There are a ton of ways to promote your virtual tour. To help decide on the best way to market your virtual tour, below we show you some areas of promotion and strategies you should consider:
- Organic promotion through owned channels
- Promotion through earned or paid channels
- Printed material
- In-person events
Four areas to promote your virtual tour
1. Organic promotion through owned channels
Promoting your virtual tour starts with leveraging your existing channels—it’s the easiest and most effective place to begin. Since you have full control over these platforms, you can (and should) prominently showcase your virtual tour organically. When someone searches for your company on Google, they’re likely to land on your website or social media pages, making these high-traffic platforms invaluable for reaching your audience.
Don’t stop there! Maximize the visibility of your virtual tour by incorporating it into your digital materials and email campaigns. Think outside the box about where you can include links to your tour. Below, we’ve highlighted some creative examples to inspire you.
Bring Your Website to Life: Link or Embed Your Virtual Tour
Share a direct link to your virtual tour or seamlessly embed Circuit tours and scenes into compatible webpages. By showcasing your tour on high-traffic areas of your site, you’ll draw customers directly into your immersive content. Showcasing your Virtual Tour on your homepage effectively drives engagement and increases accessibility for prospective students.
Even better, they can interact with the tour right on the page! Pairing specific sections of your virtual tour with relevant details on your website allows customers to explore your space while learning more about what you offer—helping them visualize themselves in your environment and enhancing their overall experience.
Should you link or embed your homepage, a single tour, or just a scene?
If you can't decide, consider the page's context and how the content in your tour enhances the user's experience. By thinking of what content would be most relevant to your audience, you can connect them to it in the least number of clicks, leading to optimized engagement.
Upload your virtual tour imagery to your Google listing
Since many people rely on Google for essential information like business details, directions, and reviews, leveraging their 360 photo feature is a strategic way to boost visibility. By uploading panoramas from your virtual tour to your Google listing, you can attract more prospective visitors, improve engagement, and drive in-person visits.
Cross-promote your virtual tour on resource pages
Send what you usually do to customers and consider including a link to your virtual tour. Are you sending welcome packages full of valuable information or do you have monthly newsletters that your customers can sign up for? The tour can live as a link or embed in viewbooks, videos, webinars, guides, resources, PDFs, or anything else you currently use for digital marketing.
Include in your email campaigns
Email marketing is a powerful driver of conversions. According to Litmus, every $1 spent on email marketing generates an average return of $36, making it one of the most cost-effective business strategies. Well-executed campaigns engage potential customers and guide them through the buying journey. To maximize impact, align your virtual tour promotions with key stages of your customer lifecycle. For new leads, a virtual tour can serve as an interactive introduction to your brand story. For converted customers, showcasing your spaces through a tour can build excitement, reinforce their decision, and enhance retention.
TIP: Leverage Your Email Signature for More Visibility – If you frequently communicate with customers, adding a link to your virtual tour in your email signature is a simple yet effective way to drive organic traffic. It’s a seamless, non-intrusive way to boost engagement—after all, your email signature is free real estate!
2. Promotion through earned and paid channels
Sometimes, your promotional efforts need an extra boost—and that’s where earned and paid marketing come in. Earned media includes features on external websites, blogs, and media channels, while paid marketing covers sponsored content, ads, and other promotions you invest in. Leveraging strategic partnerships and allocating budget effectively can help you reach broader audiences, increase visibility, and drive even more traffic to your virtual tour.
Promote on social media
Effectively engage new users by crafting social media posts that showcase key highlights and events, leverage trending topics, and incorporate student stories to promote your virtual tour. Posting to social channels like Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, Youtube, Google, etc., regularly helps remind visitors that they can access your virtual tour. If different departments have separate social channels, encourage them to highlight the tour for you to their audiences.
Get creative with your promotional efforts! Authentic storytelling can boost engagement and expand your social reach. Check out these inspiring examples from our customers:
Trafalgar Castle School leveraged LinkedIn's audience of students, supporters, and alumni by creating a post showcasing their Circuit audio feature, highlighting how their own students are featured within the virtual tour.
Colorado Mesa University embraced trendy content creation to promote their virtual tour launch in a fun and engaging way. Their Instagram Reel featured a student ambassador "flying" around campus on a broomstick. Upon reaching the student center—exhausted from his journey—his colleague encouraged him to explore the virtual tour instead. This creative and lighthearted approach resonated with viewers, earning 22.8K views, 1,200 likes, and 116 shares.
Link or embed your virtual tour on third party sites
Consider reaching out to third-party sites that align with your industry or audience—whether it's an educational platform, a relevant blog, or a media outlet. Partnering for a guest post or feature can drive new traffic to your site while boosting SEO by earning valuable backlinks, increasing your credibility with Google, and enhancing organic reach. Media pitches are another powerful way to expand your audience. If your media team is announcing a new program, including a link to your virtual tour within their content can provide added value, showcase your spaces, and attract a larger audience.
Consider paid ads
To dial up the promotion of your virtual tour, consider paid ad campaigns. Be strategic about your timing so that you can make the most of your ad spend. For example, look at your customer lifecycle and plan ads around when it makes the most sense for people to be taking tours.
- Targeted Ads for Maximum Impact – Adjust your ads based on audience behavior. For example, if parents frequently book tours, a post-secondary institution should target them alongside high school students to boost engagement and conversions.
- Retargeting campaign - make the most of interested audiences by retargeting people who have already interacted with other ads from your company. This approach can be effective to push tours after Open House events, webinars, or at certain times within your funnel when customers are ready to learn more about your space.
3. Printed Materials
The University of Ottawa used QR codes in their campus maps.
Don’t be afraid to try more traditional techniques! Brochures, posters, guidebooks, flyers, or other print resources are a great takeaway to remind customers about your tour. Highlight the link or use a QR code to help users access your virtual tour. Once these are printed, you can use them for on-site signage, hand them out in direct mail campaigns or as takeaways at in-person events.
4. In-person Events
Take advantage of face-to-face interactions by mentioning your virtual tour. Encourage visitors to explore it in their spare time for a deeper look at your offerings.
Show at open houses, orientation, or informational events
Conestoga College recruiter interacting with their virtual tour displayed on a large television screen at the Ontario Colleges Fair
Showcase your virtual tour on a large touchscreen for visitors to explore at live events. Viewers can explore the tour in a group setting with others, or your staff can pull up specific tours or scenes for visitors to answer questions about specific spaces.
Supplement in-person tours
Some spaces may be off-limits or occupied during your tour, but you can bridge the gap by using a phone or tablet to give visitors a virtual look inside. After the tour, follow up with a link to your virtual tour, allowing them to revisit key spaces and explore further at their convenience.
Independent Exploration on Campus
Western using promotional signage to encourage independent discovery
A self-guided tour is a powerful way for your visitors to explore campus at their own pace, on their own terms. Unlike traditional guided tours, which follow a set schedule, self-guided tours offer flexibility and freedom, allowing guests to dive deeper into what interests them most.
Onboard staff
Get new employees oriented with your location before they start! Use the Circuits Self-Guided feature internally to familiarize new staff members with your space. You can add the tour to welcome emails, include it in new employee resources, or present it in employee training sessions during their first days.
Seneca College used a large screen display at their Circle of Indigenous Knowledge to provide information about the art installation
Showcasing and promoting your virtual tour through your sites, social media, and other channels helps nurture current leads and future prospects as they go through your marketing funnel. It will also ensure that you are getting the most out of the virtual tour and help increase your return on investment (ROI) on all the hard work you put into building the experience.
