How to Market Virtual Tours Effectively
The technology around 3D virtual tours is really catching on, and many more real estate professionals are adding them to their real estate marketing budgets. Some agents are even buying their own cameras and taking the time to record property tours themselves.
The thing that still seems to be challenging for many is finding a good way to use virtual tours to market listings effectively.
Find Places to Market
When marketing online, the first thing you should think about is where people are likely to notice what you’re offering. And when marketing offline, it’s most relevant to reach them in their homes - since expert management and facilitation of a home sale or purchase is what you’re promoting as a real estate professional.
Listing Sites
When looking to purchase a home, the first place many consumers look are sites like Zillow and Realtor.com, so be sure to include the virtual tour link on the listings you feature on those sites.
You may also want to consider investing in display ads. There are several display ads on Realtor.com that take users directly to an agent’s website. Many agents link to their website homepages, however this is a prime opportunity to lead the audience to exactly where your virtual tour lives online, called a landing page.
Create a Landing Page
When you create display ads and run them on Zillow, Trulia, or Realtor.com, make sure you link to a landing page featuring your video. When you have a virtual tour done for your listing, your photographer should send you an iFrame. You can use that iFrame to embed your virtual tour on your website. Furthermore, you can create a page specifically for your listing and embed it there, along with price, property details, and pictures. When you use this page as part of your marketing it is referred to as a landing page. It is the first page someone lands on, and should sell someone on your product, or get them to take some kind of action, like schedule a showing of the listing.
Social Media
Don’t forget to share your 3D tour on social media.
Facebook is especially favorable for video posts. Upload a snippet directly to your page, and it’s likely your audience will see your post in their newsfeed. Then, for extra measure you can “boost” the post so more people see it.
Not only is social media a great way to promote your listing, but it’s also a great way to market your brand and showcase your service for your clients. 
Your Business Website
There are several ways someone may find themselves on your website:
- They searched for something like “new homes for sale” and clicked on your ad
- They entered the same search parameters and clicked on an organic link to your site (because you have done awesome SEO work)
- Again, they searched for “new homes for sale” and saw you on a map listing, and clicked on your business
- You included a link to your website in your email and they clicked on it
Your website can receive traffic from many sources like social media and real estate listing sites, making it a great platform for marketing both you and your listings. As much as you can, try to be clear what they should do next to get the most out of their visit. Suggest they check out your 3D virtual tours. A buyer will have a nice user experience seeing your high-quality videos and a potential seller will be impressed with your marketing capabilities.
Direct Mail
Direct mail postcards are a great way to drive offline interest to your online video asset. By including unique URLs or QR codes, you can direct your audience online to the exact page that houses your video tour. Once they access your website from the link featured on the direct mail postcard, have a way to capture their name and email. You can use this information to follow-up and schedule a home visit or find out if they’re looking to sell.
Driving traffic to your virtual tour is the only way to maximize your investment. The only way it can be effective is for people to see it. These simple tips won’t take you very long to implement, and they can help get your virtual tour in front of as many buyers as possible.