Choosing the right influencer or content creator can make or break your travel marketing campaign: a mismatch leaves audiences cringing, while a well-chosen creator builds trust, engagement, and real results for your brand.

Here at CrowdRiff, we’ve seen this firsthand working with over 900+ travel and tourism brands. The lesson? Not all creators are created equal. Here’s how to choose wisely — and how to skip the trial-and-error process altogether!

How to find content creators for your travel brand

Search manually

Start by simply searching hashtags or keywords related to your travel brand on Instagram or TikTok. You can also go even deeper by looking at post comments and follower lists to find other creators in the same network.

Once you’ve found a few solid content creators, give them a follow — after that, the algorithm will do a lot of work for you by suggesting similar accounts to follow! 

• Pros: Low cost
• Cons: Travel marketers often have lean teams, packed calendars, and little time to chase creators!

Use creator/influencer marketing platforms

There are specific platforms and services like #paid and Billo designed to help brands with influencer discovery, outreach, and/or management. We have a whole guide on creator management platforms here!

Most influencer marketplaces are built for e-commerce, and favor aesthetics and follower counts. But travel brands need to take it even further than that, vetting creators for local knowledge, authenticity, and storytelling ability — and that’s where Creators by CrowdRiff comes in.

• Pros: Save time searching for and managing vetted creators in your niche
• Cons: Can be expensive if you’re not using the platform regularly

How to know if a content creator is a good fit for your travel brand

Use these criteria to help make your judgment call:

Brand affinity

Explore the creator’s content to see if your audience will click with their values. Will locals and travelers connect with this creator? That adventure hiker with the cute dog might seem like a great match for your quiet mountain town… until you find out they’re a vocal climate change denier 🫣

Engagement numbers

Get a quick sense of the creator’s engagement metrics such as views, shares, and the quality of comments to see how well their content connects to their audience. Engagement ensures reach among people who are likely to visit! And remember: an engaged community is a stronger indicator of success than a big follower count.

Visual style

Creators don’t always need to be decked out with all the latest professional equipment, but do they have a good eye? How do they handle tricky shooting situations like low light or motion? Watch their videos to see if they have a variety of engaging shots that pull you right into the experience!

The ✨authenticity✨ factor

Demand for real stories by real people is driving BIG changes in the marketing industry. Does this creator feel relatable and genuine? How are their storytelling skills? Is their personality shining through their content and making you want to watch until the end? Not sure what the difference is between an influencer or content creator? Check out our blog!

How to reach out to a travel influencer or content creator

So, you’ve whittled down your list to the perfect travel content creator… now it’s time to win them over! Here are some tips that make sure your approach is both professional and personable:

1. Pay them a social media courtesy

Follow them from your brand’s account and interact with some of their newer content. It’s not just your social due diligence, but also a great way to get on their radar 👀

2. Email > DM

Depending on their follower count, DMs are not always the best route for reaching a creator. If they’re not following you back you’ll hit their request inbox, which can be a black hole of unread messages 🕳️ Reach out to their email instead. If you can’t find their email, comment on a post and ask them to send their contact details in a DM. 

3. Write a personalized and detailed first message

Tell them how you found them, what you like about their content, and what you’d like to achieve with them. Share the key details of the campaign, plus info like:

• Type of content - Which platforms do you want content for? Do you want licensed UGC, a sponsored post, or something else?
• Deliverables - How many videos do you need? Do you need image content, too?
• Timeline - When are you aiming to publish the final content?
• Payment - You don’t need to share hard numbers, but do give them a sense of how they’ll be compensated and ask for their rates/trades policy.

‍4. Don’t forget to be human 💓

Be friendly, be enthusiastic, be real. Leave them with a great first impression of your travel brand or agency!

How to skip all of this work 👀

We’ll let you in on a secret: there’s a way to save time on all this work and still end up with the perfect match! Creators by CrowdRiff provides fully managed video production for travel brands and agencies — just submit a request and one of our talented verified creators will scoop it up and deliver ready-to-use social video in weeks.