Right Content at the Right Time: A Guideline for VR / 360

The effectiveness of your content strategy pivots on three key elements, often referred to as the Three C’s: the right Content, the right Context, and the right Cross-Channel approach. Let’s delve into each of these components, with a focus on 360 content and how the EXP360 platform aids in managing them.

Right Content: In the realm of 360 content, the ‘right content’ refers to immersive, interactive experiences that your audience finds engaging, informative, and relevant. Be it virtual tours, 360-degree videos, or interactive photospheres, it’s crucial to create content that aligns with your audience’s interests and needs. The EXP360 platform simplifies the creation and management of such content, providing a seamless way to produce high-quality, immersive experiences that captivate your audience.

Right Time: Delivering content at the ‘right time’ involves understanding when your audience is most receptive and likely to engage. This requires a deep understanding of your audience’s behavior, preferences, and routines. EXP360’s cloud ecosystem provides analytics tools that allow you to comprehend user interaction patterns, helping you to schedule your 360 content when it’s most likely to make an impact.

Right Channel: Lastly, the ‘right channel’ is about delivering your 360 content where your audience spends their time. Whether it’s on social media, your website, or within an email campaign, selecting the right channel to deliver your content is crucial. EXP360’s channel control mechanism allows you to distribute your immersive content across various channels effectively, ensuring it reaches your audience where they’re most likely to engage with it.

Customer Engagement: In the realm of 360 content, the ‘right content’ refers to immersive, interactive experiences that your audience finds engaging, informative, and relevant. Be it virtual tours, 360-degree videos, or interactive photospheres, it’s crucial to create content that aligns with your audience’s interests and needs. The EXP360 platform simplifies the creation and management of such content, providing a seamless way to produce high-quality, immersive experiences that captivate your audience.

Customer Retention:: Delivering content at the ‘right time’ involves understanding when your audience is most receptive and likely to engage. This requires a deep understanding of your audience’s behavior, preferences, and routines. EXP360’s cloud ecosystem provides analytics tools that allow you to comprehend user interaction patterns, helping you to schedule your 360 content when it’s most likely to make an impact.

Loyalty:: Right content, at the right time, on the right channel can foster brand loyalty. When customers find the content engaging and beneficial, they are more likely to become loyal to the brand and recommend it to others.

Conversion Rates:: Effective 360 content can lead to higher conversion rates. When customers are engaged and satisfied with the content, they are more likely to take desired actions, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or sharing content with their network.

EXP360 is the ideal platform for delivering 360-degree content at the right time due to its powerful cloud infrastructure and versatile playout channels. Here’s why:

• Cloud-Based CMS & Authoring Solution: EXP360’s cloud-based platform allows you to securely and conveniently manage your content from anywhere and at any time. This flexibility ensures that your 360-degree content is always available and ready for deployment when needed.
• Publish Across Channels and Platforms: With EXP360, you can simultaneously distribute your VR and 360-degree experiences across various channels, including web, mobile apps, VR headsets, and more. This ability to reach your audience on any device and at any place makes it the perfect platform for delivering the right content at the right time.
• Multi-Use of Content: EXP360 allows you to efficiently utilize your 360-degree and VR experiences for multiple use-cases across various industries. This feature enables you to maximize the value of your content while ensuring that it reaches its intended audience in the most appropriate context.
• Open Formats: Supporting most open mono- and stereoscopic VR image & video formats, EXP360 ensures compatibility and flexibility, allowing you to retain control of your assets and easily adapt them for different purposes.
• Powerful Editor & Simple VR Scene Creator: The easy-to-use tools provided by EXP360 empower you to create immersive virtual environments without any technical expertise, ensuring that your content is always engaging and tailored to your unique needs and goals.
• VR Analytics: EXP360’s VR Analytics allows you to track the consumption of your VR and 360-degree media and review its performance in visual dashboards and detailed reports. This feature helps you better understand the success of your content and make informed decisions on how to improve your content strategy.

In summary, EXP360 is the perfect platform for delivering 360-degree content at the right time due to its cloud-based infrastructure, versatile playout channels, support for open formats, and powerful editing tools. Its ability to cater to multiple industries and use-cases further emphasizes its adaptability and effectiveness in meeting the diverse needs of businesses today.

In the hospitality industry, particularly in cruise lines and hotel chains, the concept of the right 360 content at the right time and on the right channel plays a crucial role. One of the key strategies employed in this sector is the upgrade initiative, which aims to upsell customers to a higher category.

By incorporating the EXP360 platform, these businesses can offer immersive 360 virtual tours of their upgraded cabin or room categories during the booking process. Customers can virtually explore and see what they would be missing out on if they don’t opt for the upgrade. This strategy leverages the ‘right content’ (360 virtual tour) at the ‘right time’ (booking process) on the ‘right channel’ (booking platform).

Furthermore, after-sale upgrade offers are sent out a few weeks before the trip begins, usually via email. In these communications, a QR code can be added, which when scanned, redirects to a dynamic EXP360 share page showcasing a 360 virtual tour of the next higher cabin or hotel category. This is another excellent instance of delivering the right 360 content at the right time on the right channel, driving customer engagement and potential upgrade sales.

