Enrolling into a new school or searching for a suitable kindergarten or education centre for your child is an important and crucial process, which can be quite nerve-wracking. Besides looking up statistics and standings of the prospective education providers, students and parents want to view the space and campus to be familiarised with the amenities. With the pandemic, some students may not be able to view campuses in person, especially if they live overseas. In these cases, having a virtual tour for your school or centre can be a very beneficial commodity that could easily encourage a prospective student to enrol into your school. For schools that do not have a virtual tour in Singapore, an international student can easily write you off as transparency and accessibility are extremely important in our increasingly digital world. A 360 virtual tour does exactly that as it can bring clients and interested students around your campus through a mobile phone. Institutions will be able to visually showcase their unique sights and features that usually draw in more candidates. Virtual tours are increasing clicks and bringing more leads to websites and have proven to be an effective marketing strategy for many businesses. While educational institutions are about academics, a large part of learning includes experiences. Having a virtual tour in Singapore as an education provider sells your campus and stands out from competitors.
In a study that collated results on how the pandemic has impacted student enrollment, 80% of students and 84% of parents said that campus visits are very important when going through the application process of choosing a school. The pandemic has made in-person tours trickier, which can affect the number of new applicants in educational institutions but virtual tours have become an alternative solution. When targeting potential clients such as students and parents, it is important to understand what these candidates are looking for in a school. Most prospective candidates want a holistic experience and will look out for excellent learning spaces as well as amenities that allow them to unwind and mingle with other students. Here are some ways a virtual tour in Singapore can make you stand out as an educational provider to draw in more applicants.
Not many educational institutions provide a virtual tour on their website so having one, especially in the current climate, can make you stand out amongst the rest. By adapting to the pandemic and offering an alternative solution to viewing your campus and space, interested students and parents will view your institution as a professional and qualified one. Especially for students that are unable to view the space in person, having transparency through a virtual tour makes your institute more trustworthy and attractive to enrol into.
For many students and parents, a school or education centre is not just a place for learning. Most candidates spend a significant amount of time at these institutions so feeling a sense of connection to your school is more important than you think. Especially for students and parents who may be miles away, assurance that your institution is worth investing in can be shared through a 360 virtual tour. Being able to familiarise and access the different spaces online can create an emotional effect that marketing strategists aim for. Through these visual and engaging graphics, interested students can envision their day-to-day life at your school, which can turn a prospective student into a registrant.
Some institutions have a unique selling point that draws more students in such as an Olympic sized swimming pool or a state of the art learning centre. While these features sound attractive, what truly sells them is an accompanying visual. Having a 360 virtual tour will be able to take prospective and interested applicants around your unique spaces, further propelling your marketing strategy to invite more students in. A virtual video will be able to give a general scope of the space but its added features can also zoom into multiple buildings. Depending on the student’s interest, they may choose to explore the computer lab or student lounges and by making all these unique features available on a virtual tour, it naturally creates a personalised marketing plan.
Of course, some schools and education centres may argue that a gallery of images is enough to showcase their institution. Yes, images are visual proof of your space but it is not as engaging and captivating as a virtual tour. Having a 360 tour on your website has shown to increase the amount of time visitors spend on your site by 80%. This proves that these tours are able to catch the attention of prospective clients and possibly make them consider your space even more. Moreover, the 360 technology allows for so much more user interaction features to be embedded into your websites to create a realistic and comprehensive tour of your school, unlike photo galleries.
With a custom 360 virtual tour in Singapore, your online tour can be personalised to fit with your institution’s trademark look. The UI/UX interface can match your school’s brand colours and features like a navigation menu can help students and parents seamlessly view the space with a categorised list of the different rooms and amenities. You can have an all-in-one information gallery in your virtual tour with added infoboxes of testimonials from alumni graduates to further sell your institution.
Enrolling into an educational institution is not an easy decision as it is regarded as an important part of many students and parents’ lives. Prospective students will put in a lot of thought and research before deciding on a school. Therefore, as an institution, it is important to be able to provide as much information and answers to these applicants. In this digital age, it is vital to maintain transparency of your business as any prospective student is bound to look up their interested schools on the internet first. Setting up a virtual tour in Singapore is a long-term investment that will continually draw more students and parents towards your school.