Published: December 10, 2019
Whether you’re curious about the new manufacturing company in town or want to take a look at a newly listed house, virtual tours make it easy for you to tour everything you’ve ever wanted to see in the comfort of your own home. Just a quick search in Google, and you’ll have a virtual tour including 360-degree images and videos right at your fingertips.
What are virtual tours?
Virtual tours are sequences of images that allow your customers to see a 360-degree view of your business from their devices. It gives customers a better look at your business without ever having to leave their homes.
Why do I need a virtual tour for my business?
The advantages of virtual tours are endless. With more people relying on the internet to find information, businesses need to implement virtual tours into their online strategies. Just take a look at the benefits:
1. Increase engagement, brand reputation and trust.
Customers are loyal to the brands they trust. Transparency makes you more trustworthy to your prospective customers.
So, what does this have to do with virtual tours? Virtual tours are an easy way to offer transparency. Whether you want to show off your industry-leading equipment or give a closer look at your facility (Biotechnology by Amgen® does this well!), offering a front-row seat to everything you have to offer (before they make it to the front door) will keep you one step ahead of your competitors.
2. Generate more (and faster) sales.
Virtual tours keep people on your website 5–10 times longer. Why? Most of us can agree that 360-degree photos are more interesting than standard, two-dimensional images. They also help form a connection with your consumers, helping you build relationships that eventually turn into sales. In fact, 360-degree photos on a website see a 27% higher conversion rate than still images.
3. Keep customers happy without spending extra money (and time).
Finding serious buyers can sometimes result in an endless maze of phone calls, inquiries and in-person meetings. For example, take a look at the housing industry. Thousands of people will end up viewing a house listing, resulting in dozens of phone calls. This can get time-consuming (and especially costly) if you’re traveling to give each person an in-person house tour. This is why more and more home sellers are including virtual house tours in their listings to weed out the curious people who have no intention of buying.
And, just like home sellers, you can save time and minimize costs by creating virtual tours for your own business.
4. Stand out on social media.
With 1.59 billion daily active users on Facebook and millions of photos shared every day, businesses need to stay up-to-date and implement the latest trends into their social media strategy. While there are many trends out there, Facebook 360 is one that sticks out. With Facebook 360, you can post 360-degree photos right to your page, which is more effective and impactful than posting a single photo. Take a look at this Facebook 360 how-to guide to get started as well as a guide from our very own resident photographer.
More businesses are turning to virtual tours to engage with their customers. It’s time to strengthen your marketing strategy and create virtual tours that will lead to increased interest and sales.
Need help creating a virtual tour? Fill out our contact form, and let’s chat!
By Neal Grosskopf, Software Engineering Director
As our Software Engineering Director, Neal enjoys finding creative technical solutions for our clients. He also keeps the Envano team informed about new technology that helps us operate more efficiently and easily. When not at work, he’s most likely pursuing his other passion, photography, which often means lugging around camera gear cliffside at 2 a.m. to get that perfect shot of the night sky.
