How to Become a Successful Travel Influencer

Being with nature is one of the most beautiful things. When you are out there discovering the world’s wonders, you are also finding and rediscovering yourself, learning and unlearning how to live. With social media and digital advances, the travel industry is at its zenith than ever before. If you have ever thought that you want to make money travel blogging, if you’re going to pack your life in a few bags and explore the world, there is no better time than today.

Probably, it isn’t straightforward to become a travel influencer. There are so many factors that you have to weigh in. But the road isn’t full of bumps either. To help you through the path, this article is like a step-by-step guide detailing the profession’s nitty-gritty and tips to crack it. Read on to learn how to travel the world as a travel influencer.

Crafting Your Travel Influencer Identity

The first of many steps in your travel blogger journey is to create a good username and establish your online presence. Since you need to travel to be a travel influencer, the next step is developing proper travel plans for local and international travel. Following this, you need to focus on generating new content. 

You can follow travel writers’ top travel influencers and make a note of their Instagram posts to understand how this functions. You can also buy a media kit with a phone/camera, a portable Bluetooth camera click, a tripod, and others.  

Defining Your Niche: Choosing Your Travel Style

There are umpteen websites offering thousands of images from various world destinations. So, what makes a travel influencer unique? There is a personal touch you can offer. It is precisely why defining your travel niche as an influencer is the best way forward.

For example, few specialize as luxury travel influencers who focus on posting expensive trips, classic travel destinations, five-star hotel options, and other luxury hotels. 

Some niches include health, luxury, hiking, couple travel, adventure travel, winter travel destinations, budget travel, wellness, exploring local cuisine, and more. In this internet era, narrowing down your niche helps massively.

When you choose your travel style, you also select your target audience. Take the primary location, for instance. Say Emily in the series “Emily in Paris” decided to be a travel influencer.

The niche she has chosen in one way is the locations in and around Paris. Likewise, the second benefit of defining your place is having control over your content and the space to plan better to stand out. Her content will be about only Paris, and she can focus on her style rather than trying to work on various unrelated content. 

Building a Strong Personal Brand

Instagram is the most popular platform among many social media channels for travel influencers, and it is all about branding. So, to become a successful travel influencer, you must carefully build your brand that creates interest among the audience. You need to let people connect with you through the page or channel you have on social media. Branding is a part of your travel-influencing journey.

So, there is no need to put in special efforts in terms of content creation. It is more about organizing and presenting the content so your “brand image” stands out.

Two factors are vital when you build a personal brand. You should be creative and consistent. Creativity helps attract viewers and create engagement, while consistency enables you to retain them. 

Storytelling Through Captivating Visuals

Visuals are the game changers. Unlike the earlier times when you could only listen to how people praised different beautiful places or see an unclear visual of what a world wonder would look like, the feel of seeing a scenic beauty on your phone is almost palpable, that you feel you are actually there. That is the power of visuals in today’s time. So, as an aspiring travel influencer, you need to have a clear plan for capturing visuals and doing them in a way that conveys fantastic stories. 

You could have tons of visuals that are eye-catching. Add some music and edit them; you have a good post ready.

But even in this fast-paced world, do you know what matters the most? The little emotions, stories, new people, and realness. After all, travel is all about the heart, isn’t it?

While your visuals tell an excellent level of their own, ensure you have something more that you felt at the moment, the essence of what it means to be at that place and convey that through your visuals. It could be as simple as sharing what you felt when you were there like your travel stories through a voiceover or capturing a moment that happened that you think tells why one must travel there. 

Mastering the Art of Instagram: Photo Tips and Tricks

In the Instagram and Tik Tok influencing world, you should have a few tips and tricks up your sleeve. Since travel vlogging is also more about visuals, you must be creative with the pictures you take. The first step is to hone your skills in photography. 

Instagram travel influencers don’t necessarily need a DSLR, but having a phone with a good-quality camera is essential. You can slowly learn the ropes of capturing various images, especially the scenic wonders. It will help in attracting more audience and increase your brand reach. Here are a few other tips to get your Instagram travel influencing game on.

• Create Videos – We can have a lot of stories, captions, and content, but nothing does the magic quite like videos do. So, gear up and learn the art of taking videos. You can capture your travel experience with music and beautiful images and transport it to several audiences. 
• Instagram Stories – Just like you use reels and IGTV for travel videos, you should utilize the option of Instagram stories. You can easily ensure that your posts reach more people on your travel Instagram account, create polls and quizzes for interaction, and help many people get a glimpse of your page in just a few seconds. There is more to this feature. Since the stories option is still an underrated feature, you can use it more to make your trending posts trendier. 
• Get your accessories in place – Since you are a travel influencer, you might not have a companion on all your journeys. But you must still click many images and videos; sometimes, you must be within the frame. While you can always seek a stranger’s support, their photography skills might disappoint you.
• So, you first need to get a tripod and a wireless clicker. It is primarily a small button that can be connected to your phone through Bluetooth. You can arrange the angle on the tripod and start clicking. 
• Editing – Oftentimes, you might miss the perfect natural lighting to capture the best of the environment. But don’t fret; you can edit your images even on the app with Instagram filters. That said, keeping the editing on a simple note is always good, adjusting only options like brightness, warmth, and exposure. This helps you keep it better yet real. 
• Consistent – While clicking wonderful content, enjoying your travel, and keeping track of all the things you need, you might fail to focus on what your whole Instagram profile looks like. The images should have similar style, pattern, or lighting, ensuring the overall profile looks colorful and themed. 

Creating Engaging Travel Videos: From Shooting to Editing

Sometimes being a travel influencer means you need to be a jack of all trades. You need to be a content creator, travel enthusiast, copywriter, photographer, editor and more. Since videos are a highly engaging mode to attract viewers, you might have to do a lot more of these.

