Reach more travelers.Get more bookings.
You’re too busy running tours to run ads. That’s where we come in.
We’ll dive into your business, assess all opportunities, work with any budget and hand you a fully baked marketing plan and strategy for you to implement on your own, or for us to launch for you.
Unlike coaching services or traditional marketing audits, we’re handing you a 3 month marketing roadmap, bringing you fully in on the thinking and strategy, and helping you fully take the reigns of your marketing efforts.
We kick off with a 45 minute free, no-commitment strategy call to learn all about your goals, your customer, and your current marketing efforts. Then, in two weeks, we deliver a detailed marketing strategy, with everything from how much to spend a day on which Google Ads keywords, to recommend updates to your site for better positioning in the marketplace. It’s fully tailored to you, and ready to be implemented immediately, or dusted off whenever you’re ready to grow.
Most tour operators don’t run ads. And those that do, are often throwing money into a blackhole, unsure of what’s working. Tour operators that move into more advanced marketing tactics quickly supercede competitors.
There are thousands more travelers looking for exactly what you do. Let’s get you in front of them.
SEO*
Paid Search*
Strategy*
Go-To-Market*
Paid Social*
Content Development*
Growth Hacking*
Funnel Optimization*
Budgeting*
Data + Reporting *
New Campaign Creative *
SEO* Paid Search* Strategy* Go-To-Market* Paid Social* Content Development* Growth Hacking* Funnel Optimization* Budgeting* Data + Reporting * New Campaign Creative *
Personalized Marketing Roadmap
Designed to launch or scale your marketing efforts based on your customer, business goals, and budget.
This isn’t a marketing audit. This is your step by step marketing plan by a travel entrepreneurs and executives fully diving into your business, and giving you the exact next steps (on any budget).
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Organic Social
Looking at your followers, engagement, competition positioning, and content strategy to determine how you optimize you tik tok, Facebook, Instagram and other social profiles to drive bookings.
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SEO
Digging into your current SEO rankings and keywords to build you a path to more organic site visitors (that are genuinely keen to book your experiences).
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Paid Social
Diving deep into all of your social media campaigns to help you unearth what’s working, what’s not, and how your funnel currently operates. If not yet running ads, we’ll audit the competitor landscape and give you a roadmap, cost, and content strategy to feel confiedent starting to deploy funds.
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PPC (Paid Search + Display)
Uncovering all the opportunity and cost to run, optimize or scale you PPC campaigns locally or in new source markets to get you the best return on investment.
From Leading Tours to Leading Marketing for Global Travel Brands
Guide-First Perspective: Deep understanding of what makes a tour exceptional from years as a global guide.
• Customer-Centric Storytelling: Crafting marketing strategies that focus on the emotional connection and transformative power of travel.
• Data-Driven Performance Marketing: Equal parts technical and creative we use
• Personalization and Mentorship: Hands-on collaboration and mentorship to bring you along on every step of your tailored strategy.
Ali Murphy is a marketing strategist with a rare combination of on-the-ground travel expertise and executive-level leadership. She started her career as a global guide, crafting unforgettable tours and delivering exceptional experiences worldwide. Later, she launched her own travel startup before stepping into the role of VP of Marketing at a global travel company operating tours in 60 markets. There, she built innovative strategies that connected people to places and turned travelers into loyal advocates.
With her unique perspective—equal parts guide and strategist—Ali helps tour operators grow their business through smart, story-driven marketing that attracts customers and builds lasting loyalty.
Recent Work
Solving Stagnant Growth, Expensive Customer Acquisiton Costs, and Building Brand-Forward Creative for 10 Years.
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Industry: Travel + Tourism
Problem: This global tour operator grew, they needed a scalable system to both develop new travel experiences and ensure their successful market launch. The company lacked an integrated approach between trip development and the marketing and sales teams, resulting in inconsistent product launches and missed opportunities to create memorable, on-brand customer experiences.
Actions:
Developed a Go-To-Market (GTM) Function: I created a dedicated GTM strategy, connecting the trip development, marketing, and sales teams to ensure every new tour had a structured launch plan to drive demand and enhance the customer journey.Customer-Centric Approach: I trained the team to design trips from the customer’s perspective, incorporating on-brand surprise and delight experiences to elevate the travel experience.
Results:
Increased cross-functional collaboration between marketing, sales, and trip development, resulting in a 40% improvement in time-to-market for new tours.Launched Sales Playbooks: I developed sales playbooks and launch plans, ensuring all teams were aligned for successful new tour launches.
Enhanced the overall customer experience, leading to a significant improvement in customer satisfaction scores and a rise in repeat bookings.
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Industry: Travel + Tourism
Problem:
This global company offering travel experiences (online and in person) was experiencing stagnation in customer acquisition and retention. The company needed a comprehensive overhaul of its marketing strategy to attract new customers, improve retention, and position the brand for long-term growth. Additionally, the marketing and go-to-market teams required a new structure to scale effectively and handle specialized areas like retention, growth, and content.
Actions:
Led the scaling of the marketing and go-to-market teams, structuring them with specialized focuses on retention, loyalty, content creation, and brand development. This allowed the teams to operate with greater efficiency and alignment to long-term business goals. Developed and executed a multi-channel marketing strategy, integrating SEO, SEM, paid social, paid search, email marketing, and content marketing to create a seamless customer journey across all platforms.
