Radford University Virtual Tour Wins Digital Marketing Award

Radford University's virtual tour received accolades this month from the Higher Education Marketing Report (HEMR). The tour, which was a collaboration between Web Strategy and Interactive Media and Undergraduate Admissions, earned a bronze medal in the "Admissions Website" category of the HEMR's annual Education Digital Marketing Awards.

The Education Digital Marketing Awards recognize the best educational websites, digital content, electronic communications, mobile media and social media. A national panel of industry specialists reviews each entry; judging creativity, marketing execution, message impact, technology application and innovation content.

"I'm thrilled that the tour received this recognition," said Jaime Hunt, director of Web Strategy and Interactive Media. "Our goal was to create a high-quality experience for prospective students to experience campus from their homes. This award reflects the success of that endeavor."

The virtual tour includes the ability to see campus buildings inside and out, hear testimonials from students and faculty, and experience interactive features that provide a sense of being on campus without actually traveling to Radford. The content management system for the tour, produced by CampusTours LLC., allows Radford University to add additional multimedia to the tour on an ad hoc basis.

Since its launch May 2014, the tour has proven to be an effective tool for providing a virtual campus visit to prospective students and is viewed approximately 3,000 times a month. Tour visitors view an average of 21 pages on the tour and 17 percent come back to the tour at least once. The top location from which visitors access the tour is Washington, D.C., followed by Virginia Beach, Christiansburg, Richmond and Bowling Green, Ohio.

"We had a visitor on campus this fall that is an alum and his daughter is considering RU. We got a rave review of the virtual tour," said Allison Pratt, director of enrollment management operations. "They shared just how awesome they thought our tour was and that it was one of the best put together tours of all the campuses that they have looked into."