Instagram Marketing Tips For Travel Agencies

Due to the importance of digital platforms, social media marketing is vital for any business to reach the right audience and attract customers. Therefore, digital marketing and well-organized social media accounts are very important for travel agencies, too. Since many customers are active on social media, travel companies must craft content that captives their audience. This content should be both informative and entertaining.

We hope this essay will be a guide for newly created travel agencies to properly use Instagram for marketing. We’ll try to explain how stunning pictures; exciting, wonderful stories, and building connections with active or potential travelers can become a powerful marketing tool and help your business flourish. If you follow our tips, you will have a big chance to stand out among countless agencies and companies on this huge platform, which is the main guarantee of a successful business.

Why do travel agencies need an Instagram presence?

Travel agencies need an Instagram presence, as this social platform is popular among over 2 billion people worldwide. People use Instagram to find ideas for where to travel, where to stay, and what activities they can do during their free time. Mastering Instagram isn’t just about posting pretty photos. It’s about using this platform smartly for different reasons:

1. Visual attraction

One of the main reasons Instagram is so popular is that it’s highly appealing visually. I mean that stunning pictures, funny reels, and beautiful videos instantly capture viewers’ attention. Traveling is a sphere that is also very visual. Therefore, travel agencies can show off breathtaking landscapes, luxurious resorts, exotic locations, and excited faces of people on trips and easily evoke the restless urge to travel with thousands of viewers. 

Nowadays, visually appealing content is significant for every company or every business, not only for travel agencies. Instagram users directly react to every content considering the visuals and are more likely to like, share, or comment on appealing posts and captivating photos.

2. Huge user base

Instagram has over a billion monthly users in the whole world, so it has access to a vast and varied audience. This creates a unique opportunity for travel agencies, in this particular case, to connect with all kinds of people of different ages, nationalities, interests, etc., and reach out their product to as many of them as possible.  

Besides that, Instagram is a platform where people take inspiration from. With this huge user base, billions of people scroll through Instagram every day and search for new places for their holidays, beautiful cities to plan their trips to, and original travel ideas. For that reason, Instagram is an ideal platform for travel agencies to influence a lot of travelers worldwide.

3. Influencer marketing

Collaborating with Instagram influencers who already have their audience and image that this audience respects and trusts in one way or another is Influencer marketing. Therefore, Instagram influencers have a lot of power and influence on people, so collaborating with them is a great marketing tool for travel agencies. It is very important to have a recognizable and popular face for the visual content of the traveling agency’s Instagram account. Since in turn, it attracts thousands, sometimes even millions of people.

4. Direct booking and promotion

Since life is too busy generally, speed is especially important nowadays and it can dramatically affect people’s decisions. By that, I mean that Instagram offers people features such as clickable links and shoppable posts. This enables direct booking and ordering, which is more convenient and beneficial for both travel agencies and customers, as it saves people’s time and energy.

How to start an Instagram account for a travel agency?

·  Creating an Instagram page for your travel agency:

Firstly, download the Instagram app and sign up with your agency’s email or a dedicated email for social media. Choose a username that reflects your agency’s name or niche.

·  Profile Optimization:

It’s also very important to complete your profile with a recognizable profile picture, like your agency’s logo, a laconic and appealing bio that describes your agency’s focus or moto, and a link to your website or booking page (use Linktree or a similar tool to share multiple links).

·  Content Strategy:

Plan the type of content you’ll post in advance. Focus on visually appealing images and videos showcasing destinations, accommodations, activities, different influencers, and traveler experiences. Try producing high-converting Instagram content. Choose one theme or aesthetic for the account and follow it.

·  Hashtags and Captions:

Research and use relevant travel-related Instagram hashtags to increase visibility. Craft engaging captions that tell stories, offer travel tips, or ask questions to encourage interaction.

·  Instagram features and content:

It’s essential to post regularly, create original content, and use Instagram features, like stories, reels, live videos, Q&A sessions, etc. Communicating directly and frequently with people is the main purpose of an Instagram account.

·  Use Instagram automatons:

And lastly, use Instagram automatons to help you run your account. Automatons allow you to relax while they take care of mundane tasks, like responding to usual customers’ questions in DMs or comments, and automating likes while allowing a social manager to do more important work.

