By now, you have seen videos of people wearing big, bulky Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. Although this seems comical, the saying “don’t knock it until you try it” has never been truer. Not only can VR provide an immersive entertainment experience, but it also has the potential to revolutionize the way people work and play on the internet.
Because of its versatility and endless applications, VR is quickly gaining in popularity. According to ReportLinker, virtual reality devices are expected to exceed 112.62 million units sold by 2026. Goldman Sachs Research has an even more aggressive prediction, stating that the VR industry will grow to the same size as the Desktop PC market by 2025.
As a business owner, it is crucial to keep an eye on this rapidly changing technology. Like Search Engine Marketing or Social Media Marketing, VR could become one of the cornerstones in digital marketing.
But you do not have to wait, there are things that you can do today to leverage the technology and provide immense value to your customers.
In this article, we will go over three virtual reality marketing strategies that your business can implement today to provide a better customer experience and increase conversion.
What is Virtual Reality?
VR is an application that lets you experience and interacts with 3D environments that are not there. Essentially, VR transforms everything you have been doing with your computer and mobile phone, into a 3D environment using devices called VR headsets.
Want to exercise without leaving your home? Put on a VR headset and do a quick Zumba session with a trainer on a beautiful hill. Want to visit New York without booking a flight? Enjoy a 360 view from the top of the Empire State Building. You also can attend a work meeting or even take part in job training with VR.
Virtual Reality Vs Augmented Reality
While virtual reality gives you the impression that you are in a completely different space, augmented reality (AR) imposes additional imagery on your real-life vision.
For example. AR devices like the Google Glass serve as eyewear while adding additional graphical elements such as weather and GPS navigation to what you are already seeing.
Why Virtual Reality Matters to Digital Marketing
Early testing has shown that engagements and conversions are generally higher in VR environments than in mobile or desktop. This presents opportunities for advertisers to experiment with an entirely new platform across multiple marketing channels.
VR contents can also prove to be game-changing by offering a much higher degree of interactivity to customers. This in turn allows your business to tell better, more emotionally compelling stories to your audience.
Whether you are in the retail, eCommerce, or B2B business. It is worth it to research and finds ways to incorporate VR into your marketing strategy now before everyone starts doing it.
3 Virtual Reality Marketing Strategies You Can Implement Today
Strategy #1: Showcase Your Products and Services
One of the challenges of a business is guiding prospects into initial small commitments that can turn into a purchase. Typically, people must talk to a salesperson, submit a form, or scroll through a landing page before getting to try a demo or a products sample. Simply put, there are too many obstacles between the customers and what they want.
VR allows your business to bridge that gap and provide an instant sneak peek into your products. For example, instead of setting up an appointment to view potential apartments, customers can walk through the entire unit in virtual reality with a press of a button.
Allowing this seamless interaction creates a sense of commitment from the customers, which fosters a deeper relationship in a shorter period. This produces additional opportunities for salespeople to come in and close the deal.
As with other marketing mediums such as websites or social media, many touchpoints are generated within the VR environment. You can analyze this data to further optimize for a better customer experience and specific desired conversions.
The good news is that you do not need special equipment to produce great VR experiences. When starting, you can convert existing 2D or 360 content into VR content using many software available.
Strategy #2: Optimize Your Website’s Traffic for VR
Popular VR headsets such as the Meta Quest 2 come with a full-fledged web browser, which means that the tried-and-true principles of SEO and SEM are more important now than ever.
Here are some principles to optimize your website for increased traffic and conversions:
- Ensure that your webpage’s technical aspects are solid (metadata, schemas, NAP consistency, local citation, sitemaps, etc.)
- Developing useful, well-structured content that serve customers’ need.
- Optimize the users’ experience on your website (improve page speed, create a mobile-friendly site, refine site structure, etc.)
- Serving effective PPC campaigns with highly relevant keywords to drive quality traffics to your landing pages.
Strategy #3: Get Media Coverage and Expand Awareness Around Your Business
Because VR is still a novel technology, its usage will spark curiosity from your customers, especially if you are among the pioneers in the market. Take advantage of this by crafting a compelling story about your company’s VR implementation.
Then, run social media campaigns, acquire press coverages, or simply tell your customers when they visit your location.
If done right, VR can create “buzz” and expand awareness around your products. By keeping up with the trends, you can be ahead of competitors, and create a culture that encourages experimentation and innovation within your business.
How Will Virtual Reality Change Digital Marketing?
What will the future of digital marketing look like with VR? No one can know for sure. The technology is constantly developing. Each year, new software iterations come out, adding more features to an already expansive library.
However, we can make an educated guess on how VR will change the way we do marketing. Here are our predictions...
VR Content Will Become Widely Available Everywhere
We predict that VR content will become more widely available on search engines and social platforms. Like how people find images using Google Images, users would be able to find VR-specific content and experience them seamlessly between different devices.
VR Devices Will Become More Accessible to The Public
Witnessing the exponential growth in VR device sales and increasingly larger R&D efforts, we predict that VR devices will achieve significant improvements in functionality with a lower price point.
VR headsets are set to become much more compact, powerful, and easier to use for everyone. As a result, they will no longer be considered a novelty but an essential tool for both work and entertainment.
Social Platforms Will Be Built Around VR
While social platforms such as Facebook do currently offer VR content, they are still limited and eclipsed by other content formats. However, Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is developing Metaverse, a virtual space where users can collaborate and interact with one another, which has the potential to dramatically change the digital marketing industry.
VR could evolve beyond being a content format and become a platform by itself. By utilizing new applications, marketers would be provided more means to connect with customers creatively.
Conclusion
Despite being introduced over a decade ago, VR is still in its initial stages of development. It will be dramatically different than it is now. By being open to recent technologies, you can be nimbler in your marketing strategies. This mindset enables you to experiment with what works now and be ready to transform your business in a more significant way when VR matures.
Our team is always keeping up to date on trends and movements in the digital marketing world so our clients do not have to! If you’re looking for new strategies to capitalize on the latest technologies, contact us to find out how the Forthea team can help you succeed in your business efforts.
