2. Be intentional about your guest list

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It’s also critical to play the long game. This was top of mind for Nicole Ponce, Influencer Marketing Lead at SaaS brand Semrush, when planning their July 2024 B2B brand trip in London. “When laos business email list pitching these trips internally, you need to have a very clear, strategic understanding of your long-term goals. Our business has been focused on growing awareness of Semrush as not just a tool to enhance brand’s online visibility—but a platform that serves a variety of marketing needs, for businesses of any size, including search engine optimization, search engine marketing, content marketing, social media, competitive intelligence, local marketing and digital PR. For us, these activations are a step toward building that awareness over time.”

An Instagram post from lifestyle creator Omobolaji Ajibare, during Semrush's London brand trip. She is standing with the trip's organizer, holding a giant check for winning a contest.

The goals you set for your brand trip should set the context for who you invite. Develop criteria to help you curate a thoughtful list—rather than defaulting to follower count or average impressions.

For Semrush’s London trip, Ponce was intentional about inviting creators with their own niche communities and established expertise in different facets of content and marketing. “We worked hard to identify attendees with complementary skills. We weren’t inviting them just to have fun (although that’s a large part of it), but to have the right mix of folks who could learn from each other.”

Some brands are flipping the script entirely—extending invites to customers and loyal brand advocates instead. Christina Funke Tegbe, founder of African plant botanical skincare line 54 Thrones, announced that her tea would be hosting an #AntiBrandTripBrandTrip for real customers and ambassadors as a way to reward their community.