How to promote a travel business on Instagram?

Author: Team WH

Published On: 01-12-23

Last Updated on: 18-12-23

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

As a travel marketer, you know beautiful photos of destinations are vital to promoting travel brands on social media. But do you know how to maximise Instagram to drive business results like brand awareness, engagement and sales? This blog post will teach you how to promote travel business on Instagram through best practices for content, engagement and data-driven strategy.

Travel marketers will learn to showcase their brand visually, connect with travellers who match their niche and convert loyal followers into customers. We will help travel companies succeed on Instagram to grow their business through creative Instagram marketing ideas.

Let’s dig into how to inspire wanderlust while increasing bookings – all with targeted marketing through Instagram.

Table of Contents

• Why is Instagram Great for Promoting Travel Brands?
• How to Optimise Instagram for Travel Agents
• Types of Content to Share
• Best Practices
• Leverage Instagram Ads as a Marketing Strategy
• Conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Instagram Great for Promoting Travel Brands?

Let us understand how Instagram has emerged as a great platform to showcase the features of travel businesses:

Incredible Visualisation

With its incredible visual nature, Instagram allows a travel brand to display stunning holiday destinations and one-of-a-kind travel experiences beautifully. You can highlight the most photogenic and intriguing aspects of a travel destination or tour offerings through vivid photos and videos.

Influencer Marketing

Influencer marketing is another excellent tactic that can be opted for by a travel agency on Instagram. By collaborating with travel influencers, you can work with them to showcase your experiences authentically. Their user-generated content provides social proof and helps attract the right target audience for your brand.

Instagram Stories and Reels

Instagram’s Stories and Reels are the perfect avenues for engaging video content. From 15-second reels to 60-second stories, you have the flexibility to capture brand videos that feel polished, yet organic and “behind-the-scenes”. This content keeps your audience entertained while scrolling.

Global Reach Through Instagram Marketing

With a user base of over one billion people across the globe, Instagram provides immense global reach and the ability to connect with potential travellers worldwide visually. You can access a broader audience compared to websites through your Instagram account.

How to Optimise Instagram for Travel Agents

If you are wondering how to promote travel business on Instagram, the first step is to open an Instagram business account and optimise your profile accordingly. Optimising your Instagram profile is crucial for organic traffic to your social media page. Let us see a few ways of how travel agencies can do that:

1. Complete and Professional Bio

Your Instagram bio is prime real estate for making a great first impression on visitors to your profile. Craft a complete and professional bio that clearly explains your travel company’s offerings, guiding voice and value proposition.

2. Link to Website

Link to your website in your bio so it’s easy for users to click through to book or learn more. This connects your Instagram presence to your central hub for transactions and information. Opening a business account will let people contact you through email or phone number for queries and reach out to you directly.

3. Compelling Profile Photo

A compelling, high-quality profile photo and header image ensure your visual brand identity consistency. Choose eye-catching images that reflect your travel industry niche and style.

4. Adding Location Tags and Hashtags

Adding location tags and relevant hashtags to your Instagram posts helps it to reach the target audiences. People can get your company by searching for these tags and hashtags.

Types of Content to Share

The types of travel content ideas for Instagram for travel agencies as part of their marketing strategy:

Photos of Destinations

Capture stunning architecture from iconic landmarks, sweeping landscapes like mountains and beaches, and unique local sights that showcase the best of the destination. Showcase them from the most visually compelling, photogenic angles and focus on intriguing details.

Use lighting, patterns, perspective and editing to make the photos pop. This eye-catching imagery will spark an interest in each globe trotter’s heart.

Video Experiences

Post 60-second video clips highlighting the exact tours, activities, transportation options and local cultural encounters you offer. Show travellers a taste of the experiences through engaging videos. Utilise time-lapses and edits to showcase the most memorable and shareable moments.

Engaging Reels

This has become one of the best Instagram marketing strategies. Do a “day in the life” style Reel following someone on one of your tour packages from start to finish. Produce entertaining 15 to 30-second reels using the latest trends, fun transitions, reactions and effects.

User Generated Content

Leverage content posted by existing customers that share their experiences. Repost their photos, videos and stories with consent. Give them credit so they understand that you care, and increase the chances of them recommending your services to friends and family.

Their visual content will act as social proof and recommendations from real travellers’ points of view.

Promotion and Sales

Post-limited-time promotions like flash sales and special discounted packages or upgrades to incentivise booking. Offer Instagram-exclusive perks and discounts to reward your followers. Create a sense of urgency by actionable CTAs and highlight savings to drive conversions.

