Alta Genetics

Background

Pack Up + Go is a U.S. based travel company specializing in surprise vacations where travelers only discover their destination on the day of departure. Using detailed pre-trip surveys, the company creates personalized itineraries that include transportation, accommodations, and curated experiences while preserving the excitement of the unknown.

With more than 300 destinations and tens of thousands of travelers served, Pack Up + Go had built a strong operational business. However, their marketing infrastructure struggled to support the complexity of their booking process and growing customer base.

The Challenge

As Pack Up + Go continued to grow, the limitations of their marketing infrastructure became increasingly clear. The company had built a strong operational foundation, but the marketing systems were not designed to match the complexity of their booking model or support scalable automation.

A Powerful but Isolated Custom CRM

Pack Up + Go’s proprietary booking system is built around a detailed pre-trip survey that progresses through multiple progression stages before becoming a completed order. A survey becomes a trip when a traveler reaches the payment page and only becomes an order once payment is processed. Multiple travelers can be associated with a single booking, and purchaser logic differs from traveler logic.

This architecture lives inside a custom CRM built on Azure. While it effectively manages trip logistics, it was not built to power real-time marketing automation.

Disconnected Systems & Developer Dependency

Before HubSpot, marketing emails were sent through MailChimp using static lists that were disconnected from live booking data. Social scheduling and reporting lived in separate tools. Any new automation or funnel adjustment required coordination with an external development team.

"We have a custom-built CRM, which is great for a lot of things, but it makes it really difficult and expensive for us to build out new automation. We would have to go through a third-party dev team to do any of that"

Lillian Rafson | Pack Up + Go Founder & CEO

Revenue Left on the Table

Conversion was the most pressing business concern. Abandoned trip surveys represented meaningful lost revenue, yet the team lacked the ability to trigger stage-based behavior driven campaigns tied directly to booking status. Conversion rates were holding at ~2%, and improving that number required precise timing and segmentation that existing systems could not support.

Without connected automation, Pack Up + Go could not confidently “set and forget” campaigns or iterate quickly on abandoned cart flows.

Scaling a Lean Team

As the business expanded and served tens of thousands of travelers, operational strain increased. The team was managing multiple platforms while customer support repeatedly answered questions that could have been handled through proactive automation.

With limited internal technical resources, scaling required efficiency rather than additional headcount. Without an integrated system and behavior-based automation, growth added complexity instead of leverage. Marketing adjustments required developer coordination, and repetitive traveler communications consumed valuable team time.

Pack Up + Go did not need to replace their custom CRM. They needed a sophisticated marketing automation layer capable of integrating with their proprietary booking system, mirroring its complex progression stages, and empowering a lean team to drive growth without ongoing developer reliance.

The Solution

To solve Pack Up + Go’s challenges without replacing their valuable proprietary CRM, Blue Frog engineered a custom integration and marketing automation layer within HubSpot that mirrored the complex booking architecture of the CRM, while preserving it as the operational source of truth.

Building a Connected Data Foundation

The foundation of Pack Up + Go’s transformation began with solving their most complex technical hurdle: integrating a custom-built CRM with HubSpot in a way that preserved operational integrity while unlocking marketing flexibility.

Blue Frog engineered a custom integration using Skyvia as the ETL connector, enabling secure, automated synchronization of pre-trip surveys, trip records, and completed orders directly into HubSpot. Because Pack Up + Go did not require HubSpot to function as a revenue-tracking CRM, there was no strategic need to structure reservation data within a Deal pipeline. Instead, Blue Frog recommended leveraging HubSpot’s Ticket object to better align with the company’s operational model.

Integration Mapping & API Setup

Pack Up + Go’s booking process is not linear. Travelers begin by submitting a pre-trip survey, which evolves into a trip once they reach the payment stage, and ultimately becomes an order upon completion. Along the way, reservations may require servicing, which the ticket object made seamless with the connection to inboxes. Additionally, quantity limits can be exceeded from an API perspective, which reduced the risk of HubSpot not being able to handle their survey and trip volume.

Ultimately, using the Ticket object allowed the system to:

• Accurately mirror the reservation process from the proprietary CRM
• Associate multiple travelers to a single booking record
• Trigger automation based on stage progression and ID creation
• Enable service workflows if reservations required intervention
• Maintain clear segmentation between incomplete surveys, active trips, and finalized orders

With this architecture in place, HubSpot became a centralized data layer that could power segmentation, automation, reporting, and operational efficiency across the organization. Every downstream workflow and traveler communication was built on this connected foundation.

Designing Advanced Lifecycle Automation

Once the integration framework was established, Blue Frog focused on transforming Pack Up + Go’s manual marketing processes into scalable automation systems.

Using Marketing Hub and custom workflow logic, Blue Frog and Pack Up + Go configured several advanced lifecycle automations designed to improve conversion performance, traveler communication, and operational efficiency.

This moved the team from a single 24-hour reminder email to a fully optimized six-email abandoned cart strategy that could be tested, refined, and improved in real time.

By implementing workflow goals tied to new order creation, Pack Up + Go gained visibility into automation-driven conversion rates, allowing them to measure impact directly inside HubSpot. These flexible automations were built with ease in mind, so Pack Up + Go’s team could confidently manage and evolve them without relying on third-party developers for every adjustment.

AI-Assisted Email Personalization

Equipping the Team to Own a Complex System

Blue Frog’s role did not end with building the integration and automation framework. A critical component of the engagement was ensuring that Pack Up + Go’s lean team could confidently operate and expand the system without ongoing developer reliance.

