How to sell tours and activities on Instagram

Instagram is one of the most popular social media channels for people of all ages. It is also the place for brands to engage with their current and potential customers online. As you may have noticed, selling products and services on Instagram is increasingly common. So, in this article, you will learn how to achieve this for your travel, activity or destination marketing company.

You are just a few steps away from exploring the great features of Instagram and making them work for your business.

Is Instagram business right for you?

Selling on Instagram is one of the top priorities for most business owners today. Looking at the numbers, it’s not surprising why. Instagram has over a billion active users, so it’s a great place to start growing your customer base. Even more exciting, more than 130 million Instagram users click on a shopping link once a month. This sounds like a good reason to get your business listed if you haven’t already.

We all know that Instagram has transformed the way people choose their next holiday destination. The platform has been shown to massively influence travel behaviour and popular links to over 500 million messages. So while we think Instagram can make a difference for every business, its potential for travel and activity businesses is definitely overwhelming.

The best news is that you don’t necessarily have to use the channel to sell and display product offerings. In fact, it’s also great for building relationships and reaching larger audiences and potential customers.

How to use Instagram for tourism businesses

We suggest these 5 easy steps that will help you grow your excursion or activity business through Instagram.

1. Get an Instagram business account

If you already have a personal Instagram account with brand-appropriate content and an established following, you might want to simply convert it to an Instagram business account. This gives you access to all the business features but makes the transition seamless for your existing followers. If this is your case, just go to settings and scroll down to switch to a business account.

You could also choose to create a brand-new Instagram business account. This is the right choice if you don’t have an existing personal account, or if your personal account does not accurately represent your business.

First, choose a unique name that suits your brand best. Then enter your opening hours, business address, website, and contact details. Finally, upload a profile picture, and you are pretty much ready to go!

Once you’re done, it is time to follow your clients, partners, and favorite brands. Start inspiring and getting inspired!

2. Create a winning Instagram strategy

Define your target market is one of the most important parts of your marketing strategy. In order to decide what kind of content to post in Instagram, you will need to think about who’s going to see it.

Once you’ve decided it, go for a consistent visual look. That means consistent colors and filters and an overall aesthetic that is easy to spot as your fans scroll through their Instagram feed. Finally, to make Instagram work for your business, you’ve simply got to have great photos. But you don’t need to be a professional photographer, and you don’t need a lot of equipment. Your mobile phone is your best friend when it comes to Instagram photography, since you can post straight from your device.

3. Inspire your audience through your stories

More than 400 million people use Instagram Stories every day, and 39 percent of people surveyed said they became more interested in a product or band after seeing it on Stories. In fact, a third of the most viewed Instagram Stories are posted by businesses. Content that disappears after 24 hours and live broadcasting features make Instagram Stories the perfect place to take creative risks with attention-grabbing photos and videos.

Tell authentic brand stories that have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Get creative with Stories slideshows and provide real value for your viewers to get them in the habit of watching your Stories consistently. End your Stories with a powerful call-to-action to convert your Stories views into measurable business successes.

4. Post consistently to get noticed

Consistency is crucial to be successful on Instagram. Most of the competition will be posting a few times a week, so you will want to follow.

Posting in a constant manner is what will get you more followers, thus providing more visibility and engagement from your viewers. Additionally, bear in mind that you need to follow the best practices in the industry, so avoid posting content that is not relevant for your business bottom line. A piece of advice, steer clear from purchasing likes or followers or irrelevant hashtags, just remember that you’re building a space for real followers that are potential customers.

5. Grow and start selling directly through your posts

Like with most things in life, diligent and scrupulous work on Instagram will pay off eventually. Reaching the 10K followers milestone will enable the swipe up feature, which is an outstanding achievement for your selling goals, meaning that people will likely buy your tours and activities from your posts! Just keep in mind that you need an Instagram’s business account.

One piece of advice is not adding links to your posts since they won’t be clickable. This is the main reason for which the method explained above should be your main target.

In order to guide your customer’s in their booking journey, provide all the relevant information you possibly can in your posts and stories. A well-informed customer is an asset for the conversion process. In conclusion, customers will be ready to choose your services over your competitors without the need of doing additional research.

Got questions about TuriTop ?

Reach out to our sales team. They are available from Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm GMT.

Phone: (+34) 922 394 632
Email: sales@turitop.com