How to capture more customers at craft & trade shows.

We often attend trade shows, many are huge and time is limited. If we venture past a stand and it is too busy, literature nowhere to be seen, sadly we often have to walk on and the stand is soon forgotten.  Remember you are unlikely to be the only stand selling your type of product or service.

QR codes might be one answer.  More and more have phones with NFC (near field communication) on them and so they can scan a QR code.  If on the back of your stall, there was a large QR code displayed, with a caption to tell you what it will link to, you might not lose so many passers-by when busy or away from the stand.  The QR code can be linked either to your site, contact details or a special web page just for the show. The QR code can be captured by the passers phone and saved to use later.  We know many exhibitors purposefully do not have literature in easy to take spots, as you want to engage, but you do not want to miss out altogether.

Do not get talked into expensive QR codes production, you can create them yourself for free on the net but ALWAYS check they work, especially when shrunken into a small adverts or on business cards, check before printing or publishing. Always keep a copy of the original full size. Keep the art work changes to a minimum, closer to the original QR code you remain the more chance it will work on the largest number of phones.  Being too clever will leave you, most certainly, with egg on your face.

We were lucky enough to work with Wolverhampton University to learn about QR codes and to create our site QR code, so we had experts telling what we could do and could not do.  Below a few free sites where you can create QR codes. 

·                     http://www.qrcode.kaywa.com/

·                     http://www.zxing.appspot.com/generator/

·                     http://www.qrstuff.com/

·                     http://www.goqr.me/

Seek It Out: Changing the world a stitch at a time