Last month, Incentive Solutions appeared in ThinkAdvisor as part three in our series on how to strategically plan and execute a corporate incentive travel program. You can read all three parts of the series here:

• 5 Smart Ways Life Insurance Distribution Organizations Can Still Use Incentive Travel
• How to Use Incentive Programs to Improve Product Knowledge and Speed
• 5 Steps for Planning an Insurance Incentive Travel Event

While these articles were written specifically for insurance brokerages and other fiduciary advisors, many of the principles explored in these articles are equally applicable to corporate incentive travel programs for a variety of industries, from industrial manufacturing to pharmaceutical sales.

With that in mind, we’ve decided to turn the latest article into an infographic that will help anyone plan a better, more effective corporate incentive travel event.

5 Steps for Planning Your Incentive Travel Trip: An Infographic

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1. Audience Analysis: Understanding your target audience will allow you to plan and structure a corporate incentive travel trip that feels like it was made just for them! Study your participants to figure out what kind of event, theme, and destination will resonate most with them. Looking at their age, lifestyle, and level of investment will help you plan a trip they can get excited and motivated about.
2. Identify Objectives: Of course, there are your overarching goals before the trip, such as increasing incremental sales or improving response times. But the trip itself presents an important opportunity to promote the long-term goals of your company. Is your goal to retain top sales talent? To educate B2B customers on the value of your brand? Choosing one or two objectives for your incentive travel promotion will help you structure your trip.
3. Select Destination: Now we’re getting to the fun part! When selecting a destination, there are several factors to take into account: You want to choose a location that will motivate your participants; that fits your budget; that provides conference rooms or other amenities that you need to achieve your objectives, and that is accessible to your participants from a logistical perspective. Once you’ve selected a destination, start building a theme for your event. For example, if you were traveling to Hawaii, you might create a luau-theme for your event, complete with fire dancers, volcano tours, a traditional pig roast, and optional surf lessons. A themed event makes the prize more specific, desirable, and easier to market.
4. Build Your Itinerary: Time is limited, so make sure to structure your corporate incentive travel trip to make the most of it. It’s important to strike a balance between planned activities and free time and to base events around exciting set pieces that tie in with your theme. Doing so will ensure your participants feel rewarded while allowing your company to achieve its objectives for the trip.
5. Repackage This Year’s Event for Future Marketing: A successful corporate incentive travel program markets itself via word-of-mouth. But using collateral from this year’s trip to market next year’s event? That’s a smart way to maximize your value! Incorporating photos or souvenirs from this year’s trip to market future incentive travel promotions accomplishes several things: First, it reminds past attendees what a great time they had, so that they’ll keep up their high level of performance. Secondly, it pushes the reps who didn’t qualify this year to try even harder to be included for next year! Additionally, this sort of marketing keeps your incentive program top-of-mind year-round, resulting in a higher ROI.

Are You Ready to Take the Next Step?

Of course, if you really want to have the best corporate incentive travel program around – and save a ton of time and effort on your end – you might want to enlist the help of experts. Incentive Solutions would be happy to plan your trip, take care of site selection and contract negotiation, market your program, communicate with your participants, design itineraries, brochures, and other collateral, and cover all travel planning and logistics. Feel free to give us a call at (866) 567-7432!

Also, we want to give a huge shout out to Ms. Allison Bell, Insurance Editor at ThinkAdvisor, for featuring Incentive Solutions in her magazine, not once, not twice, but three times! If you’re interested in learning more about the latest in insurance sales and financial advisement, we encourage you to check them out.