As a business owner or marketer, your phone number is one of your most valuable assets, as it facilitates direct communication with customers.
However, sharing your phone number can be a hassle, and your target audience may hesitate to save it if they have to enter a number in their phones.
This is why more innovative businesses are turning to QR Codes. These simple solutions make sharing information like phone numbers easy—all you need to do is link your contact page to a code and add it to materials like business cards. When you do, customers can dial your number with a single scan.
Curious about how to create a phone number QR Code? Read on to find out!
Why should you use QR Codes for phone numbers?
A Quick Response Code (QR Code) modernizes traditional contact methods and can improve response rates by making it easier for your target audience to reach you.
Say you’re using traditional marketing materials like flyers and billboards in your campaign. If you incorporate a QR Code that links to your digital business card into your creations, all your audience needs to do is scan the code to be directed to your contact information. From there, they can save your contact info or call you.
Let’s take a deeper look at the benefits of these 2D barcodes:
Convenience for customers and businesses
QR Codes eliminate the need for customers to type your phone number. This reduces the effort required to save your contact information, call you, or send a text message, improving the likelihood of a person reaching out.
You can use these innovations to encourage customers to book services and streamline inquiries or support.
Engagement and call rates
Phone calls are still a top-rated channel, with 32% of consumers picking it as their top communication medium. Providing an easy way for customers to dial or save phone numbers through QR Codes can result in higher engagement and more frequent customer interactions.
This can benefit businesses whose success hinges on constant interactions with customers, like real estate firms, restaurants, and e-commerce brands—the more customers reach out, the higher your chances of selling a property, reserving tables, or moving your inventory.
Modernizes traditional marketing materials
Many marketers agree that traditional marketing materials like business cards, flyers, posters, and storefront displays are still valuable today. In fact, 60% of small businesses plan to continuously invest in traditional marketing because it enhances brand reach, visibility, and trustworthiness.
However, traditional marketing receives much less trackable engagement compared to more modern channels, like social media.
Adding QR Codes to your physical mediums can bring a modern touch, making them more interactive and engaging for customers, enhancing your marketing campaign’s effectiveness.
A QR Code sign that directs scanners to your contact information will likely be more effective than a conventional sign since it makes it easy for customers to access your number. Not to mention, scanning it is much simpler and more reliable than manually typing in a phone number.
How to create a QR Code for a business phone number
You first need to choose a reliable QR Code generator. Tools like Bitly make it easy to generate QR Codes and provide substantial benefits, like customization and tracking, to help you align each code with your overall brand and monitor engagement and scan rates.
Here’s a more in-depth look at how to make a QR Code for your business phone number:
1. Choose a reliable QR Code generator
This step determines how easy it will be for you to create QR Codes and how reliable and effective they will be. Find a generator that’s easy to use, supports phone number QR Codes, and offers features like customization for a seamless process.
Bitly is a top choice thanks to its user-friendly interface, advanced customization options, and real-time analytics—you can easily customize everything from QR Code colors to your logo and track the number of scans the code receives to gauge interest in your business.
Bitly also prioritizes QR Code security. Encrypting embedded links with HTTPS minimizes the risk of hacks and allows customers to report suspicious QR Code links for review, preventing malicious activities from impacting your codes’ effectiveness.
2. Set up a contact page on your website with a clickable phone number
Set up a contact page on your brand’s website if you don’t already have one. Alternatively, if you do already have one, make sure it’s got your current contact information on it.
To create a clickable phone number on your website’s contact page:
- Log into your content management system and navigate to your Contact page.
- In the editable content field, go to where you’ve listed your phone number.
- Toggle the editor to HTML. To create a clickable telephone number, you’ll need to use an anchor element. Here’s how to set it up:
<a href=”tel:1234567890″>123-456-7890</a>
- Replace the numbers with your actual phone number. If you prefer a written, clickable CTA, insert that between the > <.
For example: <a href=”tel:1234567890″>Click here to call us!</a>
- Save your page updates and view the live site to make sure your link appears as you want it to.
