Put your yard signs to work.

Why most signs can't be measured

Yard signs work. Every contractor knows it. A sign goes up in front of a finished job, and the phone rings from that street for weeks.

The trouble is proving it. A customer might say "I saw your sign." More often they search your name, call the number on your website, and the call gets counted as Google. The sign did the work and got no credit.

Same with truck wraps, door hangers, business cards and shirts. You spend real money on them and judge them on a feeling. A QR code and a tracked page turn that feeling into a number.

How a tracked QR code works

1. One code per placement. Each batch of signs, each truck and each door hanger run gets its own code. Signs in Hutto get a different code than signs in Georgetown.
2. The code points to a short link on your own domain. Something like yoursite.com/s/hutto. That link forwards to the landing page and adds source tags on the way. Because you own the link, you can change where it goes later without reprinting a single sign.
3. The landing page matches the sign. If the sign says "Free roof inspection," the page says it too. It has a call button, a text option and a short form. No home page, no menu maze.
4. The call button uses a tracking number. A scan that turns into a phone call still counts for the sign.
5. The lead lands in your CRM. It arrives as a contact with the source attached: which code, which placement, which day.

What goes on the landing page

The page behind the code does the selling. Keep it short and built for a phone, because almost every scan happens on a sidewalk or in a driveway.

• A headline that matches the sign. Same offer, same words, so the person knows they landed in the right place.
• A photo of real work. The job they just walked past, or one like it from the same part of town.
• A big call button and a text option. Make the next step one tap.
• A short form. Name, phone and address. Ask for the rest on the call.
• A few reviews from nearby. Neighbors trust neighbors.

Where QR codes earn their keep

• Yard signs. The classic. An 18x24 coroplast sign on an H stake in front of a finished job. Neighbors walk up to it, so put the code where they can reach it with a phone. Our yard sign guide for contractors covers sizes and placement.
• Truck wraps. Put the code on the back doors or tailgate, at eye level. Nobody scans a truck doing 60 on 79. They scan it parked at a job or a gas station.
• Jobsite banners. A 15oz vinyl banner, 3x6 ft or 4x8 ft, hemmed and grommeted, on the fence of a long job. See signs and banners for sizes.
• Door hangers. Hang them on the neighbors' doors around every job. Give them their own code so you can tell them apart from the yard sign.
• Business cards. A code on the back that opens your reviews or a booking page.
• Uniforms. A code on the back of a crew shirt gets scanned by neighbors who come out to ask questions. Print it with screen printing or DTF. Embroidered codes rarely scan.

What the CRM tells you

After a month or two of tagged scans, patterns show up. You stop guessing.

• Which neighborhoods call. If signs in one subdivision produce five calls and signs in another produce none, you know where to knock doors next.
• Which signs work. Test two designs or two offers in the same run. Keep the winner.
• Which crews start conversations. Give each truck and each crew's shirts their own code. You'll see which ones get people talking.
• What print costs per lead. Divide what you spent on a batch of signs by the leads it produced. Now print sits in the same report as Google and your ads.

The call side of this is the same plumbing we built for KangaRoof, a roofer in Round Rock. Their calls run through call tracking and land in the CRM with the source attached, and web leads sync into their job software on their own. QR codes on print plug into that same chain. Our websites and systems page shows the full path from first visit to closed sale.

Designing a QR code that scans

• Size. A common rule of thumb is 1 inch of code for every 10 inches of scan distance. A sign read from 5 feet needs a code about 6 inches wide. The table below has sizes by surface.
• Contrast. Dark code on a light background. Black on white is safest. Skip light codes on dark backgrounds, and never put a photo behind the code.
• Quiet zone. Leave a blank margin around the code at least four squares wide. Text or a border crowding the edge is the most common reason a code won't scan.
• Keep the link short. A short link makes a simpler code with bigger squares, and bigger squares scan from farther away.
• Don't stretch it. Scale the code evenly. A squashed code may not read at all.
• Tell people why. Put a short line next to it: "Scan for a free roof check" or "Scan to see this job." A bare code gets ignored.

Test before the print run

Never send a QR code to a full print run untested. Here's the routine.

1. Print a proof at actual size.
2. Scan it with an iPhone and an Android, using the plain camera app.
3. Scan from the real distance, in sun and in shade.
4. Confirm it lands on the right page, on your domain.
5. Submit a test form and check that it shows up in the CRM with the right source.
6. Then approve the run.

Proofs on new jobs come back in 1 to 2 business days, so testing doesn't hold anything up.

One partner for the sign and the page

Usually this takes two vendors. A print shop makes the sign. A web agency builds the page. Somebody has to pass the right link from one to the other, and the tracking falls through the gap.

We do both under one roof in Hutto. We print the yard signs, banners and shirts on our own floor, and we build the landing page, the tracking and the CRM connection. The codes get made on the same ticket as the sign, so they match. That pairing is rare in Central Texas.

Pricing for signs and page setup is quoted on the ticket. Start with one run of yard signs and see what it tells you. Start a project, or call or text 512-817-2200.