B2B marketers have learned that while social and mobile media marketing techniques can pay off for them, they still must be adapted for their business constituency. So it goes with QR codes as well. In this case, however, adoption could be greater in the B2B environment.

A guest blog post at Distributed Marketing by Martine Hunter outlines several uses for QR codes by B2B marketers.

From Business Cards to Social Media

These include, to list a few of her suggestions, business cards, trade shows–include QR codes on all your marketing material and display panels so prospects can quickly pull up your info and qualify themselves before they walk up to you, she says—on one page hand outs of any speeches you deliver, so people remember your talking points the next day, and for social media. This is perhaps the most obvious use, she writes.

"Have codes that take users directly to your LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook accounts so they can connect with you quickly."

Less So In Consumers Applications

B2B might find their audience more receptive to QR Codes than consumers. Despite the growing popularity of this technology, it just hasn’t caught on with the public. 57% of consumers who have scanned a QR code say they did nothing with the information, compared to 21% who shared the information with someone and 18% who made a purchase, according to a survey by Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB).

In fact, of those who have scanned a QR code, just 41% said that they found the information they received useful, while 42% had mixed feelings and 18% said the information was not useful.

One more positive note for B2B marketers—the survey also found that 70% of consumers reported QR codes easy to scan, compared to just 7% who found them difficult. Ease of use with technology is a characteristic valued in both B2B and B2C applications.