You can listen directly here. 

If you don’t talk like the expert you are, how will a potential client even know who they are working with? 

 

Writing copy for your website, communicating with clients via email and newsletter. You are forming a relationship.  

 

You are the expert. You know every single detail of that group booking. You can handle a destination wedding more than anyone else or make perfectly tailored travel plans for your travel clients... But before a client even books with you, they need to know who YOU are.

 

Are you attracting the right clients to you? Those whom you know will talk about you and recommend your business to others?  

 

Does the copy or text on your website and in your emails and newsletters really reflect your personality? 

 

As you navigate the world of digital marketing, one thing you need to add to your ‘to action list’ and as part of your marketing plan… is to ensure you have a website that sells and that means, COPY or TEXT that describes you and your business well. 

 

More specifically though, Copy or Text on your website that talks specifically to your ideal client and also in a way that your potential clients can get to know you in an easy to understand way. 

 

We need and want clients that know us, like us and trust us. 

 

If you are planning to have a website or want to write better e-newsletters or copy and text in general for your own travel business then this episode is for you. 

 

Emily specialises in using words and educating travel agents on how to write better copy for your website. Showing you how to share your personality whilst rocketing your business forward.

 

Emily and Ros discuss the common mistakes often made and also the 5 pages you need on your website and the copy related to them. 

 

If you want to dive deeper and learn more about copywriting for travel agents, then go to Emily's website, Bon Vivant Copy. She has free resources and also a course to teach you how to write the copy yourself. She specialises in and helps Travel Agents! 

 

To ensure you are moving forward in your business and also getting any additional advice, tips and help, make sure you join the Achievers in Travel - Facebook group. Achievers in Travel - Accountability group. 

Show Transcription: 

Announcer: Welcome to Travel Agent Achievers! The place to learn how to grow your travel business and have fun with it. Join Roslyn and her guests as they walk you through proven steps to a fulfilling and profitable business. 

Ros: Hello there Travel Agent Achievers. Welcome back to another awesome episode. I am so glad that you have made it through with me. Because this week I have a cracker of an interview. Did I just say cracker? Yes, I did say cracker. 

Anyhow, it's a fantastic interview with the lovely Emily Matras from Bon Vivant Copy. So she's a copywriter, and we talk about all of the things that are actionable, we give you tips, strategies, common mistakes made on travel agent websites. And also the must have pages that you need to write, how to write them and giving you some really good stuff moving forward. 

Thanks as a way for listening in. I love getting your feedback. I love the sharing of the love of the podcast. Thank you for sharing this far and wide globally. I really appreciate it. And I look forward to reading some of your reviews. If you haven't reviewed don't forget, you can do that on iTunes. 

Also, as you do take a screenshot of it and send it to me because I'd love to be able to acknowledge that and shout out to you on all the socials as well. So hit subscribe, make sure you review the podcast and enjoy the chat that I've just had with Emily from Bon Vivant Copy. .

Well, welcome back everybody to the Travel Agent Achievers Podcast. I am very fortunate today to have a very special guest with me, Emily from Bon Vivant copy. Emily, thank you so much for joining us. I'm really appreciative of you being here, especially so early in the morning here in Australia for me and welcome to the Travel Agent Achievers podcast.

 

Emily: Thanks so much. I'm excited to be here.

Ros: Awesome. Now we are coming to each other via zoom from different parts of the world. You're in Washington DC, is that right?

Emily: That’s correct!

Ros: Awesome. Well, I'm in Port Macquarie, oh, Sydney, Australia. And so we are on the other side of the world. I believe that there are probably one or two planes flying between us at the moment. But other than that we can actually see each other in person. So I appreciate you being here on zoom with me to have this conversation.

I wanted to really talk to you today about your specialty, which I understand is website and copy. Is that correct?

Emily: Yeah, that's right website copywriting for travel agents.

Ros: Now that is very specific, so a super niche working with travel agents on their website copy. Now everybody here that Emily has niched down in her business to work specifically with the awesome people that listen to the podcast and also all of our students.

So why did you feel as though you wanted to work with travel agents and how did you get into this?

Emily: Sure. Yeah. So it is kind of a funny niche. I don't think there are many copywriters out there who get into the game saying to themselves, I'm going to specialise in travel agents specifically, but I decided to do so because of my background.

