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“Virtual Tour” Your Restaurant

The physical setting of your restaurant can be as important in grabbing new customers and creating a loyal following as your menu, staff, or any other factor of your business’s identity.  And yet, the physical environment, ambiance, and setting of your restaurant probably isn’t very well represented on your website.  Your restaurant’s menu has a home online, so why doesn’t its ambiance?

The easy answer is that capturing the things that make your eatery’s setting unique is a challenging task, and it can be hard to translate onto the web the “feeling” of being inside of your restaurant.  But with some smart “virtual tour” strategies, you can represent your restaurant well on your website.

Creating a virtual tour of your restaurant mans capturing all of its nuances digitally, and can serve to make your website viewers feel like they are visiting your eatery in person.  Here are four things to keep in mind to maximize your virtual tour experience when creating an online tour for your business:

  1. Take Pictures

No matter how crafty of a wordsmith you are, it will be easier to convey your restaurant’s ambiance with pictures than words.  Taking well lit shots of your floor layout, restaurant’s location from the street, and other angles will help yo portray the “feeling” of being inside of your establishment.

  1. Take videos!

While taking pics is something of a no brainer, many media savvy people forget that camera phones and basic camcorders take video just as easily as they take pictures, and some video footage of your restaurant during Sunday Brunch hours or your weekly open mic can be a valuable tool.

  1. Think of landmark views and centerpieces

Does your restaurant have a signature evening bar?  A great view of the mountains?  You’d be a fool not to capture these unique details when creating your virtual tour!  Your loyal fans will feel nostalgic for your ambiance when seeing the personal touches and landmarks that make your restaurant special, and potential customers viewing your website for the first time will be hooked by the things that make you stand out.

  1. Don’t forget the power of words!

While your virtual tour should be primarily based on digital components, that doesn’t mean some smart, good ol fashioned story telling with words won’t help you recreate your restaurant’s ambiance.  Use short, concise, and descriptive sentences to describe the pictures and videos you incorporate.

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