Refresh Your Instagram Content & Get More Clients With These Strategies
By now, you’ve probably been doing the Instagram thing for YEARS to promote your travel agency. And if you’re still hearing crickets, as in no engagement, no inquiries and especially no new clients, it’s time to completely flip the script.
Let’s discuss what’s working on Instagram now for travel advisors because chances are it’s evolved since you first started your account.
DON’T: Post only about hotels and destinations
You’re probably thinking, “But isn’t this what I’m supposed to be doing as a travel advisor?” Yes, in some of your content. But if all of your content is hotel features and destinations, you’re simply inspiring your audience to want to travel.
You do want to inspire people to travel, but you offer a valuable service, and that should take up the majority of your content.
DO: Understand your ideal client’s pain points and struggles around travel and focus on highlighting how you add value to the travel planning process.
The good news is that Instagram and other social media channels are overflowing with travel content. Your ideal clients are constantly thinking about travel. Now, you should swoop in to show them how you can make it better and easier for them.
You need to do this again and again. But if all you’re ever focused on is the destinations and the hotels, you’re adding to the noise.
You want to show them how tough good travel planning can be and all of the ways you bring value to the process as an awesome travel advisor.
You want to be the obvious person who can get them on that trip they’re seeing in their Instagram feed.
DON’T: Post billboard-style “book now” sales-y content
Your ideal clients are on social media to post about their dog, see what their friends’ kids are up to, and find community. They don’t want to feel like they’re being sold to unless you’ve got the JUCIEST travel deal to end all travel deals.
On top of that, when you only post content focused on sales and promotions, you’re only going to attract people who want deals, not high-value clients who want your expertise.
DO: Highlight your services in action
Look for ways to talk about what you do and what you’re planning for clients, and show yourself in your element being the expert and guide. This highlights what you can book, it inspires, and it’s selling your services without making people feel like they’re being sold to. Here are some writing prompts:
3 destinations my clients are visiting this month
3 hotel promotions I’m booking for clients this week
Just Booked: A dreamy [honeymoon] to [Santorini]
DON’T: Hide behind photos of beaches and the Eiffel Tower
Your social feeds shouldn’t just look like a generic scroll of photos that can belong to anyone; you want your feed to look like it very much belongs to you. You also want to build authority and trust with your audience, and that’s really hard to do when you’re hiding.
DO: Sprinkle in content of yourself
Invest in a brand photoshoot and take time on your next FAM to create content with you in it.
You walking down the beach
You sipping a mimosa at breakfast
You standing on the balcony of your room
You enjoying the properties you visit and the destination
When you post content with you in it, you start to build familiarity with your audience, and it’s MUCH easier to build trust. People need to trust you and like you if they’re going to inquire, and it’s really hard for them to if they have no idea who’s behind the business and who will be planning their trips.
DON’T: Post generic cut-and-paste content
Will buying a bundle of pre-captions and images for Iceland or River Cruising save you time? Yes. But will it get you clients? No.
There’s no substitute for YOU in your content—your voice, your opinions, your thoughts.
If you post cut-and-paste posts, you’re adding to the noise on social media, and people will keep scrolling.
DO: Create content that’s customized to fit your business.
People want to hear your thoughts, opinions, recommendations and methods for planning travel for your clients.
So instead of just posting that generic post about how many waterfalls there are in Iceland, or people love river cruising because it’s convenient, put your own twist on it. Here are some examples:
3 waterfalls I recommend having on your Iceland bucket list
My fail-proof hack for having the best experiences in Iceland
3 River Cruise sailings in 2024 you can’t miss
See the difference? You’re not just throwing out random facts about a destination that people can just Google, you’re giving them information that’s unique to you, you’re putting your expertise on display, and you’re not just sticking to safe, generic content — which at the end of the day doesn’t work.
It’s fine if you want to have a feed, but if you want social media content that gets people to inquire, you have to go beyond the surface level.
DON’T: Have no strategy and post only about National Days
Every single time you post is an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to educate, build trust, highlight your value, connect, and sell.
If you’re only showing up to wish people a happy National Book Travel Day or posting lackluster content that isn’t thoughtfully created, It’s going to be really tough to get a consistent flow of inquiries.
You need a strategy that adds a mix of different types of content to your social media feeds, and you need
DO: Create a content plan that supports your business goals
Of course, your ultimate goal is to attract more clients and bookings. To attract more inquiries, you need to demonstrate the value of your services, demonstrate that they solve a problem, highlight your client experience, and show how great it is to work with you.
This is what it takes, and no amount of hotel features and destination photos will take away the fact that, at the end of the day, your marketing needs to be persuasive.
Inspiring people to want to travel is not persuasive, but demonstrating how their travels will be better and easier because of you — now you have their attention. Create a content plan that supports this.
DON’T: Show up only to sell and promote
You wouldn’t just show up to a cocktail party and start tossing your business card at people, so you can’t do that on social media. If you’re only showing up to post supplier deals, you might as well be a TV commercial that people fast-forward through. You need to warm up and nurture your audience in order to sell.
At a cocktail party, you introduce yourself, you make small talk, and THEN you talk about what you do. And even then, you’re not just pushing people to book a 7-night stay in Jamaica. You’re much more stealthy about it and will likely get their business card and follow up later. You have to bring the same energy to social media.
DO: Nurture your audience and subliminally sell
Every time you post, you should be selling, but posting supplier promotions isn’t the way to do it. You should be selling people on the ease, the time saved, and all of the value you bring to the travel process.
You do this by talking about what you’re planning, sharing client questions and how you answer them, sharing your own travel experiences, and enlightening your audience about things they may not know about traveling to different places.
This is how you sell and turn your social media channels into a steady stream of leads. Not by posting every supplier deal that comes your way.
