Technology has allowed the marketing industry to market differently, and a new way may be possible. Virtual reality has come through and created excitement in the eyes of marketers. However, VR isn’t perfect and the challenges of it should be discussed before we get too ahead of ourselves.
Table of contents
In this article we are going to go over:
- What virtual reality is.
- The top 5 benefits of using virtual reality in marketing.
- The top 3 challenges of using virtual reality in marketing.
What is virtual reality?
Virtual reality is one of the forms of extended reality technology. Extended reality technology consists of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. Augmented and virtual reality are the most popular of the three.
Virtual reality is a digital rendering that replaces the real world with a digital one. This technology is typically used with headsets that cover your eyes. The display is housed in the headset and provides the user with a wide field of view.
The top 5 benefits of using virtual reality in marketing
The top benefits of implementing virtual reality in your marketing can be split up into five points.
Enhanced engagement
Virtual reality technology allows users to interact with a digital space more intuitively. This gives you, as a business, a chance to create more interactive content to capture and hold your customers’ attention. This would benefit you by creating long-lasting memorable experiences with your customers increasing your chances of making a conversion.
Users could try a new pair of clothes or sneakers to see how they fit, eliminating a large amount of uncertainty when making a purchase decision. This would be particularly useful for e-commerce businesses selling clothing products.
A different medium of storytelling is another benefit of virtual reality usage in marketing. You’ll be able to appeal to the audience’s emotions more intuitively with your interactive content.
Market research and insights
With virtual reality, there will be new ways to measure user engagement, such as eye tracking. This would help gain an understanding of what elements in the content kept their gaze and give you direction concerning your next campaign.
Training and onboarding
Virtual reality serves to be a great training tool, as you can simulate certain situations to better prepare for them in the future. This Is great for preparing for high-stress circumstances like presenting a campaign for one of your biggest clients.
Competitive advantage
Implementing virtual reality campaigns will make you stand out from your competitors because suddenly the content is more interactive, immersive, and impactful than theirs. Customers may just start walking through your doors just because you are different from the rest.
Global reach
Events wouldn’t have the physical location restraint anymore and can be entirely virtual. This means that you could host an event, like a seminar in South Africa but include people from across the globe in a virtual room.
The constraint of space isn’t an issue anymore because people are joining from the comfort of their living room with little interruptions from their pet dog from time to time. This means more tickets to the event could be sold. However, not an infinite amount as we still need to consider the capacity of the servers.
The top 3 challenges of using virtual reality in marketing
Marketing with the use of virtual reality technology doesn’t come without drawbacks. Listed below you’ll be looking at the top three.
Cost
The cost of obtaining virtual reality equipment is still quite high for the masses, making the target audience smaller than the preferred number of people.
A person who specializes in virtual reality would need to be hired as well, as it is still a fairly new technology that only a certain number of people know of. This would increase the overall cost of implementing this technology, not to mention the cost of the hardware, software, and maintenance.
Technical limitations
The technical limitations would refer to the requirement of hardware specific to virtual reality technology to provide users with a great experience. Given that compatibility and performance differ from device to device, giving users a consistent experience across devices is still quite challenging. As we continue to learn more about this technology, we expect it to get better.
Limited user adoption
Not everyone is open to the idea of using virtual reality. Some are concerned about the data that businesses will have access to once they begin to adopt the technology. This makes it extremely important for organizations to be completely transparent about the data that they’re collecting.
Final thoughts
Marketing with virtual technology has many plusses, with enhanced engagement being the most significant one. However, it isn’t without flaws like the initial and maintenance costs of implementing a technology like this. It’s difficult to imagine a future without this technology, but we still have a road ahead of us.
