These days, almost every industry invests in influencer marketing. One of the industries that has benefitted tremendously from influencer marketing is travel and tourism. Most companies, operating within this industry, collaborate with influencers to make their target consumers or potential travelers aware of the services they provide and why they should reach out to them.
Governments of all countries keep pushing for travel and tourism as that is the area from which they earn a lot of revenue. Government agencies, therefore, also collaborate with influencers to attract foreign visitors. Several countries have seen a surge in tourism revenue after investing heavily in influencer marketing. The industry’s dependency on influencer marketing is expected to grow manifold with time.
The one type of influencer that has become extremely relevant on social media is travel influencer. Such is their popularity that even non-travel brands also reach out to them to promote their products and services. Since most people do not get the opportunity to travel frequently, they get to live many of their travel dreams through these influencers.
The importance of influencer marketing in the travel and tourism industry can be understood in a simple manner. If a friend or colleague, who is known for good travel recommendations, suggests that you visit a particular country with your family, you will give it a serious thought. Similarly, when a travel influencer recommends a particular city or country, you would feel the urge to do it. Most travel influencers create audio-visual content and that plays an important role in driving the audience towards taking a particular decision.
Here is a beginner’s guide to influencer marketing in travel and tourism:
Fixing a Budget
One of the most important things a travel and tourism company needs to remember when it decides to invest in influencer marketing is that it should have a definite budget for it. Influencer marketing will be a part of your marketing budget and you should set aside a particular amount for it. Once you have a budget, you should make it a point to stick to it.
The amount of money you will be spending on influencer marketing will depend on multiple factors. A travel influencer who has 1 million followers would definitely charge more than somebody who has 100,000 followers. The platform also plays a role here. Facebook influencers are known for charging a higher amount than buy 10k Instagram followers influencers.
Collaborate With the Right Influencer
Sometimes, travel and tourism companies do not get the desired results as they do not collaborate with the right influencers. When you are in the business of travel and tourism, it is a given that you will be collaborating with travel influencers. However, you must ensure that the travel influencers you are partnering with will help in propelling the growth of your business forward.
Along with travel influencers, you can also collaborate with actors, models and entrepreneurs who have a good following on social media. Before collaborating with an influencer, you should check the kind of content they make. If an influencer mostly posts pictures and you want audio-visual content to be shared, they might not be the right fit for your campaign.
Seize the Opportunity
The opportunity to collaborate with an influencer will come in different ways. You need to recognize the opportunity and create something worthwhile out of it. Most of the time, businesses reach out to influencers, discuss the terms and conditions, and collaborate with them. There are other ways to engage with influencers as well.
If you run a hotel business, you need to keep an eye out for people visiting your property. If an influencer decides to stay in your hotel for a few days, you can put across a proposal to collaborate with you. Instead of paying them, you can offer them free food and stay at your hotel. This will, in turn, be a win-win situation for both parties.
Focus on a Place
If you have tied up with the government or tourism outfits of a particular country or state and stand to gain a lot by sending their clients there, you should collaborate with influencers based there. For instance, if you want your clients to visit UK at a particular time of the year, you should do some research on popular travel influencers in the UK and partner with them.
Sometimes, a particular country or state pays travel companies to get more tourists there. To make a large number of people visit a particular place during a particular period of time, the agency would need to carry out activities revolving around that region. They could send a bunch of influencers to the place and ask them to create content on it.
Design a Campaign
Before you get an influencer on board, you should be sure about what you expect them to do. Whether you are planning to collaborate with travel micro influencers that work with small brands or mega-influencers with a strong audience engagement rate, you need to have clarity about how you will be using the presence and reach of an influencer.
Once you have a campaign ready, you move forward with clarity and precision. The influencer marketing campaign should be designed in a way that contributes towards meeting your current marketing goals and enables you to leverage the influencer’s popularity adequately. While designing the campaign, you can also take some input from the influencer.
Recognize the Target Audience
Apart from having a good idea about who your target consumers are, you should also know what kind or group of people follow an influencer. Collaborating with an influencer, without having any knowledge of their target audience, would not be a wise move. If you want to collaborate with an influencer but are not able to determine who their target audience is, you can seek the help of a digital analyst in this regard.
When you are running a travel company that caters to couples, you should reach out to influencers who make couple-based content and are largely followed by young couples. There are many individuals who identify themselves as couple influencers and have joint accounts with their partners. If you want to reach out to older people, you should look for influencers who are followed by people in that age bracket.