We’re ready now to create individual profiles for DWHSA members in a directory of romance travel specialists aimed at brides and couples!
This new online directory will be housed at RomanceTravelSpecialists.com – a new site that will debut in late December. (You won’t see anything visible at this site until then.) Once the site goes live, everything DWHSA does in consumer marketing will point back to this site and to the online directory there.
We’ll give you a unique login for this site so that you can create and update your own directory profile. First, though, we’re asking you to gather the following information for your profile:
- Your full name
- Your agency name and your job title (e.g., owner, outside agent)
- Your business address (the address that you give to members of the public)
- Your preferred phone, fax, and cell numbers
- Your primary email address
- Your social media IDs (the specific web page addresses for your Facebook business page, your Pinterest account, your Twitter name – e.g., https://twitter.com/Bridesmagazine, NOT @Bridesmagazine)
- Your full web site address (including the http:// prefix)
You should also find a “head shot” photo of yourself – a head-and-shoulders picture that clearly shows your face. The photo can be any format, but it’s probably best if you have a .jpg or .png photo file. If you know how to resize photos, it’ll be a huge help if you can keep the photo size below 500K. (No worries if you don’t know how to do that – later this fall, we’ll go into the behind-the-scenes directory files and manually resize any photos that exceed 500K.) If you do not yet have a head shot, you can have someone use a smartphone or tablet to take this picture of you – any photo taken on a mobile device nowadays will work just fine!
Finally, you should draft a bio about yourself and your agency (150 words max). Remember that brides and couples will be reading your profile – so, you should write this bio to appeal to them. You can talk about your experience, your expertise, your philosophy of doing business, etc. You may write in the first or third person – whichever makes you feel more comfortable.
In your bio, you should mention any “keywords” for your specialties. If you focus on selling Aruba, or familymoons, or South Asian DWs, you should make sure “Aruba,” “familymoons,” or “South Asian” appear in your bio. (Visitors to the site will have a search box in which they’ll enter these types of keywords – so, you’ll be a match if you add the keywords for your specialties to your bio.)
Here’s a web page with samples of what the directory profiles will look like:
http://destinationweddingscentral.com/directory/
As you’re collecting this information, we’re setting up your individual login for the RomanceTravelSpecialists.com site and the online form you’ll use to create your profile. We’ll share those instructions with you shortly.
But, for now, you can get creative! Collect these details, find your head shot, and draft your bio with your keywords …