Nowadays, people are always looking for new and exciting destinations to explore. It isn’t high-street travel agents like TUI that they’re using to find them anymore, however. Instead, a considerable number of people are turning to social media and trusted content creators for recommendations. And it’s no wonder why influencer marketing for travel brands has vastly increased in popularity – they’re a match made in heaven! But how does this marketing technique actually work? Our specialist influencer marketing team at VerriBerri are here to explain…
What Exactly Is Influencer Marketing?
Even if you’re unfamiliar with the term, you can probably ascertain what influencer marketing is all about just from its name. Essentially, this refers to collaborations between brands and popular social media accounts with high followings and engagement. Because of their already established followings, these creators provide an avenue for brands to directly market to their target audience. For a travel brand, this will primarily include working with travel bloggers.
When an influencer promotes your business, it’s essentially a stamp of approval. It builds trust in your brand, as it’s endorsed by a popular, trusted individual with a loyal fanbase. If done correctly, influencer marketing for travel brands can significantly boost your exposure, social media engagement, website traffic, and ROI.
How Do These Collaborations Work?
With influencer marketing, it’s a two-way street. As a travel brand, you’d typically want to reach out to influencers with a similar audience to those you want to target. You might offer them a complimentary stay in your hotel, or all-expenses paid trip to your resort. This will be in return for the individual creating content about your brand for their social media. What exactly this content consists of, however, will come down to your agreement with the influencer.
What Types of Influencer Marketing for Travel Brands Are There?
Influencer marketing is an incredibly versatile technique, with options suitable for almost every size, budget, and industry. These could include:
Sponsored Trips (Gifting)
This method is a service business’s equivalent of product gifting. Essentially, travel brands will invite influencers to stay in their accommodation or experience the activities they have to offer. As previously mentioned, the only cost to the influencer with sponsored trips will be exposure on their social media channels. This content will generate interest around your travel brand from their audience, encouraging them to follow in the influencer’s footsteps.
With sponsored trips, however, you want to ensure that you are targeting the right accounts. After all, what you’re gifting them isn’t cheap – you’re naturally going to want to see a return on your investment. If identifying the most effective influencers is something you need support with, we’re happy to help!
Paid Collaborations
Paid collaborations follow an almost identical approach to gifting and sponsored trips, but with one exception. This is that you’re required to pay a fee for the promotion of your products or services, alongside a free trip. The exact cost you’re required to pay depends on the size of their following and engagement rate. Again, due to the value of what you’re offering (plus an additional fee), paid collaborations may prove less effective for travel brands. If you want to collaborate with the largest and most well-known influencers, however, chances are, they’ll require payment.
Brand Ambassadorships
These collaborations involve longer-term partnerships between your brand and a select few influencers. Essentially, they become the face of your brand – think Claudia Winkleman and Head and Shoulders. They’ll promote your brand over a long period of time and essentially act as its spokesperson.
Affiliate Marketing
As part of your collaboration, you may choose to share an affiliate link with the creator. Rather than being its own technique, however, this is typically done in collaboration with other influencer marketing strategies. The individual can then include this link on the content they produce, offering a small discount to their audience. Any bookings made through this link will provide a commission to the influencer. Naturally, this is an incentive for both the creator and their audience alike, bolstering your strategy to ensure you get the most out of every partnership.
Building an Authentic Influencer Partnership
When collaborating with any influencer, authenticity should always be one of your first objectives. After all, the last thing you want is for the content they put out to look forced and disingenuous. These influencers’ followers value their recommendations and reviews because of their authenticity and the trust they have for them. As such, you want to make certain any partnerships you even consider must align with this. This means targeting creators with a genuine passion for travel. This ensures any content feels organic and aligned with their personal brand, along with being engaging for their audience.
How Can You Measure the Success of Influencer Collaborations?
Fortunately, influencer marketing for travel brands can be monitored rather easily. The simplest and most common way of doing this is via ‘reach’. This refers to the number of people who saw the influencer’s post or content. Additional engagement such as likes, comments, and shares can also be tracked. Travel brands can also measure whether their website traffic, bookings, and sales spiked around the time where content was posted. Whilst this won’t be entirely accurate, it can provide a good indication of an influencer collaboration’s success.
What Other Services Do We Offer?
At VerriBerri, we’re not only influencer marketing specialists. In fact, we’re a fully integrated agency and are able to provide multi award-winning support across a range of specialist areas. Some of these include:
- Social Media Marketing
- Search Engine Marketing (SEO and PPC)
- Graphic Design
- Public Relations
- Content Marketing
- Brand Development
- Event Marketing
Contact Us
Partnering with travel influencers can help your brand soar to new heights. If influencer marketing sounds like something your business could benefit from, get in touch! Contact our agency specialising in marketing for travel brands today by calling us on 01376 386 850. Alternatively, click here for alternative ways to reach out team.