New Feature: Featured Locations

[helene]

You can now choose a featured location for your tour. Once you do, listeners can preview it as well as the tour’s first three locations – but in the apps, this preview is going to work a little differently to existing previews.

The Impact of Previews

Listeners who preview a tour are, on average, 3.6 times more likely to purchase it. They’re also more satisfied with their purchase after completing the tour, because they already know what you sound like, and have a better sense of what to expect from the tour. This data is at the root of the new feature, which makes browsing more fun. We think it’ll also turn users into buyers at even higher rates.

Existing previews

Listeners can currently preview the first three locations of a tour for free. On the web, they can do this by clicking on “Preview Tour” which allows them to listen to the audio, read the script, and scroll through the location images.

An example of a tour preview on the web:

On the app, tour previews give listeners a taste of the whole experience. When they click on “Preview Tour” on the tour’s About screen, they can download the route and audio for the first three locations. After previewing the tour, they’re then prompted to buy it.

An example of a tour preview on the app:

Featured Locations

Featured locations will look slightly different on the web compared to the app.

On the web

On the web, not much has changed. Listeners can preview the featured location the same way they preview the tour’s first three locations. They simply scroll down to the featured location on the list of tour sites.

You can also share the link to the featured location to help promote your tour. Use it in social media posts, emails, or on your website to attract interest and get people excited about the tour.

To get a link for a specific location on a tour, and create a QR code that goes directly to it, navigate to “QR Codes” under the Distribution tab. Find the location on the list and copy the Location URL.

In the apps

In the apps, featured locations are going to offer an inline preview of a tour instead of a sample of the overall experience.

Each tour’s featured location will appear on the tour card displayed under Explore, when users are browsing search results or destination lists. After clicking on “Preview”, listeners will see the featured location on the map, and will be able to scroll through up to five images of the tour in full screen, while listening to the audio.

Here’s what an example of how it will look in the app:

How to Set Up Your Featured Location

1. Open the tour in Mapmaker and navigate to the Distribution tab.
2. Open Featured Location.
3. Choose your ideal featured location from the list. (This will automatically load the audio for this location, which you can listen to, if you wish).
4. Add up to five images.
5. Click Save.

High-quality images can make all the difference, so choose popular landmarks or picturesque scenes. You can read more about what type of photos work best on the Publisher Documentation.

Choosing Your Featured Location

Choose a standout location that gets people excited about your tour and helps encourage listeners to become buyers.

The best featured location has some of the following qualities:

• A strong sense of place
• A surprise element
• Great sound design
• Engaging storytelling
• A useful overview of a major attraction
• A clear perspective or a unique take
• A touch of humor

Remember, you’re selling the tour’s unique experience—not just the location itself.

Make sure to choose a featured location for your tours as soon as possible, as this feature will go live on the apps soon.

[helene]

Please note, we’re aware that there’s a glitch with this feature at the moment, where you can’t save the location you’ve selected. We’re working on fixing this and will let you know as soon as you’re able to add a featured location to your tours. Thanks!

Update: This is all fixed, so you can now add a Featured location for all your tours. We’ll let you know once this goes live on the app.

[clive]

All seemed to work fine. I have added a featured location to all of my tours.

Have a great day!

[helene]

A quick reminder to add featured locations to your VoiceMap tours

We’ll soon be releasing version 14 of the app, which will include this feature. If you’ve chosen a featured location, listeners will be able to preview these while browsing in the app. Without a featured location, your tour won’t include a preview button.

Tours with and without a featured location will look a bit different in the app:

Here’s a sneak peak of what it will look like:

VoiceMap featured location example in the app

So make sure to choose the featured locations for all your tours as soon as possible. The super easy steps are outlined it the post above. If you have any questions, feel free to post them here.

[helene]

How to fix problems when uploading images

If you’re struggling with uploading images to your featured location, it’s probably for one of these reasons:

1. The images aren’t the right size
2. The location has an existing image

Here how to spot the problem is and some solutions.

1. The images aren’t the right size

If this happens, you’ll get an error message that the file is too big, like this:

To fix it, you’ll need to resize the images before uploading them again. Here’s how:

On Windows:

• Open the image in the Photos app.
• Click on the three dots in the top-right corner and select “Resize”.
• Choose the “Pixels” option.
• Slide the curser under “Quality” to the left, until the “New” size shown at the bottom is smaller than 1MB
• Save the image and upload.

On Mac:

• Open the image in the Preview app.
• Choose Tools > Adjust Size, then select “Resample image” (if it’s not pre-selected).
• Enter a smaller value in the Resolution field.
• The new size is shown at the bottom.

Or you can use a free online tool like this one.

2. The location already has an image

If this is the case, you’ll see this error message:

To fix it, you’ll need to remove the existing image(s) before you upload the new ones.

Here’s how:

• Choose the featured location.
• Click on “Edit” next to Location images.
• Click on “Remove file” and “Save”.
• Add the new images and make sure to click “Save” again for both the images and the featured location.

If you have any other questions or suggestions for resizing images, please post them here, other publishers might be wondering about the same thing!