What type of virtual campus tour is right for your school?

So you’re a boarding or day school and you’re thinking about adding a virtual tour to your marketing toolbox. Good idea!

A virtual tour is great because . . .

The web is first point of access for most businesses and may be for your potential students and their families, or future employees, trustees or partners
You need to get your school on a prospective student’s “A list” so they are inspired to come and see the campus in person
Your school has likely spent a lot of money, time and effort on the campus and its facilities – you can convey this online with a campus tour
You can reach international students who may not be able to visit before making a decision
You can use the tour in recruiting events for students or staff, as well as in fundraising efforts

What are the different forms a tour can take and what are the pros and cons of each?

Type	Pros	Cons
Video tour	Easy to post/share on social media like YouTube User experience is completely controlled	Expensive to create and makes changes to Linear, not interactive Likely that you will lose user before the end Usually can’t be created in-house
Web page with pictures and text/photo gallery	Inexpensive to create; can likely be done in-house User can jump around	Static, boring It is hard to get the bird’s eye view of campus
Campus map with links to still images/captions	User gets a better idea of overall campus User can jump around Feels a little more interactive than a photo gallery	Usually not a self contained piece so user has to keep closing windows Not immersive
360-degree virtual tour	User gets to control the experience with multiple ways to navigate You can incorporate elements from other media (voice overs, maps, slideshows, etc) Self contained marketing piece It is immersive with the ability to look all around the space – even capturing an active moment in time Much less expensive than a professionally created video tour	Usually can’t be created in-house More expensive that a static tour

Questions to ask yourself when planning for your virtual campus tour:

What is your budget?
How will you use it?
- Only online or will you use it at school fairs, presentations, admissions people on the road?
Do you want it embedded in your website or as a separate module?
Do you want to have students/people in the shot or no people in the shot?
Do you want people to be able to see it on smart phones and tablets?
Do you want it to be linear and controlled like a video or self directed and explorable where people can pick and choose where they want to go?
How much of your campus do you want to show?
Who is your audience for the tour?
- Students interesting in your Athletics or other specific programs? Internationals? Donors?
Do you need your tour localized into multiple languages?
Do you want your tour to be focused in on key areas of recruitment – so would need multiple tours or a tour with different segments?
Does the city that you are in play any kind of a role?
- Do you want to show scenes from the city or highlight things to do off campus?

If you decide to go with a Circlescapes 360 virtual tour – we also ask:

What navigational constructs do you want?
- campus map
- thumbnail images
- list/legend
- forward and backward buttons

Need a better virtual tour?
Trust the experts!