Latest / The MADness Podcast / [MADLabZ] Turning Virtual Tours into Admissions Opportunities with Lisa Franzino
Transcript
- James: Hello and welcome to Mad Labs, the younger, funkier sister of the Madness podcast. Today, we are joined by Lisa Franzino from Circlescapes. Lisa is going to talk to us all about virtual tours in this episode called, to Turn Virtual Tours into Admissions Opportunities. Lisa, you are very, very welcome to join us in the studio. How are doing and how is life in France? lisa@circlescapes.com: Doing great. it's gorgeous here and it's a beautiful sunny day and I'm really excited to be here with you guys. James: Well, thanks for joining us, Nick, in the studio as well. Lisa, through Mad Labs, we're always really keen to give some real insight and actionable tips to our audience on different ways in which they can use tools, functions, platforms to help drive their marketing and admissions functions. So, can you tell us a little bit about virtual tours? What they are, how are they constructed, why are they important? why should a marketing and admissions director consider adding them to their marketing mix? lisa@circlescapes.com: Well, I think virtual tours have always been something nice to have as an add-on to the website, a way to give families, you know, a first glimpse at the campus and the programs. But I think COVID really drove home the necessity of a virtual tour when families couldn't come to campus all of a sudden and admissions had to get really creative about how to do that walkthrough. so it was just a natural fit for COVID. and I think these days, you know, luckily COVID's a distant memory, but people started to really rely on getting that virtual glimpse at the school, doing that first you know, initial research through the website, through the virtual tour, and through everything that was offered online. I think people got used to that and started to rely on that. So now they're a little more of a more than a nice to have, but really a need to have for most schools. James: So can ask you about the nature of them? If I head on to, for example, Google Street View, I can navigate a town centre. If I head on to Rightmove, which is the main property for sale platform here in the UK, I can click on various an apartment or a house to look in the bedrooms or the bathroom or the kitchen. Is that what we're talking about here? Are we talking about something far more advanced via our headsets on and we're using controllers to navigate? does it manifest itself in reality? What are parents seeing when they take a virtual tour? lisa@circlescapes.com: Well, I think there's many flavors of virtual tours out there, especially if you're looking around at schools. You're gonna see everything from, you know, a YouTube video that might just be a drone flying through, or you might see a student leading a tour in a video. some schools have campus maps with slideshows, or or simply just slideshows. So I think you know, there's all different styles and you can be effective in all of those categories, but there are definitely some things that you want to do specifically so that you're giving the parents and this and the families the information that they're looking for. You know, you're not making them dig for information. And of course you're not boring them or even worse, frustrating them. So there's lots of things to think about when you're constructing or thinking about how you want to present your campus. Nik Higgins: Can I ask Lisa, where do you see virtual tours kind of fitting in the overall one, the marketing mix in kind of terms of the stuff that a marketing and admissions team would do, but then also in terms of a prospective family's journey towards a a particular school. lisa@circlescapes.com: Well, I think it's definitely one of the first touch points. you know, a lot of times, you know, a a family might hear about a school, but chances are they're doing a Google search, you know, they're on their phone and they're going onto the website. So I think it's really important that you make it easy to find on your website. you're not driving them off of your website, for example, to YouTube or to another hosting site. You're keeping them in that universe. so that their questions are being answered and they can easily figure out the next steps. James: You said something really interesting, about the different types of virtual tours, because I think what you're alluding to there is there's almost the do-it-yourself version for a school who wants to at least have something right through to, I guess, the high-end version that you guys produce. And we can talk about that a little bit more in a while. You said something really interesting in the notes you... prepared ahead of this pod, which is that the virtual tour doesn't start and end at the school gates because actually it's all about the broader community that the schools in as well. Can you tell us a bit about the sentiment behind that? lisa@circlescapes.com: Yeah, I think, when you think about a school, it's James: you lisa@circlescapes.com: more than just what's behind the the double doors as you walk in. Especially for an international school or boarding school, it's maybe a new city for that family. you know, it might be a new country. And certainly for the student, it's a whole new experience that they're going to be immersed in. So you want to give them a sense of the ethos or the essence of what that school's all about. How is it going to feel to be a part of that community? what's it going to look like? what are you going to do after school hours? are you going to hang out with your friends in the downtown area? We have a client that wanted to specifically feature, you know, the kids hanging out in a 360-degree