Instagram automatons can save people’s time, and energy and, most importantly, increase the amount of followers faster. Automaton tools can help you to learn more about your target audiences’ preferences, which is crucial for having effective results from an Instagram account. You can buy Instagram automation tools on Kicksta, which is a platform that can help you get more followers by automatically attracting real Instagram accounts based on your target audience.

What kind of Instagram should a travel agency have?

Here are some tips to have an appealing and, what’s most important, successful travel Instagram account:

1. Highlighting different destinations:

Travel agencies should have highlights of all those stunning cities, landscapes, and destinations where they offer tours to people. Colorful and tasteful stories, images, and videos can easily attract potential travelers.

2. Posting reels:

Nowadays, reels are a very important feature of Instagram for younger users. Tons of people scroll through Instagram reels every day to rest and have fun. Therefore, the presence of beautiful and pleasant reels with well-chosen hashtags and captions is essential for a travel agency account.

3. Collaborating with influencers:

As I already said, collaborations on the Instagram platform are very important. If you are a newly created travel agency, I suggest having barter collaborations with influencers. Barter collaboration is a marketing relationship between marketers and influencers to promote a new product and then offer the samples to influencers for free.

For example, if the traveling company is in the early stages of its existence, it would be good to give an Instagram influencer a two-day voucher for a luxury hotel and instead increase follower count and awareness. That is a fair barter, I think.

How to gain more followers on Instagram as a travel agency business?

1. Connect with your audience:

·  Respond friendly

It’s very important to know your audience’s interests, and preferences and have a genuine interaction with them, like responding quickly and friendly, as an online reputation is significant for the success of the business. The number one rule of social marketing is responding to comments or DMs. You should try to make all customers satisfied, as nothing is worse for a business than ignored and angry clients.

·  Use interactive content

You could use interactive content to connect with your audience, and Instagram’s polling feature is a great way to do this. By creating polls on Instagram stories, you can collect people’s opinions about preferred destinations and trips. You can ask them which country or which resort they would travel to or which destination they would like you to add.

In addition to the poles, you can organize an interactive challenge that will be related to traveling. For example, you can announce a photo contest on Instagram, where people can share their travel shots and beautiful photos from their trips under a specific hashtag, and the winner could be given some kind of prize.

·  Maintain stability

Sharing content consistently is very important to maintain and strengthen communication with your audience. You have to share all the important information with them through posts, stories, reels, and all this must have a regular and frequent appearance. Otherwise, people will very easily forget about the existence of the company and become clients of any other agency that regularly reminds them of its existence.

2. Collaborate with influencers:

As I have already mentioned, Instagram influencers have a lot of power and influence on people, so collaborating with them is a great marketing tool for travel agencies to gain more followers and reputation. It is very important to have a recognizable and popular face for the visual content of the traveling agency’s Instagram account. Since they have their own audience that trusts and follows them.

3. Use Instagram automation to gain niche followers quickly:

You should try using Instagram automation tools to gain more followers. Kicksta is a platform that helps your account grow by interacting with real Instagram users who match your target audience. After a brief initial phase, they’ll begin following and later unfollowing these targeted accounts, stimulating them to engage with your content. This approach will remarkably boost your visibility, interactions like comments, likes, and your follower count.

Brands with the most successful Instagram pages in travel agency industry

• Expedia
• Travel Nevada
• Skyscanner
•  Lonely Planet
• Airbnb

Is it mandatory to have Instagram for a travel agency?

It doesn’t matter which business we are talking about when we live in the age of technology. For travel agencies, like any other business, having an Instagram page is mandatory. Since marketing has largely moved to the digital world, travel companies should also search for customers on social media, especially on Instagram.

How soon can you establish a strong Instagram presence for travel agencies?

Generally strong Instagram presence needs months and even years to build loyal connections between the agency and its followers. However, if you want to strengthen your Instagram account and gather a large audience in a maximally short period (1-2 months), you must contact Kicksta and get their help to gain more followers with the use of Instagram automatons.

Conclusion

To sum up, Instagram is one of the best social media platforms nowadays for travel agencies because of its visual nature. It helps you to get well-organized, pleasing content with the help of highlights, reels, hashtags, etc. Most people usually struggle with planning their vocation, and one stunning photo on Instagram can easily solve all their problems. They can simply go to your travel agency’s Instagram page and book their trip without any stress or worry. Therefore, one stunning photo on Instagram can become a 21st-century brochure for your travel agency.