How Insurance & Finance Companies Can Structure Their Incentive Travel Programs for Maximum Value in 5 Steps

Are you looking to get the most bang for your buck from your incentive travel programs? In an article published in Insurance & Financial Meetings Magazines, Incentive Solutions’ President and CEO, Mark Herbert, outlines 5 essential strategies insurance and finance companies can use to maximize the ROI of their incentive travel programs.

After all, to quote Mark Herbert, “When it comes to incentive travel, the trip is the fun part…but the real value for the company will be generated by the actions your agents and brokers take to earn that reward.”

5 Essential Strategies for Structuring Your Incentive Travel Programs

1. Ask the right questions: Why are you offering incentive travel programs? Who are you trying to influence? Which metrics should you use to prove program success? The more specific you can be in answering these questions, the more effectively you’ll be able to structure your program to achieve your goals and make the biggest impact.
2. Enhance the competitive aspects of your incentive travel programs: Building elements of gamification or competitive points tracking into your incentive travel programs improves engagement. The trip itself might be months away, so it’s important to give your reps and agents short-term targets for them to meet. Plus, different people respond to different motivators. A little bit of ego-driven fun might be just what you need to push the effectiveness of your incentive travel programs over the edge!
3. Track data. In Step 1, you identified several KPIs you should use to prove program success. In order to maximize the value of your incentive travel rewards, you should be tracking these metrics throughout your incentive travel promotion. Monitoring this data lets you know you’re on the right track or if there are aspects of your program that need some attention. We’re committed to providing our clients with clean, reliable data and analytics, which is why we never nickel-and-dime or restrict access to performance reports.
4. Effectively market your incentive travel programs: To quote Mark Herbert: “An incentive travel program is only as effective as the participation of the professionals you are hoping to motivate.” So spread the word! Providing an omni-channeling marketing campaign for your incentive travel rewards will keep your program top of mind. Backing that up with convenient user interfaces will ensure that your program is motivating productive behaviors from as many members of your target audience as possible.
5. Offer a phenomenal travel experience: Finally, in order for your incentive travel program to be a sustainable solution, you have to keep up your end of the deal by consistently providing phenomenal incentive travel experiences. After all, you want to make inclusion on the trip a can’t-miss value proposition. That way your agents and brokers will work even harder to qualify for next year’s incentive travel rewards.

Optimizing Your Incentive Travel Budget

With U.S. businesses spending $22.5 billion dollars every year on incentive travel at an average per-person spend of $3,440, it’s important to make every dollar count. By following the steps above, you’ll be well on your way to realizing more ROI from your incentive travel programs.

But if you really want to make a splash, we encourage you to team up with some incentive travel experts to manage your next incentive travel event!

Til next time,

Nichole Gunn

VP of Marketing & Creative Services
Incentive Solutions