How to make a custom QR code that reports to google analytics in about 5 minutes.
So an associate of mine told me the other day that I need business cards. He’s right, even though I do most of my business online, there still is no substitute for a face to face meeting and a card exchange. Another friend said, “put a qr code on it”. I have seen google’s custom url builder and how you can use that to build a link that can have google analytics reporting built into it. So I figured :
“Why not include a QR Code on my business card that, when scanned, reports back to my google analytics giving source data for the traffic, and send people to my web site?”
Step One – The Destination URL
Navigate to the page you want to be the destination for your qr code. Go ahead and highlight the entire web address in the url bar and copy that address, the whole thing. Use control c on the pc, use command c on the mac or choose edit>copy. If you have a mobile version of your web site, use that link. If your site automatically detects mobile or if it is mobile dynamic, you’re good to go.
Step Two – Create a new custom URL
Use google’s custom URL builder to make a new url that will send the information to your google analytics account. Fill out the form. You don’t need to set anything up on your google analytics page at all, just filling out this form will report the data into your analytics results automatically. It’s that smart and simple. Here is how I filled it out. Once you fill in the data, just click generate URL, highlight the new link and copy that text. Here is the link to the Google Custom URL Builder
Step Three – Make your QR Code
There are a lot of free services to do this with, just google search “qr code generator” or just use this one here. Choose web site URL, paste in the custom URL you just copied and play with the options a little bit, then you can download the qr code as a png image – or choose one of the other options. I downloaded the png image.
Step Four – Add image to your business card
This is my current business card design, it’s a work in progress, but you can see the qr code on the card. It is a square design so you are looking at the front and the back of the card . . .
Step Five – Test Everything
Try out the QR Code and if it works, then login to your analytics account and in traffic sources > campaigns the visit should be recorded. If it doesn’t show up, give it a while before you go back and check through your work in the above steps.
360 Degree Interactive Rotation of 3d Rendered Images
A great visual tool for showcasing products in a visually appealing way is the use of 360 degree interactive objects. The ability for the viewer to grab your product and spin it around is one more great visual marketing tool that can help demonstrate a complex product or assembly in 4 dimensions. This technology can be made to run in any browser environment. For the most compatibility, using html5 is the best option. The examples below are in html5 and can run on most internet browsers, as well as on android and iPhones, Ipads, etc. without the need for a plugin.
Example 1 – Interactive Spin of a Product Rendering
Example 2 – Interactive Spin of an Entire Rendered Wall Assembly
Example 3 – A 3d Interactive Model Inside a PDF Data Sheet
Just about every product manufacturer uses pdf files for their submittals and for product data sheets
Adobe Acrobat is installed on most computers
3d Interactive models can be embedded right in a pdf
Just some food for thought, if you’d like to have the nicest product data sheets in your industry or showcase your products on your web site with more flair, let’s talk!
When you break down the act of bringing a building product to the marketplace, you end up with a pretty simple equation.
The What = what the product is that you are selling
The How = how the product works, what it does, how it is used
The Why = why would someone choose this product?
Formula for bringing a building product to market = What + How + Why
It’s where the technical stuff and the marketing fluff come together
The What & the How
These are the technical details regarding your product. What is it made of? What does it look like? What sizes, shapes and variations is it available in? This information takes shape in the form of suggested cad details, written guide specifications, datasheets, installation instructions and many other technical forms. These materials are created through many different means depending on the culture, size and organization of a company.
Large corporations generally have a whole technical staff working on these things in conjunction with engineers and product designers, all in-house. Smaller companies sometimes have one person who is an expert on all the technical aspects of the products and tends to be a one person army tackling technical drawings,cad and technical writing duties. Others outsource the creation of these technical services to a company like mine to do some or all of their technical materials. While I enjoy doing these cad and bim drawings and basic technical illustrations and brochures, what gets me excited is combining these utilitarian materials with creative spark and marketing flair.
In my experience, working for companies of all shapes, sizes and cultures, is that they all suffer from a division between the technical aspects of their products ( the what and how) and the marketing aspects of their offerings ( the why). The technical materials, drawings and supporting information is always dry, boring and creatively uninspired.
The Why
Marketing, the way I see it, is taking a step back from the nuts and bolts of your products and taking a larger picture view of how take this carefully engineered and designed widget from the warehouse to the marketplace. It is a 20,000 foot view of your business, using old media, new media, advertising, glossy brochures and strategic planning to accomplish your business goals.
