When it comes to promoting your business premises, you want to give potential customers the best possible impression. Sure, you could describe your space in detail and hope that people can imagine what it looks like, but why not take things to the next level with 360 photo tours?

360 photo tours if you’re not familiar with the concept are also called virtual tours (or the rather clumsy term, digital twin) are made from a series of photographs, stitched together, creating a seamless, panoramic view of a physical space. Businesses use these tours to show off everything from retail units to office buildings, and they come with a host of benefits.

For instance, showing off your space in all its glory. When people are considering doing business with you, they want to know what they’re getting themselves into. By using a 360 photo tour, you give potential customers an immersive experience of your spaces. They’ll be able to see every nook and cranny, from the storefront to the back room. This can help them feel more comfortable with the idea of doing business with you, because they’ll know exactly what to expect. With the right type of 360 tour, you can also link it into the Google Street View system.

Let’s be real: Showing people around your business premises can be a time-consuming process. But with a 360 photo tour, you can give people a virtual tour of your space, without even leaving your desk. Think of all that time and energy you’ll be saving, while still giving potential customers a great sense of what your space is like. Go one step further and link the tour with a video call, which some tour providers have embedded in the tour system, and your virtual visitor and you can chat while ‘walking’ through the tour.

The upshot of all this is reaching a wider audience: If your customers have access to the Internet, they can access these tours. People from all over the world can visit your space, meaning that you’re not limited to local foot traffic. If you’re trying to attract tourists or out-of-town visitors, this will be especially useful.

Keep ’em on side and on site

When people visit your website, you want to keep them there as long as possible. A 360 photo tour is a the perfect way to do this, because it gives people something to explore. They’ll meander through your tour and click around so they see everything your space has to offer – which means they’ll spend more time on your website. And the longer they stay, the more likely they are to do business with you.

Possibly the most important reason for your business though, is setting yourself apart from the competition. Let’s face it: not everyone is using 360 photo tours to promote their business premises. By using this technology, you can set yourself apart from the competition and show potential customers that you’re serious about your business. Plus, it’s Just. Plain Cool.

With all these advantages, could there be any disadvantages? Well of course, there are some minor downsides such as your online visitors needing the more modern technology for viewing 360 photo tours. However, all modern computer browsers – of any flavour hardware – plus virtually any smartphone produced in the past five years, can view these tours.

And what about the costs? While it’s true that some virtual tours and ‘digital twins’ are expensive, you won’t have to break the bank to get one created for your business. You’ll most likely need to hire a professional photographer who uses some specialised equipment to produce your 360 photo tour, but once created the only ongoing cost is hosting – and there are options for embedding tours into your own website (although they cannot be updated as easily as when they are hosted)

Overall then, the benefits of using 360 photo tours for promoting your business premises far outweigh the drawbacks. So why not give it a try? You might be surprised at how much it can do for your business. And who knows, maybe you’ll even have some fun with it along the way.