panorama, you know, having ice cream on the lakefront, which is what kids like to do. So really giving them a sense, whether it's through 360-degree photos or through a combination of videos and slideshows and text or drone footage, really l allowing them to explore the greater community as well as understand, you know, what the academic spaces are like or things that, you know, parents wanna know, is my child gonna Get into a good college. you you have to encapsulate all of that in the tour and in that initial information that you're presenting about your school. And I think there's ways to do that. There's ways to do that in DIY. Or you could, spend tens of thousands of dollars. Of course, you certainly don't have to, and certainly not with circlescapes. but I think a lot of schools have. All of that information or a lot of that information already created in their asset library. It's just a matter of curating it in such a way that's thoughtful, intentional, that really shows that community and that campus in the best light and in what how you want to be perceived out there in the market. James: Thanks for that. So I think we could probably agree. It's always great when you can get the professionals in to do the job for you. When you are going through that process with a school, what are the things that you're considering as you start to piece together what that tour is going to look like? And I ask that question because it will give... marketing and admissions leaders a bit of an insight into A, your process, but B, the process if they wanted to do it themselves. And then when we've covered that, it would be great to specifically if you're coming in to do the tour, what does that involve? lisa@circlescapes.com: Well, I think the first thing to do is think about what your strengths are as a school and as a community and really hit be sure to hit those strengths in the tour. So are you known for your athletics program or are you mostly focused on the arts? So you want that to come across. so when you're thinking about the spaces that you want to show, and we call them. We call our tours point of interest tours rather than showing every single hallway and classroom, and having people get lost, really present the points of interest and start with your strengths. And then I think it's important to consider what you already have in your asset library that you've done well, that maybe you have had professionals come in and do, take some drone footage. all of the time that that you've spent as a marketer writing those text descriptions about the programs, figure out what you have and how you can best incorporate it into the tour. I think it's important to think about how people are going to feature in your tour. So in the photography, you want to consider your community and the person that might be at home is considering joining your community, represent those people. So make sure that your tour is inclusive. And that the people that you're showing, show that diversity. Maybe you you have different versions of the tour in multiple languages so that they don't have to, you know, take the tour in English that might be their second language. and then and then from there, of course, understanding your budget. and what pieces you can do on your own and what pieces are better outsourced so that you can pull it all together into a unique experience that really represents the all the best parts of your school. Nik Higgins: Yeah, Lisa, okay. This this really that was really, really interesting. I think the audience is gonna love that. I want to ask a slightly left-field question. So, lisa@circlescapes.com: Sure. Nik Higgins: what role do you think virtual tours play in this emerging moment of AI search and discovery? where where do you think they sit? Is it kind of the same place in the marketing mix? Do they play a new or additional role? Do they do something different? Like What's what's your kind of broad take on that? lisa@circlescapes.com: Well, I think the more that you can have out there that you're thoughtfully and intentionally putting out there in the cybersphere, you know, the more it's gonna be picked up by AI and you're gonna be known for, you know, you're you're kind of in the driver's seat when you're creating the tour, you're in the driver's seat because you know, people are going to put social media out there about your school, people are going to write articles, you know, there's all of this other information, but if you can drive the story. That parents receive, then you're in the driver's seat. And, AI can play a role in the tour itself. You can have curated tours that, Nik Higgins: Mm-hmm. lisa@circlescapes.com: you know, if a student is has an athletics focus and they want to just see the athletics version of the tour, Nik Higgins: Yeah. lisa@circlescapes.com: then AI can, of course, put that together in such a way that it's it's presented, it's a customized experience for the end user. And that's always great and makes it more meaningful for the for the viewer. Nik Higgins: Nice, I like that. Okay, so we always like to try and bring in perspectives from outside of education. So you are the expert on virtual tours. Is there a virtual tour outside of the education sector that you've seen or that you've taken that you just thought, wow, that was done so well? Like schools could really learn something from this. It can be a absolutely a tour of absolutely anything, but I think that would be an interesting yeah point of reference for our audience. lisa@circlescapes.com: there are some amazing advances in my field in 360 photography. And now you can take these tours in an IMAX studio. Nik Higgins: Wow. lisa@circlescapes.com: and it's pretty incredible, you know, historical tours