- Check the site with your mobile phone and test the clickable phone number by tapping on it. It should automatically ring the phone number you added to the HTML code!
- Grab the live page URL to proceed to the next phase: setting up the QR Code.
3. Create and test your QR Code with Bitly
With your contact page URL ready, you can start the QR Code creation process. With Bitly, follow these instructions:
- Log in or sign up for an account.
- Choose Create new.
- Select QR Code.
- Enter your contact page URL in the Destination URL field.
- Pick Design your code.
- Customize your QR Code—pick your preferred pattern, corners, and colors, and upload your logo.
- When you’re done, select Create your code.
- Download your Bitly Code as JPG, PNG, or SVG.
Before you print the code on marketing materials or share it with your audience, test it on multiple mobile devices (Android and iOS) to ensure it opens the site correctly and that the phone number link works as intended.
4. Place your QR Code strategically
Where you place your QR Code can determine its effectiveness. Place the code on materials customers will likely come across and ensure it’s visible for maximum impact. Some great locations include:
- Business cards
- Flyers
- At eye level on in-store signage
- Digital ads
- Billboards
Be sure to include a call-to-action (CTA) with your code to let your audience know what to expect when they scan the code. You could add something like “Call Us Today,” “Need Assistance? Scan to Talk to Us,” or “Scan to Call for More Information.”
Practical ways for brands to use phone number QR Codes effectively
Phone number QR Codes effectively help brands increase their opportunities to interact with customers. By providing direct lines of communication, they can improve engagement rates and enhance customer experiences.
Here are some use cases for these innovative solutions:
Business cards and networking events
While adding your mobile number directly on business cards can get some responses, it’s not the most efficient way to share your contacts. Not everyone will be willing to copy the number from your card to their phone.
Leverage QR Codes to enjoy the many benefits of digital business cards. They provide quick access to contact numbers—it only takes a single scan with a mobile phone—making networking more efficient.
They also allow you to track engagement during networking events by providing scan data that shows the number of scans and scans over time. This can help you gauge how well your networking efforts are performing.
Customer support hotlines
Roughly 75% of consumers say they’re willing to spend more on brands that offer great customer support, so this is an area you should look into.
One of the best ways to improve customer experiences is to provide an easy way for them to reach your team—cue QR Codes. Placing them on product packaging, websites, or user manuals can make it easy for customers to access support hotlines, allowing you to offer better experiences.
Booking and appointment services
If you run a service-based business like a salon, doctor’s office, or consulting firm, you’re likely looking for a way to streamline booking processes.
QR Codes can help by linking directly to your business phone number. This makes it easier for potential clients to inquire about available hours and schedule their sessions.
Real estate listings and property signs
This is one of the best ways to use QR Codes for realtors. If you’re an agent, you can use QR Codes on property signs to allow potential buyers or renters to contact you quickly for more information. With this line of communication, you can schedule tours more efficiently and discuss the terms of a purchase or lease while the property is still fresh in the person’s mind.
Restaurant reservations and takeout orders
Restaurant owners can leverage phone number QR Codes to simplify reservation or takeout order processes. They provide instant access to a restaurant’s phone number via their contact page URL, enhancing convenience for customers.
Promotion flyers, menus, and table tents are great places to embed these codes, as customers frequently come across them.
Make customer connections easy with Bitly’s QR Codes
Phone number QR Codes are great additions to your networking or marketing strategy as they simplify communication and modernize traditional marketing materials. When added to customer-facing materials like digital ads and flyers, they can increase call rates, paving the way for increased customer engagement.
With Bitly Links, Pages, and Codes, you can quickly create and manage phone number QR Codes to elevate your campaigns. You can create stunning custom landing pages with your contact information, or easily direct scanners to an existing contact page on your site via URL. Using Bitly Codes and Links alongside Bitly Analytics also gives you deep insights into how customers are engaging with your contact information.
Whether you want to provide a direct line of contact with your support team, streamline reservations and bookings, or make it easier for your new professional network to reach you, Bitly has the tools you need.
Sign up for Bitly today to create custom Dynamic QR Codes that elevate how you share your contact information!
