Crafting Luxury Travel Experiences | Cole Houweling from Wallop

Ernesto Quezada: To our listeners, Pathmonk is the intelligent tool for website lead generation. With increasing online competition, over 98% of website visitors don’t convert. The ability to successfully show your value proposition and support visitors in their buying journey separates you from the competition online. Pathmonk qualifies and converts leads on your website by figuring out where they are in the buying journey and influencing them in key decision moments. With relevant micro-experiences like case studies, intro videos, and much more, stay relevant to your visitors and increase conversions by 50%. Add Pathmonk to your website in seconds. Let the AI do all the work and get up to 50% more qualified leads while you keep doing marketing and sales as usual. Check us on pathmonk.com. Welcome to today’s episode. Let’s talk about today’s guest. We have Cole from Wallop, digital strategist with them. How are you doing today, Cole?

Cole Houweling: I’m great. Thank you for having me.

Ernesto: It’s great to have you on, and I’m sure our listeners are tuning in wondering what Wallop is all about. So, let’s kick it off with that. Cole, in your own words, can you tell us a little bit more?

Cole: Sure. So, yeah, Wallop is a marketing agency specifically for luxury hotels and unique travel. Those are our main clientele. We’ve been operating for, I think, around twelve years, at least in the capacity that we’re currently operating at. I’ve been with the company myself for about a year and a half. The digital marketing team is about nine people at the moment. We service a lot of clients across the world. Some of the big ones we have are Ace Hotel, Miraval, and Marcus Hotels. One of my particular clients is Mirror Lake Inn in upstate New York. Primarily, we’re kind of all over the place with our clients, but we tend to serve luxury hotels.

Ernesto: All right, awesome. Great to hear that from Wallop. So that way, our listeners who are tuned in could get a good understanding of your company, what would you say is a key problem that you solve for clients?

Cole: I mean, we handle all of their digital strategy, essentially. Any marketing they have related to the internet—SEO, creative, advertising, and more—we handle for them. We are not a social media agency, just to make that clear. We work closely with our clients, providing ongoing strategy and helping them get direct bookings to their venues.

Ernesto: Definitely. And, well, is there a specific vertical you guys focus on, or is it just luxury hospitality?

Cole: We have a very niche clientele. It is luxury hospitality.

Ernesto: Awesome. Great to hear. So then, how would someone in luxury hospitality find out about you guys? Is there a top client acquisition channel you focus on?

Cole: Primarily, our sales team drives client acquisition. I’ve worked firsthand on outbound marketing since January 2023, using services like Lead Forensics to monitor website traffic and gather intent-based data. This helps us with targeted cold calls. We also leverage SEO, ads, and our website, which brings in a few clients a year.

Ernesto: Definitely. And talking about SEO efforts, I’m sure they go to your website. For listeners in the luxury hospitality business, check them out at wallop.ca. What role does the website play for client acquisition, Cole?

Cole: It’s really the first impression clients get of us. Being a marketing agency, we aim to have strong SEO so people can find us easily. We recently launched a new website, which we’ve been working on internally. It represents the kind of experience clients can expect from working with us. The website is very important—it’s the main face of our business.

Ernesto: Yeah, I would agree with that. Is there any tool or method you implemented during the revamp to enhance lead generation?

Cole: While I wasn’t directly involved in the development, we discussed ideas as a team. Conversion rate optimization tools like Microsoft Clarity are helpful for tracking user behavior on the site and identifying pain points. A clean navigation bar, prominent calls to action, and a smooth user experience are key to avoiding confusion and ensuring a seamless journey.

Ernesto: Totally agree. If someone can digest information quickly and know where to go, conversions improve. Let’s switch gears a bit. Cole, as a digital strategist at Wallop, what are some key tasks you focus on day-to-day?

Cole: My day-to-day involves creative work, analytics, and building human relationships. I write ads, conduct backend internet research, and handle reporting for both clients and Wallop. Managing relationships is also a big part of the job—being sociable goes a long way in marketing.

Ernesto: Great to hear that. Let’s switch to our next section, which is a rapid-fire question round. Are you ready?

Cole: Sure.

Ernesto: Awesome. First off, what’s the last book you read?

Cole: The last book I finished was The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It’s a novelization of The Iliad, but it’s more of a romance story. For business, I’d recommend Good to Great by James Collins and Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore. On a personal note, I enjoy stoic philosophy—anything by Epictetus is great, especially The Art of Living.

Ernesto: Great recommendations for our listeners. What’s one thing your company is focused on the most right now?

Cole: We’re onboarding about 30 new properties, which is the largest batch we’ve ever had. Streamlining that process is a major focus for the entire organization.

Ernesto: That’s huge. Next, if there were no boundaries in technology, what’s one thing you’d fix in your role as a marketer?

Cole: It’d be great if Google and Meta products worked flawlessly all the time. Their occasional bugs slow us down, especially with tools like Google Looker Studio.

Ernesto: Definitely. If you could automate one repetitive task, what would it be?

Cole: Tracking billable work. It’s time-consuming but important. Automating it would save a lot of time and effort.

Ernesto: Lastly, what advice would you give yourself if you were restarting your marketing journey?

Cole: Don’t be afraid to share your voice. Early in my career, I was hesitant to share ideas with executives or management, but innovation often comes from young people. Speak up—it’s how progress happens.

Ernesto: Great advice, Cole. Thanks for being on the show today. If someone forgets everything about the interview, what’s the one thing they should remember about Wallop?

Cole: Be inspired. Wallop connects people with life-changing experiences, and at the end of the day, it’s all about having fun and enjoying the process.

Ernesto: Absolutely. Thanks, Cole. To our listeners, thank you for tuning in. See you in the next episode of Pathmonk Presents.

Cole: Thanks for listening.