For travel companies, utilizing Instagram in your marketing plan to promote your business should be a priority. The highly visual social media platform needs no introduction as an effective place to showcase your travel offering.
Travel companies know this and some of the larger travel brands reach over a million Instagram followers every time they share a post. Engaging videos and emotive pictures give travelers the chance to fantasize about their ideal holiday destination or experience.
Not forgetting that Instagram is also often the first place travelers post their highly optimized pictures to when they are on holiday. As a result, the platform is host to millions of carefully put together and inspiring images or videos that are designed to attract attention.
For travel companies, Instagram is the place to be seen, and a place to engage.
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Which Travel Companies Instagram Accounts Are Dominating And Why
Use Highly Visual Content
We would like to think that all travel companies using Instagram know this is a requisite. It goes without saying then that highly visual content will capture travelers' attention and earn likes for your content. If you post consistently high-quality content you may progress a step further and score followers as well.
Nat Geo Travel has 26.7m followers on Instagram and it’s not hard to figure out why. A look at their profile shows beautiful and inspiring imagery captured by professional photographers
Similarly, if you take a look at Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, as well as Visit Britain (the official tourist board site for Britain), you will notice they too carefully pick and place superb content on their profiles.
All of these profiles have a very healthy following on the platform, and if you look at all four of them you will note they insert a decent write up on each post to provide an engaging background story to pique the interest of their followers even more.
Create An Identity
Use your content to not only sell your product on Instagram but also to establish your identity. Travel companies like Abercrombie & Kent and Contiki use their Instagram profile to market their travel offering, highlight their values, and let people know what they are all about whether it be luxury travel or unforgettable group trips.
Passport To Friday and Two Nights In are examples of travel brands on Instagram that have established an identity by building a constant presence into the content on the platform. This gives the followers a familiar figure to follow and identify with. In a competitive market where individuality is key, having a figure travelers can relate to will play to your advantage.
Highlight Your Niche
Luxury Ecotourism company Wilderness Safaris identifies as a protector of the flora and fauna in specific wilderness areas. Consequently, the content they post is a reflection of this. By identifying their niche and using imagery to emphasize it they appeal to travelers with aligned interests.
Create A Viral Hash Tag Synonymous With Your Brand
You know that your brand name is firmly established when your company’s travel Instagram hashtag has gone viral. Norwegian Cruise Line has a great example of this with their hashtag #cruisenorwegian that has been used to tag over thirty thousand images or videos.
Intrepid Travel is not doing too badly either with their viral hashtag, #beintrepid which has garnered nearly twenty thousand tags. Encourage your clients to use your hashtag on their Instagram content as it not only promotes visibility on the platform but also establishes your brand as one that people trust and are happy to associate themselves with.
Host Instagram Take Over Campaigns
For those concerned with their online presence, as every travel company should be, hosting Instagram Take Over campaigns is a good way to keep up your online presence with continuous posting.
Continually putting out high-quality content can become tricky if you are not constantly on the road or in the air, performing site visits or joining supplier fam trips.
By giving an influential traveler or talented content producer permission to post on your behalf for a couple of days you can enjoy the exposure with minimal effort. For instance, Sky Scanner hands over the reins from time to time to allow professionals to showcase a particular location on their platform.
Engage With Your Followers
Effective marketing includes engaging with your followers. For Travel Companies, Instagram is a great platform to show that you are dedicated and interested in providing travelers with a personalized and unique experience.
Travel company Milk + Honey Travels engages with travelers by responding to comments on the platform. This provides a personal experience for web users, as well as showcases a real person ready to provide information on a travel offering that people show interest in.
On the off chance that you receive negative feedback or commentary on your profile be sure to address the situation with empathy and concern. Showing your followers that you are prepared to work through issues will build their trust in your brand.
Use The Story Telling Feature
Travel Alberta and Iceland Travel are examples of travel companies on Instagram that use the storytelling feature to provide short interactive videos that showcase snippets of their top travel offerings to their followers.
You only have a couple of seconds to capture the attention of your travelers online, so videos are an effective way to quickly and efficiently market your message.
Other Best Instagram Practices To Remember
You know that publishing new amazing content frequently is important for travel companies Instagram profiles. But did you know that the time of publishing is important too? Set your Instagram posts to go live at times when people are on their mobile.
We mentioned it above, travelers use mobile to view Instagram. Therefore, it is important to make sure to optimize your images for the platform. Avoid using small text in your content and make sure to size it appropriately.
It is true that travel experiences are best shared, and travel companies Instagram content reaches followers through sharing. There is no doubt then that the sharing community of Instagram is an ideal platform to showcase your amazing content and to promote your travel offering.
