The introduction of Google Maps has undoubtedly revolutionized the way we navigate around the world. It has transformed the way we travel and has empowered us to explore places that were previously unattainable. Since its launch, the tool has gone through various changes and updates to bring users a more interactive and lifelike navigation experience, especially with Google Street View. The Google Maps Street View takes its users straight into the map and provides a 360-degree view of the location in a very interactive and engaging way. The visual it provides opens up a whole new avenue for its users to expand their reach and take navigation and exploration to a whole new level. 

In this blog, we’re taking a closer look at how Google Maps Street View is leading a new wave of change in the way we experience the world, from the comfort of our homes. 

Discovering Places Before You Visit

One of the best use cases of the Google Earth Street View feature of Google Maps is its availability to take a quick glimpse of the places you want to visit. Be it a new area you’re visiting for an appointment or a trip you’re planning to take half way across the world, with Google Maps Street View, you can take a closer look at the area and layout of their destinations, including access to public transport, restaurants, parking spots, or local parks, before you venture to it in real life. The access to the Google Street View map allows you to detail the area with ease and explore every nook and cranny at your own pace, so that when you do arrive there, you’re not wasting any time figuring out what to do. You’ll know exactly where you are, where you need to go, and what not to do. 

The Impact of 360-Degree Imagery on Exploration

The inclusion of 360-degree views into Google Maps and Google Street View is already a feat in itself. Now add that to the exemplary, high-quality imagery that brings the places alive. The desire to dive right into it and head over to explore places far and wide is undeniable. From taking in views of historical monuments to witnessing local markets in their full glory, Google Maps Street View is a gateway to your desired destinations. For those using Google Maps Street View to plan out their holidays, it can act as a vibe check tool that helps gather information about the place and assesses if it matches the nature of the trip you’re planning and the sensibilities of the people you’re traveling with. 

Making Locations More Reachable

The 360-degree Google Earth Street view brings the beauty and knowledge of the world to your fingertips. No destination is too far and inaccessible, thanks to the prowess of Google Maps. For the zero cost of Google Street View, it makes the world’s most exquisite locations well within the reach of its users, democratizing travel and making it more accessible. With Google Street View, you have the power to make any place, site, or location accessible to people from all social, economic, and ability backgrounds. Schools that often also struggle with limited funding have the ability to take field trips to museums and galleries and use Google Earth Street View to make the classroom come alive by actually visiting the landmarks mentioned in the books. Locations around the world can come to the classroom, all by using Google Maps as a guide and a reliable tool for navigation and exploration.

The new generation of travelers today are keen researchers. They like to plan and prepare for their trips and make all the necessary arrangements before they head out to their chosen destination. Google 360 virtual tours have become the go-to tool used by digitally savvy travelers planning for their next big adventure. They not only offer great insight into the place you’re visiting but it can also be an incredibly useful tool in case you’re looking to scour for the best place to stay. Hotels have a great opportunity to position their myriad offerings using Google 360 virtual tours. 

In this blog, let’s explore how hotels can use Google 360 Virtual Tours to highlight their hotel amenities and, in the process, give their customers the best experience. 

Immersive Exploration

One of the most distinct benefits of a Google Maps virtual tour of a hotel is the feature to explore the property. It has the ability to pull your audience in and facilitate their walkthrough at their own pace. With static photos and videos that most hotels use, they are only able to offer you a glimpse into a specific angle or a part of the hotel. With Google 360 Virtual Tours, there is so much more your customers can do. It helps them witness the place from all the different approaches, explore surrounding walkways, etc., helping them gain reassurance in the choices they make. 

Increased Online Visibility

In our highly visual world, hotels that are able to offer a Google Maps tour virtual experience are sure to gain greater traction online. The high quality of engaging and rich content that can be provided with a Google 360 virtual tour is unbeatable for capturing customer attention. The more engaging and interactive the content, the higher your chances of creating a lasting impact on them, leading to greater competitive advantage, online and offline. 

Showcase unique features

For anyone wondering ‘how to create a Google virtual tour’ that makes guests want to visit you, it’s really easy. Use Google 360 Virtual Tours to pick out the unique stories and interesting factoids that make your property special. With a virtual tour of Google Street View, you have the opportunity to really create a compelling story for your brand and build a unique POV for your hotel through powerful visual storytelling. Think of what makes your hotel’s offering different and capture that well. For the well-intended traveler, a carefully curated showcase of what really sets your hotels apart and what you can do for your guests is what helps make a decision. 

