s. They had to print up two mailings and divide up their list of addresses by hand. After paying for postage they had to count responses for each version using an abacus or some such ancient tool.

You’ve got it easy: calculators, spreadsheets, ads that can be deployed in seconds, and analytics that would make Hopkins faint.

Of course, you might prefer to hire someone to help with all this. In fact, tests are a big part of what I do for my clients with a monthly marketing plan.

Leave a comment below with your tips, experiences or questions about split testing online. What kind of results have you gotten, or what obstacles have you faced?

A website basically has three components. There’s the domain name, the server and the content. Users type in your domain name and a server sends them your content. Let’s look at each of these in more detail.

Domain Names
A domain name is just that, a name. It’s your www-dot-com. It can include letters, numbers and hyphens. The domain name points to your server by use of Domain Name Servers or DNS. Your name is just an easy to remember shortcut for your server’s internet address.

You can pick what suffix you’d like from the usual options, .com, .org, .net, etc. That suffix is called the Top Level Domain or TLD. There are new TLDs coming out regularly, but I suggest sticking to the three just mentioned. Those have the most recognition. Just like it’s better to have a 1-800 number than a 1-866 number, a dot com address is easiest for people to remember.

Domain names are available from lots of places at lots of prices. I’d say you shouldn’t pay much more than $10 per year. There are places that charge as much as $40 per year, but there’s absolutely no difference. It’s just your name.

Web Servers or Hosting
A web server is a computer that’s accessible over a network, in this case over the internet. It handles requests from people who have typed in your domain name or clicked on a link to your site and sends them your content.

You could use your own computer, but then you’d have to worry about all the configuration and such. Instead, you can get a web hosting company to do all the dirty work for you. They’ll keep an eye on things and make backups regularly so you don’t have to worry about that stuff.

Web hosting comes in a wide range of prices, from $2.99 per month to $999 per month and more. For most websites, you don’t need to spend more than $10 per month. I use Dreamhost at $8.95 per month and recommend them to all my clients. If you’re paying much more than that, you should probably be shopping for new web hosting. (I’m assuming you run a small business website.) For less than that you might not get very reliable service.

Save $50 at DreamHost with promo code “GRANDSTAFF”

Content
Content is where you should be investing your effort and money. This is what visitors will see and interact with when they come to your website. When visitors come to your domain name, the server will send them your content. The better your content, the more visitors will engage with you.

The Bottom Line
So, that’s what you need to get a website up and running. You’ll need a name so people can find you. You’ll need web hosting so your name can lead to something. And, you’ll need content to give visitors the info they’re looking for.

For your domain name and hosting, don’t spend more than $150 per year. If you’re getting tens of thousands of visits per month you might need more, but 90% of websites don’t need to spend more than that. Save your money for making great content, as that’s what will make the most difference on your bottom line.

Quick Response Codes!
Usually these are called QR Codes, and they’re just a type of bar code. Unlike most bar codes you see, these can store a fair amount of information, topping out at about 3000 characters. And, any smartphone with a camera can decode that data.

There are a few types of things that are commonly stored in these codes.

• Website links
• Contact info (vCards)
• Event info (to import into a calendar)
• Text message links
• Plain text

They’re easy to create and don’t take up much space. You can make your own at http://www.qrstuff.com/ It will take you seconds and create an image you can use in printed materials or online. If you want a larger one, you might try http://goqr.me/

They’re easy to scan; you just use the phone’s camera. If you have an app that scans product bar codes to check prices online, it should handle QR Codes too. Also, many Android phones come with Google Goggles installed, which reads QR Codes in addition to doing visual searches. There are plenty of dedicated apps too. Just search your app store for “qr code.”

For example, this QR Code stores a link to my Twitter profile. If you have a smartphone, just fire up a barcode scanning app and point it at this image. You’ll be shown the link and be able to go right to the website with zero typing.

You can put those on any type of printed marketing materials to make it easy for people to connect with your online presence. You could also use them in store to take people to detailed product pages, or at the point of sale.

This code has my vCard in it. Give it a scan and you can add me to your contacts instantly. Now that saves some typing! Why not include a QR vCard on your business card?

As I understand it, not everyone in America knows what these are. In Japan, everyone knows. In Europe most people know. Here, it wouldn’t hurt to include some instructions. Something like, “Scan this with your favorite smartphone bar code app to visit our website.”

There are countless possible uses for these codes. Here are a few more ideas to get you started:

• Put a link to your Facebook page at your point of sale and offer a small discount to anyone who “Likes” you on the spot.
• Use a QR Code to reveal a promo code that people can redeem
• Put one on your website so people can open it on their phone without doing any typing.
• Print up some QR Code stickers and create a virtual scavenger hunt with each code containing a clue for finding the next one.

At the very least, I suggest putting a vCard QR Code on your business cards and one linking to your website on any fliers or posters.

You can also get a bit fancy if you like. If you understand how they work you can alter a code to include your logo, like so:

If you’d like help integrating QR Codes or other forms of mobile marketing into your efforts, drop me a line. I’d be happy to help out or point you in the right direction if I’m not the right person for the job.