Small business owners are only limited in what they can do with QR Codes by their imagination and creativity.

A few ideas that a small business owner might consider when trying to decide how best to include QR Codes into their overall marketing plan are:

• Business cards
• Brochures
• Posters
• Signage
• Point of sale receipts
• Product tags and packaging
• Menus
• Print advertising
• The sides or back of vehicles
• Tee shirts
• Employee name tags
• Local cable TV ads
• Carry out bags
• Social networks such as Facebook

 
Here are some of the items that can be embedded into a QR Code:

• Text
• Website URL
• Telephone Number
• SMS Text Message
• Email Address
• Email Message
• Contact Details
• Event Details
• Google Maps Location
• Paypal Buy Now Link
• Social Media
• iTunes Link
• YouTube Video

 
Some of the actions initiated when the above codes are scanned include:

• Connect to a web address
• Download an MP3 file
• Dial a telephone number
• Prompt your email client with a sender address
• Add contact details using (VCARD)
• Ad an event using (VCALENDAR)
• Play a video
• Display a location using Google Maps
• Display discount coupons

The companion picture for this post contains 4 QR Codes each having a different function. Scanning them separately will trigger the desired response.

Here are some places that allow you to create your own QR Codes free of charge:

http://myqr.co/

http://delivr.com/qr-code-generator

http://zxing.appspot.com/generator/

For the small business owner who wants to maximize the use of QR Codes these services offer tracking analytics:

http://qrcodetracking.com/ 

http://www.qreatebuzz.com/

http://orangeqr.com/