Skip to content Not sure if our services are for you?
We offer a trial 360° photoshoot on our first meeting totally for free.
So, if you like our 360° photos, we can continue the project with a virtual tour and If you don’t like them, you won’t pay a cent.
Multilingual Virtual tours: Show Your spaces to foreign customers
Virtual tours are normally created in just one language. Why? Well, most companies focus on the market with the same language. So, in that case, it is useless to create a virtual tour in more language variations.
But what about when the company wants to communicate with customers who do not speak the same language? This approach is frequent for big multinational companies or specific industries when people from other parts of the world are connected.
A great example of this is the tourism and hospitality industry because (marketing) communication needs to be in numerous languages. And of course, if the company communicates in different languages on all channels. Then a virtual tour as a part of the marketing strategy needs to be also in numerous languages (aka multilingual virtual tour).
How to create a multilingual virtual tour?
First of all, we do not need to create 2 separate virtual tours if we want to focus on people speaking 2 different languages. One virtual tour with 360° photos and a language switcher button is all we need.
What is a language switcher?
Well, a language switcher is a simple button that is programmed just to change variable from one language to another.
This language switcher will translate for the user all available text into his required language (need to be available).
PRO TIP: For professional virtual tour creators, it is fairly easy to implement this feature, but for amateurs not that much from my experience.
But what does it look like? And where can a language switcher can be located?
The language switcher is a button that can be located anywhere and looks whatever, but there are a few locations that we think are the best to place it.
Where is the best place to put a language switcher?
There are numerous positions where a language switcher can be located. It depends on the virtual tour creator and also the UX research. But from our experience, there are 2 positions which work well in most cases. These two are language switchers located on welcome pages and in menus with visible buttons.
The first approach is to locate it on the welcome page of a virtual tour. This is the initial page the user sees before the virtual tour starts.
Welcome pages in virtual tours are in most cases used for:
• preventing users from seeing a loading screen
• offering special deals to the users
• provide specific instructions on how to use the virtual tour and its features
• creating the best possible first impression
• or to change the language of the virtual tour with the language switcher
The second approach is to put a language switcher into a navigation menu or a different type of menu. Keep in mind that this approach does not disturb the user of the primary language selected, but can make it harder for the user looking for a language switcher.
PRO TIP: To prevent misunderstanding, the language switcher needs to be easily found. Because the user of another language needs to know the possibility of switching to another language. And that is why we recommend positioning the language switcher into a welcome page if there is any.
Recommendation about multilingual virtual tours
Here are some personal recommendations about multilingual virtual tours.
Is the multilingual virtual tour worth it?
If your company is not sure if you want to create a multilingual virtual tour or not. Keep in mind that having a virtual tour is an investment, so you should think about creating a virtual tour from the business perspective (ROI, cost, … ).
Nevertheless, having a multilingual virtual tour can become a competitive advantage and make your company stand out compared to other competitors. Furthermore, foreign visitors will feel more welcome and understood by your firm which can create stronger positive relationships (returning customers).
Have a great translator
Sometimes a virtual tour creator can’t speak the language your company needs to translate the virtual tour into. And that is fine, no one is perfect. Not even a virtual tour creators 🙂
So, in that situation, it is always great to have someone who can translate all the text (or possibly voiceovers) into the correct language.
Create a custom experience for specific people
If your company is aware of the fact that the preferences of visitors speaking one language differ from others. You can create custom virtual experiences for this specific segment.
Just to be clear, I do not recommend that you discriminate against your customers. Just saying that if you are aware of some patterns that can be beneficial for both parties, it is beneficial to adjust the virtual tour according to the preferences of the visitors.
For example, if you know that for one group finding specific information is important, you can highlight this information to be easily found.
Conclusion
It is all about creating the best virtual experiences for your visitors so that they can comfortably explore your spaces and fall in love even before the very first visit 🙂
And if adding another language to a virtual tour can improve the user experience (UX) of foreign customers, maybe that’s a sign that a multilingual virtual tour could be beneficial.
