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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.
Why are Branded virtual tours useful to your business?
Virtual tours are getting more and more popular these days, but is it a good thing or a bad thing for a business that wants to have a virtual tour in its arsenal or already has one?
Well, virtual tours are all about providing more additional information to the user in an interactive 360° view. This means that if your business wants to provide more value to your users (customers) and let them be able to explore your business space, a virtual tour is a great option.
However, more and more companies want to have a virtual tour as part of their marketing strategy and therefore in some industries, your virtual tour needs to stand out in the competition. And how you can do that?
Well, there are numerous ways, how you can make a virtual tour more beneficial.
Today I will talk about implementing company branding into a bespoke virtual tour as one of the options, for how you can boost the user experience and credibility.
But let’s start with what is company branding.
What is a company branding? And how does it go with a virtual tour?
Look, this post is not about company branding (business branding). So, I will go fast, do not worry.
If you want to read more about this topic, we created a separate blog post called: “Branding 101: What does it mean and why it is useful?“
But in a nutshell, company branding is a process of making a specific identity of your business which helps you stand out and be remembered by the general population or at least your target audience (which is the goal).
Identity mainly consists of the company name, visual elements (design, typography, … ), logo, symbols, and overall strategy of the company (mission, vision, …).
Please bear in mind that this is not everything, this was just a short description of how I view branding. But you get the grasp of it, right?
But here is the main question – Why it is important when creating a virtual tour?
Companies do branding to stand out and be remembered in competition. They need to do consistent communication to let their target audience connect the dots and remember the company and the products or services they are offering.
If the company does not communicate in a consistent manner, the message will not be easy to deliver, and customers will have trouble understanding the product or the company itself on the market (positioning).
Therefore, the company needs to align all marketing communication to be consistent with the company branding efforts.
If a virtual tour is one of the tools the firm uses, then also a virtual tour should be aligned with other communication methods.
It is all about not messing up the flow and making the marketing communication easier for the target audience to understand.
Is it hard to implement branding features into the virtual tour?
Well, it depends on the virtual tour creator or the studio who is creating a virtual tour for your business.
Today, there are a lot of possible software and methods that creators use when creating a virtual tour. So, you need to ask the creator if adding the branding elements is possible.
If you are speaking with a professional virtual tour creator, there should not be any problem implementing it into a virtual tour.
However, there will be differences about how much they can change the layout of the virtual tour to your preferences.
PRO TIP: If the creator(s) are using software called Matterport, which is popular software for real estate. Bear in mind that the branding options will be really limited. So even though the creator assured you they will offer branding features, you will probably not see a real impact, because the platform does not offer many possibilities.
What are some proven branding elements that can be implemented into a virtual tour?
Theoretically anything can be implemented into a virtual tour with the help of the developer. But this does not mean that we should implement everything.
The goal of the virtual tour is to showcase the space to the visitors and help them make more informed decisions. The secondary goal can be always different, but the main goal will be the same in most cases.
This means that you do not want to create a virtual experience that is crowded with cool stuff which is not helping the user. Simple idea, but sometimes it is really hard for the clients to understand that sometimes less is better.
Never mind, so what should be in a virtual tour in terms of company branding that is useful and does not disturb the user?
Here is the simple list:
• Logo or company name
• Colors
• Design, Icons and Symbols
• Typography
• Name of the products
• Copywriting (slogans, phrases, …)
A company logo or company name
A company logo or name is one of the branding elements that in my opinion are the easiest to implement and every professionally created virtual tour should have it. Bear in mind that the size of the logo should not be that big. If the size is big enough the user loses focus on the virtual tour itself.
PRO TIP: We recommend using smaller logos in transparent form and located in the top corners if you want the logo to be visible a lot. Or you can add a logo in the nadir position in a 360° image, which is one of the places that can look cool if done correctly.
Colors
Colors are fundamental when you want the virtual tour to be branded because the colors make the feel of the layout of the virtual tour.
PRO TIP: If brand colors are too bright or vivid we do not recommend using them as the main colors for menus. Rather use neutral colors such as black, grey or white and use brand colors as secondary colors or for buttons (best for CTA buttons).
Design, icons and symbols
Design and symbols are sometimes omitted, but we as a professionals know that it is a good idea to add a cool company design element to a virtual tour.
For example, if the company has its icons or symbols, it is a great idea to use them as hotspots (as used in the example below) or as a part of the menu design.
Typography
Typography is one of the elements which for some people is not that important, but if your company has a unique typography, it makes you stand out. We advise you to use it also in a virtual tour.
Name of the products
The name of the products is one of the elements that we didn’t think about until recently. However, some companies are selling products that have unique names or have their company name inserted into the name of the products. So sometimes it can be beneficial to also include the name of the products.
For example, imagine a hotel that calls its rooms like this: “Hmm, not a big room”, “Big room”, “Really big room” and “Wow, that’s a big room”. This funny naming convention is part of their corporate branding, so it would be a shame not to mention the names, right?
Copywriting
Finally, is copywriting. When the secondary goal of the virtual tour is to inform the visitors about something, it is best to use a great copy. Great copy makes a great impact on marketing communication. That is probably something that you already know, right? Nothing new under the sun.
Non-branded virtual tour vs Branded virtual tour.
I would love to showcase the difference between a non-branded virtual tour and a branded virtual tour. Just a small demonstration of what we are talking about.
In the first virtual tour example , you can find a big conference room with one of our customizable templates we offer. We did not made any changes to the template for this example. The template includes a navigation hotspot and a couple of buttons at the bottom. And this is exactly, what I was talking about, these buttons are working but are redundant here. No need for them to be there.
The second output is a branded virtual tour which we sent as the final output with other virtual tours we created for the client Almanac X Alcron Prague. It eliminated all the unnecessary buttons at the bottom and made the interface easy to use. Even though no special menu was created for this space it is a super nice and easy-to-use virtual tour.
In terms of branding, we used:
• corporate colors
• symbol or secondary logo (as a navigation hotspot)
• Company logo (in the nadir position of the 360° image – aka under our feet)
• Name of the product (as the name of the conference room at the top left corner)
PRO TIP: There is no need to use every possible branding element in the virtual tour if they are not necessarily to be there. Use just those that make sense from the business standpoint and goals of the client of course.
At the end of the day, the virtual tour creator should be there for the client and help him achieve his goals.
Conclusion
In conclusion, branded virtual tours are beneficial to companies who want to stand out and who make consistent marketing communication across all platforms. Company branding elements that can be used in virtual tours are mostly logos, company names, colors, design, symbols, typography, product names, and copywriting.
Virtual tours can also include other elements, but it all depends on the goal of the client.
We always try to come up with solutions that help clients reach their business goals. Sometimes it does include company branding elements sometimes it does not. Every project is different. But it is something to have in mind when creating a virtual tour.
Does your company need a branded virtual tour? Let us know here and we will be grad to help. 🙂
