With advances in technology and changes in our shopping habits – accelerated by the pandemic – businesses are finding new ways to showcase themselves to customers. It is now much easier to entice customers to your business without them ever having to visit and not needing to take a leap of faith.
One such way is having a virtual tour on your website.
What is a Virtual Tour?
Virtual tours are an accurate representation of a location that can be made up of a series of 360 photos, videos or as a 3D digital recreation. It allows people to see and virtually walk through your business as if they were there in person – from any device.
You can add additional elements such as text, music and animation to further engage with potential customers and provide more opportunities for them to explore – enhancing the experience.
Any business could benefit from putting a virtual tour on its website but especially would come in handy if you own a pub, hotel, retail business or tourist attraction.
There are many reasons you should have a virtual tour and we at Maxweb Solutions can help produce this piece of engaging content and grow your business.
Improve Business Visibility
The key to growing as a business is being noticed.
A virtual tour, combined with a solid SEO strategy will make it hard for people to ignore you. If you make use of modern techniques like virtual tours then it can help you stand out from your customers and allow you to showcase the personality of your brand.
There is a saying in storytelling that you should “show, not tell” and a virtual tour follows this logic. With clear images or videos, you are being transparent with your audience and allowing them to discover what makes your business unique.
Virtual tours are also pieces of content that can be shared easily online, becoming a cog of your social media marketing strategy.
Benefit from Increased Google SERP
SERP stands for Search Engine Result Pages. They are what Google produces in response to something you type into the search bar.
How high a page ranks on Google is determined by many factors using an algorithm. Having an accurate picture of your website helps Google make sure that the people searching for what you provide can find you.
To determine a page’s ranking, Google will look at the bounce rate of your site, the time people spend on it and if the content gets a lot of shares. Virtual tours provide engaging content that potential customers can spend a lot of time with.
Virtual tours can be very effective for your local SERP ranking. If you make your virtual tour Google Street View ready, that means it can be added to Google maps and Google My Business listings – making it more accessible. If you combine this with an effective SEO strategy on your site then the business will look very attractive to potential customers in the local area.
As your site is better understood and ranked by Google, the trust in your brand grows and will help you get more clicks and traffic that turns into sales.
Expand Your Customer Reach
Virtual tours can help show your business to a wider audience. As well as people in the local area, virtual tours allow those not close by to explore your premises and get to know your business before committing to becoming a paying customer.
In a globalised world, this is very helpful to growth – especially if your business model would benefit from international exposure.
Reaching customers far beyond your initial plan is vital if you are a tourist attraction as it can be effective at inspiring people to come and visit.
It is also the future of real estate. Making use of virtual viewings means that you can efficiently target people outside of the immediate geographical area. It allows potential customers to make informed decisions.
Create Interest in Your Business
Virtual tours are also effective at creating more interest in your business as a whole.
In 2015, Google did a study about the effectiveness of virtual tours. They found out 67% of the people they surveyed wanted more businesses to use virtual tours on their sites. There are many more stats readily available and they show that the demand for virtual tours is there.
This shows that by making use of virtual tours you are directly addressing potential customers’ desires. By providing what audiences are after, you should see increased interest.
Improve Engagement with Your Website
Virtual tours provide an immersive and visual experience that is more memorable for customers. Rather than static images and text, they will spend more time exploring your business – which suits a younger, more internet-adept audience that responds to more interactive content.
A virtual tour is much more likely to grab someone’s attention and as it takes longer to click through or watch a tour then they will stay on your site for longer. Keeping people on your site is the goal of great web design as potential customers that stay will likely to turn into solid leads and sales.
Cost-Effective Marketing Tool
Virtual tours can become a great part of a marketing strategy.
Professional images and videos usually create more engagement from potential customers and it only requires a one-time investment. Something like this that needs little upkeep is known as passive marketing, allowing you to reap the benefits without interference.
As long as your business experiences no seismic changes then your virtual tour will continue to be an accurate representation of what you can offer customers. It can continue to work in the background whilst you focus on other parts of your marketing strategy.
Find Out More
If you are interested in utilising a virtual tour to grow your business then Maxweb Solutions can help. With our support, you can improve customer engagement and get more traffic to your website. We offer many more web design services and virtual tours can just be one part of a greater digital marketing strategy.
For more information call us at 0151 652 4777 or email info@maxwebsolutions.co.uk.
Posted on Monday, November 28th, 2022 in Digital Marketing.
