The Most Effective Uses of VR in Marketing

You can always count on technological advancement in the business industry. The good news is that if you stay abreast of them, they'll transform your own company. The not-so-good news is that there are so many changes in the sector that it's difficult to keep up with them.

How we conduct business today, especially when it comes to marketing and advertising, varies sharply from how things were done a few years ago, courtesy of tech innovation. Virtual reality is one of the more recent discoveries. Simply, virtual reality (VR) is experiencing a computer-generated product or environment as though it were real and tangible using a special device known as a virtual reality helmet. This exciting innovation can boost your marketing efforts in several ways, placing you ahead of your competition by a mile! Here's what you need to know.

Product Demonstrations

VR can help prospective customers experience new or in-development products and services virtually. They can explore the exciting features, functionalities, and benefits realistically and interactively, even before purchasing. Prospective customers will find the experience both immersive and engaging since VR makes things feel and look real. In fact, according to the National Research Group, among consumers who have tried VR, eight out of 10 say their experience was either “somewhat positive” or “very positive.”

Data Gathering and Analysis

VR is highly effective at harvesting data on consumer behavior. The headsets provide marketers with valuable data points, such as body movement, head positioning, emotional responses, and body movement. Armed with this intel, it's possible to gain consumer behavior insights and effectively target potential clients. Besides the nifty analytics feature of VR headsets, it lets marketers track client behavior over a certain period. The resultant analytics can be used to tweak campaigns accordingly.

Virtual Tours

Simulation and virtual showrooms are the most common uses of VR because customers can access a product or virtually visit a location, interact with it, and even modify it. Experience and feedback data are then collected. If you're practicing in the real estate, interior design, or automotive industries, VR is a great and inexpensive way to create virtual showrooms where customers can visualize and experience products and experiences that are far from completion. This way, you can get feedback that helps to improve the outcome to suit your customer's tastes and preferences.

Unique Branding

VR can almost literally bring your brand's story to life! You have an opportunity to take your audience on an interesting journey, showcasing the history, values, and vision that make your company great. This experience will facilitate a deep emotional connection between you and your customers and leave a lasting impression. According to CMSWire, a leading customer experience research firm, the positive emotional connection formed when customers have an impactful interaction with brands stays in their minds and increases their loyalty to and engagement with the brand.

Virtual Events and Launches

Did you know that you could hold full-on events, conferences, and product launches in virtual reality? This usually opens up the events to a worldwide audience that can access your event remotely. Organizing virtual events, conferences, or product launches in VR is more exciting and less cumbersome than planning an in-person meet-up. VR allows attendees to experience the product in an immersive way. Virtual reality promotes a sense of presence, so you're bound to see a more excited and engaged audience, and isn't that the whole point?

Influencer Partnerships

The popularity of influencer marketing has been growing over the years, facilitated by social media. It's an effective mode of marketing that businesses use to access potential clients for their products and services. With VR, collaborating with influencers or brand ambassadors can go from boring and predictable to fresh and exhilarating, generating buzz and sustained interest in your brand. A good example is how gaming influencers can capture their target audiences by running experience-rich VR campaigns with teasers for new game features or releases.

Immersive Advertising

Immersive VR advertisements enable your above-the-line marketing efforts to surpass traditional methods. When you deliver interactive and memorable experiences as part of your marketing strategy, prospective customers can engage with your brand's messaging in a captivating and personalized way that can be switched up based on the insights from generated customer reactions. Traditional advertising doesn't offer the kind of flexibility that VR does. It also doesn't allow real-time feedback or the convenience of changing a campaign that's already rolled out.

Training and Education

Companies and marketing teams can leverage VR to create product use tutorials, provide educational content and training, and collect real-time feedback. This can be particularly effective in industries requiring hands-on engagement or specialized training, such as software sales and healthcare products. Marketing teams can also use VR in their pitches, allowing their prospects to see and feel the content of the pitch, which makes it quite hard for them to say no!

Data Visualization

Depending on who your customer is, you may need to present certain data to them to establish credibility. Using VR to present complex data in a dynamic, visually pleasing, and immersive manner helps them understand and interact with the information you're presenting while making communicating insights easier and driving decision-making toward a purchase or a cause. Industries like banking, climate change, healthcare, and automotive may find this aspect of VR extremely useful.

Gamification

Virtual reality technology has revolutionized our digital interactions. According to recent market research by Tech Critter, the global VR market is estimated to reach almost 63 billion by 2027. The gaming industry leads in the systemic use of VR in gamification elements.

Games with VR elements appeal more to customers because they are intuitive, interactive, and immersive. A smart marketing team can leverage this to create targeted games that engage customers around your brand messaging. Marketing teams can create interactive challenges, puzzles, or simulations that encourage users to explore and interact with your brand, products, or services.

Virtual Reality As Bait

This is the simplest yet most effective way to use VR. Currently, VR is still something customers are exploring and experimenting with. Any company using it is seen as forward-thinking and innovative.

Due to the exciting nature of VR, you won't have to do much to attract customers to participate in your VR-led product or service marketing. They will come to you. For instance, if you do an activation campaign in a mall and incorporate VR experiences in your product explanation and visualization segment, people will rush to your stand out of curiosity about the VR headsets. They may not purchase immediately, but you'll have gained awareness and potential future clients just because they wanted to experience VR.

Content Marketing

Content marketing leverages videos, blogs, images, and podcasts to entice potential customers to a funnel. However, VR grabs and sustains clients by invoking all their senses. It's an immersive experience that leaves them little room to say no.

Imagine having an expert take you through a process with clear instructions on what to do next. Combined with augmented reality, virtual reality uses compelling visuals and sounds to expose buyers to a product or a service. This is enhanced content marketing that potential clients won't resist!

Virtual reality opens up a world of exciting possibilities for marketing teams globally, allowing them to create unique, life-like, and memorable experiences for their specific audiences. We expect to see more companies adopting VR for marketing campaigns. Before jumping into VR marketing strategies, consider your target audience, marketing objectives, and budget. Ensure your VR experiences are user-friendly, provide real value to the customer, and align well with your brand identity. This way, you will get the most out of VR. To learn more, contact our team at High Rock today!