How to Plan a Successful Press Trip (Before and After)
In my article,Ā How to Score and Execute a Press Trip, I shared tips on planning and executing a successful press trip. In this follow-up article Iād like to dish out a bit more advice, which Iām confident will be useful for bloggers and hosts alike.
Before any big trip, I try to connect with the local tourism board or tour operators. Since we are both in the same industry, itās likely we can agree on a plan of action that is mutually beneficial. I have, however, sometimes heard tourism entities complain, āWe havenāt gotten results from bloggers in the past. Thatās why we are hesitating to say yes this time.ā There have been a few cases where I had to convince business owners that I could, in fact, deliver positive and calculable results. Luckily for me, I was persuasive enough to strike up a working business relationship! However, this is not always an easy, or straightforward process.
To help you on your own professional journey, Iāve distilled the various bits of wisdom Iāve accrued in the last two years of travel and professional blogging into three simple steps:
Make a Clear Plan of Action
Bloggers: contact your host beforehand to make a guideline for the trip and your duties. Get a clear idea of their needs and expectations. Do they want short-term publicity, evergreen content, or sustained social media chatter? Before the trip, make a clear plan of action highlighting what youāre going to provide for them. If itās necessary, hammer out exact deadlines for each stage of the project.
Hosts: know exactly what your clients or your company need from the bloggers. Why did you agree to invite these bloggers? There are a number of exposure strategies that you can request from bloggers. To avoid unwanted surprises or disappointment, itās important to be on the same page.
Bloggers and Hosts: Be clear. Be communicative.
Check in
Bloggers: donāt forget to thank your hosts and let them know about your experience. A simple email will do it. We all know the real work starts after the trip. Tell them your opinion of the trip, and give them a rough publishing schedule. Donāt be afraid to be honest.
Hosts: check in to see how everything went. Send any additional information (press kit, brochure, photosā¦) you think will help bloggers highlight areas you deem critical. Check in with your blogger(s) and confirm the publishing schedule you agreed on. If you donāt hear from them in a while, write a short reminder.
Follow up
This is the most important, and possibly the most nerve-racking side of a press trip. Iāve worked with a number of travel related organizations through out America, Europe and Asia and only a handful of companies were keen on interaction. For any real discernable result, sharing contents through various modes of social media is critical.
Bloggers: find out your hostās social media channels and include them in your updates. Make sure to include the contact information for your host in any upcoming articles. After publishing and sharing whatever content you outlined before the trip, write a wrap up email and send it to your host.
Hosts: donāt you want to get the best result from the project? Remember the āsynergy effectā. Once you get updates from your guest blogger, itās important to share these contents. Utilize Facebook, Twitter, G+ or a newletter; to let the world know about your recent projects with the new media. Results are as much a product of your effects as they are of the bloggers. Keep the chatter going by sharing these contents.
Very helpful post!
Thanks Andi!
It’s very generous of you to share this info with others, Juno! Thanks for helping your fellow bloggers out!
Great advice! I wish that one day I’d be able to go on press trips. Hopefully, with your articles, it will be easier š
Great tips, Juno! Thanks for sharing your successful advice.
The follow bit is (as you say) an important piece. Especially like the advice for hosts. As a blogger I love it when the tourism board helps promote my articles for them on their own networks. When I help a tourism board that doesn’t retweet my stuff or post it to their facebook I get the feeling that they don’t care about me or didn’t like me stuff. I feel that they are using me for pure SEO links and not at all my opinions or views. I would love to see “re-shares” on the hosts part to be written into the agreements. Not just because I would like access to their network for a few posts too, but it shows to me that the company/board cares about their destination/product/service and likes what I do to help them. It feels better to work with a place that does that.
Great tips on resharing, I think many destinations don’t even realize it is something they should do.
Wassup Juno!
Thanks for sharing some insider tips. We’re starting to approach a few people about trying to organise some press trips soon – I’ll let you know how it goes! š
Thanks again
Clear communication really is key. A nice, detailed follow-up email really is appreciated. I am guilty myself of not always doing so.
Thanks for sharing all of this Juno. Press trips are a bit daunting for me, I haven’t given them a go so far, but it is something I want to look into in the future, so this has been really helpful!
Wonderful tips Juno, many thanks! š
Thanks for the tips Juno! It’s great to have an outline to refer to now that I’m starting to look into press trips. This is helpful, thank you!
Thanks Juno. I am reading it now after many years it was published. I am curious to know if anything new to add here? š