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Add this 1 thing to make your tour signs much more effective

By Becky McCray

Tourism sign with a short description

Adding a QR code or short URL for a
mobile friendly website
adds new value to your existing signs.
And visit my friends in Concrete, WA.

Have a byway, driving tour or walking tour? There is one thing you can add to your signs to improve how your visitors see it.

What’s missing? The “MORE” link.

Here’s what I mean. Add the QR Code and short URL that takes visitors online for more information. And be sure to taken them directly to mobile-friendly information about where they are.

You know, like the “More…” link you see on websites, this is your chance to give visitors more than what will fit on one screen, or in this case, one sign.

Of course, that means doing several steps to make it work:

  • Copy the text from the tour brochure to a new site or page on your existing site. Posting the PDF is not an acceptable alternative.
  • Make sure it’s mobile friendly. Test it on your phone. If you need to pinch or zoom, it isn’t mobile friendly.
  • Create a QR code that links directly to the tour page.
  • Create a short URL for the link. Your QR code service may make one automatically. You want both so visitors who don’t use QR codes can still type the URL into their phone to access the page.

Feeling like an over-achiever? Make a separate page for each stop on the trail. Add more mobile-friendly content. Think of things that help tell the story you are trying to tell. Include photos, links to videos, audio of your best story teller, and more text. Whatever helps your visitor get the picture and understand the history.

Now, get that QR code and short URL printed on weather-proof stickers, and go post it! (And hey, even Avery Labels makes weather-proof stickers, so you can print your own. No more excuses.)

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About Becky McCray

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
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  • Video: How to fill empty car dealership buildings for the holidays - November 6, 2020
  • How has 2020 changed the challenges rural small towns face? Tell us here - October 20, 2020
  • The Idea Friendly Method to surviving a business crisis - October 6, 2020
  • Join me for the Rural Renewal Symposium online Oct 13 - September 26, 2020
  • Cheap placemaking idea: instant murals - September 11, 2020
  • Refilling the rural business pipeline - July 7, 2020
  • Huge vacant buildings: grants to renovate? - June 9, 2020

September 13, 2011 Filed Under: tourism

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Comments

  1. maesz says

    September 13, 2011 at 12:40 pm

    “Test it on your phone.”–best advice ever. Say it again and again and again. Then after you have tested it on your phone, borrow one that is a different brand and/or uses a different carrier and test it again.

  2. Becky McCray says

    September 13, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    Maesz, you are absolutely right!

  3. Dominic says

    September 15, 2011 at 2:48 pm

    Good idea, will have to try it.

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