These days, most college websites usually have everything a prospective student might want to know. Yours is no different probably. But is a text-heavy website enough to boost your admissions? You need something more, something that helps you stand out – and that is exactly what a college virtual tour ensures.

These tours are highly interactive and can immediately grab prospective students’ attention. Plus, they are the next best thing to physical, in-person tours. So, if you want to know why a virtual tour on your website, social media pages, or blog can help with admission, read on.

They make life easy for prospective students

A virtual campus tours allows students sitting miles away to explore everything your college has to offer. Or at least the key things that make your institution different or special. Prospective students don’t need to waste time on travelling to check out your college for real and can even compare your institution with others without budging an inch from the sofa or juggling multiple brochures.

Plus, a virtual tour saves them the money they would otherwise have to shell out for travelling cross-country to explore a dream college. And though it might not seem so obvious, when candidates see how up to date you are with technology and marketing strategies, they will feel positively about your institution from the very beginning.

They make information interesting

The best thing about a virtual campus tour is that it provides key information about your institution, without overwhelming the viewer with a lot of text or boring, still images. Virtual tours bank mostly on beautiful visuals and a 360 degree experience, so that students can enjoy a bird’s eye-view of the campus and then make their way through the entrance hall, admissions office, lecture halls, cafeteria, dormitories, sports grounds, gym, swimming pool, library and more. Well-made virtual tours for students give them an exact idea about what your college looks like, its layout, infrastructure, and facilities.  

Sure, you can incorporate crisp textual information in some slides to add more value, but it doesn’t have to be mundane anymore. For instance, you can inform visitors which companies hired students from your MBA program last year, how many students scored prestigious scholarships in the arts department, which national championships your student athletes won, and so on. You can add a bit of historical information and mention fun facts about your buildings when a student first enters the tour.   

They are easy to process

Tours that make use of virtual reality in education marketing are easy to understand and process. Remember that prospective students won’t usually have a lot of time to read too many things or navigate to multiple pages to spot the detail they are looking for. They have very little attention span too when they go online. Which is why, using custom virtual tours to reel them in is such a great idea. These tours are rich in visuals, immersive and interactive, which makes it easy for students to retain what they are seeing for a long time to come.

For instance, if you have a smashing pool area, a massive library with more than 1,000,000 books, or hotels for guest that come with balconies and great views, why not show them off?

They are easy to share

Whether it’s you or students, virtual tours are easy to share for everyone. Students can just share the link via any messaging app and let others know about your institution. They can even share the same on their social media. There is no better way to promote your college for free, get more leads or at least inbound leads.

Students can share the link with their parents too, as usually they are an integral part of the decision-making process. Which means, virtual tours for students are an intelligent way to win over parents and gain their trust. In fact, you can even add the link to all those marketing emails or newsletters you send and encourage recipients to click on it. This will boost your website traffic too.

They aid storytelling and drive conversion

The fact that virtual tours allow you to tell your brand story beautifully is a major plus. Don’t forget that students today have too many colleges to pick from. And so many options can often leave them confused or unsure about the unique selling point of different colleges. The good news is that a virtual campus tour makes it easy to sell your uniqueness and stay ahead of the competition. Maybe it’s your rich history that makes you different, or the exclusive job-oriented courses you offer, or the way you help the community around you – no matter what your brand story is, telling it through a virtual tour can do the trick. The idea is to connect with potential students easily and keep them engaged. This way, they will keep coming back to your site or submit a form online. This starts the process, helping you to guide them towards the conversion stage.

They encourage action and improve visibility

A smart virtual tour will always have crisp and clear buttons that say, “Apply Now”, “Have a Question?”, “Connect with Our Admissions Officer”, “Schedule a In Person Visit”, and so on. It will also have legible and neat buttons for sharing the link on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or via email. So, if a potential student likes your tour, they will feel the impulse to take some sort of action. They might want to find out more, have a more detailed chat with an advisor or simply apply and share the news with their peers.

And remember that any kind of action is engagement. Also, search engines like Google view it positively. In fact, if you add the tour to your Google business listing, you are likely to get more clicks, which will boost brand awareness and engagement. And why is that important? Well, it affects your ranking. If the traffic and engagement on your site shoots up, you will rank higher on the search engine results page. More students will see you and your admission stats will start looking good.   

They are a worthy investment

Virtual campus tours are usually one-time investments that help you reap benefits many times over, unless you make some major change to your institution. And the team at Mass Interact are expert virtual tour providers in the market who can give you exactly what you want and need. They have skilled and experienced professionals who know how to shoot campuses, highlight the goodies, use both natural and artificial lights, and pick the best angles. These professionals also use the latest camera equipment and editing tools to craft gorgeous tours.

Get Started

By now, you should have a clear idea about why campus virtual tours help with the admission process. So, get started before your competitors steal the show. Get in touch with us by e-mailing us at info@massinteract.com. Someone will be sure to follow up to make sure you get a top-quality tour that fits your needs.

Read, A Handy Guide to Making Your College Virtual Tour More Engaging