Interactive Content

One of the best ways to promote your travel business is to get your audiences talking and let them do the advertisements. For this, you must be active on social media and continuously engage with your audience through interactive content.

Use polls, quizzes, AMAs, questions in captions and prompts like “comment below if…” to engage your audience actively. This gives them a voice while allowing you to collect valuable feedback and insights about their interests. Foster a community.

Best Practices

Some of the best practices in Instagram for travel agents that will gain them more followers and customers are:

• Post high-quality content consistently, ideally 2-3 times per day. Have a mix of planned evergreen content and timely real-time content to keep your feed fresh and engaging.
• Strategically leverage relevant hashtags like #travel, #vacation, #travelbugs and destination tags to reach target audiences for your niche who follow those tags. Join in on viral hashtag challenges.
• Create timely content around trending travel topics, seasonal events like holidays or festivals, current affairs at destinations, and issues your audience cares about. Tap into Google Trends and keep updating on what’s new.
• Actively respond to all comments and questions to provide excellent customer service. Reply quickly, showing you listen and care. This builds good relationships with potential travellers.
• Analyse Instagram insights data regularly to see which types of content perform best and when your followers are most active.
• Promote posts and run Instagram ad campaigns targeted to your ideal demographics, interests and traveller persona.
• Enable Instagram shopping tags and shoppable posts so users can purchase your offerings, like tours and packages, directly through the app.
• Strategically link to your website, booking platforms, deals and landing pages in captions and bios to facilitate bookings.

Leverage Instagram Ads as a Marketing Strategy

Instagram ads are an essential marketing strategy for travel brands starting and looking to scale on the platform. Paid ads expand your reach and allow precise targeting to get your content and offerings in front of more of your ideal potential customers.

• Run various ad formats like photo, video, carousel and Stories to showcase your brand creatively.
• Target your ads using demographics, interests, behaviours and more to reach your niche travel audience.
• Retarget people who previously engaged with your content and site to re-engage high-potential customers.
• Track performance with metrics like reach, clicks, conversions and ROI to optimise and scale what’s working.
• A/B test different versions of ad creative, messaging, call-to-action and more to improve performance.
• Start with a small daily budget and increase slowly as you scale successful ads.

Paid Instagram promotions are a powerful way to boost results for your travel business and complement your organic content. Start small to validate ROI potential, then optimise.

Conclusion

We hope this blog has provided a helpful overview of how to promote travel business on Instagram. You can visually inspire and engage potential customers by optimising your profile, sharing gorgeous and captivating content, implementing strategic best practices, and leveraging Instagram’s advertising tools.

Remember to keep your content and messaging consistent with your brand identity. Interact authentically with your audience and provide value through stunning visuals and compelling experiences.

The tips outlined here will help you turn Instagram followers into bookings and grow your travel agency or tour company. Now it’s time to implement these recommendations and start planning your Instagram strategy and content today. Your dream clients are waiting to discover you on this social media platform.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you plan travel content on Instagram?

Here are a few tips on how you can plan travel content for your Instagram handle:

• Brainstorm content ideas and themes based on upcoming destinations, tours, promotions, holidays, events etc.
• Build an editorial calendar to plan content across caption copy, hashtags, and visual assets needed per post.
• Decide on photoshoot destinations in advance to have a content bank ready.
• Use planning tools like Preview or Later to schedule posts and stories for the month to maintain consistency.
• Review analytics regularly to see what content resonates and adjust content strategy accordingly.

2. How do I grow my travel page on Instagram?

The key is posting high-quality, consistent content showcasing destinations and experiences. Always engage with your audience through comments and DMs, and run contests and promotions to incentivise followers.

3. How do I promote my tour packages on Instagram?

Create dedicated posts for each package highlighting inclusions, value and benefits. Use compelling captions, links to your booking page, and attractive promo codes and discounts. Use user-generated content and run promo codes through them for a wider reach.

4. Is travel a good niche on Instagram?

Travel is an excellent niche on Instagram because the platform’s visual nature allows brands to transport followers to destinations and experiences through photos and videos.

There is less competition vs other niches, so it’s easier to grow an account. And the ability to geotag locations and leverage travel hashtags makes it very discoverable. It’s a highly relevant space with users actively looking for travel inspiration and planning trips.

5. How does Instagram affect travel?

Instagram can affect travel in various ways, such as:

• It can excite a travel destination, making people flock towards it.
• Facilitates global connections and cultural understanding.
• Allows travellers to stay connected and share adventures.
• Provides a platform for brands and influencers to visually market offerings.
• Helps travellers plan itineraries by discovering hidden gems.