Results:
Achieved a record year of new customer acquisition, surpassing previous KPIs and driving significant growth across key metrics such as ROAS and conversion rates. The multi-channel strategy delivered a 50% increase in customer retention, resulting in higher lifetime value (LTV) and repeat bookings. Successfully scaled the marketing and go-to-market teams, allowing for more agile and focused campaigns that drove both brand awareness and customer loyalty. -
Industry: Travel + Tourism
Problem: A global active travel company wanted to expand into a new market by offering a unique river cruise experience that combined luxury with active travel. This was a departure from its traditional land-based offerings, and the challenge was to seamlessly integrate guided land activities with a luxury cruise experience while maintaining the brand’s identity.
As part of a two-person team on the groun, I supported the research and development of the new product, collaborating with AmaWaterways to craft an exclusive itinerary that blended on-boat luxury with guided hiking, biking, and cultural experiences along the Danube River. Aided in the training of trip leaders and boat crew to ensure consistent service delivery and immersive storytelling that aligned with Backroads’ brand, ensuring both on-boat and off-boat experiences were seamless and engaging.
Actions:
As part of a two-person team on the ground, I supported the research and development of the new product, collaborating with AmaWaterways to craft an exclusive itinerary that blended on-boat luxury with guided hiking, biking, and cultural experiences along the Danube River. Aided in the training of trip leaders and boat crew to ensure consistent service delivery and immersive storytelling that aligned with the brand, ensuring both on-boat and off-boat experiences were seamless and engaging.
Results:
The Danube River Cruise became the company's fastest-selling trip to date, selling out within weeks and setting a new benchmark for future offerings. Strengthened the strategic partnership with AmaWaterways, leading to continued collaboration across other river destinations. The success of the leader training on the ground resulted in high guest satisfaction scores and repeat bookings. -
Problem:
A global travel brand specializing in in-person walking tours, needed to launch its digital e-learning platform during the pandemic, but traditional product promotion wasn’t resonating with audiences. They lacked a cohesive paid social strategy that could drive engagement and improve customer acquisition costs (CAC) while positioning the brand for long-term growth.
Actions:
I developed and executed a paid social strategy that prioritized creative storytelling and audience segmentation. Instead of promoting products directly, we shifted the focus to human-centric storytelling, featuring the platform’s experts (teachers) as the “stars” of our campaigns. This approach highlighted the unique knowledge and charisma of our experts, offering a more personal and engaging connection with potential customers.
Results:
Achieved a 6x ROAS (up from 2) across paid social channels, while reducing CAC by 50%. The shift to expert-led storytelling significantly improved engagement, with campaign video views increasing by 200% and platform sign-ups exceeding targets by 40% in the first quarter. This human-centric approach became a core part of the brand’s ongoing marketing strategy, continuing well beyond the pandemic and contributing to sustained long-term growth in user acquisition and brand loyalty. -
Industry: Events +Festivals
Problem:
An NYC-based event production company needed to brand and launch a new festival in under three months, with limited resources and a highly competitive market. There was a need for a strong brand identity and an aggressive marketing timeline.
Actions:
I developed a complete brand identity for the festival, overseeing everything from logo design to messaging. I executed a rapid launch marketing plan across social media, paid ads, press strategy, and influencer partnerships to build awareness and sell tickets in record time.
Results:
The festival launched successfully, with ticket sales exceeding expectations by 25% within the first month. The event garnered significant press coverage, and social media engagement increased by 300%, making it a standout in a crowded event landscape.
Ways we can work together
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Audit + Opportunity Assessments
After a quick call, we’ll perform channel specific deep-dives to identify what you’re doing well and where your opportunities lie. You will be able to implement yourself, or we can manage it for you via a short term or ongoing project.
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Project
Short-term, contract-based work: After the audit, we might land on a short-term project where I strategize and execute. This could be anything from getting your Google Ads off the ground, building reporting dashboards for your exec team, or building your 18-month marketing roadmap and budget allocation. I’m not embedded but I’ll orchestrate the handoff when the time comes.
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Interim Marketing Leadership
Full-time, temporary role: Need someone to lead your marketing efforts temporarily? As your Interim CMO, I’ll step in full-time to develop strategies, manage the team, and make sure you’re hitting growth targets. Perfect for companies in transition (e.g., a CMO has left or during a big growth phase). I’m there until you’re ready for your next permanent hire— heck, I’ll even help you find them.
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Fractional Marketing Leadership
Part-time, ongoing role: Need high-level marketing leadership but not a full-time CMO? As your Fractional Markerter, I’ll provide strategic direction a few hours or days a week. I’ll guide your team, help you scale, and drive growth without the full-time commitment. Ideal for companies needing ongoing strategic expertise but not daily management.
LET’S CHAT
It starts with a quick call and a super-actionable audit.
Book a 25 minute call and we’ll get to the bottom of your marketing needs. Learning a bit about what’s working, what your business goals are, ad how much you have to invest in marketing will help us audit and opportunity assessment is best for you.