Business
and technology have always marched in lockstep: the need for better
business practices has fuelled technological innovation, and
technological innovation has fuelled better practices.
One of the latest examples of this symbiosis is the “virtual tour”, or the 360° tour, which capitalizes on improvements in image sequencing and 3D reconstruction to give businesses a way to show off their space remotely and entice a whole new range of customers.
The
technology is not really new – in fact, it has been used for years
by the real estate industry to give remote prospective buyers a sense
of different properties – but the tools and practices used have
gotten a lot better. Consequently, you’ll see a lot of new Houston
businesses embracing the virtual tour as part of their website
experience.
This
article will look at a few of the reasons why Houston businesses have
embraced the 360° tour, as well as offer up a case study of one
business that has made great use of the technology.
A Case Study
BATL, or the Backyard Axe Throwing League is a local business that offers (you guessed it) axe throwing. Book a lane at BATL and you’re armed with an axe, as well as a demonstration on how to throw it at the wooden target provided. It’s a fun, exciting game that’s popular for birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette parties, work outings and other group meet-ups. The only problem is that many people who haven’t tried it, have no good conception of what it’s like.
Enter the 360° tour. With a 360 VR tour of Backyard Axe Throwing League interested party planners can snoop around the facility, see what the space is like and get a sense of the game. For a business such as BATL that might not have the same foot traffic visibility as, for example, a restaurant, the tour is a great way to get the word out.
Why Embrace the Virtual Experience?
Customer Engagement
When
a customer visits your site and uses the virtual tour, they engage
with your business in a more meaningful way than if they were to
simply look at pictures. They can visualize the experience you offer,
and therefore feel a greater sense of connection with it. It is, to
put it another way, the difference between shopping and
window-shopping. With virtual tours, it is as though you have opened
your physical door and invited them in, rather than making them peer
at your business through the window.
Virtual Foot Traffic
Businesses, especially those offering niche products or services, don’t always have the benefit of prime real estate. And even if they do, the foot traffic may still be less than desirable. But foot traffic remains important to businesses. It’s an old problem with a modern solution. Virtual tours allow prospective customers and clients to view your business from the comfort of their own home. You don’t need to shell out a fortune on prime real estate when the internet offers the very same vistas and exposure.
Improved SEO
If you’re unfamiliar, SEO – or search engine optimization – is the process of increasing your website’s visibility and presence on search engines like Google. Your website’s SEO ranking is in part measured by the amount of time users spend on your site, and the amount they interact with it. To that end, 360° tours can be an effective tool in improving organic SEO.
Easy Demonstration
As
you saw in the case study with BATL, virtual tours can be effective
when it comes to demonstrating a service or product that might
otherwise be difficult to describe. If part of your brick and mortar
business is given over to the process of manufacturing or
experiencing your product, then virtual tours are great.
A
perfume-making business, for example, would do well embedding a
virtual tour: not many people know the process of making perfume, and
seeing the site of the process can help demonstrate its value. A
brewery is another good example – it allows people to connect with
the product by seeing a demonstration of how it’s made.
360°
tours are the latest tool in the small business owner’s arsenal.
They allow you to craft a more robust website experience, improving
your customer engagement, demonstrating your product and improving
SEO in the meantime. It’s no wonder Houston businesses have
embraced this new technology – it’s “virtually” unparalleled.