There are several steps in finding the right formula to shoot a perfect video. You need to do a lot of brainstorming before you shoot a video. 

• Plan – Say you are going to capture a video. It is always necessary to find out why you want to do that. Capturing the aesthetic beauty of a mountain, you visit has a different purpose from recording a video about the five most important things needed to make traveling easier. So, figure out a purpose and plan your shots.
• Shoot – Once you have the idea, you can start filming your video and capture all the necessary shots. Ensure you also record sounds, if needed. Like the sound of waves hitting the shore for a beach video. 
• Accessories, Light, Camera – The first thing is to ensure you have all the required accessories, including a tripod which can help mount your phone or camera. Likewise, when you capture a video, search for the best light in the location while planning the shots. You can also research when to visit a particular place and record the view accordingly. 
• Diversify – One key factor to remember while recording videos is to try different angles. If you have a couple of close-up shots, you can record a few wide-angle shots and a few where you are seen walking, talking, or running. You can also shoot a few over-the-shoulder shots, pan from right to left, zoom in and out, capture a bird’s eye view, and slo-mo shots. 
• Balance static and movement – If you are at a beach, you have the waves constantly moving. But if you are recording a mountain, the film might start looking static. So, you can capture moving objects like birds or a few people moving around to keep it engaging. 
• Editing – With the innumerable apps available, you can easily edit videos on the go nowadays. If you are looking for advanced options, you can always opt for Adobe Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro, which will help you. But if you are an amateur, you don’t have to worry. Download a video editing app, and you have got it all sorted. 
• Sound while editing – Pay attention to the sounds while editing a video. You can use good music that fits the video or opt for the real-life sounds you captured. Sometimes, you can do a mix of both. 

PS: Always ask for people’s consent if you will capture them in your videos. 

Growing Your Audience: Strategies for Social Media Success

According to many reports, in recent years, close to 90% of youngsters plan their vacation and travel activities based on what their peers and contacts post on social media platforms. It makes social media one of the best tools out there to grow. But what is the best way to succeed in social media? Here are a few tips. 

• Watch Travel Videos and Content – There is no textbook practice regarding social media success. What works for one might not work for the other. As a new travel influencer on Instagram, it is always good to start by watching the contents of other social media accounts, short videos, and travel blog posts to understand the multiple kinds of posts and engagement methods. You must watch their videos and photos regarding framing, lighting, angles, etc. 
• Clarity – The first step as a travel content creator is to identify the audience and have clear goals for your social media account. Setting goals helps you measure your growth and implement plans that will take you a step closer. Similarly, you can find your audience so that your posts are relatable to them and have a common theme connecting all. 
• Hashtags – While hashtags may no longer be an important tool on Twitter, hashtags remain significant in Instagram. So, you should use hashtags effectively. 
• Diversify – Even though delightful, quality content is the key to your social media growth, variety in style is the most important thing. If you post a reel today, following it up with a post and IGTV before returning to reels is best. You can plan this diversification based on your audience, the engagement ratio, and other factors. 
• Be Consistent and Schedule – As a consumer, you will search for engaging travel-related content and a page that delivers regularly. So, your primary focus should be to plan ahead and always have a schedule for when and what posts must be made and published. 

Collaborations and Partnerships: Unlocking Opportunities

The great way to unlock opportunities in the world of travel influencing is beyond the grids of an Instagram page. While you must collaborate with many other pages and brands to grow more on social media, you should equally focus on building networks in the outer, real world. Such brand partnerships need not always result in monetary benefits. It could be about networking with the locals when you visit a place or agencies focusing on travel documentation, journalism, etc.

In simpler ways, you can also partner with fellow travel influencers and develop different types of content that work for both of your accounts. When you collaborate with someone else for brand promotion, networking, or partner with an agency or fellow influencer, you have two minds at work that help you creatively and attract their viewers and followers to take a sneak peek at your page, a free advertisement. 

Monetizing Your Travel Influence: Turning Passion into Profit

You can collaborate with brands to become an affiliate marketer, which will help you monetize your travel influence. For instance, you can collaborate with a travel bag company in influencer marketing to promote their bags.

While you can get a specific commission for this attempt, you can also add their product affiliate links to your bios and stories and get a percentage of profit every time someone buys their product through your link. When you build a successful travel handle with a huge following, paid collaborations and affiliate marketing are the main ways to turn passion into profit. 

Navigating Challenges and Staying Authentic

It will not be easy to build a whole new brand for yourself right from scratch. Unlike a paid, fixed, full-time job, travel influencing will not be stable, at least initially. The income part may also come in much later.

Besides all these, you might face challenges in traveling, accommodation, commuting, etc. But you can easily navigate these issues if you have a proper plan.

As a new travel influencer, you should always research before reaching a particular place; hard work is the key. With a proper plan, you can reduce your travel expenses and find a good balance between making luxury trips and free travel. You can even stay in day-use hotels if you are not going to stay the night to save up on expenses.

While you must show high-quality content, gatekeeping your work is also essential as a social media influencer. Likewise, not copying other people’s valuable content is equally important. Even with creativity, consistency, engagement value, brands, and collaborations, nothing else matters if you lose your authenticity and trust. 

Conclusion

The road from wanderlust to wanderer, from a travel enthusiast to an influencer, from an amateur to a professional, will be challenging and take a lot of time. However, this will also be a transformational and exciting journey for you personally and professionally.

Remember, all the best travel influencers and great content creators started from scratch someday. There is no better time to start your travel journey. If you want to become a successful travel influencer, let that one day be today. Good luck.