Consider the case of a website offering virtual tours of a National Park. With the help of advanced content repository systems like EXP360, you can repurpose the same content in various contexts.

For instance, a captivating 360-degree shot of grizzly bears can be incorporated both in the wildlife section of the site, as well as in the comprehensive tour of the National Park. Depending on the user’s location on the site, the virtual tour can be tailored to showcase only the relevant scenes, thereby enhancing user engagement without forcing them to navigate through the entire tour again. Furthermore, the same immersive content can be repurposed in the National Park’s interactive visitor center, deployed through VR headsets for a more intimate exploration of the park’s wonders, or shared in newsletters for promotional purposes. This exemplifies the power of delivering the right content, at the right time, via the right channel.

An equally compelling application of this principle is found in virtual wayfinding. The utility of a wayfinding system significantly increases when it is dynamically adjustable to provide the right content based on the user’s specific location and destination, as opposed to pre-rendered versions that encompass all options.

For instance, with the help of the EXP360 platform, a virtual wayfinding system can be designed to guide a user through a large indoor facility, such as a shopping mall or an airport, by providing 360-degree views of the path from their current location to their desired destination. As the user’s starting point or destination changes, the system can adapt in real-time, delivering personalized navigational content that is most relevant to their situation. This serves as a prime example of providing the right content at the right place and time through the right channel.

In the realm of virtual training, the concept of delivering the right 360-degree content at the right time is equally critical. Consider a scenario where a company uses EXP360’s platform to conduct safety training for employees. Rather than delivering all the training material at once, the system can provide personalized learning paths based on each individual’s role, learning pace, and progress.

For instance, a machine operator would receive 360-degree interactive video instructions focusing on the specific machines they will operate, while a safety officer would be guided through a virtual tour of the entire facility, highlighting safety protocols and emergency exits. As the employees progress through the training, the system dynamically adjusts the content based on their learning curve, providing reinforcement or advanced material when appropriate.

Further, the same 360-degree training content can be repurposed across multiple channels depending on the training circumstances – it could be made available on the company’s internal learning management system for self-paced learning, delivered via email for off-site employees, or even showcased in VR headsets during dedicated training sessions.

This example illustrates how the right content, delivered at the right time and through the right channels, can enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of virtual training programs.

Here are more domains where delivering the right 360-degree content at the right time can be beneficial:

Real Estate: Virtual tours can be used to showcase properties to potential buyers or tenants. The content can be personalized based on the viewer’s preferences, such as focusing on the kitchen for someone who loves cooking, or highlighting the home office space for remote workers.
Education: Schools and universities can use virtual tours for various purposes, such as campus tours for prospective students, virtual classrooms for remote learning, or even immersive historical tours for history lessons.
Healthcare: Hospitals can offer virtual tours to help patients familiarize themselves with the facility before their visit, or virtual reality simulations for training medical professionals.
Tourism: Virtual tours can provide potential tourists with an immersive preview of destinations, hotels, attractions, and more.
Retail: Stores can offer virtual shopping experiences, where customers can explore the store and view products in 360 degrees.
Manufacturing: Companies can offer virtual tours of their production facilities for both internal training purposes and external promotional use.
Event Planning: Event planners can use virtual tours to showcase venues to potential clients, or to plan event layouts and logistics.
Architecture and Construction: Architects and builders can use virtual tours to present building designs to clients, or for planning and visualization purposes during the construction process.

In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, the right content, delivered at the right time, across the right channels, can be the differentiating factor between businesses merely surviving and those that are thriving. The introduction of immersive 360-degree content and the ability to strategically distribute it through platforms such as EXP360 has added a new dimension to this equation.

Throughout this blog post, we’ve explored the three C’s of successful content delivery – Content, Context, and Cross-Channel. We’ve delved into the importance of tailoring your content to match audience needs and expectations, the significance of timing in content delivery, and the crucial role that the right channels play in reaching your target audience effectively.

We’ve also examined how various industries have capitalized on these principles, leveraging EXP360’s robust cloud-based platform to deliver immersive 360-degree experiences that not only captivate audiences but also drive engagement, loyalty, and conversions. From hospitality and real estate to education and manufacturing, the possibilities are vast and transformative.

Lastly, we’ve provided actionable tips to help you deliver the right content at the right time, emphasizing the importance of understanding your audience, aligning your campaigns, experimenting with content mix and reactive marketing, staying informed about industry trends, and testing different posting times.

The journey to mastering the art and science of delivering the right 360 content at the right time is a continuous one. However, with platforms like EXP360 at your disposal, this journey can be more navigable, rewarding, and impactful. We encourage you to leverage these strategies and insights in your content marketing efforts and experience the difference firsthand.

Remember, in this era of immersive experiences, it’s not just about telling a story. It’s about making your audience a part of that story. And with the right content, at the right time, delivered through the right channels, you can do just that.