Matterport Virtual Tours and what they can do for your business
- Posted on May 22, 2020
When it comes to winning business online, the key is to stand out. But if your ‘wow’ factor can only be seen when someone visits your physical premises, how do you hook them in without it? At Horizon Imaging, we have the answer — virtual tours. A virtual tour can enchant your prospects like few other things can, making them fall in love with your venue (or your business) from afar. They also encourage engagement with your website, and when online engagement could be the difference between you and your competitors, there is no better way to showcase your business.
At Horizon Imaging we are still undertaking virtual tour work, while observing social distancing and following the governments guidance, which means you don’t have to wait until lockdown is over to enjoy the benefits of a virtual tour for your business. So we wanted to take this chance to tell you all about them.
What Is a Virtual Tour?
A virtual tour is exactly what it says on the tin – it is like giving customers a tour of your premises or venue, but online, rather than in person. Virtual tours are a great way to allow clients (or even prospective buyers) to see your property remotely, from the safety and comfort of their own home. They can take all the time they need, without feeling rushed, and spend more time taking in the little details that really make your property special.
Virtual tours work by capturing both still photographs and in-depth visual information about the location. Looking a full 360 degrees around each camera location, you can capture every inch of the room or property you are showcasing. But it goes further than that. Once the imagery has been captured, special software is used to stitch it all together into a smooth interactive experience. Additional elements can then be added, such as buttons that when clicked will provide information on a certain feature – for example, an estate agent looking to sell a house could use these buttons to highlight certain features of a house, making it a far more immersive experience than photographs or videos could ever provide.
Behind-the-scenes at the photo shoot of the property in Haslemere, Surrey. Click to enlarge.
Who Could Use a Virtual Tour?
Pretty much any business with a physical premises, or who deals in construction work or property could use virtual tours to market their business. But in particular, venues with beautiful buildings, gardens and unique features tend to benefit most. From wedding venues to hotels, estates, spas, golf courses and luxury B&Bs – all of these businesses thrive on the visual impact of their location. So in order to stand out from the crowd of other venues, you need to do something really special. Virtual tours help to create an emotional connection with your website visitors by allowing them to explore your venue from the comfort of their own living room.
In the current lockdown situation, this ability to show your potential customers around your property virtually has never been more useful.
Of course, there are some industries that would benefit more than others. These include:
Holiday accommodation: How cosy and homely holiday accommodation looks is often a key factor when deciding where to stay on holiday. Stand out amongst your competitors with a modern and engaging virtual walkthrough. Giving prospective guests a chance to look around your accommodation will significantly increase your chances of being chosen.
Tourist attractions: Turn your attraction into a must-visit destination by giving people a peek into what they can see when they visit your attraction. Capture the attention of potential and returning visitors and increase footfall all year round.
Estate Agents: Show off your properties from the best angle, every time. Estate agents can use virtual tours to help prospective renters or buyers understand their properties better, see if it meets their needs and speed up the rate of sale and rental. It also saves a lot of time by cutting out wasted viewings!
HMO managers: Using virtual tours, tenants can walk around any property, anytime, anywhere, without having to leave their home, Particularly useful for HMO managers, who can split the tour into sub tours, so you can send prospective tenants a tour of just one room and the communal areas, rather than other private rooms.
Universities: Many universities are now offering a virtual tour of their accommodation options. These give new students the chance to look around their new home in advance, and plan what their new living / party space will look like!
Retail premises: Show the world not only the outside of your showroom, but the inside as well. Entice online shoppers in with a preview of what you have on offer 24/7, showcase your store in an engaging way and present your customers with the shopping experience they can expect to receive.
Construction sites: Share the progress of projects, guide subcontractors around their chosen areas and speed up projects by sharing information remotely. It might seem like an odd choice, but regular virtual tours of construction projects, undertaken throughout the course of a project, can be a real benefit, given how easily this imagery can be shared with multiple remote parties.
If you run a business that fits into one of the categories described above, then there are certain things your customers expect of you – one of which is to be wowed with high quality imagery on your website and in your marketing materials. A virtual tour is a fantastic addition to this material, putting you head and shoulders above the competition and creating an asset for your business that will pay for itself for years to come.
Matterport virtual tours of three residential properties in Surrey and London, and a retail premises in Surrey. Click the play buttons to start exploring!
Put yourself ahead of your competitors
At Horizon Imaging, we believe that everyone should be able to take advantage of cutting-edge technology like virtual tours in order to be able to deliver the best experience to customers before they even step through your front door. That is why we provide comprehensive virtual tours using the state-of-the-art Matterport system, which allows us to produce not only a ‘walk through’ tour, but also a 3D ‘Dolls House’ view, allowing you to see the entire site at once from an aerial point of view, but with the roof and walls removed – just like if you had partially dismantled an actual dolls house!
You can see examples of our virtual tours by clicking here. During Covid-19 we are still able to provide virtual tour work, whilst still fully complying with government safety guidance, and at a competitive price. Not only that, but our virtual tours can be turned around and be ready to load onto your website in as little as 24 hours. So why not use this as a chance to spruce up your marketing and bring the ‘wow’ factor to your website. If you would like to know more, please get in touch with us today using any of the details below.
Matterport virtual tours of a care home in Surrey, and a residential property, wellbeing clinic and private home in Hampshire. Click the play buttons to start exploring!
Still not sure about whether virtual tours are right for you? See what some of our valued clients have said about our Matterport Virtual Tour service!
Private Client
Virginia Water, Surrey
Virginia Water, Surrey
“We would fully recommend David and Horizon Imaging if you’re looking to have a virtual tour created of your property. The service was excellent, the quality of the work was outstanding, the turnaround time was fast and the cost was reasonable.”
“We have been most impressed with the Matterport Tour that has been produced by David from Horizon Imaging, despite being a little hesitant and unsure at the outset. It has enabled us to demonstrate our show home, and also show garden, digitally in the clearest possible way. It is not only useful for marketing this unit, but also marketing our brand, showcasing finishes and has captured this home in pristine condition for ever more! The presentation of the 3D model is also a great interactive presentation that until now we have not been able to offer. We will definitely use the service again! Thanks again David!“
“I can’t thank David enough for the fantastic videos and virtual tours he’s produced for me in such a short time. These are great to promote my clients properties online, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. It gives people an opportunity to view homes from the comfort and safety of their homes. It’s been a pure joy to work with David and I look forward to working with him more in the near future.”
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