Volvo knew that every potential customer can’t reach out to a Volvo dealership and so it changed the game and tried to reach all its potential customers instead. A few years back, Volvo introduced a virtual test driving option using VR technology for those who weren’t able to reach any Volvo dealership. This was a brilliant marketing move by Volvo that instantly provided it with a competitive edge as it was innovative as well as accessible.
Customers’ needs are changing with each passing day and so are their expectations from the brands. As new technology arrives, customers expect brands to provide solutions using those technologies. This means that it has become crucial for brands to use the latest technologies and provide customers with the best possible solutions and experiences. And so around 75% of the biggest brands in the world are using VR as a part of their marketing strategy.
Now the biggest question here is– how to use VR to grow a business?
This article is all about that but before proceeding, it’s critical to know: what exactly are VR and VR marketing?
What is Virtual Reality (VR)?
In a nutshell, Virtual Reality is a simulated experience that can be alike or very different from reality. It is a three-dimensional, computer-generated environment that can be explored by anyone using the right gears.
What is Virtual Reality Marketing?
Virtual Reality Marketing lets brands and businesses to take their brand image in front of the eyes of their existing as well as potential customers. It allows your brand to provide the audience with an immersive experience which makes the audience to personally connect with the brand. And gives a reason to them for trusting your brand more than others.
But can it help to grow a business?
5 Ways Virtual Reality Marketing Can Help You To Grow Your Business
Provide Memorable Experiences
Do you know that you can help people visualize how your product can transform their world or can add value to their lives? VR can help you do the exact same thing. VR allows you to provide your potential customers with experiences that can help them turn into your customers.
For example, if you have a product you can use VR to provide potential customers with real-time experience on how to use your product or how it can help them. You can make the experience as interactive as possible. You can use amazing graphics to design your own world and provide memorable experiences to your potential customers. And the better experience you provide the more people will convert.
VR provides you with a blank canvas that you can use to paint your own world and show your potential customers how it is like to live in that world. The more they relate to your world the more they desire to turn their world like that. And that’s possible only when they buy your products or services. That’s what we call smart marketing.
Turn Advertisements Into Fun Experiences
Every day people get bombarded with dozens of ads and most of those ads fail to lure them to buy the products. The reason being the ads fail to create experiences. Ads like pop-ups, autoplay videos, etc, have started to frustrate the viewers resulting in the failure of even huge advertisement campaigns.
The best way to create ads that stick on your audience’s mind is by blending promotion with a little entertainment. And with VR brands get to bring an engaging and immersive experience to the advertising methods.
For example, if you have a mobile game, you can let the players watch videos to unlock new levels or get some bonuses. In this way, you turn the ads into a part of the game and players won’t get frustrated or annoyed but rather they would enjoy it.
The potential of VR in the advertisement industry is still to be explored fully and this makes it more important for brands to start leveraging VR so that they can be ahead of their competitors in terms of providing better experiences.
VR For Storytelling
Most of the time, companies fail to build a relationship with their customers because they fail to create experiences.
A few years back, movies or videos were that most immersive storytelling mediums but that wasn’t enough. The reason being that people could only watch it and weren’t able to interact with them.
Today, VR has changed the scenario. Now people can not only watch but feel it in real-time. And that makes VR a very powerful tool for storytelling.
So if your company has an amazing story or there’s a story around the solutions you sell then it’s time to make your audience like it.
Though several companies are leveraging VR for storytelling, the New York Times has set the best example. When NYT realized that the emerging technologies aren’t working in their favor but rather resulting in a drop in the number of readers and subscribers, they decided to try something new that can make technology work on their behalf.
They created NYT VR, the New York Times’ VR of stories. In these stories, the readers were taken to the places where the news they are reading about is actually happening so that they can feel how it feels like being there.
This provided the readers with the emotional intensity that in return helped NYT to reinforce brand loyalty. All thanks to VR.
Show The Human Side
People might buy from you but that doesn’t guarantee loyalty. Today they are buying from you but tomorrow they may try another brand. So if you want to thrive in the long run, you need to make sure that your retention rate is pretty good.
The most powerful way to do that is by showing your customers with your human side. Tell them that you aren’t just another brand trying to sell but you’re as human as they are.
Brands can use VR to create virtual experiences and take the customers on tours to their offices, workshops, and factories, etc. they can show their customers how they work and build products. They can see your employees face-to-face and understand how much work and effort you and your employees put to serve what they need.
This will not only show your human side but will also build the foundation of trust.
And as trust develops, people start being loyal to a brand.
Show them your world and they will make your brand a part of their world. And that’s what AR helps with.
Showcase Your Products
The biggest reason why people buy from you is that you sell products that cater to their needs. But how do your potential customers know that you have got the right solution to their problems? You need to tell them!
Isn’t marketing all about that– bridging the gap between your products and your potential customers? Yes, it is and with VR it gets better.
For example, if you’re in the furniture business, with VR you can show how that particular sofa would look in their living room or if that bed is going to fit in their bedroom or not.
VR allows your brand to answer all the questions that people have regarding your product before buying them.
One of the best examples here is what IKEA did. They built a VR-based app that allowed the potential buyers to virtually place the furniture in their houses and check how it looks, feel, or if it fits. This helped IKEA to go the extra mile and give the potential buyers a reason to visit an IKEA store before going to any other brand and it helped the buyers to decide what suits them the most. It was a win-win for both parties.
To Conclude
Times are changing and so are the technologies. Whether you like it or not, things are gonna change in the marketing industry too and in order to stay ahead of others, you need to take the extra mile and show your customers that you’re better than the rest.
Technologies like AI, AR, and VR are some of the emerging technologies right now and it can be expected that within a few years these are going to be common technologies like the internet is. Now if you want to stay ahead of your competitors, there can’t be a better time than this to start leveraging these technologies. Above are some of the best ways to use VR marketing for growing your business. So buckle up, it’s time to alter your marketing strategy and start nailing VR.
Read more: 3D Hologram and the Future of Technology and Entertainment