Before I even started my own business as a copywriter, I worked for a couple years for an organisation called the Global Institute for travel entrepreneurs or the GIFT, which is a marketing and business education organisation for travel agents.

So that's how I got hooked into the whole travel agent world and learned all about the amazing stuff you guys do for your clients. And so when I left get to pursue my own entrepreneurial interests, I got lots of referrals from the GIFT community.

So I started just organically working with travel agents a lot, realised it's a lot of fun to talk about travel and to talk about travel agents, passions, what they do. And so a couple of years into being a copywriter, I decided to make it official and branded Bon Vivant Copy as the copywriting studio for travel professionals.

 And I love sharing this story because I feel like I see a lot of parallels between niching as a copywriter and how that's really served me well. And how niching or specialising as a travel agent can serve you well, as well.

Ros: Yeah, absolutely. The other thing that I also just heard you say was around referrals and repeat business and organic leads. And that's one thing that I really focus on as a work from home travel agent and what I really encourage the Travel Agent Achiever community to focus on, because we don't earn a whole lot of money going out and making big commissions.

But what's really important to us is the heart and the relationship that we have with people and so to hear that you also grew organically and through referrals just makes my heart sing because I think that there's certainly a synergy there. But it also means that you have the same heart as all of us as well.

Emily: Yeah, you know, even after six years being you know, in the planet business and, and marketing myself a lot, I still say the bulk of my one to one businesses. You know it came from referral. Yeah, marketing referrals. It just sort of grows and snowballs from there, which is always awesome.

Ros: I agree. I think that that is the best form of income and also reputation for yourself. And I know that I've heard of you through our Travel Agent Achiever community. So shout out to Michelle, Nat  and a couple of the others that mentioned to you to have you on the podcast because, you know, word of mouth is what's really powerful.

And, you know, for you being in the industry, maybe in the industry, we're able to collaborate and work together and complement each other's businesses really well. So I love that you're here and you can share some of your expertise with the community. So we now know that you've got a bit of a travel background yourself. Have you travelled much yourself any favourite destinations?

Emily: Yeah, for sure. I'm a big lover of Paris, right. That's probably the number one destination.

It's you know I'm not as widely travelled as I'd like to be because I always just go back to France but you know what a great thing about owning your own business as a home based business like a travel agency or copywriting agency is you can travel and work at the same time.

So a couple years ago I spent I think nearly two months in Europe and a solid month in Paris, working and travelling around and I would love to be able to travel and this business allows me to do that.

Ros: Absolutely working from home working on a laptop being able to go anywhere in the world that is our you know, dream and guts as well. We love it. I love hearing those but Paris and France is your favourite destination. For me, that was my second international destination.

I studied France French throughout school and I just wanted to get to Paris so badly, and I've been back there numerous times and explored myself and surrounding areas now one of my favourite areas.

So next time you go back to France, if you haven't been there go to Reims. It's the champagne capital. You can explore all the underground wineries and Champagne houses. It is amazing. So that's Reims. Okay.

So we'll move on, I'd love to move into websites and copy now with your expertise in copywriting. on websites, can you just share or let's talk about some of the common mistakes that you see travel agents making with regards to their websites and putting a copy on it because I've picked up a couple of these myself, and just talking with an agent the other day and I said to her, I can't even find your name on the website. I want to know who you are as a person. So adding in a headshot and a name. That was the first thing that I picked up because I couldn't relate to anybody.

So can you share some of the common mistakes that you see?

Emily: Sure Sure. What I'm going off of that one. I think a lot of travel agents approach their websites with like, sort of a corporate mindset, even though they're, you know, no longer you know, corporate fears they once were and, you know, they are afraid to get too personal on their website.

Ros: So very ‘businessy’.

 

Emily: Yeah, very businesslike because they think it's unprofessional to be personal. And I think that goes to this this fear of putting their name out there putting like a headshot out there that like exudes a sense of warmth, those things are only going to help not for you, and you're talking about your specific passions and your specific story as a travel pro and how it led you to what you do today.

That's a really important thing to put on your website and I see a lot of travel agents afraid to get personal.

Ros: Do you think that it's afraid to talk about their own experiences or is that we have something here called the tall poppy syndrome. I don't know whether you've heard of it, but it's almost like if we talk about our successes, or we talk about our wins, or we talk about, you know, our experiences, it's almost too braggy. And people will cut you down.

