Tour Showcase

Aerial and Ground Photography

The examples below are designed and published as examples to show you how 360 tours might showcase your business and be used as an invaluable marketing tool, both for your website and social media feeds. The opportunities do not end with the websites and social media. 

By using the share icon on the right hand side of the 3D image these 360 tours a link can be copied in as a iFrame embed code and be inserted into your own website, or you can copy a link that can be shown anywhere you can paste and share it, this including social media feeds, phone messages and email.

The image can also be shown full screen, with or without the tiles at the bottom, with the right hand menu hidden and be viewed through 3D headsets. The headset option allows you to turn your head to view any part of the image including the ability to look up and down and behind you.

The example above might give a typical use scenario for businesses in the leisure or real estate industry, example use cases would include hotels (as above), restaurants, golf courses, theme parks, leisure resorts, or to showcase how an area looked before and after renovation or construction.

Real estate options could include views from the front and rear of the property and the hotspot links can be used to allow clients and customers to move from the outside of the property to the inside, up and down stairs and into each room by clicking the hotspot in and back out again. I normally place the hotspots on doorways as that is how we would enter and move around a property.

You will notice in the example above that all of the images are taken from the ground? This is because this hotel is within a flight restriction zone put in place by air traffic control due to the close proximity of the Tenerife South Airport, as a licensed pilot I am legally bound to comply with all airspace restrictions. None the less the use of ground based based cameras works perfectly.

The image menus and call for action options can be customised and designed for your needs, let me explain. 

Starting in the top left corner is the brand section. I can place your logo, company name, email address and contact telephone number in this space, or remove it, or parts of it completely. The links are active, so if you click on the web address it will take you to your website, or website page. If you click on the email address it will open your clients default email program.

Moving to the right in a clockwise direction is the menu that controls the image. If you toggle the top button off it will hide the images navigation controls, click it again and the menu reappears.

The next button down is for marketing the image and your brand by sharing. When you click on the share icon you have options to share the image as a link, this option is ideal for sharing your brand on social media, via text messages, in emails, text documents like Word, as a email signature, or anywhere else that you can paste a link into. 

The way you produce the link is also customisable. you can choose to hide or show the bottom ribbon, controls, the lead generation or watermark. The next sharing link can be pasted into any HTML control that accepts iFrame code, this is typically for websites, the tour images on this page are displayed using the iFrame embed code. The advantages of both links is the tours are hosted on my server, this does not use up space on your website and improves image load speed. The next image share options provide links for the common social media feeds and email. 

The next menu control button allows you to view the tour full size, this allows for better image detail and clarity. The last menu button allows the tour to be viewed by 3D headsets, were you can navigate around the image by turning your head left and right, up and down.

Moving to the bottom of the image you will see three arrows. One. to the right, one to the top and one to the left. The left and right arrows allow you to advance through the tour scenes without using the hotspots within the image. The up arrows displays or hides the scenes. I can also customise this option in the backend server options that I can access. In the bottom right corner is a hyperlinked watermark, this can say anything or be linked to any website or page of your choosing.

Next on the lower left hand side of the image you will see a black icon. This toggles on and off the lead generation call to action option. From this branded enquiry form your clients can send you a direct message and pass on their details allowing you to follow up with them in person. This form can be customised and branded to your requirements.

If you move the tour image to look right down you will see the ‘Nadir’ point, is the point on the ground directly below the camera. I usually use photoshop to remove myself or the tripod from the image and replace the Nadir with another branding option, in my case my tour logo. You can have your logo here on your tours.

Finally is the webpage URL for the tour, if you look at the top of your browser you can see that mine reads as ‘tours.reade.me.uk. You do have the option to have your own website URL for your own tour, however this requires you to have your own website and the ability to add in a CName into your DNS setting, or have a web technician to do it for you. I also get charged for this service by my server provider so there is a one off charge of £100 if you want the option of your own URL, otherwise the URL will default to my server address ‘tours.reade.me.uk’.

I think it is important that you understand why I charge what I do and how my cost baseline is established. Like every business we have fixed costs, premises, equipment such as drones and cameras, bank charges, accountants, the tax man, internet etc.

In addition to these costs I am a licensed drone pilot, qualified to fly in the United Kingdom this is managed by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in Europe I am licensed by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). There are costs involved in registration, exam fees to maintain those qualification and of course flight insurance.

Every flight or ground tour involves travel, sometimes this involves paying for flights or ferries to get me to other countries, car parking at airports or ports, accommodation costs for hotels, food and fuel. Although not every tour involves overseas travel, home tours in the U.K. still incur costs. 

The tour software I run is to the top industry specification, I pay license fees to use it. It runs on a server that hosts the tours, this enables the link generation and sales funnels that you use to bring clients to your business, server space and maintenance is not cheap.

Other costs include domain names, hosting, website creation and maintenance. Without going on I am sure that you are understanding that this type of work is far more professional and expensive than buying a cheap drone from a shopping channel and getting some mediocre still aerial images.

I price each job according to its own merits, complexity or even how simple it may be. Please use the contact form on this site, or the lead generation form on any of the published tours on this site to get in touch.