Hey everyone, welcome back to another Momentum Monday. As the country continues to open up piece by piece following the Coronavirus pandemic, here at Momentum 360 we are setting up locations throughout the east coast.

Our headquarters is of course located in Philadelphia, but we’re proud to have opened up Momentum 360 locations in State College PA, Brooklyn NY, Dorchester MA, and Princeton NJ. In this week’s blog, we’re talking about the benefits of virtual tours for businesses and real estate, frequently asked questions, and how easy it is to get a virtual tour with Momentum 360.

We’re especially excited about our Princeton location. Being a Philly-based company, we’ve had the pleasure to work with quite a few South Jersey businesses as well as Philadelphia ones, but Princeton is more northern than our usual area. As we move north through the country, we are excited to be branching out and getting to work in more communities.

Home to the prestigious Ivy League school Princeton University, Princeton is the perfect town for a virtual tour company to set up shop, because there is so much in that area that could use virtual tours. These include the Princeton University Art Museum, the Princeton Public Library, Terhune Orchards and Winery, and so much more. We’re very excited for this branch of Momentum 360!

Our past few blog posts, which you can check out here, have been focused on the real estate industry and how virtual tours have become increasingly necessary in a post-Cornavirus industry. We have found time and time again that virtual tours aren’t just a bonus for real estate properties anymore, they are an invaluable tool. The same can be said for any kind of business, not just real estate. Especially now when health and safety are such prominent concerns for everyone, businesses that have a virtual tour showcasing their products, their store set-up, and building size are going to put their clients’ minds at ease.

Keep reading to learn how a virtual tour puts you in a better position to help out your clients and will help your business thrive.

Benefits of Virtual Tours

By now, we all know how much our day-to-day lives were impacted by the Coronavirus. Life as we knew it changed pretty much overnight with schools moving to remote learning, millions of people working from home, restrictions placed on social gatherings, and non-essential businesses being closed.

Slowly, and on a state-by-state basis, the world is opening back up again. Starting today, June 15th, New Jersey is beginning its phases of reopening, starting with outdoor seating at bars and restaurants. Even as restrictions are being lifted, there are still limitations on what people can do and what they feel comfortable doing.

Virtual tours are a visual 3D representation of the inside of your business, allowing customers a 360° walk-through experience.

Here are some Virtual Tour examples in our portfolio. Click the tour you want to view then click

the play button.

3D Virtual Experiences are most commonly used for brick-and-mortar or retail businesses, like restaurants or venues, and in residential real estate to vividly showcase their space to customers.

Some common reasons to invest in a 3D tour are:

• To showcase their interior space to potential customers
• To add virtual content to their Google My Business page
• To publish a 360° view to their Google Maps Page
• To add to their website and social media
• To outrank and outperform their competition in SEO and organic Google searches

Virtual tours are not yet as commonplace as we believe they should be, but especially in the wake of the Coronavirus, they are quickly rising in popularity. Users of virtual tours have noted that they are:

• Ranking higher in Google local search results
• Increasing visibility on their Google Page & Website
• Developing trust and familiarity with potential customers
• Seeing an overall increase in consumer demand and traffic
• Averaging Better Customer Reviews & Ratings
• Attracting younger website viewers and keeping them on the page longer
• Increasing Google Rankings

Overall, having a virtual tour of your business is an asset that helps your business to thrive in a slew of ways. From increasing your business’s SEO presence to making your website more appealing, a virtual tour is a tool that businesses cannot afford to lose out on.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can a virtual tour help my business rank higher on Google?

This is a great question! Local search is a lot easier to maneuver than competing with worldwide companies on Google. Essentially, there are three reasons that companies with 3D virtual tours tend to rank 10-20% higher than businesses without.

1. Google prioritizes content that users find helpful. Tools like a virtual tour create more engagement from website visitors, and when there is more engagement the website gets a boosted ranking.
2. Google cares about showing customers helpful and relevant information, not only text-based, but also visually with images and video. The virtual tour feature has existed for about 7 years but is only recently being featured and promoted by Google. Because Google is a business like any other, it is in competition with businesses like Facebook, Yelp, or other search engines. As a result, they are going to prioritize posts and businesses using their product features.
3. The more businesses actively use all of Google’s products and features the better. The feature is actively recognized on Google maps and is easy to embed via Google 360° imagery or Matterport software. The more robust your Google Maps listing, the more relevant and accurate the representation of your business is on Google.

How do Virtual Tours work?