Now I know that that's not a thing in the US. And I love coming to America because of that, because you can actually celebrate all of your wins. But it's still something here in Australia that people will cut you down if, you know, they see that you they think you're bragging, but I love sharing the wins.

And I really encourage our community to talk and celebrate because nobody else is going to do it for you. And if you don't have the people around you that you can celebrate with then there's no point really.

So when you say businessy or not wanting to talk about themselves, do you think that there's part of that or do you think it's just I don't know what to write?

Emily: I think it's probably a combination. I think there's this fear of like committing process too salesy. We don't you know, as Americans you know, I think we're, we're probably a little bit better about like bragging about ourselves, but like, once it comes to selling yourself, people, people clam up around that there's I don't know, I don't know, there's something hard about that.

I also think, and I'm not talking just in terms of, you know, shouting about your credentials, or how long you've been in business or the awards you've won. I'm talking about, like getting personal with your story, as well.

You know, the big why for why you started your business, not kind of thing. I think for that there's definitely the issue of not knowing what to share. Not everybody has this clear-cut clean story, right? So that's a problem, but also going back to this idea of like, being afraid to get braggy I think travel agents struggle with the question, you know, so what, who cares? Right?

 

When I talk about the importance of sharing the story on your page, for example, sometimes I get pushback from folks who are like who cares, like who's going to read this and actually, you know, care about what I have to say, and I don't. And I feel like there's some like mindset issues under there that I'm not ready to tackle.

But I can tell you that when you're clear on who your ideal client is, and then you're clear on who's going to care about your story, and then you can tailor your story to that particular audience.

Ros: Absolutely. So talking about your or talking to your ideal client. This is something that we explore a lot and we've got podcast episodes on it as well, we'll make sure that we link to them in the show notes with regards to finding your ideal client.

But coming back to the copy on the website, one thing that I think is really powerful is if you know who you are talking to and your niche so if you're specialising in destination weddings, you can talk to the bride, tell them about your own experience. And that then forms an immediate connection and relationship right.

So that relationship can then build. If you don't tell your story, people won't then know who you are or how to relate to you as well. So from a consultant side, it may sound braggy. Or you may think that you're a bit salesy, or you know, who would care, but from the other side is the consumer. We need to immediately build know, like, and trust.

And the clients then want to look to you for the experience and say, they get me. They know what I'm looking for, and I need to book with them.

Emily: Exactly, exactly. You're trying to build this sense of empathetic connection, your website visitor and perfect connection, sharing a story that resonates with them, or that reflects your ideal client.

Ros: Absolutely. Now, the other thing that we spoke about, briefly, is common mistakes, things that aren't on people's websites, there's no call to action. There's no lead magnet, there's no request for an email address. It's really what I've seen across the years is a contact form, who's using a contact form these days?

I know I'm not. I want to make sure that I actually like this person and want to engage with them and know their style and experience before I purchase. And that goes across the board for me now. I mean, we're all looking at websites, we're on our phones all the time. We're looking at social media, we're reading newsletters, so the copy is really important. But I also find that we're not actually giving the consumers something in return for an email address. Do you find that?

 

Emily: Yeah, I think I think it's important to have both, right, because you're probably getting both kinds of folks to your website, those who are closer to the sale, right, who might know a little bit about you already, and they just need to check you out. Make sure you're legit. Learn about your story, and then reach out to you in which case, your call to action.

A.K.A the next step, someone should take should be to grab a spot on the consultation call calendar. But you're absolutely right.

A lot of folks come to the website aren't going to be ready to take that next big step and reach out to you directly. And so you need a way to still capture their information, right, so that they bridge the gap. Yeah. Learn from you, learn more about you and build trust and yeah, so some sort of lead magnet or, you know, often offer whatever you want to call it.

Ros: Yeah, so we've been doing a lot of work around this as well with lead magnets or opt in offers providing value for the end user. So if you've got, you know, five tips on a certain destination, or my five favourite restaurants or, you know, here's the best cocktails to have or the best restaurants to eat at at these destinations, if you're specialising in them. I think it's really important.

If you're more of a generalist, you can have something like a checklist or a cheat sheet or something that the potential client can fill out before they even take the next step to look at holidays, make sure you've got your passport, make sure you got your visas, vaccinations, those sorts of things.

