Buying a new house or choosing a college can be a critical decision for anyone. It requires them to put in a lot of effort and time, can be very costly, and lays the foundation for their future as well. Even simple things like paying for a gym membership, booking rooms at an upscale hotel, or heading to a café for a date, require careful consideration as no one wants to settle for a poor or even average experience. This is the reason why most people these days research extensively, read user reviews, and watch videos or virtual tours online, to make sure that they are investing in the right thing. 

And as you already know, a virtual tour is a great way to get people accustomed with your product or service without them having to physically go somewhere. These tours can be super immersive, engaging and useful, if you go about it the right way. They can not only serve as a virtual guide but also attract new leads and customers. However, common virtual tour mistakes can hinder the user experience for anyone using the tour and leave a bad impression of your business or brand. Hence, it is very important for you to avoid any virtual tour mistakes and make sure that your audience is absolutely satisfied.

In other words, knowing the virtual tour mistakes you are making is the first step towards resolving it. Which is why, we have listed down 6 common errors businesses tend to make when creating a virtual tour. Read on. 

Common Mistakes When Making Virtual Tours

1. Underplanning

Just because the tour is online doesn’t mean that it is easy to use. Proper planning is as important in a virtual tour as it is in a physical tour. People who go online to look for something have very little attention span, and since they’re most likely to watch the tour on a mobile device, things like awkward pauses, the host not remembering their lines, unprepared rooms and surroundings, can negatively impact the experience of viewers.

So, start preparing for the tour early on, keep a script ready, make sure rooms are cleaned, doors are unlocked, and never underestimate the benefits of a rehearsal. If it’s a live tour, keep your viewers posted in advance about the itinerary and which event will happen when so that they can also be prepared for Q&As or other important sessions. No matter how well you are prepared, keep a contingency plan ready as well – it’s better to have and not need it than need it and not have it.

2. Lack of Measurable KPIs

One of the biggest mistakes in making a virtual tour is a lack of focus on the goals. It is vital to understand the reason for which the tour is being created and what purpose it will serve to the viewers and your business. Should the tour attract more leads? Resolve customer queries? Raise funds? Or even create better connections? 

Envision the objectives that you want the tour to fulfil and then carefully construct the tour to drive a funnel towards achieving that objective. While the extended tour of your newly inaugurated science laboratory might look fun, if it isn’t able to attract viewer attention and gain more leads, it is of no use. Decide on the most important KPIs, create the tour through the attendee’s mentality and make sure that the results of the tour are in line with the goals.

3. Long and Boring

Unless you’re one of the world’s biggest tech companies releasing the next iPhone, your viewers might not stick around for an hour-long online tour. Trying to replicate in-person events in a virtual tour can be one of the top virtual tour mistakes. Virtually, your viewers aren’t sitting in a packed hallway with hundreds of like-minded people. Instead, they are isolated in their homes and accessing the tour through a link.

If the tour isn’t exciting and immersive, it would take them just a click of a button to close the browser window and never return. You certainly don’t want this to happen. Hence, rather than trying to give the same experience of a physical tour to your online viewers, take advantage of the new medium and make the tour more interesting. Use animations, background music, compelling narrative and storylines to keep the viewer hooked. One of the biggest advantages of an online tour is that you can skip through all the boring stuff to show viewers only your best parts. Everything else, they can access themselves.

4. Lack of User Interaction

One of the common mistakes of virtual tour creation is not focusing enough on keeping the viewer engaged. After all, they’ll be taking a significant amount of time out of their lives to attend the tour or access it online. They don’t want somebody just describing the video. Students might like to see lecture halls, hostels, or know about the courses you provide. Potential home buyers might want to see the view from the balcony, and what’s the bathroom like from the inside, or they might want access to floor plans. Leaving out these capabilities can make the tour a bit monotonous with viewers not finding themselves attracted to the tour. Not allowing the user to interact with the tour can be one of the biggest virtual tour design mistakes.

5. Technical Mediocrity

While you are not creating a cinematic masterpiece with a stellar cast and beautiful locations, it still pays well to use high-quality equipment. Your audience is expecting a smooth tour so that they can get as much information as needed to make an informed decision. A shaky camera, bad picture quality, distorted images, lack of sound, and other technical difficulties can make it impossible for you to hold on to a viewer and are some of the major virtual tour mistakes. The users already have a short attention span and a plethora of high-quality content that they can access online. So, if your tour lacks that professional feel, then your viewers will have no incentive to stick around.

The best way to ensure that your video is free from any technical mediocrity is to hire a professional videographer experienced in creating virtual tours. Prepare in advance about all the scenarios and use cases to be shown on the tour to ensure that the tour runs smoothly. There’s not much additional effort required. You just need a high-quality camera, a gimbal to keep the camera steady, some external lighting and other technical tools that can immensely change the quality of the tour. After all, you wouldn’t want your audience to be in the middle of a tour trying to look around the room but unable to do so because the images are blurry and not properly lit.

6. Abandoning Creativity

Even though technical prowess along with modern tools, a well-written script, and professional execution is important for a tour, you should never leave out creativity. There is no fixed procedure or guidelines for how a virtual tour can be created and it is limited to the designer’s imagination of how they want to capture the audience’s attention. Hence, one of the key business virtual tour mistakes is to follow a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, try to figure out how your tour can stand out from others and what is it that you can provide the viewers to nudge their interest.

For instance, a background story of how your college, hotel or retail outlet was formed being narrated along with the tour can be something that the viewers would like. Apart from an in-depth view of what’s inside the establishment, an aerial view of the business along with its surroundings, customer testimonials, and more, will be appreciated by viewers.

Also Read: 6 Things that Make a College Virtual Tour Smashing

Now that you’re familiar with some of the mistakes made when creating virtual tours, it is time to integrate these lessons to prevent any home, college, or business virtual tour mistakes. Remember, your audience is now online, and you need to compete with several sources of distraction to keep them engaged with your tour. If you are still facing difficulties creating a tour or don’t know how to start, contact us at info@massinteract.com and we will design the perfect virtual tour for you.