Marketing your college is all about understanding your prospective students’ viewpoint and unique situations, thereby allowing you to make a more targeted appeal.

One of the major considerations that factor into a student’s decision on what college to visit and attend is money. And, interestingly enough as Fox Business so aptly pointed out, it is the cost of campus visits that actually catch many families by surprise:

“While many families budget for the cost of college tuition and room and board, many families forget to budget for the cost of actually applying to college,” says Katherine Cohen, CEO and founder of IvyWise and ApplyWise.com. “Our team’s research has found that on average, families spend $3,500 just applying to college [including] college application and standardized testing fees, test prep, and, of course, college visits.” 

One of Fox Business’ answers (and ours as well) to driving down the cost of these visits? Taking a virtual tour.

A virtual tour allows students to create an important first-impression of a school, helping them get a feel for how it looks, what it has to offer, and its student culture.  Fox Business points out that a virtual tour is essential in helping “student rule in our out whether they want to invest in a visit”. Basically, prospective students are already deciding whether you  will even get on their ‘potentials’ list based on your virtual tour, and chances are, if you don’t even have a virtual tour to offer in the first place, you are shooting yourself in the foot.

Understanding the driving factors in your prospective students’ decision making process can really help you focus on utilizing the appropriate incentives. A virtual tour is but one of nine ways in which Fox Business advised families to keep costs of visits low, but it is actually the only suggestion that a college has the ability to control. Your campus’ virtual tour can really be crafted to offer your visitor that great first-impression, and moreover, will meet students in their current, budget-tight situations. Because of this, a virtual tour is simply a feature you can’t ignore on your college website!