So having something or a way to connect with clients, whether it is a contact form, whether it is a lead magnet is really important to have some sort of contact on your website, correct?

Emily: Absolutely. And so, you know, we're talking about common mistakes. Another common mistake I see travel agents making is they'll, they'll have space for folks to sign up to receive their newsletters, their e newsletter, which isn't a bad idea, but I will say you're probably not going to get a tonne of signups that way, right?

Because no one knows what your E newsletter even contains, you know, it's not that enticing. It's not that specific. So what you want to do instead is like you were saying Ros is you know, develop a checklist or some sort of free guide and promote that and then, you know, sign folks up for the E newsletter on the back of that. Yeah, you're just not going to get a tonne of interest in a letter sign up on your website.

Ros: Awesome. Now, the other thing is too short. What do you think that that content is too short on the website?

 

Emily: You know, I know a lot of travel agents and a lot of you know, folks who write online in general buy into this myth that nobody reads online anymore. And I think when I first started, as a copywriter, I probably said that myself, um, but I, you know, it's just not true.

Nobody is going to read boring content online, which is why it's so important to ensure your writing copy that sizzles with your own personality that resonates with your ideal client because you're sharing some sort of compelling story, that kind of thing.

But I often find that travel agents buy into this myth that shorter is better when it comes to writing online and so they're not giving their reader enough information in their website.

Is there enough information to make the decision to work with them? Right? They're not sure the story because they think no one will read it. They're not sharing their process because they think folks won't read it all. And so the result is copy that isn't effective, because it doesn't care enough and copy that generic, aka, you know, travel agent websites tend to all the same.

Ros: Absolutely. So let's build it out people, let's get some extra content on that. It doesn't take you a whole lot of time to put extra words on there. And the proof is in the pudding. Right?

So we've just got to assess and review and monitor your numbers. There's plenty of tools that you can use to you know, see your website traffic and see what people are reading and looking at and we have a tonne of resources on this.

But it really comes down to just get it out there to get more information. More in this case might be a bit better.

Okay, so when we actually talk in copy or your writing copy, should we be talking in first person like you and I are having a chat or should it be you know, Roslyn said this like a press release?

Emily: That is a really, really good question and it's a question I get a lot I would say, um to avoid third person almost always and it should be first person but you actually have sort of like two choices underneath that right you can use first person I like I founded my company, then or you can use first person we like we founded our company.

And what and I don't think there's a wrong choice there. But if you are a solopreneur, a travel agent who works for him or herself. Um, I would recommend first person I because I think it's a little bit easier to create that sense of connection and trust with your reader that breaks down that you know, barrier and yeah, really, really connect with them when you use first person I.

 

We is better reserved for folks who have a team perhaps or are looking to grow a team in the very near future. But overall I do recommend first person I.

Ros: So coming back to the know like and trust so by using “I” you are automatically building more rapport you're building more rapport with people as they come onto your website and reading your content. Awesome.

Emily: Yeah, and I think you know, using “I” also sort of forces you to write more conversationally, which is a very good thing when you're writing online. If you revert to third person like annoying neighbours does this. It can come across as really stiff and formal, and that's something you want to avoid

Ros: Okay, so talking about that you want to avoid, say it again?

Emily: Stiff and formal.

Ros: Stiff and formal, businessy. We're getting personal and really connecting. Everybody hear that? You're connecting with your audience here. That's the purpose is to build a relationship and rapport.

All right, so those are some of the mistakes. These are some of the tips that we're giving people, which I love. I love actionable things. I love having a podcast where people can take something away and actually take action on it.

And we'll dive more into things that you do as well. But you also mentioned reading things out loud. So businessy, like you don't want to sound business. You don't want to sound like the third person, a very, you know, hoity toity. I don't know whether that's an English thing. But reading your copy out loud. Why would you do that?

Emily: Sure. So you and I were talking earlier about, oh, what do you do if you're not a professional writer and you're trying to write your own website. Say, right, you know, What tips do I have for you?

Well, I think my number one tip would be to read your copy out loud. And you want to do this for a couple of reasons. Number one, it's an easy way to catch your own mistakes. If you're staring at your computer screen, reading through your copy for the umpteenth time, your eyes are just going to glaze over, all the lines of coffee are gonna run together.

