How to Use Virtual Tours for Real Estate Marketing

Welcome back to another Momentum Monday! We hope you are all staying safe and healthy during these times. Today, we’re going to look at how to use virtual tours for real estate marketing.

If this is your first time looking into using virtual tours, then you want to make sure you are well versed on the fundamentals of virtual tours, as well as the process and effectiveness of them. 

 

A virtual tour is a cohesive collection of photographs that capture every part of a property. All of the photographs are compiled together digitally, resulting in a 360 degree view of the place. This is done using a specific camera and tripod called the Matterport: 3D Camera. There’s other types of cameras and equipment you can use, but Matterport is our partner and the best in the business when it comes to hardware and software.

Through a virtual tour, you can essentially observe and interact with every part of a property digitally without having to visit the place in person.

Virtual tours are a highly effective marketing tool, gaining momentum and growing in popularity. With virtual tours, potential customers and clients can view properties without having to visit them in-person. According to Matterport, 89% of buyers across demographics increasingly look to web and mobile tools to make their buying decisions.

Virtual tours give marketers the ability to show off their properties in a more interactive, engaging, and transparent way than traditional forms of media like images, video, and text.

Here is an example of one of virtual tours of a real estate listing from our Real Estate Virtual Tour Portfolio.

If you’re in real estate, you definitely want to consider the benefits that virtual tours can provide to your business. With virtual tours, potential clients and customers can view your property remotely. This can help make the process of selling properties much quicker and easier. Through virtual tours, clients can view the entirety of a property, and come to a decision on whether they are interested in it or not without having to visit it in-person.

Are you sold on using virtual tours to market your business? If so, you want to first hire a trusted virtual tour photographer, specifically, a trusted Matterport Partner Photographer who is experienced and highly skilled using the Matterport: 3D Camera. You can do this by visiting the Matterport Contact Page. Of course, if interested, you can also look into using the Matterport: 3D Camera yourself and become your own photographer for your properties.

Once you have a photographer, whether it’s an experienced pro or yourself, you want to schedule your property shoot date, along with the time and location. How you want to accomplish this is in your hands. We recommend giving the photographer access to the property beforehand, or you can meet them if you want to be present during the shoot. A property shoot typically takes about 1-2 hours depending on its size.

What’s Included in a Real Estate Virtual Tour?

Prior to the shoot, you want to go over with your photographer what the key aspects are that you want to be captured. This includes the amenities, features, images, videos, and several other important things about the property that you want to be linked out from the virtual tour. A virtual tour includes features called Mattertags. A mattertag is a digital label on an area of a room that, when interacted with, expands to reveal important details and media that you want users to know about from the property. These make your virtual tour more interactive and engaging for potential buyers.

Following the property shoot, your photographer will upload, edit, and publish the virtual tour. This takes about 24-48 hours to be completed. From here, all you need to do is review the tour and finalize everything featured within it. Once completed, you can market your property’s virtual tour on your website, on social media, in emails, etc. It’s entirely in your hands.

Best practices for marketing a virtual tour:

• Text and email the link to potential buyers
• Add the branded link to your listing or MLS
• Upload the listing and virtual tour to your website
• Post and boost the virtual tour on Facebook & Instagram

Virtual tours are not incredibly new or groundbreaking. However, now is the time to convert your content and marketing process to use the best technology and marketing techniques. You don’t want to be the realtor not using virtual tours to market your property.

For over 3 years now, Momentum has been offering virtual tours for many types of businesses with our sister company, Momentum 360. Our partnerships with Google, Matterport, SBDC, and other local real estate brokers has allowed us to become the best and most trusted virtual tour agency in Philadelphia.

Check out our portfolio or call/contact us to get a quote in minutes!

Phone: (215) 607-6482

Email: info@momentumvirtualtours.com

If you have any questions about how to use virtual tours for real estate marketing or other needs then call us, or comment below. Thanks for reading, and stay safe!