Share this
A guide to generating excitement and responses on one of the most travel-friendly platforms
First things first, whichever platform your community is strongest on is the one you should lean into the most. If you’ve built a strong community on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, or somewhere else, stick with it! You’ve worked hard to get to this point and we think “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is a pretty good rule for both marketing and life. So no Instagram propaganda here. However, cross-channel promotion is always a good idea when surveying your audience. If you have good engagement on Instagram, or are considering making it your main channel, we’d love to help you get the most out of it when you promote your survey.
For those who haven’t checked out our blogs on the importance of surveying and how to do it yet, the survey has 2 purposes:
- First, it allows you to become a TrovaTrip Host once you reach 50 qualified responses, or QRs. These are defined as a person over 18 years old, with a travel budget of at least $2,000. And, in case you’re wondering, 50 responses is just the minimum; the more QRs you collect, the greater your chances of confirming a trip will be.
- Secondly, it tells you where your community wants to go and how much they’re willing to spend, along with a ton of other data to help you offer the perfect group trips your followers want. It’s kind of a big deal and Instagram has historically proven to be one the most effective ways to promote and share travel content, including the survey. So without further ado, let’s take a look at how to make that happen!
Key takeaways
- Survey promotion is a weeklong process, but TrovaTrip has developed a schedule that’s easy to follow and effective.
- Stories will be an effective method of communication during survey week, but you’ll want to make the most of Instagram’s other features well.
- Make your community feel like they’re truly part of the process with interactive features like polls and question boxes.
- Creating Instagram travel content with a cohesive look and feel–this can be as simple as repeating a background or font–gives your brand a professional edge and helps your audience follow along even if they miss something.
Welcome to Survey Week (Instagram edition)
Over the past 6 six years, we’ve experimented with different posting cadences to develop the most effective schedule possible. It unfolds over a weeklong period and looks like this:
- Day 1: Pin the link to your Host Profile Page in your bio or LinkTree for the week. Then record a Story telling your community about why you want to host a trip and what excites you about bringing them along. Hit on the fact that this is a group experience and their feedback about destinations, budget, activities, etc. will actually determine what the trip looks like. Speak directly to your audience and issue a clear call to action to participate by clicking the link.
- 💡 Trova Tip: Using text overlay will help get your message across no matter when or how your audience watches, and it makes for more dynamic content overall.
- Day 2: Save your announcement Story to a Highlight collection so it’s easy to find. Then make a static post or another Story to keep the momentum going and remind your followers that this trip won’t be possible without their feedback. Algorithms are unpredictable and not everyone will have seen the original announcement. Or they may just need a little more encouragement to take action.
- Day 4: Chill for a day and keep track of incoming responses in the Host portal, then ramp up engagement. Start a Q+A with your community and post your responses. This is a great way to make folks feel involved and is an opportunity to alleviate any FUD (fears, uncertainty, or doubts) they may have. Look for questions that a lot of people may relate to, research your answer, then post it for all to see.
- On Day 4, You should also share the leading destination picks and favorite activities. This is a chance to collaborate, geek out about travel, and shape the vision of the trip.
- Day 6: After another day of continuing to post responses and engaging via comments and DMs, make a Story revealing the top 2 or 3 destinations. Talk about what excites you about each, then give one final call to action for those who haven’t responded yet.
- Day 7: Finally, wrap it all up with a Story thanking your community for participating and let them know more details will be coming soon as you craft an experience based on their input.
Instagram feature breakdown
Now that we’ve covered when to post, it’s time to talk about how. One of the reasons we love IG for promoting group travel is that it has so many options and, depending on your audience and needs, there’s always a good choice. Switching it up between features can help hit different parts of your community and trigger more responses, especially when used at the right time in the promotion cycle.
- Stories – The bread and butter of survey week. You’ll want to make your main announcements as well as pepper in different types of content via Stories. A big advantage is that you can save the important ones to Highlights so anyone late to the party can still get up to speed with the whole survey request. Videos, still photos, reshared travel inspo…it’s all good.
- Interactive Elements – The survey is all about making your community feel like they have a seat at the table in planning a trip, and there’s no better way to do that than by getting them to actively participate. Adding polls to your Stories for favorite destinations or activities will get the ball rolling, while fun quizzes throughout the week will keep your audience engaged. And never doubt the power of a question box to kickstart a conversation. Gamification FTW!
- Reels – Reels have been Instagram’s bread and butter for a few years. Not only is video so much more engaging than static photos, but IG's algorithm makes it more likely for your Reel to reach beyond your community. While your community should always remain your core focus, there is no harm in getting in front of some new folks! Long story short, recording at least one Reel to announce your survey launch and explain what it is can attract additional responses. Plus, you get to respond to any comments that come in.
- Live – Not everyone feels comfortable going Live but if you are, Day 1 for an announcement, Day 4 for a Q+A session, and Day 6 for a top destination discussion are all prime opportunities. Lives are great because they allow you to share details and respond to questions in real time. Plus, viewers being able to see your genuine excitement—huge win!
- Static posts – Sometimes the old ways are the best. A permanent post on Day 2 allows for a nice caption that explains the survey and points to your link, as well as another place to interact with commenters.
- DMs – Interactive elements will give you plenty to respond to, even if it’s just dropping an emoji, and some people may hit you up with more specific or sensitive questions. However, you can also be proactive about DMing. As you get closer to the end of the week, you may notice that some people who have commented, DM’d, or reacted to your Stories still haven’t filled out the survey. In these cases, it’s worthwhile reaching out personally to see if they might be interested.
- 💡 Trova Tip: Responding to DMs with a recorded voice memo feels so much more personal and can go a long way! Give it a try and see how your community members react.
- Broadcast Channel – If you have a Creator account, you can take the whole DMing thing to the next level (sort of) with this one-to-many group chat feature. Only you will be able to message but others can still react and vote, making it perfect for explaining things in detail and directly prompting followers throughout survey week. The only catch is you’ll only be able to reach those who have joined your Broadcast channel, meaning that posting Stories and sending regular DMs is still essential. Think of this as more reinforcement for your VIPs 😉
The magic of branding
As you’ve probably gathered, survey week involves a lot of posting and communication. Unfortunately, no matter how engaged your community is, not everyone will see everything. To someone who misses the first couple of days, for instance, the Q+A can feel like walking into the middle of a movie. To help people piece together what the survey is all about and why they should do it, we recommend a little marketing magic. Nothing too complicated, just giving your Stories a unified look and feel. Keeping a consistent visual style across your content like in the examples will make for cohesive storytelling as opposed to a bunch of random posts that don’t fit together in a clear and obvious way. And, as a bonus, it gives your brand a professional edge by showing folks you’re organized and intentional–qualities Travelers look for in a Trova Host!
Something for everyone
There you have it: the complete guide to surveying on Instagram. We’re pretty active on IG ourselves, so don’t be shy! Stop by for inspiration or just to say “hi” and, if you’re ready, grab your Host Profile Page link from the portal and get ready to find out where your community really wants to go. If you have any questions about the process or anything else Trova-related, don’t hesitate to reach out to your Trova rep or host@trovatrip.com.
Prefer a different platform? No problem! Check out these blogs on survey tips and see how to qualify as a TrovaTrip Host no matter which platform you call home: