Guide to getting the most of 360 Virtual Walkthrough Tours

One of the first questions you may have is will 360 technology help your business? Will it be the next big thing? Will viewers engage with it? Will it be cost & time effective to provide it for your clients?

Fortunately the answers to these questions are already here and according to our research and direct client feedback not only is 360 technology proving to be a massive cross-industry expanding sector it is also helping our clients win more business, create more engagement with their property listings and with our mobile app it’s quick and easy to implement.

We’ll get to the use of 360 in property marketing shortly however first lets take a quick look at the tangible effects of using 360 advertising.

360 degree adverts have a 3 times higher conversion rate, 30% higher repeated view rate & 70-300% increase in user engagement. This is why the VR 360 global industry is doubling year on year.

360 degree content is the next generation of consumer media and is here to stay. Not keeping up with new technology can have a detrimental impact on your business whereas entering a market early can have the opposite effect as you become an authority.

How do I use 360 virtual tours in my business?
Without doubt using a 360 virtual tour service in your business will bring multiple benefits. When used as an innovative marketing tool they are great for winning listings and in addition they also provide great benefits for your clients & business.

Let your customers know you are always finding new and innovating marketing techniques. Nothing compares a photo to a 360 photo that shows everything in the scene everywhere. 360 provides a unique media form of immersion.

Benefits of 360 virtual tours:

  • Proven instruction winner
  • New and innovating marketing technique
  • Help buyers and renters experience a true grasp of a property until now unobtainable
  • Enable buyers and renters viewing from out of an area to pre-qualify a selection to minimise wasted viewings
  • Help save time and inconvenience on unnecessary viewings

The key to promoting 360 virtual tours beyond their impressive nature is to promote all of the above points to your prospective client who look to you as their property marketing expert.

As a property marketing professional you will be aware that the more value your clients perceive you to be providing the more likely you are to secure them as a client. HIVE 360 virtual tours are a low cost and time efficient addition you can easily add onto your existing marketing package to help provide a 'cutting edge,' perception.

In order to get the most of using 360 Virtual Tours the best thing you do is include them in your valuation process. 360 Virtual Tours are fun and engaging and nothing works better than a demonstration to a prospective client. We provide all clients with a demo branded tour which we strongly recommend they save as an icon on their phone/tablet to show a vendor on an appointment.

360 tours work on all devices however to take the engagement and novelty even further you can demonstrate our tours in full virtual reality by slipping your phone into a pair of VR cardboard glasses. Simply access the tour on your phone, turn it sideways and enter VR mode. The viewer will now be fully immersed in virtual reality and walk through the house without even the press of a button.

HIVE can provide you with fully branded Virtual Reality Glasses that you can hand out to your customers as a fun and powerful marketing tool which is sure to impress. Google Cardboard glasses work with any smartphone to enable anyone to experience virtual reality in a simple, fun and affordable way.

Now you know the benefits of using 360 virtual tours in your business you may be surprised with how little they can cost and how little time they take:

  • Low entry cost (equipment charge only at £250 camera and tripod)
  • Free HIVE account
  • Pay £15 per tour (PAYG) or £50 per month per branch for unlimited tours
  • Create tours quickly and easily using a mobile app
  • Tours presented on an agent branded microsite that you can upload to your website, portals & social media
  • Create in house or sub-contract to your DEA or photographer

We can also provide a range of marketing support including:

  • Demo branded 360 tour for your website and use on valuations
  • Branded presenter/window card
  • Infographic
  • Branded promo video
  • Branded virtual reality glasses

Other features:

  • Navigate rooms by flashing hotspot or virtual reality mode
  • Upload your floorplan to activate navigate by floorplan
  • Valuation button
  • Property specific location information data
  • Branded analytics reports highlighting key metrics
  • Take still photos from our back end photo grabber to use as your main images (COMING SOON)
  • Fuzzy tool to remove any personal items (COMING SOON)

Setup is fast, simple and free. Simply call 01303 626457, visit hive360.co.uk or email bruceadams@hiveeas.co.uk.

The Location Information guides have been very successful in helping to win business at the valuation stage. As you know, I was initially uncertain about how effective they would be, but they have proven to be an extremely worthwhile investment for us.

We were excited at the very beginning with the HIVE Location Information product. It adds real value to both vendors and landlords properties in providing in-depth local information and data for the property. Buyers and renters alike love the booklets and on line presentation of the properties and the local amenities and infrastructure. It has also proved an instruction winner and gives us an added advantage over the other agents at valuations.

Joshua Rafter MARLA | Managing Director

HIVE's 360 Virtual Tour service has enabled us to stand out from the ever growing number of estate agents and has given us the opportunity to impress our clients with something new and innovative. We can confidently say that it has helped us win several instructions over our competitors and the service HIVE offers has exceeded our expectations.

Jamie Ullmer

We have been extremely impressed with Bruce and his team at Hive. Their technical knowledge and understanding of our Estate Agency needs has only been out-weighed by their drive and desire to deliver "a top notch product", within the time-frames that our business has demanded!
"Location Information" is a real USP for Miles & Barr and has not only helped us gain Listings where we may not have, but has also been an invaluable tool for relocating buyers which will surely help us secure future business.

Christin Miles | Partner

East Estate Agency of the Year silver award
We are now fully utilising the HIVE Brochures and they are being really well received by both potential vendors at market appraisals and by our current vendors. None of our competitors is offering anything like it and they help us win business.
Dee Quealy | Director

Having forged a reputation for innovative and forward thinking marketing, ‘Local Information’ was a perfect product for staying one step ahead from our nearest competitors. Our listers report that potential vendors are very impressed and this has had a direct impact on our conversion rates!

Being in a market with a shortage of instructions and available stock to sell, Hive Location Information Brochures have given us a instinct advantage with potential vendors in terms of winning a marginal instructions or achieving the right fee. It is also particularly impressive how quick we receive the completed brochures.

I would just like to drop you an email to mention that our Hive brochures are well received by our clients and gives us the edge to be different in providing bespoke information. I must also mention it was a contributory factor in us winning Gold in The Sunday Time Award for Best Estate Agent in the Eats of England (Single Office Category). We hope to see more great market leading innovation from your company.