3 Reasons Why You Should Create An Interactive 360° Tour of Your Campus

Andrew Beelitz December 3, 2016

As you’re thinking about new marketing ideas for 2017, here’s one: Create an interactive 360° tour that let students and parents visit your campus virtually. There are three good reason for doing this:

1) Stand out from the competition: A well curated interactive virtual tour makes your school stand out from the competition. New applicants will engage in a fun introductory experience that features the best views and details of the campus. The tour can be shared on your website and social media, which will increase reach and time spent with your school.

2) Include families who cannot travel: Finding the best school for each student is an important process and decision in the family. Still, not all families are able to tour schools together. Offer a virtual visit to your campus as an option to include the whole family in this important process.

3) Stress-free introduction to new students: Beginning of a term is exciting time for everyone, and there are lots of details to share about how things work and where they are located. Creating a virtual introduction for new first-year students (and their parents!) will release stress from being in a new environment.

Two options to make it happen

OPTION 1: Full Service Package — we will do everything for you

This package is a turn-key solution to produce a professional interactive 360° image (or 360° video) tour of your campus. All you need to do is tell us what are the places and things you would like to highlight about your school. We will do all the rest. This inludes:

• Sending a professional 360 photographer to your school campus at an agreed date and time
• Coordinating a list of things to be highlighted in the tour
• Adding interactive tags (text, image, audio, video, questionnaies, or other links) to the 360° photography or video

OPTION 2: DIY Virtual Tour Production  package — we will train you to do this 

This package comes with everything you need to create your own virtual tour. Included in the package is a Ricoh Theta camera that shoots 360 degree images or video, as well as training how to create a virtual tour using the camera with ThingLink’s 360/VR photo editor. Here are some tips and ideas of the materials you can embed in the tour:  

• Images: Insert close up photos about the campus architecture, facilities, and personnel
• Video: Add interviews, testimonials, or any existing video material that help introduce your facilities
• Text: Tell interesting details about the history of the buildings, or more information about different locations
• Forms: Collect feedback from viewers with an interactive forms
• Audio: Add music, or introduce staff and students with voice overs 
• Maps: Embed a live Google map!

Summary and pricing