Web Travel Designs

Webdesign for the travel industry

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Writing your Travel Profile page

You’re not the only travel agent who cringes at the task of filling out their travel profile. It looks like the form is asking for more information than you know what to give.

jack kennard profile photo

Don’t worry, after reading this tutorial, you’ll be asking for more space to connect with your viewers.

Your travel agency or hosting company now provides a travel agent profile page for each agent. This is a great opportunity to insert your self into the company roster and show off your expertise.

Let’s keep it simple and take it one step at a time.

Before Starting Understand

1. Where and how you will be listed

2. Examine where you will be:

Go to travelleader.com and click on “find a Travel Agent”, at the top.

See how others are listed: What do you like? What do you dislike?

Now click on “Travel Specials” and what’s listed, cruises.

Optimizing your profile for Humans

Imagine meeting a stranger on the street, How do you explain your passion and what do you want them to walk away with?

Think about who is going to read your profile and what professional points you want them to walk away with.

  1. Connect with viewers who wants to fix a problem
  2. Understand the form fields and how to make the most of them

Profile Image

Viewers will be
Attracted to your smile
and connect with your eyes.

your photo

Remember this is the first place the viewer’s eye will land. It’s a good idea to wear solid colors and have the background out of focus or not sharp.

Men should always show full shoulders, women either way. Women can include dogs or family as long as you still connect with viewers with your eyes.

If you really want your profile photo to stand out have it professionally done or go to your photography store and ask for someone to take a profile photo for you, you’ll be surprised how eager photographers will be to help out.

Introduction Elevator Pitch

The first sentence should connect with the viewers’ problem and include a feel-good solution.

Example: Relax while I create a memorable cruise vacation for your family and friends.

This is the first line of text and should compliment your Specialties and Destinations. So if you include European River Cruises in your title (and Specialties) then include European countries in your destinations.

Full Bio

Keep the content easy on the eyes; keep your paragraphs to 3 sentences or less.

Include “problem and your solutions”.

There is already “a Call to Action” “Contact me” so include some support like Let me show you how to…”

Talk about your best problem-solving experience.

Everyone knows you wrote this piece so don’t talk about yourself in the third person.

Remember the first 3 positions in your Specialties and Destinations are the most important.

Website Display Title

I’ve saved the best for last:
Once you have the bio and teaser text, the information for the title will fall right into place.

Specialties

Some travel company websites offer a place to list your certifications and specialties and sometimes linking them together.

When viewers already have a destination or type of travel in mind your profile will show up on a list in their search. This is a chance to show off your certifications for countries and suppliers. Try not to list more than 5 in each category.

Be specific. As an example, if your passion is river cruises, you, of course, will list river cruises, but nor Europe it’s too general and that search list will be very long. Include your certifications for those countries you want to sell.

If you hone your Specialties and Destinations to cruises (or the specials) you will be chosen in the TravelLeaders search engine. When you use these Specialties and Destinations in your Website Display Title you will connect with your viewers.

Extra Travel Photos

This is a great place to show where you have been and the type of travel you do.

Do not add generic or someone else’s photos. This is where you can shine. Even if they are not the best quality images, viewers are not expecting you to be a travel photographer, they want to know your expertise and familiarization.

Testimonals

Do not make these up. I can’t stress this enough, the last thing you want is being known for making up your own testimonials. I think it would OK to ask a friend who has used you before or your favorite client.

Your Travel Profile or Social Network About
Page

Each profile page or social network about page will be a little different and some listing services will have several pages requesting information, and it is important to fill out every field or at least as much as possible.

A note: If you try to be a do everything travel specialist make sure it does not sound generic.

Write about your passion!

Travel Agency Website

A travel agency website is an important marketing tool that can keep your clients up to date, and introduce new viewers to your business.

Connect with your Clients and Future Clients

travel agents

Websites are now an intricate part of a company’s interaction with customers, showing professionalism, and introducing new customers to products and services.

For a travel agency, it is also about introducing new destinations and of course the travel agents.

A smart website layout will let the agents not only have a strong agent profile but let the agents have their own section to talk about what they love, travel and suppliers.

Make Your Front Page Count

Your front page should be well planned out mixing together your products and services with the needs of your viewers.

travel agency website

This site design is over 11 years old, a little out dated but still works.

Main Features

  • The brand logo is clear & direct.
  • At the top right there is a call to action with a phone number.
  • The top navigation bar above the brand logo connects the viewer with the company.
  • The Navigation bar below the logo, highlights, and links to the company and viewers favorite products.
  • The Main large image set up to rotate every time the page is visited. That way when a viewer comes back there is only a 20% chance they will see the same image so it will appear the website has changed.
  • High-quality images must be included.
  • All the images have been enhanced so they pop off the page, travel is very visual.
  • And don’t forget the site should work seamlessly with handheld devices like smartphones and iPads.

A Travel Agency Website Should Include

  • Front Page the most important page.
  • A Contact Page ~ This page should include phone numbers and a form that takes requests from viewers.
  • Location Page(s) ~ If you have more than one location, each office should he it’s own page.
  • Agent Profile Pages ~ Each agent, manager and owner should have their own page. Most important, are the pages for the agents, this is where they can show their skills
  • A form to gather email addresses for a newsletter and updates.

