3D virtual tours are one of the most innovative ways to market and promote your business. These tours are an immersive virtual experience and are the closest thing customers can get to visiting a specific location.
Anyone that views a 3D virtual tour will have an in-depth view of an area that no one else can experience just by looking at photos or reading text descriptions. This article will be a beginner’s guide to everything you need to know about virtual tours including why you should create them and how to make sure they are successful.
Photo by Francesca Tosolini on Unsplash
What are 3D Virtual Tours?
3D virtual tours or renderings are tours that allow businesses from different industries (real estate, hospitality, education etc.) to provide a virtual model of an area to potential customers.
The virtual tour process can bring any built environment directly to any person, at any place, on any type of device that they have.
Customers can effortlessly navigate through these 3D residential renderings by clicking or tapping their screens. They can explore by looking up, down, and side to side to view the entire area.
3D virtual tours are a seamless experience which makes it more immersive than just looking at photos and videos of the location.
Why You Should Create 3D Virtual Tours
- You will have an advantage over businesses that do not offer these tours
When customers visit your website and check out your 3D virtual tours, they can immediately get an in-depth look at the properties and products that you are offering.
This tour places you ahead of other competitors because it is a more realistic and immersive experience that other businesses do not provide.
When customers get to decide on what to buy or where to go, they will easily remember and strongly consider your business because you offer the most transparent and authentic look.
- They provide customers with an abundance of visual information
3D virtual tours provide potential customers with all of the important visual information that they will need about an area before they can eventually purchase it.
The information from virtual tours is a lot more comprehensive and helpful compared to just reading information through texts or static photos and videos.
Immersing themselves in a 3D virtual tour makes the information more engaging and even entertaining as they can just easily imagine themselves being in that physical space.
- They can be easily accessed by anyone, anywhere, and at any time
What makes these virtual tours valuable for businesses is that it makes you accessible and available for 24 hours. No matter what time it is, someone from anywhere around the world can visit your website and experience a virtual tour.
Being more accessible makes it easier for your customers to interact and engage with your company when they want to learn more about what you are offering.
Being accessible all the time leaves a positive impression on customers. This can eventually make them repeat customers in the future since they know it is easy for them to engage with you.
- Your sales will increase when you use them efficiently
When you use these right, 3D virtual tours will become a vital part of the sales of your business. This is because a lot of these customers that want to learn more about a property or service already know what they want.
When the 3D virtual tour that you offer displays everything that they are looking for, they can immediately contact your business about a purchase.
You should remember to keep your virtual tours authentic and accurate all the time. As long as you will constantly update them to keep them up to date, you will increase your overall sales.
Best Practices for 3D Virtual Tours
- Provide a seamless navigation
To make sure your 3D virtual tour will be effective, you will need to provide seamless navigation for it. If customers find it complicated to go through your virtual tours, your efforts will be wasted.
Seamless navigation makes it easy for them to move around, check every room, and jump from one space to another conveniently and quickly without long loading times.
Your listing and your offerings will become more memorable than others when customers can navigate through them seamlessly. This can lead to more engagements and conversions.
- Use bright and consistent lighting
Lighting will have a significant impact on how you present all of your offerings. Your 3D virtual tours cannot be successful if customers can barely see what is in the area due to a lack of light.
A difference in lighting can also alter the impression of the shape, size and overall feel of a lot of things. Dim lighting makes a space look smaller and less inviting while inconsistent lighting can create a jarring and inconsistent experience.
You will have to make sure that the light levels in the area are consistent and that every section is well-lit so that customers can be fully immersed.
- Isolate unique features of the area
Each property or area has its own special and unique features that you want to showcase to potential customers. It is important that you place a spotlight on these and isolate them in the virtual tours.
Doing this will make sure that customers will remember what makes your offerings more unique and different from others. These features may not always be important, but they add a lot of personality to the area.
When they feel how different and unique an area is, they will get a better understanding of the home. The unique colours, rooms, or furniture can create stronger memories for the offering.
- Double-check any continuity errors before finalising the tour
When shooting the 3D virtual tours, you should make sure that there aren’t any objects that were moved or adjusted so that all of the shots will be consistent all throughout.
Having any movement will not show up well in a virtual tour and will end up as ugly blurs that are not pleasing to the eye.
Remember to have a final check of your tours for any continuity errors before finalising everything so that you can avoid reshoots which will force you to have additional costs and more time.
Hopefully, all of these reasons and best practices will inspire you to have your own 3D virtual tours and to make sure that they are able to increase your conversions effectively.
