Technology has greatly shaped the way how real estate projects are marketed in modern days. Real estate businesses are looking for innovative ways to market their latest projects and virtual tours are one of the modern marketing tools that real estate businesses are using increasingly to boost sales conversion rates.
Real estate businesses have realized that 360-degree virtual tours can get better results when added along with eye-catchy visuals and animations. By using virtual tours, real estate businesses can improve the effectiveness of their sales strategies.
What is a Virtual Tour?
A virtual tour is a simulation of a certain location, which is composed of a sequence of still images or videos. Apart from that, other multimedia elements such as text, music, sound effects, narration, etc. can be incorporated into a virtual tour.
Since the advent of virtual reality or VR technology, it has been used for various purposes. For example, medical students are trained on surgery techniques or similar procedures with the help of VR technologies. Dentists employ VR headsets to distract their patients during treatment. Major retailers such as Walmart utilize the concept to train their employees.
So, virtual tours are also an outcome of this technology, which is mainly used by businesses to offer a glimpse of their products and services to the customers.
It is extensively utilized by the real estate or hospitality industry but can be beneficial to other industries as well. Besides, the quality of virtual tours has considerably increased over the past few years. So, now let us have a detailed look at its various applications:
Virtual Reality Tours Can Benefit 5 Different Industries
The benefits of virtual tours in various industries are mentioned below:
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Real Estate
In the real estate industry, interactive floor plans and highly engaging virtual tours are commonly used. The virtual tour real estate outcomes usually cost more than the floor plans since you need to hire a professional photographer, use high-end equipment, and employ specialized software to create them.
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Virtual Walks
Virtual walks are motion picture documentaries that are shot continuously while moving through an urban or natural area. The effect allows the audience to experience the sights and sounds in the same manner as how they would feel while traveling that area without the use of VR headsets or goggles.
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Online
An online or web-based virtual tour is employed by many businesses for showcasing their products and services. In this case, a lot of materials, such as still pictures, videos, texts, etc. can be used to provide a better experience to their viewers.
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Hospitality
Hotels increasingly add online tours to their websites to present an immersive visualization of their property and amenities. The visuals can range from high-quality 360-degree stitched photos to professionally crafted video tours.
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Historic preservation
The 3D virtual tour technology plays a great role in documenting the historic properties that are at the risk of being destroyed or restricted to public access. The 3D virtual models used can also be digitally archived using .obj or other standard file formats for future academic exploration or research.
Top 10 Benefits of Choosing a Virtual Tour
Real estate 360-degree virtual tour services can benefit you in terms of additional exposure. In this section, you will get to know about the key advantages of using a virtual tour in the real estate industry:
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Save money and time
Virtual tours are dynamic, interactive, and capable of capturing the attention of prospective homebuyers. It can help you eliminate the time taken for creating complicated processes such as developing a blueprint for your project.
Besides, experts can develop as well as edit the virtual tours really quickly and at competitive prices, thereby providing a cost-effective marketing solution to real estate companies. The end result will enable you to present your proposed plans to your potential buyers in a seamless manner.
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Greater reach
Using a virtual self-tour to market your real estate projects can help you to get a better reach among the customers. These visuals are appealing and far more detailed than the sketches of the property.
That is why reputed virtual tour developers make use of them to create finer presentations. Homebuyers expect to find as much information as possible so that they can make more informed decisions easily. So, by using virtual tours, real estate owners can effectively increase the sales potential of their projects.
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Targeting potential customers
Every architect must integrate customized features into the projects as demanded by the homebuyers. By using virtual tours, they can target specific segments of customers who are really interested in purchasing the property. Besides, the adoption of a customized approach in developing these virtual tours also increases the chances of sales.
You can also present 360 panoramic virtual tours to potential homebuyers, which can provide them with a comprehensive idea about the overall looks of the area. Personalized presentations make the customers feel valued, and they might also consider working with you.
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Easier to grab attention
In this competitive business environment, it is difficult to retain the attention of the viewers for a long time. However, by creating captivating virtual tours of real estate projects, you can increase your chances of attracting more customers and keep them engaged for a longer duration.
Besides, every customer would like to view the final look of their project, which they can only experience after the construction is completed. So, showcasing the virtual tour of a property even before its construction will help you finalize the deal with your clients. Transparency in presenting these details can also enhance your brand image.
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Creating a focus on key areas
It is possible to highlight particular aspects of the project with the help of virtual tours. However, doing this can be a bit trickier on the part of a beginner, which is why it is better to rely on a professional in this matter. So, simply convey your ideas to a reputed virtual tour company, and the experts will integrate the necessary features into your project.
They will use advanced real estate virtual tour software to develop the presentations, which will make them more convincing and marketable. Besides, you can easily share them with the homebuyers through the internet. If required, you can also edit the design as per the recommendations of the client and integrate the customized features.
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Visual information
When you use a virtual tour, you can present all types of information related to the project. These presentations have a high visual appeal and convey a complete idea about the finished project.
Besides, 3D visualization gives additional information to homebuyers who are keen to know about the amenities, features, wall color, floor plan design, and all other aspects of a project. So, by offering detailed visual information in the virtual tours, you can gain more clients and customers.
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Customization
Viewers generally focus on the details that matter to them the most. For instance, they can zoom into a particular area of the project, examine the details, and come up with the specific suggestions.
This personalized approach is one of the key benefits of 360 virtual tours. Besides, you can make the necessary changes in the virtual tours as recommended by the homebuyers. Developers can also come up with day scenes and night scenes for the project to increase its appeal.
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Greater ROI
Virtual tours have turned out to be a powerful marketing weapon for real estate companies. These visuals increase the chances of selling the property. You can easily reveal the key selling points of the project by tailoring the features according to the needs of the users. These presentations bring a greater ROI for the developers.
Customers want complete information about the upcoming projects, and you can come up with every little detail using 360-degree photography and tours.
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Social media can be of help
Customers expect real estate developers to present them with accurate information about the design attributes of a project. So, when you present them with these virtual tours, the proposed plans become more believable.
Besides, there is a high probability that if people like it, they are going to share it on social media. And, that will act as a ranking factor for your website. Eventually, you will get more traffic and rank high in the search results.
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Minimizes the bounce rate
Increased bounce rates are definitely a problem for every real estate agent since it will affect the visibility of their site by lowering their search engine rankings. It usually denotes the number of visitors who do not stay on your website for a longer time.
To ensure that they stay, you need to keep them engaged by posting quality content on your site, which can be achieved through virtual tours. Since the time duration of virtual tours is at least a minute, it is most likely that people will watch them and spend more time on your site, which would in turn decrease your bounce rate.
With the rapidly increasing competition in the real estate sector, it is necessary to seek professional support from real estate post processing experts while developing virtual tours. It is a good idea to partner with one of the established companies that specialize in offering real estate virtual staging services.
Developers across the globe are reaping enormous benefits by presenting real estate projects using sophisticated real estate visuals. Besides, 360-degree virtual tours can also strengthen your marketing and promotional strategies to a greater extent. So, identify a reputed virtual tour developer and bring a positive transformation through your real estate marketing initiatives.