Planning your Website and Content

Building a website is much like building a home. You lay a strong foundation and use reliably products to build out and turn your house into a functioning home.

By deciding and nailing down your core website needs upfront you will save time and money between the start and finish of the site.

The Website Foundation

What type of site do you want:

  • eCommerce for selling product or service online
  • Informational and reference site
  • Business site
  • Blog
  • Gallery
  • Events
  • And a combination of the above

Matching products-services and content with customer’s needs

You already know what you’re offering your clients, but do you know what your clients want? What are they looking for online and what do they want from your product and what type of support or information are they expecting?

When building the website, are you building the site for you or your clients and viewers? It should be for your clients & viewers, because they are the one buying your product and keeping you in business. What do your viewers need in order to make a decision?

Can the new website design…

  • Grow and expand?
  • Take advantage of new technologies
  • Let employees make changes and add content
  • Work on all mobile devices (responsive design)

Email Marketing Services & Strategy

Email marketing is one of the most powerful marketing channels for businesses. To this day, the size of your email list is a display of your reach to your base, what could eventually turn into customers. Your email marketing campaigns should be part of a synergistic approach to generate business and educate your viewers about your products and company.

Email Strategy

One of the best ways to have consistent follow-up is through an email sequence. If you put a new lead campaign, a long-term nurture sequence, and a new customer campaign into place, you will see dramatic improvement in your conversion rates. The best part? You have to write these campaigns only once.

Email List Building

Building up a list of leads is an important part of marketing. Consider capture emails through your website, incoming phone calls, speaking engagements or simply collecting business cards. Leads are what eventually bring in sales.

Another great way to build your list is through refer a friend program. Getting others to promote your product or services greatly expands your reach. Plus, when your current customers recommend you, you gain instant credibility.

Email Service or Software

There are several easy choices for sending out your emails. Check your web hosting company some have some very good services. And there are also online email services that provide several levels of service depending on the size of your list and how many emails you send out.

Whether you use your web hosting services or an online email service like MaipChimp or Constant Contact, keep your email list well protected. This is your blood line to new sales.

Your email marketing program is only a compliment to your sales funnel. This is just one of the steps to turning your website into a business generator. Incorporating your website and other marketing programs such as search engine optimization, content and social networks with your email program will unify a strong sales program.

Attracting & Touching Viewers

A great website won’t do you any good unless you can get
some traffic flowing to it. A few simple steps can get people
to your website.

The more you put into traffic generation,
the better your chances of converting the general public into
paying customers.

SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of getting your website
recognized more frequently when people perform searches on sites such
as Google or Yahoo. Better SEO rankings mean you get seen by more
people … and that’s a free way to increase traffic to your website.
There are three easy ways you can increase your SEO rankings:
keywords, inbound links, and local search listings.

Keywords

Keywords are the building blocks to all your online marketing.

The first thing you should do is write down all of the keywords
associated with your business. Try to think like someone who needs
your product or service, but doesn’t know where to go. What would
they type into their search engine? If I were looking for a local plumber,
I might type in “plumber Gilbert Arizona.” If I were searching for a
reasonably priced webmaster, I might type in “cheap websites.” Try to
determine all of the possible (intuitive) combinations you might get.

Inbound Links

Inbound links build your reputation and credibility among search engines
(and potential customers, for that matter). These inbound links (often
called backlinks) also allow search engines to more easily find you, rank
you, and get you on the search lists. Not all backlinks are created equal,
however.

Links that come from legitimate sites are best. If you are linked from a
very popular site—even better. But purchased links from “link farms”
might actually do more harm than good. It may sound daunting, but you
can build a solid base of backlinks the right way if you are patient and
consistent in your efforts.
The first step is to set up links from all of your own domains. Your blog,
Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and any other social media
outlets should all include links to your website. When you post
entries on these outlets, include links to your site, as appropriate. When
others “retweet” these links, you get exponential exposure.

Local Search Listings

If you provide products or services to local customers, a local search
listing is a great way to increase your search engine exposure. When
someone is looking for a localized provider, Google will often send them
to their local listings.
To put your business on the map (literally), go to
www.google.com/places. Select “Add New Business” to enter your
11
business address, details, category,
photos, and more. Google will have to
confirm your address with a phone call
or a postcard sent to your address. Once
confirmed, you’ll begin appearing in local
searches … and your rankings will improve
significantly.
Keywords, inbound links, and local search
listings are great ways to get your website
recognized in organic searches. And the
best part? They’re totally free!

Intergrate your CRM

If you use a CRM like Salesforce to track and segment your prospects to
help your marketing process. You should be able to integrate emails into your email list.

For instance, categorize your list by the actions they’ve taken (such as watching
an online demo or ordering an ebook), what they’ve purchased, when they last talked to you, where they live, etc.

With this information, you can easily send out targeted marketing campaigns that
speak directly to the individual and their interests.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great, inexpensive way to reach the
people on your list. If done correctly, this type of marketing
will take your business to the next level and bring a great ROI
for years to come.