Top Five Benefits of Virtual Tours for Schools and Colleges

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Millions of Internet users take virtual tours every day, so there's more than enough reason to include a virtual tour on your school or college's website. The advantages of virtual tours include:

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1. Enhances User Engagement

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Prospective students are more likely to feel connected to your school when they view a virtual tour of the buildings and campus rather than photos. A 3d tour creates an immersive experience that encourages visitors to interact with your website.

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2. Helps Your School Stand Out

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Any college can display pictures of their facility and surroundings. Why not go the extra step with virtual tours? Interactive, multimedia tours can make your website come alive for potential students as well as increase your organic traffic.  A virtual tour makes your educational centre come alive and gives website visitors a realistic idea of the layout and what they can expect. 

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3. Highlights Your Unique Campus

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Virtual tours allow you to showcase the uniqueness of your facility, whether it's a unique architectural feature or a landmark on campus that other schools don’t have. When students are making an enrolment decision, small details matter. Sharing unique, memorable aspects of your campus can help increase your registration numbers.

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4. Provides Vital Information

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More students will catch on to what makes your school special in a virtual tour, rather than reading impressive statistics in writing. Include a video of students taking part in sports to show your school's prowess in extracurricular activities. If you excel in academics, include clips of students engaged in class activities.

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5. Makes Your School Memorable

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If you want prospects to remember your college, consider incorporating a virtual tour on your website. The visual associations and immersive experience will make your school more memorable when it comes time to enrol.

 

Using a virtual tour on your website will help your school come across as professional. It will indicate that you are welcoming of new students, but also that you are serious about the education you offer. Virtual tours are perceived as high-quality, which is how you want your school portrayed as well.

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Making the most of Virtual Tours on your website

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At Future World 3D, we recognise that it’s not just about using virtual tours, but also about how you use them! That’s why we’ve collected these three tips to help you make the most out of your virtual tours.

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1) Use virtual tours to highlight the history of your school.

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In addition to using virtual tours to display a current view of the layout and features of your educational centre, you can also use them to show the history of your school.

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Many businesses have an online ‘about us’ page that talks about when they were established and what their facility/services were like at the time they started. Sharing the details of a school’s rich history likewise helps it to come across as stable and reputable. 

Instead of just talking about the history of the school, and only trying to describe what it was like, you can show your website visitors! Take advantage of a virtual tour to show how your school was when it started, where things used to be, and how far you’ve progressed. 

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In addition to a historical virtual tour, you can share some quick ‘fun facts’ on your site about the history of your school/university. You could even include a few short stories of students who graduated/attended your school in the past and what they went on to do (especially if there are some whose names will be recognised!)

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2) Use virtual tours to show the full picture of your school (not just where classes take place.)

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In addition to showing the layout of the school itself and drawing attention to where different classes and courses are taught, you can also highlight other areas in connection with your school. This could include areas outside of the building, such as fields for sports or other areas designated for outdoor activities for students.

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If there are on-site living accommodations (for campuses, boarding schools, etc.) you can show a tour of the layout of the living facilities and even how the individual dorm rooms look. This is important for students or their parents who may have some anxieties about them moving away from home and living elsewhere. It will help to put them at ease and become more comfortable with the idea of them going to your school.

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3. Use a virtual tour in connection with genuine testimonials. 

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It’s also beneficial to include examples of positive real-life experiences in connection with your educational centre. By displaying good results on your site in addition to virtual tours that show an interesting and pleasant physical environment, you increase the effectiveness of the tours. Testimonials and virtual tours are powerful marketing tools on their own, but by making effective use of both of these, you are more likely to persuade website visitors to apply to or attend your school.

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You could use brief quoted statements for testimonials, or even show a professional video recording of people’s experiences. 

A few types of testimonials you could include:

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• Experiences of students who’ve completed their education at your facility and how they’ve benefited.

• Parents’ perspectives on how they made the right choice sending their children to your school.

• Quotes from teachers who enjoy working there and what they love the most about the atmosphere.

• Statements from well-known employers/companies that are eager to hire graduates from your school/university.