How to Keep Your Audience Engaged During Trip Planning

Techniques to ensure your community is ready to book as soon as your trip is available

Most of the time, the life of a Trova Host is pretty exciting–talking group travel, visiting new places, making great content–but there’s one little window when things can get quiet: the time between surveying your community and officially launching your trip. And while everyone loves a break, going completely radio silent can result in your community losing interest or forgetting that a trip is in the works. To prevent that from happening, here are a few things you can do to keep your community hyped about traveling together without going full-on sales blitz.

Key Takeaways

• Once your itinerary is set, announce the launch date so your community will be ready to book as soon as spots are available.
• Use early bird pricing to incentivize the first 8 sign ups. You may want to offer these discounted spots as a perk for returning Travelers or members of your mailing list before anyone else.
• Walk through the itinerary for your audience before launch to get them excited about specific activities and locations, and make the trip “real.”
• Don’t worry about promoting hard like you did during Survey Week. Keep the trip on your audience’s radar with a touch point here and there, and enjoy a well-earned breather before launch.

Start the clock

A big part of Survey Week was letting your community know that they’re part of the process and that you’re creating the trip together. So keep them in the loop about how things are going. Giving them ownership of the trip even when there’s nothing to actively do keeps the value high. Just make sure you don’t get too specific before an itinerary is locked in and promise an activity or location you don’t end up offering. Once you get the green light for a trip, eventize it! Pick a launch date and tell your community to put it on their calendars for a livestream or special announcement.

Push early bird promotions

Confirming a trip means that the minimum number of Travelers required for the trip to operate have signed up (for most of Trova’s itineraries this number is between 8-10). To help incentivize that, those spots can be offered a discounted price. How much is up to you, and you can read about all aspects of pricing your trip here, but the bottom line is: Teasing early bird pricing incentivizes your audience to book sooner rather than later. For example, if your trip requires 8 bookings to confirm, offer the first 8 to book $100 off!

For Hosts who have Patreon or other paying subscribers, offering them first crack at these spots can be a great way to reward your most loyal supporters. And if all your content is public you can still use this same approach to help build up your email list, by allowing those on it the opportunity to book early bird spots first.

Break it down

Okay so you’ve promoted your survey, shared travel inspo, and promised an exciting trip. At this point it’s totally normal to feel like there’s nothing left to say other than “Sign up, already!” If you’re having a Trova take the wheel moment, we’ve got you. Having your itinerary locked in means that you’ve got a whole list of specific activities and locations to tease, not to mention any workshops or classes you personally might be offering. Even some transfers are worth shouting out like a bullet train in Japan or a drive along the winding roads of a stunning national park. Going through the itinerary step-by-step before your launch date keeps your community primed without requiring too much mental energy on your part.

💡Trova Tip: This is also a great opportunity to highlight the ease of the whole experience one more time. Your community’s heard it already but giving them full picture of all the transportation, meals, events, and accommodations they won’t have to worry about planning can really drive home the benefits of a group trip.

Pace yourself

You’ve spent weeks climbing the mountain and it’s almost time to enjoy the view. All you really need to do right now is make sure your audience is keeping up. For a peek at what comes next, check out this article with tips for confirming and selling out your trip from some of our most successful Hosts, and don’t forget to take a little breather as you get ready for the adventure ahead. You’ve earned it!