By Adam Lapsevich, founder, SpoonDrawer Creative and member of The Travel Institute’s Professional Educators Program.
Every service-related website should have a professional-looking “About Us” page. This is especially true for travel professionals and agencies looking to develop and build trust with new clients. Depending on the size of your agency and the number of team members, you might need to create a “Meet Our Team” page that displays multiple advisor profiles on a landing page. For smaller agencies, or even a one-person agency, having a professional “About” page allows your website visitors to get to know you, your strengths, expertise, and their benefits if they choose you to create their travel plans.
Below are five important items to consider when designing your About or Meet Our Team page.
1. Use clear, professional-looking images
This is super important! Have a clear picture of each person taken from the shoulders or upper body. You don’t necessarily need to spend money on professional headshots. Simply have someone take a few pictures of you from about 3-5 feet away, framing your body to mimic a headshot. If you have a camera phone that allows for “Portrait Mode,” try that. Find a nice backdrop – such as a map in your office, outdoors in front of your office, or some nice foliage. For photos of your team, plan a day and have everyone dress nicely. Take photos of each advisor, one at a time, in front of the same background. Please – do NOT wear sunglasses. That is probably one of the biggest unprofessional no-nos. For a better-looking “Meet Our Team” page, try to make sure the photos are consistent. It looks better when all photos are taken from roughly the same distance. You don’t want a super close-up shot of one person next to a full-body shot of someone taken from 30 feet away. Remember, this is your business – the About Us/Meet Our Team pages are some of the most visited pages of any website.
2. Create a paragraph on both your BUSINESS and each ADVISOR
Always lead in with a short paragraph about your BUSINESS first. Give some history of how it was started. It’s best to use the year it was founded versus the “number of years you’ve been in business.”. For example, instead of saying you’ve been in business for “25 years”, write “XYZ Travel was founded in 1995.”. This way, it won’t become outdated each year. Make sure your Advisor page indicates your areas of expertise. For Meet Our Team pages, indicate each advisor’s specialties. This is very helpful to visitors who are searching for specialists for a particular type of vacation or specific destination.
3. Be consistent in your writing regarding “First Person” vs. “Third Person”
This is very important, especially for agencies with multiple advisors. The profile for each agent should be written in the third person. For example, “Susie Smith started her career in travel in 2001. She specializes in Africa, Italy, Croatia, and Destination Weddings.” For one-person agencies, writing in First Person would be acceptable if you are trying to present yourself casually and folksy. The third Person will always appear more professional though.
4. Create a way for visitors to contact each advisor
Whether you’re a solopreneur or an agency with multiple advisors, each agent bio should have a way for visitors to connect to that person. We do not recommend having an email address displayed on the page. Spammers scan website pages looking for email addresses. Have your web designer create a button called “Contact Me”– and have that button either link to your email address or to a Contact Us form on your website.
5. Include a carousel for a few of your own personal travel photos
You’re in the travel business –- show it with a few of your photos! Make sure the photos include YOU. It’s especially helpful if you have images of yourself in front of recognizable monuments or places. Have your web developer create a photo carousel and add that to your agent profile page. This is your business –- might as well let the world know you practice what you preach! Also, make sure you reduce the file size of your photos though – large image files will slow down the web page loading time. As a general rule, all images on your website should be under 1 MB in size.
There are many more tips and ideas Adam provides his clients regarding web design content – these are just a few! Contact Adam today to learn more!
