In the past couple of years, college virtual tours have become an integral aspect of higher education marketing. And after the Covid-19 pandemic, the trend has only accelerated. As nationwide lockdowns forced the students across the world to stay indoors. They took to virtual tours to complete their college research, making these tours more important than ever.
Today, a college virtual tours is among the crucial tools that a college or university can offer to prospective students. With these tours, the students can easily explore the college campus from the comfort of their homes.
In this article, we will look at the different ways in which. A college or university can boost its marketing by leveraging virtual tours. But first, let us understand what a college virtual tour really is.
What are College Virtual Tours?
A virtual tour enables colleges and universities to showcase their school’s history and the campus in the most engaging way. It is a 360-degree interactive walkthrough that is packed with intuitive features. Such as videos, 3D maps, audio, animations, and much more.
Investing in these college virtual tours is the need of the hour. With a majority of students initiating their college search process online, having a robust internet presence is a must.
Offer a Quick Overview of the College Campus
College virtual tours present an excellent opportunity for prospective students. To gain a fair idea of how the college and its campus are like. A lot of surveys indicate that these virtual tours are taken by students. Who are close to 16 years of age. This shows that students who are looking at different colleges for their higher education prefer to start with virtual tours.
Colleges and universities can make the most of virtual tours by showcasing the best aspects of their campus. For instance, they can highlight the strongest features of their infrastructure and grab the attention of the prospects. Besides, they can also add other useful college information to the tour that further enhances its value.
Help Students in the College Selection Process
If done right, college virtual tours can be an important tool in the early college selection process. They are becoming increasingly popular among high school senior students to help them narrow their list of colleges.
According to statistics, as many as 85% of students are more likely to apply to a college if they could get a comprehensive virtual tour of the place on the web. Once they look at the college’s infrastructure, including the classrooms, the library, cafeteria, outdoor area, etc., they feel more confident about their decision.
Develop Engaging Alternatives in Uncertain Times
When we talk about uncertain times, the Covid-19 pandemic definitely tops the charts. Because of the pandemic, thousands of colleges and universities shut their gates for physical visits last year. And when that happened, virtual tours came up as the greatest alternative to help prospective students.
Although in-person visits still play a vital role in student recruitment, virtual tours really help to recreate a similar impact. We don’t know what the near future looks like or even how in-person campus visits will be impacted. But what we do know is that virtual tours have demonstrated to be a feasible alternative for many students and their families. They have established their place in the student recruitment cycle, especially for those who face time and budget constraints and cannot physically visit every campus.
Diversify Marketing across Online Platforms
A lot of recruitment marketing professionals think of virtual tours as simple tools for offering intuitive experiences to prospects. However, in reality, these tours can be used for creating a smart communication strategy and highlight the specific areas of the institute.
And the best thing about them is that they can be uploaded across various online channels to enhance their visibility. For instance, apart from the official website, these tours can be uploaded on social media platforms like Facebook where more prospects can engage with them.
Improve Your Marketing ROI
College virtual tours can definitely help to increase the return on investment for your marketing efforts. These tours enhance the impact of your marketing by sending the right message to the right people and inform them about the best alternatives for their higher studies. Using these tours, the marketers can grab the attention of the viewers by delivering the most suitable message for a specific target path and increase the ROI.
Wrapping Up
Creating a virtual tour for your college or university is not just beneficial now, but it will also serve you in the years to come. Students who live overseas or otherwise far from the campus highly appreciate these tours to explore their chosen colleges. They provide the prospects with ease of being able to familiarize themselves with the campus and its facilities, without the inconvenience of traveling long distances.
So, if you have not yet invested in college virtual tours, you must do it right away. You can get in touch with a good agency that helps you design interactive virtual experiences.