Follow the Camino keeps pilgrims connected with Zoho Campaigns
The Company
Follow the Camino is a Dublin-based travel operator specializing in walking holidays along the Camino de Santiago - the ancient European pilgrimage route ending at Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in northwest Spain. Founded by Umberto di Venosa, the company started as a kitchen-table startup and has since grown into a globally recognized tour agency with 25 staff, customers from all over the world, and a 2026 Tripadvisor “Travellers’ Choice” award, with over 1,000 5-star reviews.
Follow the Camino is also the world’s only B Corp-certified Camino operator, a mark of its commitment to sustainability and responsible business. Since the Camino is “a lifetime adventure for most people,” the team dedicates itself to delivering deeply personalized customer service across a complex set of holiday logistics, routes, and preferences.
“Managing social media across different platforms (we used Hootsuite back in the day) was difficult to do between our different teams. I never knew customer status. Is he or she a customer yet? I wasn’t sure so I didn't know what communication they should get.”
The challenge
As Follow the Camino grew, so did the complexity of its communications. The team was juggling social media, multiple platforms, and email, with no unified way to know who was a lead, who had booked, or what each customer needed to hear next.
The core problem was context: An email address alone tells you nothing. Without knowing whether someone was a newsletter subscriber, a warm lead, or a returning traveler, sending the right message at the right time was guesswork. The team needed to centralize its communications and connect them to real customer data. Here are some of the biggest challenges the company faced:
- No way to distinguish leads from confirmed customers in email lists
- Manual import/export to sync contacts, always behind live data
- Generic broadcast emails with no personalization by booking status or trip date
- Separate records for newsletter subscribers and CRM contacts with no unified view
- Resistance from team members familiar with a previous platform
The solution
Follow the Camino adopted Zoho Campaigns as part of the broader Zoho One suite, integrating it tightly with Zoho CRM. Rather than treating email addresses as isolated contacts, the team now uses each customer’s CRM data, such as booking status, last trip date, and lead source, to shape every communication.
“An email address is not just an email address—it’s linked to a customer status or a last trip date. When we communicate with people, we can adjust that communication in a more contextual fashion, not just by creation date.”
The team sends two main categories of emails. General newsletters go to all subscribers, which cover Camino-themed blogs, travel news, and holiday offers. This keeps potential customers engaged over longer periods. A second, separate stream targets people who have already booked a trip, sending booking confirmations, packing reminders, and invitations to pre-departure webinars hosted on Zoho Meeting.
- Live list synchronization: New CRM contacts and newsletter sign-ups sync instantly. As a result, no monthly import/export cycle was needed.
- CRM-powered personalization: Trip dates, booking status, and lead source from Zoho CRM inform every email send automatically.
- Segmented audiences: Newsletter subscribers and booking contacts live in separate lists with the right message going to each group.
- Clear reporting: Accessible dashboards give the marketing team instant visibility on opens, clicks, and campaign performance.
The live sync capability was a turning point. Previously, if two new subscribers signed up on a given day, they would only appear in the next month’s manual export. Now, they’re in the right list immediately, ready to receive the appropriate communication from day one.
“Synchronization is just the way to go. If you get two extra newsletter subscribers today, you don’t have to wait until next month when you do your import/export exercise. It’s updated live. That’s the only way to go.”
Switching over to Campaigns
Not everyone was immediately convinced with the move to Zoho Campaigns. Some team members were comfortable with the previous platform and were reluctant to change. di Venosa's approach was pragmatic: Rather than dictating the switch, he set a challenge—could the team replicate the same results in Zoho Campaigns?
“I put some team members to a challenge: Replicate the same versatility from the old platform in Campaigns. We managed to get the same results. The ease of use, the live synchronization, and the quality of the output—it was a no-brainer.”
The verdict was clear. Campaigns matched the features of the previous platform while adding real-time CRM integration, better reporting, and seamless connectivity with the rest of the Zoho ecosystem, something no standalone email tool could offer.
Benefits and ROI
The contextual email strategy—powered by Campaigns—has contributed directly to measurable improvements in customer satisfaction. Post-trip and post-sale NPS surveys, triggered automatically via Zoho Survey and CRM, reveal a clear upward trend since the team centralized and contextualized its communications.
- Post-trip NPS growth: Rose significantly from 58 to 64.
- Post-sale NPS growth: Expanded rapidly from 73 to 84.
- Contextual email sends: Dynamic updates tied directly to real booking and trip data, avoiding generic broadcast blasts.
- Zero database lag: No time gap between a customer signing up and entering the accurate targeted communication flows.
- Webinar alignment: Pre-departure email invitations driving attendance directly at Zoho Meeting webinars and digital group sessions.
Beyond the numbers, the platform enables Follow the Camino to speak in the language of care it built its reputation on—reaching customers at the right moment, with the right message, whether they’re planning their first Camino or returning for another route.
Looking forward
Follow the Camino is not resting on its laurels; di Venosa plans to expand the Desk knowledge base to a portal on the website, roll out multi-lingual support via Zoho Desk, and continue refining the automated customer journey from first enquiry to post-trip follow-up. Campaigns will remain central to every outbound touchpoint along the way.
“If any travel agency came to me for software recommendations, I would say Zoho is a very capable software, offering great value at a great price point. It’s great software for any business.”
To learn more about Follow the Camino, visit their website.
- IndustryTravel & Tourism
- TYPE Walking Holidays
- NO OF EMPLOYEES25
- REGIONIreland/Global