Australia’s Child Care Industry has grown substantially in the last 10 years… with 2018 seeing more new centres than ever before – both locally and throughout Australia.
In some areas this has resulted in centres opening with only a handful of customers, contributing to an industry-wide oversupply that has cut profits across the sector. The oversupply hasn’t generally resulted in fees falling, but, there have been extra promotional drives by many operators to increase enrolments.
It is becoming more and more challenging for Child Care Centres to “stand out from the crowd” and effectively promote and market their offerings.
Virtual Tours are increasingly being used within the Child Care Industry to provide a unique, innovative, interactive and cost effective way to promote child care centres.
Why a Virtual Tour ?
For a whole lot of reasons, Virtual Tours are a fantastic way to showcase Child Care Centres to potential new parents and families. Some of the advantages a Virtual Tour has over traditional marketing strategies include :
- Innovative – a Virtual Tour is a unique and innovative way for potential families to “experience” and interact with your facilities
Multi Use – there are many ways your Virtual Tour can be used. It can be embedded into a Website, posted onto Social Media, emailed as a link, or experienced via a Virtual Reality (VR) Headset- Reusable – once you have a Virtual Tour setup, it can be used and
re-used multiple times… Only needing refreshing/updating if you have a significant change in the physical appearance or layout of your centre - Easy Access – a Virtual Tour can be available to anyone with Internet Access. Potential customers do not have to physically visit your location to get a taste of the facilities you offer.
- Ease of Use – most people find using and navigating a Virtual Tour fairly intuitive and are able to use it with little or no instruction
- Time to Market – typically we would be able to create and publish your Virtual Tour within 7-10 days of the photoshoot (large or very sophisticated VTs may take a little longer)
- Emotional Attachment – because of the interactive process involved in undertaking a Virtual Tour, and the “control” the user has over their experience, it naturally becomes a more emotional experience than is possible with photos or video (which offer very little in the way of participation).
- Extra Information – a Virtual Tour can include hotspots and extra functionality to help showcase your centre, such as :
- Your Branding/Logo
- Links to a website
- “Call Now” Link to directly dial a phone number
- Menu system / Navigation
- Hotspots with popup Information, Photos or Video
- Background Sound
- and more…
Virtual Tour Options
There are a variety of different types of Virtual Tours and associated available for Child Care Centres, at a range of costs and offering a variety of different features
Google Virtual Tour
This types of tour is probably the one that is most widely noticed…. because it is accessible directly from Google Search / Google Maps, and can also be embedded into a website, sent as a link, or added into social media. It is the simplest Virtual Tour to setup and publish, but has relatively limited features. Examples :
Standalone Virtual Tour
Standalone Virtual Tours are the most popular style of VTs for the Child Care/Early learning Industry because they allow you to include Logo/Branding information and offer a wide variety of features and functionality, including Hotspots, Menu Navigation, Image/Video Popups, Background Audio, Auto Rotation… and more… Examples :
Individual 360° Panospheres
An Individual 360° Panosphere is a single interactive image – usually published to Google Maps. It doesn’t include navigation/walkthrough capabilities or fancy features, but can be added to Google Maps, embedded into your website, or posted to social media. Examples :
Aerial 360° Panosphere
Like an Individual 360° Panosphere, an Aerial Panosphere is a single interactive image, but it provides an aerial perspective (taken from a drone) and provides a great way to showcase the location/community Examples :
What Does it Cost?
Prices for a 360° Photo or Virtual Tour to showcase your Child
Costs will vary depending on the size and layout of the areas you;’d like to include in the virtual tour… and the features and functionality you would like to offer. We can also offer a significant discount for multiple tours for a number of centres
If you’d like to discuss how we can help you create a Virtual Tour to promote your Child Care Centre, give Andy a call on 0403 023 223 or Contact Us.