Training, Marketing & Community on the High Seas: How We’re Empowering Our Advisors to Sell Travel

Fora HQ members with advisors on our recent Virgin Voyages FAM

If you’ve been in our orbit for a while, you may be familiar with a few of Fora’s key ingredients, if you will. These ingredients — including our small-group training, customized marketing tools and engaged global community — are what empower our advisors to sell travel.

But what happens when all these ingredients — the trifecta of Fora’s training, marketing and community — come together, IRL? (And on a FAM trip at sea, no less)… Well, that’s where the magic happens. (Spoiler alert: the proof is in the bookings, which are well over six figures – more on that later.)

Sound like fun? Sign up to become a Fora Advisor today.

Image courtesy of Virgin Voyages

Fora recently set sail for its first-ever cruise FAM trip (read our full recap) with Virgin Voyages. The “cruise for the cool kids,” as we like to call it, hosted our advisors and HQ staff members for several days in the Caribbean Sea, complete with learning sessions by day and festive events by night.

Here’s where the aforementioned trifecta comes in, starting with training. During the trip, advisors dove into all things Virgin Voyages, with workshops led by Fora’s Co-Founder Henley Vazquez and Head of Marketing, Kelley Louise. Henley shared her expert tips on how to sell & book cruise travel, and Kelley Louise shared key marketing strategies around the FAM experience (for instance, how to make the most of social media & when to send an email campaign). In addition, advisors got the chance to learn directly from the brand, with small-group training sessions led by the Virgin Voyages team onboard, hosted exclusively for Fora Advisors (resulting in direct industry contacts and networking value, might we add!). Not only did advisors gain an in-depth understanding of the Virgin brand, but they learned how to leverage their trip to create best-in-class content — and transform it into sales (more on that below).

Image courtesy of Virgin Voyages

Next in the trifecta was marketing. Following the trip, advisors were equipped with a full suite of marketing collateral, including a customizable email template and a “magic” article. Fora’s “magic” feature is an innovative tool that enables advisors to personalize travel content to share with their network. With the push of a button, this feature transforms Fora’s travel articles (and other content) to include personalized advisor bylines and calls-to-action to get in touch (read more about our magic feature). The post-FAM magic article, Fora x Virgin Voyages: A Few Reasons Why I'm Obsessed, covered our favorite elements of the Virgin Voyages experience, and included a contact form to book a cruise with the Fora Advisor who shares it. Voilà… instant marketing magic. Our Fora Advisors were also able to create their own marketing content through trip reports and guides on our website, allowing them to showcase their personal recommendations and spotlight what they loved best about the experience. 

But the real magic happens when the greater community climbs aboard (pun intended). Following the FAM, the Fora community put Virgin Voyages center-stage, posting on social media and our community app, Forum, and sharing the aforementioned marketing collateral with their networks. And the Virgin Voyages buzz extended far beyond the participants of the trip; the entire Fora community leaned into the “cruise for the cool kids.” It’s this domino effect — the power of an entire community — that leads to real results.

And by real results, we mean bookings (of course!). We care about ROI, especially when it comes to partnering with our suppliers for FAM trips. So we’re “going there” and bringing data to the conversation. Since the Virgin Voyages FAM, our advisors have sold an average of nearly two cruises per day (!), totaling nearly $248k in bookings already. And Fora’s total marketing reach from in-house content garnered 70,000+ impressions. 

It’s this type of synergy — training, marketing and community — that we’re all about. By putting all hands on deck (again, pun intended), leveraging community and spotlighting data, we’re helping our advisors and our partners succeed. Because our business is your business — and we’re here to thrive.

Sound like fun? (It is.) Sign up to become a Fora Advisor today.