QR marketing
QR codes that keep working
Most yard signs end at a phone number nobody dials. A QR code turns the person standing on the pavement into an enquiry before they have walked away - but only if it points somewhere worth landing, and only if nobody else can switch it off. Offered on sites we built or host, because the tracked link has to live on your own domain.
from $250
See this beside everything else →What you get
The code as a vector file
Supplied as SVG, so it scales from a business card to a van door without softening at the edges. A PNG off a free generator is a fixed grid of pixels, and blown up to sign size the edges blur into each other - which is exactly what stops a camera reading it.
It points at your domain, not somebody else's
Free QR sites usually route through their own redirect. When that service expires, starts charging or simply shuts down, every sign you printed dies with it. Yours points at your own address, so nobody else is holding the other end.
A short link, which is why it scans from further
The more characters a code carries, the more squares it needs, and the smaller each square becomes at the same printed size. A short path scans from roughly twice the distance of the same code carrying tracking parameters - so the tracking lives in the link itself rather than trailing off the end of it.
You can tell which sign produced which call
Each code gets its own short path, so a sign on one road and a flyer left at the hardware store are distinguishable afterwards. That is how you find out which one is worth repeating.
A page built for one thing
The code opens a page about the offer on the sign, not your homepage. Somebody who scanned a sign about gutter cleaning should land on gutter cleaning rather than a menu of everything you do.
The numbers your printer will ask for
The minimum printed width for the distance you want it read from, how much clear space it needs around it, and why a logo must not go through the middle. Hand it to whoever makes the sign.
How it works
01
Pick the one offer
A code opening a menu converts badly. Decide the single thing the sign is about before anything else happens.
02
Build the page and the short link
A single-purpose page, fast on a phone held one-handed at the kerbside, behind a short path that records where the scan came from.
03
Generate and check the code
Vector output, error correction chosen for outdoors, clear space enforced. Then printed at several sizes and actually scanned from a distance, because the arithmetic is a guide and a real phone is the test.
04
You take it from there
The file and the numbers are yours. Your sign shop lays it out, or you drop it into a sticker order yourself.
What this does not cover
- Sign artwork and layout - you get the code and the measurements, and your sign shop does the design, which they do every day and usually include with a print order
- Printing, the physical signs, putting them out, and any permit your town wants before you do
- The form, storage, notifications and follow-up behind the page, which is lead capture and is priced separately
Questions
- Why pay for this when QR generators are free?
- Because the code is the easy part and it is not what you are buying. A free generator gives you a pixel image pointing through somebody else's redirect, with no way to tell which sign produced which call. You are paying for a link on your own domain that cannot be switched off, a page worth landing on, and knowing which sign worked.
- Do you design the sign itself?
- No. You get the code as a scalable file plus the measurements it needs, and your sign shop does the layout - it is what they do all day, and most of them include it with the print order. It keeps you free to shop on price and means nobody is marking printing up.
- How big does the code need to be?
- Roughly a tenth of the distance you want it read from, so a code read from ten feet away wants to be around a foot across. Which is worth knowing before you order: a code on a yard sign works for somebody walking past it, and will never work for somebody driving past it.
- Can I change where it points after it is printed?
- Yes, and that is the point of it living on your domain. The printed sign never has to change - what it opens can, as often as you like, including pointing it somewhere seasonal and then back again.
- Does this work if my website is on Wix or Squarespace?
- Usually not, and it is better to say so now. The short tracked link has to be added to your own site, which needs a level of control those builders do not give you. This works best on a site we built or host.
Give the sign somewhere worth going.
Tell us the offer and how far away you want it read from. You get the code, the link behind it, and the page it opens.