We met Stu and Fran while managing the Inn at Robert’s Grove in Belize. Yim and I were overseeing the construction of a dive shop and a marina at the resort and we went down one weekend to where all The Moorings boats were docked in the small village of Placencia, looking to meet someone we could convince to become the first resident at our marina.
As luck would have it, Stu and Fran were sitting on the deck of Two if by Sea and I introduced myself and asked if we could come aboard. A few hours and several rum and cokes later, Yim and I walked away knowing we’d just made two new lifelong friends.
We have been working with Steve Roper for almost five years now and have seen a huge upturn in business since he re-designed our website. He speaks Computer speak English (well Canadian actually) to us in sentences and uses phrases that we can understand. We can see why something works and how well it is working.
Because of Steve’s input, we are well followed on Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and some other sites that seem to pop up every now and then. Our investment has been rewarded by a substantial increase in business for which we are thankful. We will continue to use the Steve Roper Group for all of our on-line marketing.
Over the next few years, not only did Two if by Sea become the first charter boat operating out of Robert’s Grove, but Stu and Fran trusted me enough to leave me the keys to her while they went home to Australia for three months a year.
Over the next few years I taught Stu to scuba dive so they could offer scuba diving on their boat and on several occasions, made very special trips with guests of the hotel on their boat to certify.
We created an online business for them which reflected the style and comfort of a vacation aboard Two If By Sea and managed every aspect of their online presence for ten years. During that time, online bookings increased substantially and visitation to the website and Facebook pages have helped us, and them, grow the business.
In 2020, Two If By Sea was sold to new owners.
The Website
We chartered with Stu and Fran aboard Two If By Sea on several occasions and spent a lot of time together in Belize diving and sailing so when they asked us to create their new website, I jumped at the chance to create something which reflected their unique locations and beautiful catamaran in the Virgin islands.
- Responsive website design
- Custom CMS-focused development
- Search engine optimization
- Front-end development with HTML5
- Custom CMS-focused development
- Fully Integrated Blog
Responsive Design
Making the website completely responsive for any device allows visitors to the website to book their vacation from anywhere at anytime. It simply the way the web works these days. The connection or idea to look for a great charter could come at any time and in any place and we wanted to make sure Two If By Sea was mobile compliant.
Sailing and Diving Vacations are a competitive business and we felt that having a clean mobile design would give Two If By Sea a little professional advantage.
It has !
Frans Favourites
in 2016, we conceptualized and developed an on-going series of Blog and Facebook Posts specifically aimed at telling stories of the best locations Fran had visited over her ten years sailing the British Virgin Islands and also developed a map on the website to pinpoint the locations, allowing guests to chart their own course for their vacation visually, depending on what their preferences were.
Advertising
If I am going to do advertising, it sure is a lot of fun to do advertising for a Sailing and Diving Charter Operation. Let’s face it… some of the most enticing photography for vacation destinations taken involves beautiful Caribbean background, turquoize waters, beaches, scuba diving, sailing or simply people enjoying themselves on a once-in -a-lifetime vacation.
Working in partnership with Two Is By Sea provides me exactly that opportunity, whether creating them a Facebook banner, a print ad or an online ad, just about everything I show certainly makes it easier to sell people on the idea of enjoying a vacation on Two if by Sea.
The Solution & Result
Two if by Sea are not only very good friends, but kindred spirits in that we both share a love of sailing and diving so when we began working with them, the branding was fairly simple. Now, Two if by Sea is a well followed Facebook Page AND they have seen a substantial increase in business. The website continues to climb organically and is now receiving over 10,000 visitors annually.
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