And so you're going to miss those misspellings or the places where you misplaced the comma or that kind of thing. So just it's a really easy way to catch mistakes. And it's also a great way to listen for the flow. Right? You know, you want to, you want to write a copy that has a nice sort of rhythm.

 

And you don't have to be like a professional writer to accomplish this. But when you read your coffee out loud, you're going to pick up on that rhythm and flow. And so for example, you'd better be able to edit if you run on sentences you have, right?

That does go on for way too long and you'll figure out where you need to, you know, break up your coffee a little bit better. So you're, you're reading out loud to hopefully catch like misspellings and mistakes, but you're also reading out loud to catch flow. And, you know, going back to what we're talking about in terms of writing conversationally, and that sort of goes into that flow of conversation.

It's a really good idea to read your copy out loud to make sure it doesn't sound too stiff or corporate or robotic. But sounds like you know, like you're having a conversation with a friend.

Ros: Catching your mistakes. I have a just talking about this particular thing. One of my team members, I now say it across the board to my team is when they write copy when they're writing emails even. So, they think that they're putting together a template and I'm like, I've always said, No templates, no templates, but it is important in our industry that we say things over and over again. I get it.

But to catch the mistakes, reading things aloud, does show the flow. And I've said to my team, I want you to read this out loud, because if I'm reading it, it doesn't make sense. But if you read it out loud, you will pick it up without me having to come in there and try and change things around.

You'll know that it sounds a little bit funny, it sounds a little bit wonky, it sounds a bit off, or you know, in the wrong place. So reading the flow, and reading it out loud, that's a great tip. The other thing that I also use in copy for us with emails or even newsletters, and a website called the Hemingway app.

It just breaks it down so that the language is really easy to understand and it's shortening your sentences. And a lot of people have Grammarly just as a Google Chrome extension that fixes their emails as they go along.

So there are a lot of little tips and things that you can use, but I know, we're going to get into your programme shortly.

What about coming from the other side now? So what pages on a website? Or what copy? Should we be writing? I know that you have, I think there's four or five that you recommend. So one of the pages to write your copy and you must have on your website.

Emily: Sure, sure. Good question. So, you know, earlier I was talking about how travel agents are afraid to go along their websites, right, that they feel like they have to lose their information. I might contradict myself here. But what I want to say is like, on the flip side, travel agents also seem to feel like they need a bajillion different pages on their website.

Each and every destination they serve. And the problem with thinking that way is like it paralyses you right? If you feel like you have a website page, you're never going to do it. No, no. I have a standard five pages that I recommend for all travel agents have on their website, almost always and overwhelmed. Just make sure you have these five pages to start, and then you can go from there.

So obviously, page number one on is your homepage. That's where folks land. When they come to your website, it needs to capture their attention right off the bat throughout desire and make it really, really clear upfront who you are, what you do, and who you serve. You were talking about, you know, if you work the destination weddings, say that. People know they're in the right place.

And so that's the homepage. Obviously, you need it and about, and I say that obvious, but I actually know that most travel agents struggle with most of them, right? Because it goes back to our conversation talking about themselves.

It's an absolute must for you know, creating that emotional connection with your reader. Right. It also says that you're the expert. Yes. Yeah, yes, absolutely. You know, it's not just about the products you sell the places you sell.

It's about you and your expertise and your unique backgrounds that allows you to serve your clients in a special way. So we have all we have about.

I also recommend something along the lines of a services page or work with us page or our process page. And basically, this is where you need to break down. Number one, the biggest and most unique benefits of working with you as a travel agent that's obviously going to be threaded throughout all of your copy, but you can break it down further on your services page.

And this is where I recommend you outline your process of how you do what you do, because you can probably speak to this Ros but often I've found that travel agents clients have never worked with a travel agent before and are sort of confused about what's actually supposed to happen.

Ros: That’s the other difference between the US and Australia here it's really common to work with a travel agent. We are the specialists, people come to us because we are the experts in what we do. And even in light of everything that's happened now, people don't want to be sitting online, you know, on a hold for five hours.

That's just what we do. We provide a service. And there's a lot of value around what travel agents do here in Australia and New Zealand, but I know that that's different in the US and you, you also have service fees that are ingrained.

 

So do you recommend that people put their fees on their website as well?

