Jamie Biesiada
Travel advisors clearly recognize that Instagram is a place where people find travel inspiration. Travel Weekly's Travel Industry Survey found that Instagram is eclipsed only by Facebook in its popularity among social media sites used by advisors. And free social media is advisors' top method to attract new clients.
Now, a new feature from Approach Guides has positioned Instagram as an actionable sales tool. The feature enables advisors to post supplier content to their Instagram stories and direct viewers to an Approach Guides-created landing page with the supplier's content and the travel advisor's branding and contact information.
The tool has generated excitement. Converting an Instagram lead to a sale is a "big shift in the mindset," said Scott Largay, director of business strategy at Largay Travel in Waterbury, Conn. His agency has started using Approach Guides' Instagram tool.
Jennifer Raezer, Approach Guides' co-founder and chief marketing officer, said the Instagram feature is a continuation of her company's goal to maximize the effectiveness of marketing.
"However travel advisors wants to market their business, be our guest -- we just want to make sure that their marketing is as optimized as possible," she said.
The process of posting an Instagram story linked to a landing page is simple enough. Advisors save supplier content to their phone's camera roll, then upload it to their story. They add a sticker that links to the website (Approach Guides has created a tutorial on doing this, a process Raezer estimated takes around 15 seconds once an advisor has done it once), add text to the sticker (a call to action) and post it. Approach Guides' AI assistant can generate the text on the sticker itself, if advisors wish.
Suppliers are excited. Melaine Garrison, vice president of sales strategy and trade marketing for Regent Seven Seas Cruises, said she likes that "with a couple of clicks, advisors are sharing what we know works for us."
The cruise line is intentional about the content uploaded to the Approach Guides platform. Garrison said Regent's marketers, social media team and content creators produce the content for advisors to use. Regent also provides suggestions on how to use the content, she said.
Raezer tells advisors, "It's like having Regent's marketing team and their tech team working to build your own business."
While Garrison said it's too early to see exactly how well Instagram is performing for advisors and Regent, the cruise line's sales team is busy getting word out to advisors that it's available to them.
And, perhaps, the icing on the cake: Approach Guides is free for travel advisors across most supplier-sponsored programs.