Blog Tag: 360 virtual tour

Leaving a Paper Trail

January 12, 2008

We all look for that great idea to promote our virtual tour business but sometimes the simplest things are overlooked. One of the crucial marketing tools you can utilize (outside of the internet) is your business card. That little piece of paper can do wonders if used correctly. Not only does it give your contact information, but it portrays your company and what you do. The design and info that it contains is important since you want to convey a message in a single glance, but that is another topic.

There are many ways to distribute your card such as in mailings, at community network meetings or in every day conversations. The best marketing is free and by using your business cards you can get that by leaving one at every location you shoot a tour. Especially the vacant homes tours. Ever notice how Realtors leave their cards on the counter? Of course they want the listing agent to know they showed the home, but if they see your card sitting there amongst the others, they may take it or write down your info to contact you. They will also view the tour to see the quality work you do and how the virtual tour can be an asset to their virtual tour company marketing. I may even contact them to mention that I saw their card at the home and ask if they would be interested in our services.

Business owners will pass on the card to others or keep it for future reference when they need a tour updated. They may even have a small display for other local companies to leave their cards and you should take advantage of those. Just think of the business card as your ‘silent marketing employee’ that you never have to pay! Get them out there so they can go to work.

Let’s have a great new year and be safe in your travels.

Peace,

Rob Lenthe

Robo-Tours
Remote Global Viewing
S.Nevada/Utah Virtual Tour Creator
www.robo-tours.com
Create interactive 360 Virtual tours! – 702.449.2850

Virtual Tours on Realtor.com Pull More Traffic

January 10, 2008

Our interactive virtual tour technology is pretty advanced, but recently it blew me away….again!

Believe it or not, one of my favorite 360 virtual tours, a million-dollar-plus home in Ridgefield, WA, has received more hits (viewings) from realtor.com than our local MLS.

Take a moment and click on the small blue circle at the bottom of the tour to examine this hit report.

Now, think how reassuring it is to the homeowner to be able to see for themselves that their real estate professional is “putting the tour out there for everyone to see.” — AND they can click on it whenever they want to!

It used to blow me away how few real estate agents would pay the $25 to link virtual tours to their listings. Hopefully, now that they can see for themselves that it works, they’ll consider it.

Dawn Shaffer
All About Virtual tours
Provider or Real Tour Vision Virtual Tours

IDX Virtual Tour Photographer Inventory Pages

January 4, 2008

I’ve been a virtual tour provider in Blowing Rock, North Carolina for awhile now. I’ve come up with a new plan to have an IDX inventory page attached to my own website. This will be advantageous to me and to the real estate agents I work with (or want to work with).

On my site there can be a page with a nice thumbnail shot of each home and a link to the unbranded virtual tour. Now since the virtual tour itself has no contact or affiliate information on it (option 4b ), but does have the MLS number, the agent will still be able to look it up. Any agent can go to my site see all of my virtual tours at once and show them to their clients. The agent can show the virtual home tour as if they were their own and their client will not see other agent’s info.

I hope everyone at RTV and my fellow virtual tour providers had a wonderful holiday season! I did special homemade goodie baskets for my clients. I printed a cool lining for the basket (covered with clear wrap) with photos and my logo all over it so as they snack they saw my logo. Just another way to be memorable!

Douglas Meyers
Blowing Rock North Carolina Virtual Tours
www.VirtualTourVision.net
Order a Virtual Tour – (828) 295-8393

Jersey Shore Virtual Tours Offers Five Pack

December 14, 2007

Real Tour Vision suggested that I should pre-sell 360 virtual tours in the form of a “five-pack” to my new and existing customers. Initially, I was unconvinced that this would work. Nonetheless, I implemented a “five-Pack” tour package offering that included five 360 virtual tours at a 10% discount from my ala carte rate.

After a few months I began selling around 2 packages every week! Aside from receiving a 10% discount, customers love the package option because they don’t have to worry about making payment arrangements every time they place an order, which actually results in increased order volume. Not only do I receive payment upfront, which satisfies my cash flow demands, but pre-selling the real estate virtual tours has tremendously helped to maintain long term relationships with my real estate agent customers. Word of my “five-pack” offering is catching on and I am now taking calls from real estate agents I don’t even know who are interested in buying virtual tour packages after hearing about it from one of their associates.

Do yourself a favor and start by offering a “five-pack” to some of your loyal customers. Make sure there is no expiration date for the virtual tour credits. Once you feel comfortable offering packages to them, you can start offering packages to every other real estate agent and brokerage firm in your area. I now offer packages to every real estate agent I come into contact with and I have a closing ratio of nearly 70%!

Zivko M. Grcic
360 Real Home Tours
Jersey Shore Virtual Tours
www.360realhometours.com
Order a Virtual Tour – 732.299.7895

Using 360 Virtual Tours as Advertising

December 8, 2007

As an Evansville Indiana virtual tour provider, I thought I would pass along a couple of virtual tours I did recently. Both were promotional and were created to show off what our new virtual tour business could do. The first was for the local Red Cross chapter.

I worked closely with their website designer and she was very happy with the results. She put it on the front page of their website and emailed it to 1200 of their corporate partners.

The second was for Crossroads Christian Church, the largest church in Evansville.

Once again, I worked closely with them and they were very pleased with the results. They turned it into a church project and the pastor even provided the music and voiceover. The 360 virtual tour is now on the front page of their website, which is how they communicate with their 2000+ congregation.

I also placed both virtual tours on the front page of our CustomTours360 website.

All this cost me was my time and 2 tour credits, but it has potentially exposed Customtours360 and Real Tour Vision to over 3000 people, many of whom are realtors, business owners etc. All in all, it was a very inexpensive form of advertising for our new virtual tour company.

Brad Hahn & Steve Ricker
CustomTours360
Evansville Virtual Tour Company
www.CustomTours360.com
Order a Virtual Tour – 812-550-5321