Want your emails to actually drive bookings—not just sit unopened in inboxes?
Joe Vargas from Drip joins Chelsea Wangberg and Lauren Beebe of Like A Local Tours to share how they’ve built real, revenue-generating automations—without relying on discounts or gimmicks.
You’ll discover how to:
- Build automations that work across the full guest journey
- Turn every waiver signature into a future marketing opportunity
- Personalize messaging using real data from your tours
- Create nurture campaigns that transform influencers into advocates
- Segment by behavior, location, and timing to boost open rates
Walk away with practical strategies you can apply whether you’re just getting started with automation—or ready to take it to the next level.
Resources From The Webinar
- Get the Email Marketing Guide for Experience Providers and Tour Operators.
- Want to see the automations in action? Book a demo.
- Learn more about Drip – Email marketing automation platform built for growing brands
- Learn more about Like A Local Tours – Experience New York like a local
- Learn more about Ops Foundry – Smart systems and automation for tour operators
Key Takeaways from the webinar:
- Capture “dreamers” before they’re ready to book. Offer something useful—like a local guide or hidden gem list—in exchange for an email address. Like A Local Tours uses “10 Restaurants New Yorkers Don’t Want You to Know About” as a high-performing lead magnet.
- Automate more than just the booking confirmation. Set up emails that run before, during, and after the tour: upsells, review requests, birthday notes, “tourversary” reminders, and seasonal offers. Build it once, and let it run in the background.
- Use your waiver to collect more guest emails. Most operators only email the booker. Like A Local uses their waiver system (Werewolf) to ask if each guest is local or visiting, and integrates with Drip via Sunstone to automate follow-ups for all participants.
- Test your automations by going through them yourself. Chelsea shared how they review every email sequence by signing up with a personal email, checking the inbox, and asking: does this flow make sense for someone who knows nothing about our business?
- Don’t rely on newsletters to drive sales. General newsletters are helpful for awareness but rarely convert. Targeted, time-based emails—like a pre-tour upsell or a follow-up after the tour—perform far better and feel more personal.
- Segment your audience by behavior and background. Like A Local separates emails by local vs visitor, OTA guest vs direct booker, and first-time vs repeat customer. This ensures guests receive relevant, timely content rather than generic messages.
- Clean your email list to protect deliverability. Unengaged subscribers hurt your sender reputation. Joe advises removing anyone who hasn’t opened your last 3–6 emails: “More isn’t always better in terms of marketing contacts.”
- Build custom nurture flows for influencers and creators. Influencers receive their own journey: pre-tour prep, post-tour upload links, seasonal promo codes, and re-engagement campaigns. This helps turn one free tour into recurring content and long-term visibility.
- Use automation to reinforce your brand voice. Tourversary emails, local-themed birthday messages, and brand storytelling all help guests remember who you are—so they’re more likely to refer others or return in the future.
- Start small, then layer on complexity. Don’t try to automate everything at once. Start with a single sequence (like a review request), then expand into upsells, re-engagement emails, and segment-based flows over time.