Emily: I'm going to go with it depends, okay. On the goal for your fee, like if you were charging a fee to weed out the tire kickers and the price shoppers? Well, then yeah, you should probably put it on your website so that you don't get them contacting you first.

If it's something you're implementing for the first time, and you're not quite sure how it's going to be received. You don't have to put it on your website and you can bring it up on that first consultation call. I also caution folks against listing out like, a really long list of fees. Yeah. Don't do that.

Don't overwhelm your web visitor because they're not going to understand which fees applied to them. It's also just not a great way to start off, you know, robots or fees in someone's face. So if that's you, that's not I’m not saying don't do that in your business, don't put it on your services page.

Now, instead, maybe do like, you know, the cleaning piece starts at x, and we'll share you know, the exact number compensation or something along those lines.

Ros: Yeah. Okay. So it is fine to put how you work on the website. So the services that you offer, if you run group trips, if you run destination weddings, if you organise events as part of your travel, if it's multi-generational, so whatever the services are, put them on the service page. And then finally, your contact page. Home Services about contact page contact.

Emily: Yeah, this is a big one because believe it or not, I've seen probably one as I said, don't have a contact page. Sometimes they'll just have like their their email address or phone number like talked at the very bottom of the website, I think yes, but also have a contact page because that's what people are going to be looking for getting them trained to look in like the upper right hand corner of a website, find the contact page.

And so you want to make sure that's where it is on your website, as well. Do not make it hard for people to get in touch with you, do not make it hard for people to work with you. And if you know, hide your contact information, you increase the chances that folks you're going to just x out with your website.

Ros: That is so true. That is so true. So those are the full pages which one we're missing the homepage, the service page about page and the contact page.

Emily: I was going to say the fifth one is a blog. That's one I recommend. It's just a really great way to continually demonstrate your expertise as a travel agent and I also recommend a blog to sort of avoid that overwhelming feeling that you have to have 50 pages on your website that describe in detail every single thing you do, you don't, because you can create a blog post about those things, right?

Ros: Correct.

Emily: So that's, that's why I recommend that every blog.

Ros: Have a blog, but have it on your website, don't go and get a specific blogging account and stop blogging over there. Let's keep it all together. 

Emily: From your website, you want them to stay on the page.

Ros: You want them to stay on your website, that is gold. Okay, so we've got a lot of copy that it sounds like there's a lot of things that need to be written. But in fact, there are five pages. The blogs can be written over time. It's really just time to get started, right.

We've just got to get started and make it happen. If you don't have a website these days, you don't have a presence. I do talk about social media and having a presence on social media, but I think that everything combined and connects, and you don't have to overwhelm yourself by doing all the things.

We pick a platform where our clients are, we make sure we've got a solid foundation with a website so that they can find you easily. And there's so many things that you can go into with websites. So I know that that's not a conversation for you and I because we really just want to make sure that you are able to write and write so that you are able to connect with your clients.

Now we've got a number of things that if people want to learn more about you, Emily and work with you, I know you were doing some private consulting but that's not so much anymore. Is that right?

Emily: I do. I do. Do one on one work with clients. Okay. The idea of writing your website sounds absolutely horrendous. Hit me up. I can help.

Ros: Yeah, absolutely. So there are a few things and we'll have a link to everything on our website on how you can connect with Emily if you just go to travelagentachievers.com/Emily. I'm making it as easy as possible for you to get in contact with her. But even on your website, Emily, people are able to join your newsletter and your list by getting a free travel agency website checklist list.

Just get started. So you've got some great freebies there that people can download. But you also have which I am so excited about your very own online course. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Emily: Sure. So like I said, I do a lot of one on one work, and I can write your website copy for you. But I created this copywriting course for travel agents because number one, I'm only one person and so I can only take on so much one on one work at time, which meant I was turning folks away who wanted to work with me. And number two, I wanted to create a more budget friendly way for travel agents to write effective website copy if they couldn't afford to work with you one on one.

And so several years ago now, I've created the travel agent website roadmap, and it teaches you step by step, how to write the most important pieces for your website, which coincidentally are things I talked about Home Services about. And then there's, you know, some extra content to support you if you need other pages.

And you the course itself is self-paced so you can learn on your own time. All the modules are already created there for us to show up anywhere at a certain time.