of you know ancient Mayan ruins. And there's some people doing some really incredible stuff, of course, with VR. you know, if you can put a headset on and walk through a campus, how cool is that? we actually do create. a VR version or we can create a VR version of a campus virtual tour so that a student can do just that. And it it does elevate it because you want to recreate that admissions tour that everyone knows and loves, where you're actually walking somebody through the school in physical form. And I think this is the next best thing. And maybe it's even better in some ways, because it's a really cool technology in and of itself. James: on my MetaQuest headset, there is an app where you can go onto the International Space Centre and you can float around the International Space Centre. You can go outside lisa@circlescapes.com: Mm-hmm. James: and do missions It is massively disorientating, like hugely disorientating, lisa@circlescapes.com: Wow. James: but so immersive. mean, you could actually be there. So you mentioned you do you you can produce VR tours at Circlescapes, Lisa. Just tell us very briefly about the type of tours that you do produce and then I'm going to ask you for three actionable tips that you can give to marketing and admissions directors before you let us know how people can get in touch if they're interested in the services you offer. lisa@circlescapes.com: Yeah, so at Circlescapes, you we've been doing this for almost 20 years now. So really since the advent of virtual tours and 360 photography. and we you know, can help help schools create a campus map. I think that's an important way to give an overview of the campus, to have a really nice, unique, illustrated map. and some schools already have that, which is fine. We can use the map that they already have or help them create a map. Our tours are 360 based, our full 360 tours, where we come and produce the 360 images around the campus of those points of interest, and then we add in different assets like the slideshows, audio, video clips, text descriptions, PDFs, really any of those assets that you want to include that make it more unique and interesting for the viewer. The tours can also not include three sixties, right? We can have the campus map and just those other assets. So there's a really great point of entry for any budget to have a professional, interesting, informative virtual tour for an for a low cost and then add as you go. you know, you can always come back and create that campus map next year or add the three sixties James: Mm-hmm. lisa@circlescapes.com: in a couple of years. so circlescapes really guides the process. depending on the budget and the assets that are available, and then fitting in those extras that are gonna make it extra special. James: Cool. Thank you. So three actionable tips then. So marketing and admissions, directors, leads, teams, listen to this and thinking, okay, we want to do something. We want to level up our virtual tour game or we want to do something for the first time. Give us three tips that they should consider now that will help them on that journey. Please, Lisa. lisa@circlescapes.com: So I would say number one, talk to some students and ask them what's important to them on campus. If they had if they were able to bring a friend to the campus and give them a tour, where would they take them? So really thinking outside of the box. You might know that you have the best, you know, STEM center or the best maker space, but maybe the kids really like, you know, hanging out in the quad. so and be sure to include those spaces in your tour because you're speaking not just to the parents but to the the kids. I think another really important thing is to of course assess your strengths. And every every marketing and admissions department, you should really know what those strengths are and lead with those. so that that's an obvious one. think about. where you want to feature your tour and how you can get extra mileage out of that tour. So make it accessible on not just your admissions page, but maybe on your About Us page, maybe on your fundraising phase page. You know, you can make another version of that tour using the same assets and a tweaked in a slightly different way to use for fundraising. We have a client who, you know, we create a beautiful watercolor map of their campus and they blew it up and pasted it as wallpaper in the admissions office. So it's a really cool feature there. So James: Nice. lisa@circlescapes.com: getting mileage out of all of those assets so that you're making that budget really stretch into something that's meaningful and and has a return on investment. James: Brilliant. Three great tips. Off the top of the dome there, Lisa. So fantastic. Okay, well, all that remains for us to ask then is if anybody listening now feels that they would love to get in touch and explore potential virtual tours, 360 tours, virtual reality tours with the team at Circlescapes, how do they do that, Lisa? lisa@circlescapes.com: Well, they can certainly email me, Lisa at circlescapes.com. go to our website, circlescapes.com. We've got some video testimonials, lots of examples, and a form that you can fill out. So I would love to hear from everyone, answer any questions and and just say hello. That would be great. James: So Lisa, thank you so much for taking time out of your day to join us here in Mad Labs. Tell our audience how they can turn virtual tours into admissions opportunities, but actually also giving some really usable tips for admission teams about what they can do on a DIY basis if they want to. You've been a great guest. Thank you for your time. lisa@circlescapes.com: Thank you guys so much. It's been a pleasure to chat with you. Nik Higgins: Thanks, Lisa.