Improved customer engagement

The Google 360 virtual tour cost often gets thought of as an expensive investment. But that’s truly a myth. When you take into account the skyrocketing virtual engagement hotels experience with 360 Google 360 virtual tours, this number begins to sound more and more reasonable. For any hotel in the hospitality industry right now, it’s really important to remember that customer engagement and satisfaction are no longer limited to when they arrive at the property. In fact, it starts right at the time you upload an engaging social media post or add a compelling property listing. Right from the moment your audience has engaged with you digitally, to the time they use a virtual tour of Google Street View to explore the neighborhood of your property, and to the time they arrive at the hotel, at each step, you’re able to create a customized engagement experience that will inevitably lead to greater customer satisfaction. And in the hospitality business, that is the ultimate prize!

In the ever-changing digital landscape, new and often small businesses have to create unique inroads to build their audience. Often the roadmap to customer acquisition to customer retention is really different for small businesses. They really have to make each and every part of their business work for them in a way that larger operations don’t struggle with. Every dollar spent by businesses must be valued against an ROI. In such cases, spendings undertaken for virtual tour services offered by your virtual tour company come under the microscope and get evaluated. What’s often misunderstood is the real impact that a 360 virtual tour brings to the business. 

In this blog, we’re taking a step back and taking a closer look at how when small businesses create a virtual tour as part of their marketing strategy, it only positions them better for greater customer engagement. 

 With a 360 virtual tour, you can engage customers from the start.

When a small business doesn’t fret on the ‘how to create a virtual tour’ but rather focuses on the why, they have the ability to arrive at an interesting junction. Virtual tours have the incredible ability to capture the audience’s attention and welcome them into your brand or business from the get-go. 

By offering a virtual tour, companies are welcoming their potential customers at a pace that customers want and engaging with the brand their way. As a small business, what you’ve done really well is welcoming them into your story in an interactive and engaging manner, which often static images and standard videos don’t do very well. Small businesses stand to benefit greatly from this kind of interaction because you’ve been able to retain your customers on your website or page for longer, creating greater retention probability. 

 360 virtual tours are an affordable marketing solution.

A virtual tour creator is no longer out of reach for small businesses. For those brands wondering how to make a virtual tour for your business work for you in a way that doesn’t break your bank, remember this: seek virtual tour companies that specialize in catering virtual tour services for small businesses. 

Virtual tours are one-time investments in your marketing strategies that will yield compounded results over time. What recurring digital campaigns and print ads achieve over time through all year-round spending, your virtual tour powers up your marketing efforts in one go, without the need for recurring spending. 

 A 360 virtual tour helps you highlight your unique selling points well.

The dynamic and interactive nature of virtual tours as a marketing tool inherently ensures that you have the ability to use it to talk about your unique selling points with so much ease. They have the power to bring your unique story to life and reel in your audience effortlessly. With the help of a virtual tour company, you can learn how to showcase different unique aspects of your business through 360 virtual tours. 

Enhance customer convenience

Last, but always the most important aspect for any small business to drive home is, offering great customer convenience. Visual storytelling is a powerful tool in the hands of a good marketer and a great brand. By using virtual tour services, you are enabling your customers to dive a little deeper into your business, bring your products closer to them, and let them immerse themselves and interact directly with your product, services, and brand. 

A useful insight into the customer psyche worth remembering is that customers are less likely to step away when they’ve invested their time getting to know your brand. 

In the post-pandemic world, the world has been experiencing a new wave of excitement towards travel, not just in its physical sense but also in a virtual way. There is a growing sense of the need for discovery and exploration, unlike ever before. Have it be a trip to a new city, a virtual tour of a museum halfway across the world, or the Google Maps street view of the apartment you’re planning to rent, there are different ways in which we’re inclined to engage when it comes to exploration. It’s moved merely beyond photos and 2-D views of a place, and more and more people are more interested in viewing the world in a more engaging way. This is where Google Street View takes exploration to a whole new level. In this blog, we’re exploring why it’s an indispensable and quintessential addition to how we explore the world around us. 

Let’s start with the most common question: Why? 