Ros: That's awesome.

Emily: Great if you're in Australia.

Ros: That's right. You know, it's really hard to get up so early in the morning or in the middle of the night for a webinar or a training programme, but I am super grateful for my American clients that jump on our training calls when it's their dinner time. So I am appreciative of that.

Emily: And the other big the other big reason, I think, is to take the courses because I felt like there was a lack of focus on website copywriting in the community. I would say a lot of travel agents now know that they need a website, but not as many know what they're supposed to write on that website because people you know, weren't telling them what that website or they were giving, you know, false information or misleading information.

So I created the course to give travel agents, the confidence they need and the direction they need to write their own website copy so they're not stuck spinning their wheels. I've seen time and time again, travel agents attempt to put their websites together, they might start working with a web designer and they might find like a template that works for them. And then the project never moves forward because they stall out when they realise holy crap.

I have to write my home page. My about page I have no idea where to start.

I put the website roadmaps together to fill back. Yeah. Yeah.

Ros: So it is a roadmap that you talk people through how to actually do this giving them the step by step, which I love, you know, your checklists and worksheets and the guidance to actually do it yourself. But teaching them the fundamentals from your expertise, your knowledge, your research, so that when you as a travel agent, you come in there, you're not feeling overwhelmed, you can just follow Emily's steps and be guided through the process.

So at the end of the day, you can have the copy for your website you can have copy or know how to write and understand copy, even for your E newsletters, and connecting with your clients which is what it all comes down to is building that relationship and connecting with your clients in a way that makes sense for them, but also for you as their travel consultant as well.

Emily: I tried to make it you know as easy as possible to put together your own website copy. You still have to write it yourself but you know there are templates to guide you. And it's a step by step process to follow so you hopefully will ever do.

Ros: Absolutely and one thing that I do love is that Emily is just like us so you've been there and you've experienced it as a travel professional in the industry as well. So working with gifts and running their marketing side of things so you have worked with hundreds of agents over your time, thousands they go thousands of agents, so you understand you know who we are and what we need and you know, make it as easy and as simple as possible.

Now remember everybody that this is a self-paced course so you don't need to show up. At certain hours of the day. If you get busy or caught up doing something else. That's okay. You can always come back to it. And Emily, I'm sure that I know actually that you will take great care of your clients and those students of yours that joined the programme because you and I are quite similar and those that are in the travel agent achiever community have said to me was you and Emily so similar and you'll get them really well. 

And I'm so glad that we've now connected because I know that in the future, we can definitely collaborate on different things and work together to ensure that the travel agent community is talking to their clients and connecting and communicating in a way that speaks the language that everybody needs.

 Awesome.

Well, thank you so much, Emily, for being with us today. I really appreciate it. Bon Vivant Copy is your website, but we're going to link to everything in our show notes as well as if you go just to travelagentachievers.com/Emily, super easy.

Emily, thank you so much for being here today. I really appreciate it. It's a pleasure to have a chat with you and learn some more about copywriting because we all need this in our business.

Emily: Absolutely it's been my pleasure as well. Thank you, awesome.

Ros: Well what an awesome episode that was. Thank you so much for listening in today and joining me with Emily Matras. From Bon Vivant Copy talking about the common mistakes. Guys, you can be an expert copywriter just like Emily but if you need help, don't forget to go to travelagentachievers.com/Emily.

 

We will have links to her programmes, her free resources and of course the episode show notes and everything that we've talked about here including some extra little tips for you with your website copy.

I look forward to speaking with you and being part of the Travel Agent Achiever community. Don't forget to join Achievers in Travel and our accountability Facebook group. We are taking action.

I would love to know what you thought of this podcast. If so, not only in the Facebook group, but if you loved it, please share the podcast around with your community and your fellow colleagues. But also send us a review, hit iTunes review now button.

Give us all the likes and loves. Send me a message. I love hearing from you. And you know what? If you're struggling right now, please reach out to me. I'm here for you. I want to help you through this time.

 And by doing these podcast episodes with the experts, we're going to take that step forward.

We are taking action, we are moving forward, and I'm here to help you work on your business while we can't necessarily work in it.

Alright guys, have a great day. Speak to you soon and I look forward to the next time we can connect wherever we are in this world, whether it's social media, or also in person talk soon. Bye for now.