Blue Frog provided structured, hands-on training sessions that went beyond the basic HubSpot feature walkthroughs. Interactive and technical training calls covered real use cases such as converting trip surveys to orders, preventing duplicate messaging, and managing multi-traveler associations within a single ticket record.

"As a small business owner, onboarding with HubSpot felt overwhelming but Blue Frog's team made it a breeze. They were very hands-on throughout the entire process and took the time to answer all of our questions and provided all of the support we could have asked for. Can't recommend them highly enough!"

Lillian Rafson | Pack Up + Go Founder & CEO

With a connected data foundation, a sophisticated automation framework, and a team confident in managing the system independently, Pack Up + Go shifted from fragmented marketing execution to a scalable, performance-driven engine. The impact of that transformation was measurable.

The Results

With a fully integrated data foundation and scalable framework in place, Pack Up + Go began seeing measurable performance gains within the first year of implementation.

75% Increase in Conversion Rate

Before implementing HubSpot and the custom automation architecture, Pack Up + Go’s average conversion rate hovered around 2% consistently.

Following the rollout of their advanced abandoned cart workflow and other targeted automations, their conversion rate increased to 3.5%.

While the percentage difference may appear incremental at first glance, this represents a 75% increase in overall conversion performance in an industry where high-consideration purchases typically yield lower conversion rates.

This improvement in conversion rate was driven by the team’s ability to deploy improved segmentation using their ticket stage progression, and make real-time changes to their communications, test outcomes, and optimize efficiently.

"HubSpot has drastically improved our overall conversion rate, which was the biggest thing that we were trying to solve for."

Lillian Rafson | Pack Up + Go Founder & CEO

HubSpot did not simply replace Mailchimp, it enabled Pack Up + Go to test, measure, and iterate in real time, driving real business revenue.

Increased Operational Efficiency Without Expanding Headcount

One highly meaningful impact of the HubSpot implementation was operational. Before, making adjustments and automation changes required coordination with a third-party development team. Even small updates were costly and time consuming.

Today, Pack Up + Go can build and adjust workflows internally, test messaging independently, create segmentation logic without developer support, and launch campaigns without waiting on backend changes.

"We were able to do more with fewer people... It's allowed us to be a more efficient small business and do more without adding to our headcount."

Lillian Rafson | Pack Up + Go Founder & CEO

For a lean but growing travel company, this translated directly to margin protection and scalable growth.

Consolidation of Tools & Cost Reduction

Prior to HubSpot, Pack Up + Go relied on multiple disconnected platforms:

• Mailchimp for email marketing
• Separate social scheduling tools
• Manual reporting across systems

By centralizing marketing automation and communication inside HubSpot, they eliminated several tools doing redundant functions and reduced overlapping software costs by thousands of dollars annually, while also improving team productivity. 

Improved Traveler Satisfaction by 13% Through Proactive Communication

HubSpot also enabled Pack Up + Go to proactively improve traveler communication and satisfaction through automated lifecycle outreach.

After noticing lower satisfaction scores among repeat travelers, the team implemented an automated workflow asking returning travelers what they enjoyed most about previous trips and what they hoped to experience again.

Within one quarter of implementing the workflow, average repeat traveler satisfaction scores increased from 4.0 to 4.54 out of 5.

The team also introduced proactive traveler communications that clarified road trip expectations and trip inclusions before departure, helping reduce preventable traveler confusion and support issues.

A Performance Driven Marketing Engine

Perhaps the most significant impact of the HubSpot implementation was the visibility and control it gave the Pack Up + Go team over their marketing performance.

Before HubSpot, the team had limited insight into how travelers progressed from pre-trip survey to completed booking. Data lived in multiple systems, making it difficult to understand where travelers dropped off or how different communications influenced booking decisions.

With reservation data synchronized into HubSpot and structured through the Ticket lifecycle stages, Pack Up + Go can now track the full journey from Trip Survey to Order and analyze how marketing interactions influence that progression.

• Monitor where travelers abandon the booking process
• Attribute completed bookings to specific workflows
• Measure engagement across the entire traveler lifecycle
• Test messaging, timing, and segmentation strategies in real time

This visibility has transformed marketing from a reactive process into a performance-driven system where campaigns can be continuously tested, refined, and optimized.

"It's really satisfying to be able to make changes and test and tinker with things, and then see the changes over time."

Lillian Rafson | Pack Up + Go Founder & CEO

With connected data and flexible automation in place, Pack Up + Go now has a marketing engine designed not only to drive bookings today, but to continuously improve conversion performance over time.

The Future

With the technical foundation now in place, Pack Up + Go is positioned to continue evolving its marketing and customer experience strategies without requiring new development work for every improvement.

The integration between their custom CRM and HubSpot, combined with the ticket-based lifecycle architecture Blue Frog implemented, gives the team a flexible framework to expand automation as the business grows. Since onboarding, the Pack Up + Go team has already begun refining workflows, testing new email strategies, and building additional lifecycle campaigns using the same foundation.

This independence was a key goal of the project. Instead of relying on third-party developers to adjust automations or marketing logic, the internal team can now iterate quickly, test new ideas, and respond to traveler behavior in real time.

Looking ahead, Pack Up + Go plans to continue leveraging HubSpot to deepen personalization, expand lifecycle communications, and uncover new opportunities to optimize the journey from trip survey to completed order. With a connected data layer and scalable automation engine in place, the company now has the infrastructure needed to support both operational efficiency and continued revenue growth.