For those wondering about the whys behind using Google Earth Street View, start with, why not? It has recorded some of the most densely populated remote parts of over 80 countries in the world with some really cool and effective camera gadgets that give you a 360 virtual tour. By using the street view Google Maps feature, you are able to get a very personalized perspective of the neighborhood of the places you’re exploring. It’s also a great insight into what to expect and plan your travel accordingly. If you’re unsure of what the parking situation looks like at the place you’re planning to visit, use the street view Google Maps feature, and you’ll be able to assess if taking the car is a sensible choice or if you’d be better placed to choose public transport. 

While travel planning often gets viewed as the most essential use case for using Google Street View, it’s also a fantastic tool for education. Especially in cases such as history and geography, Google Street View offers you the ability to take your entire classroom on a virtual journey to historic sites, walk them through the top spots, and engage them in the lessons in a more meaningful way. 

 The next thing that is relevant to anyone wondering how to make a virtual tour work for you or your business is to start by thinking of various use cases in which it can help elevate the experience. 

From a customer experience standpoint, there are various opportunities where virtual tour companies in the market can leverage Google Street View to showcase your business propositions well. Businesses don’t have to worry too much about how to create a virtual tour. Hire a reliable virtual tour company that understands your product use cases well. They can leverage Google Maps Street View to create compelling 360-degree virtual tours for your offerings. Invest in engaging your audience, invite them to explore your offerings, and convey your business story in a compelling way, thanks to Google Street View. A virtual tour creator or perhaps a virtual tour company can become the unsung hero in your sales and marketing arsenal that you can engage to captivate your audience in a saturated market. 

For individuals who are keen to travel to places far and wide, the street view Google Maps feature integrated into Google Maps can be a real game changer. Accessible at the click of a button on your mobile phones, laptops, and computers, free of charge, it’s a handy tool to fuel your exploration pursuits without a hitch. 

Reasons to add Google My Business photos to your listing

• Establishes trust – Photos that clearly show the inside and outside of your business, the products you make or services you offer, and the people who work with you, help in building the trust of potential customers almost immediately.
  
• Improves engagement and decision-making – The importance of Google My Business photos lies in the fact that they help customers understand what you do better. This way, prospects feel interested, tend to contact you for more details and make decisions quickly. They can compare your business easily with others and take a call without having to research much.

How to add Google My Business photos?

Make sure your business is verified by Google before you start. You can either use the GMB mobile app or a desktop to add photos. Just navigate to the Menu section and then the Photos section to add images or videos. Keep these points in mind:

• Google My Business photos must be in PNG or JPG format.
• 720 x 720 pixels are the dimensions required.
• The image file size needs to be between 10KB and 5MB.
• Make sure that the images have a crisp resolution and are show brightly lit places.
• Avoid altering the photos or using filters.
• To add Logo or Cover photo, choose the relevant option in the Photos section and upload. The logo should be crystal clear and the cover photo should be one that looks well on both laptops and mobile devices.
• Adding videos or Google virtual tours is similar to what you do for photos. Just make sure that the video is at most 30 seconds long and the file size is not more than 100 MB. Go for a resolution of 720p or higher.  

Read – Does Your Business Need Google Street View? The Pro & Cons of Google Street View

Tips to add Google My Business photos that make an impact

To make the maximum impact with your Google My Business photos, keep these pointers in mind:

• Your logo should be such that potential customers can identify your brand instantly.
• The cover photo should ideally indicate what your business is all about.
• General pictures, which can be uploaded by both you and customers, should highlight various aspects of your business. These should help other prospects make an informed decision.
• Videos can offer behind-the-scenes information about your business or brand, how a product gets made or how your employees offer a particular service.
• Try and upload both exterior and interior photos to maintain transparency about your business.
• If you sell products, upload their high-quality photos to make the quality, colors, dimensions, easily understandable. If you offer services, show your workforce in action.
• If you are in the food business, upload tempting images of your dishes. Same goes for beverages.
• Upload photos of happy employees or those who directly interact with your customers to seem real and gain trust.

All in all, add Google My business photos to your listing to grab eyeballs quickly, make a lasting impression, earn customer trust and encourage them to choose you over others. It is easy to do as long as you keep the above tips and ideas in mind. And if you need a bit of guidance to go about it the right way, shoot us an email at info@massinteract.com and we will get back to you soon.  

Read Also – 6 Ways in which Google Street View takes your business to a whole new