At Momentum 360, we take care of all the details for our clients so they don’t have to worry about a thing. We partner with Matterport, an all-inclusive virtual tour company, to create our tours. Matterport is a three-dimensional camera system you can use to create realistic, fully immersive experiences. Our photographers use this camera system to capture images, collect measurements, and process data to create, edit, and share a 3D rendering of your business.

Matterport also allows us to improve your SEO ranking by using “Mattertags”, or keywords placed strategically inside the virtual tours. We utilize these mattertags by attaching prominent keywords all along the virtual tour to ensure Google’s algorithm will help it rank.

When setting up a client’s virtual tour, the process looks a little something like this:

1. Approve quote and project (15 minutes)
2. Schedule shoot date (5 minutes)
3. Prepare your business (1-2 hours)
4. Clean interior, swept, organized, prepped, no people.
5. Typically before or after business hours and with good lighting.
6. Photographer arrival & set-up (15 minutes)
7. Shoot the tour (1-2 hours)
8. Edit and Tag (1-2 hours)
9. Produce and publish the virtual tour (1-2 hours)
10. Promote & market (ongoing)

In making things as easy and straightforward for our clients as possible, we take care of everything from price quotes to set-up, to shooting and editing, and publishing and promoting. All the client has to do is approve the price quote and make sure their business is camera-ready.

Do I really need a virtual tour?

This is the most important question for any business owner to ask themselves. The answer is a resounding, enthusiastic, unequivocal YES!

The Coronavirus has proved to us just how valuable virtual tours are, but their value long preceded this pandemic.

According to LPC 360, there are 9 statistical facts about virtual tours that should convince you how worthwhile a 3D tour of your business will be:

1. The return on investment for a virtual tour is estimated to be just FOUR WEEKS.
2. Virtual tours keep website visitors on a page 5-10 times longer than they stay on a page without virtual tours.
3. Real estate listings with a virtual home tour get 87% more views.
4. According to Google, more than two-thirds of people want more virtual tours.
5. Business listings with virtual tours see twice the amount of interest of those without.
6. Consumers ages 18-34 are over 130% more likely to book venues, hotels, or use services that have virtual tours.
7. Google favors virtual images with a 2:1 ratio preference for thumbnail display on Google.
8. Google virtual tours influence a 16% growth in Google Search and Maps appearances.
9. There is a 12% increase in engagement with Map listings that have a Google virtual tour.

When growing a business online, these are very important figures to keep in mind. Small businesses especially need to optimize their Google rankings and use Google’s features to their advantage. The data clearly shows that businesses with virtual tours not only attract more traffic, but also improve their SEO and organic search qualities on Google. Plus, with ROI estimated to take less than a month, it seems like a no-brainer.

How to Do It

Momentum 360 is here to help. We are experts when it comes to virtual tours, using keywords, and giving you the best experience possible for growing your business online.

Check out our website to see case studies of businesses we have worked with in the past and their improvements after using our virtual tour services. Whether it’s retail, real estate, restaurants, or any other kind of business, Momentum 360 works hard to ensure the best outcome for you and your company.

If you are interested in a 3D tour for your business, you can request a quote by calling us at (215) 607-6482, filling out our online form, or sending us an email at info@momentumvirtualtours.com.

The entire photography capturing process depends on the size of your location. Most virtual tours take 1 to 2 hours to shoot, depending on the square footage of the property and is dependent on the property being ready to film. After that, it takes about 38 minutes to scan a 2,000 square feet image. After we shoot the venue, it typically takes twice that time to edit, tag, optimize, and publish it online.

Momentum 360 is proud to support small businesses everywhere as we all attempt to keep moving forward in a difficult and often-troubling time. We are excited to be opening up our Princeton location as well as serving all different communities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.

As always, stay safe and keep washing your hands! These are trying times but before we know it we will be out living our lives again.

Here at Momentum 360, we want to make growing your business easier than ever. Investing in a virtual tour is without a doubt an imperative step in making that happen. Our society is prioritizing digital content now more than ever, and we likely will not see a decline in this mindset in the future years.

If you are interested in learning more about Momentum 360 Virtual Tours or would like to have one made for your business, feel free to email us or schedule a call with Sean or Mac. For more information, visit our website! Mac Frederick and Sean Boyle, owners of Momentum, have over twenty years of experience in the digital marketing field and have a passion for helping businesses reach their fullest potential.

We post our Momentum Monday and Small Business Saturday blog every week, so feel free to subscribe and make sure you are up to date on the latest trends in the industry. If you have any questions or concerns, leave them in the comments below! From everyone at Momentum 360, thanks for the love, stay healthy, and until next time, build Momentum!