3 Tips for Working with Travel Influencers
Investing in influencer marketing is one of the best ways to increase brand awareness, but did you know that it can also boost tourism? By working with influencers who share travel-related content, you can help shape the future of tourism in in your area. Through live stories, static Instagram posts, or even vlog-style TikTok videos, travel influencers know how inspire their followers to get out and live their best lives. Here are a few tips and tricks that will make working with travel influencers a breeze.
1. Make Sure They’re a Good Fit
Whether you’re targeting Gen Z foodies, hoping to inform thrill seekers about new experiences, or looking to appeal to a couple celebrating an anniversary, there is a travel influencer with an audience for you. However, it’s important to make sure you work with someone who is a good fit for your area and not just someone with a high follower count. Research shows that 82% of consumers said they were highly likely to follow a micro-influencer’s (10,000-50,000 followers) recommendation versus a mid-tier influencer (50,000-500,000 followers). Many travel influencers have a smaller audience yet are highly influential with their demographic.
If you’re looking to attract more families, it’s best to focus
on influencers who have families with fun-loving kids. Similarly, if you’re looking to promote restaurants, you might want to invite someone who loves to support local businesses. Quality influencers aim to keep their recommendations honest, so it’s important to make sure you know the influencer who you invite will enjoy the experience.
2. Manage Expectations
There are some important things to keep in mind when working with travel influencers. You should discuss your collaboration and outline details such as when the influencer is expected to post, how many posts should be included, platforms you’d like them to post on, and provide branded hashtags and tags to use. It’s also important to be aware that compensation, in addition to comped services, can vary based on followers, as well as the timing of the collaboration.
It’s also important to make time to share information about the unique experience you offer and help influencers feel connected to your hotel/city/event. If an influencer feels excited about their travel, it will impact the way they share their content. During uncertain times, seeing an influencer feel comfortable traveling to a certain destination could bring comfort to hesitant travelers.
3. Don’t Forget About Content
A great influencer marketing campaign is not just deciding what content you need an influencer to share. It’s also about leveraging the content on your own social platforms. Many businesses forget to share, tweet or re-post the content influencers create about them, causing them to potentially miss out on increased engagement.
Similarly, consider working with influencers to create reusable content for other efforts and digital platforms. This may include authentic Instagram reels and stories, photos, videos and blog posts—all of which may be more effective than highly-produced commercials and add elements of creativity.
Inspire works with tourism and hospitality clients on launching successful influencer engagement projects. See how we worked with Butler County Visitors Bureau to partner with 100+ national and regional influencers to reach 10+ million followers and with Destination Delaware Ohio to host influencers for personalized visits as part of a campaign to support local businesses during the 2020 holiday season.