Marketing, like technical services, is done very differently from company to company. I have worked for companies who don’t have a marketing person at all. Some have an entire marketing staff and others hire out to marketing firms that specialize in construction marketing.
In all cases the challenges needs and strategies are largely the same. These are the need for a clear marketing message and a long term marketing plan along with the need to provide technical information about how this product is actually used.
In all cases a magical thing happens when these 2 disciplines are combined into 1 clear strategy if you draw 2 circles one representing marketing and the other technical services you arrive at the sweet spot of building product marketing. This is the place that I call “technical marketing”
Here is a recipe to arrive at the technical marketing sweet spot:
1. Make your marketing materials more technical
2 Make your technical materials more markety (definitely not a word)
3. Take 1 and 2 and stir
4. Take the results and run it through a sifter until you have removed all unnecessary elements that do not support your message or give too much un-needed information.
What you will end up with is simple effective Technical Marketing that will speak to architect and contractors with resonance
An example of this in action :
Example – BlokFlash by Mortar Net
Technical plus Marketing = resonance
This usually successful product is use for concrete block walls to allow water to escape safely. It solves a clear problem in the marketplace. This 1 drawing below communicates the technical aspects of how the product is used in a technically accurate and visually appealing way that communicates the what, how and the why all at onc. It does this in a way that speaks to architects as well as contractors and tradesmen alike and is equally suited to use in advertisements, brochures and suggested details.
Example in the form of an animation showing the how, what and why of a product :
Have you had frustration in bridging this gap between marketing and technical services? Let me know what you think . .
Building Product Marketing Step One – Present Your Products with Pride
Architects are your customers and they are visual people. They create visual experiences and they have spent most of their lives drawing things and viewing drawings done by others. If your drawings were done in 1995, they are going to know it immediately and they will certainly not have a wow experience viewing your products. More importantly, they will get the feeling that you do not take pride in your products. Their enthusiasm for your products cannot exceed yours, so if you do not show them a polished image of your product, you won’t sell them very well.
Architects, like many other business professionals work on a linear, time based fee structure. When you get down to it, they are exchanging time for money. Since they are largely responsible for deciding what products will be used on a project, in some ways they are professional shoppers.
Distilled down into it’s simplest form, in the context of marketing building products you have a very visual person for whom time is of the essence shopping for your products. If the time required for the brain to make a positive visual impression is only a tenth of a second, why not make sure that when that architect sees your product, they see the most beautiful image possible?
Before you start reading, researching and developing a thousand new ways to market your building products, take a step back and make sure the actualy drawings and details you show architects are making a positive impression. If they are not impressive, all the marketing speak and glossy brochures are going to be wasted.
“Today’s buildings are being designed in a changing environment with regard to energy efficiency. From a recent past of very basic energy requirements, a new generation of energy codes has evolved, as have more comprehensive programs that include building energy efficiency as only part of the larger design goals and objectives.Masonry can provide significant benefits to modern energy codes and sustainable design practices. In addition to its energy efficiency, concrete masonry is a locally produced, natural material that is durable and long-lived, minimizing the need for repair or replacement. Concrete masonry can incorporate recycled materials, and can itself be reused or recycled at the end of its life. Various architectural finishes are available that can eliminate the need for paint or other coatings, the addition of which can impair indoor air quality and contribute to long-term maintenance needs.”
My 3d Renderings in the Thermal Catalog
I was asked to contribute the 3d renderings for each of the wall systems in this catalog. Since my background is in masonry construction, this was right up my alley. I have contributed various 3d renderings and illustrations for NCMA in the past, and I have helped write a few TEK notes (NCMA 3-13) for example, which features many 3d renderings I did back in 2005, they aren’t quite as slick as my current work, but at the time they were a huge step forward for NCMA TEK notes. I remember back in the early 1990’s, when I was in college studying architecture, I was the only person to check the NCMA tek notes out of the library and I considered them to be the bible of masonry construction back then. I don’t think that I could have imagined that one day I would be writing a chapter in the bible back then.
Here is a screenshot from that TEK which can be viewed here
The Thermal Catalog is a great resource for designers trying to figure out how to choose an energy efficient concrete masonry assembly for the real world . It also shows how to comply with the various, and every changing energy code requirements.
Here are two screenshots :
3d rendering in Thermal Catalog
Thanks for reading and if you’d like to see the whole NCMA Thermal Catalog Click Here
