Want to know how to make money while traveling—without answering emails from the beach? This episode is your vacation business plan. You’ll learn how to set up a simple, smart vacation campaign so your business keeps running while you relax.
No hustling, no guilt, and no more zero-sale trips.
We'll walk through the strategy, mindset, and exact steps to put your business on autopilot while you're away. You’ll hear real stories, practical advice, and the one tool that makes it all easier.
✅What a vacation campaign actually is (and how to build one)
✅Why automation isn’t lazy—it’s strategic
✅How to map your email funnel before writing a word
✅The #1 mistake that causes vacation campaign sales to flop
✅Why “check your tech before you jet” matters more than you think
🎯 Grab the Vacation Campaign Toolkit mentioned in this episode to start setting yours up now!
Resource Mentioned:
Vacation Campaign Tool Kit - Just $27 this week. It's on sale this week ... retails for $97, so you're saving 70%! Use code: SMOOTHIE
Show Notes:
Hey everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help families start and scale their online businesses—whether you're just starting or in the middle of it. You're trying to get to the next level. We're here to help you so you find the freedom in your life to spend time with those who matter, to do activities, go on mission trips—whatever it is that you are called to do.
Today we're talking about one of my—oh, I love this topic—because we used: how to make money while you're on vacation.
How many of you have gone on vacation and you come home to zero sales or very low, dry sales? Or maybe on vacation you're answering emails from the beach instead of sipping that nice cold smoothie?
Today we're going to talk about how you can actually make money while you're away—not hustling, not answering DMs—but truly letting your systems work while you rest. I'm going to share the steps, I'm going to share stories of those who have done this well, and how you can start putting this into practice before your next trip.
Hey, it's the 1st of June. Surely you have a vacation planned over the next few weeks, and this is something you could put into practice and get ready to come home to sales. That's what we're all about.
So let's dive into that. Before we do, if you have not subscribed to this channel or left a 5-star review, would you please take just one minute and do that? That would mean the world to me, and it would help us get this message out so more families could find freedom in their online business.
So what do we need to do? Let's talk about why you need a vacation campaign.
What is a vacation campaign? Basically, it's just a simple, smart email sales funnel that runs without you while you're gone. It is working—that automation thing we talked about last week.
You see, too many people think that email marketing is dead. It just needs to be smart. It is not dead. You need to use it the right way. You see, a targeted list of buyers beats a big list of browsers. We need people that are buyers, not just people that are sort of looking around.
So you need to take a step back and find: Where can I find the buyers? Or not that—where are the buyers that are already on my list? Find those, and those are the people you're really going to target while you're on vacation.
Then we also need to change our mindset. Often, we think, “Oh, if we just put on automation, we're being lazy, we're not being personal.” No. If we are putting things on automation, you are being strategic so you can serve your people and still live your life.
Don't you want to serve? You all heard me say it over: we serve before we sell. So hopefully you are serving your people, and even on vacation, you can serve your people and then live your life.
There's a man named Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income. He's gone on many trips, but he is all about setting up affiliate funnels and digital product campaigns so that when he is traveling with his family, he is still making money. I was reading a story about—he went to a place called Big Bear. He's from San Diego, I believe, and there wasn't any snow, but they found fake snow and they did tubing. They camped out. It was just like awesome. He also took his family—he was going to a blogging conference in Austria over in Europe—took his family with him.
Do you think he made sales while he was gone? You better believe it.
That is where we're headed. What would your life be like if you could have that happen to you? When you're on vacation, you come home to sales.
So first, we need to set up this vacation campaign. We need to think about our attitude. We're not being lazy—we are setting it up strategically.
So how do we do that? It means we need to think like a funnel builder. You need a plan. You need a map that ensures that no one in your funnel gets lost, confused, annoyed. Too often—I'm telling you—too often, we make them go through hoops. I am in a group of homeschool bloggers that offers a freebie once a month, and sometimes I'm like, “Oh, I think my grandkids would like that. I'm gonna go get it!”
There are—I can't even get it. It's so difficult. Do you know how many people they are losing in that funnel because it's like, “You gotta fill this out or that out,” or “I gotta remember my login.” I don't know. It is too hard for me. And so, too often, I don't even sign up. And I feel bad because they're paying to be in our group. I'm wondering how many people they're really getting to sign up.
We do not want them confused. We don't want to make it difficult.
So we want to start with the map. Before writing anything, you want to map out the flow of your email sequence. This is really simple. I will tell you—I'm super excited. Y'all know I've used AWeber since 2003 or 4, and they have this great flowchart. You can just drag things here, there, and everywhere. But here's the coolest thing: You can create your funnel.
You do not want someone coming in at a $9 ebook and then being offered a $1,000 course without anything in between. They're going to feel blindsided, and they are going to unsubscribe.
It's like inviting someone to have coffee and then handing them a bill for a yacht. You don't want that. So you want to make it easy. And so a flowchart, like AWeber now offers, is a great way for you to see—like you can actually tag them, which is number two in this “thinking like a funnel builder.”
Start with the map.
Number 2: Tag to segment. You don't want to treat everyone the same. When someone enters your funnel, you want to give them the information they need and the right follow-up. If they come in as a freebie seeker, you're not going to offer them a $497 course on email number two. You're going to have to build value as well. So do they come in as a freebie, as a product, as a referral link?
You need to determine and tag them. What did they purchase? What did they ask for? What did they opt in for?
And if they're joining for a budget freebie, you don't want to put them in the luxury business mastermind. That type of thing.
Tagging them allows you to follow up according to where they are in your flowchart, where they are in your funnel. That is exactly what you need. If they come in and they have bought a $27 product, then you could offer them a $97. That seems pretty natural. You might have to give them a few emails along the way.
But this allows you to filter and set all those emails up before you go on vacation, and it's all there.
Alright. So there's no right or wrong answer. You just need to use a little bit of strategy.
How do we do that?
Well, one question I get asked a lot is, “How many emails do I need for this vacation campaign?” The number one question is that.
Well, the question might be: How long is your vacation? If it is a 5-day vacation, you may only need 4 to 6 emails. If it's 3 weeks, you might need 10 or 12 emails. It just depends.
Now, it also depends on how often do you email your people right now. I email them several times a week. So getting a daily email is not a big deal if you're on my list, if they're used to you. But if you only email them once a week, you might only want to do things every 2 or 3 days. You decide—how long is your vacation and what will work.
You can also set it up so you can send resends. This is one of my favorite strategies—to people that do not open—a day later. Look at your email service provider. It should be able to do that.
There's no perfect frequency. There's no perfect day and time. Consistency and clarity are what matters most.
And then in your email, you better include a CTA—a call to action. If you don't include a CTA, forget the sale. There is no way. If there's no CTA—call to action—why are they going to click and go get that item that you want them to?
So you need to not assume that people know what to do. Let me tell you: they don't. You need to tell them exactly—click here to buy now. Check out this limited-time offer. Watch this video walkthrough to show you what to do.
Tell them why it matters and then what to do.
And I would say, don't be shy about sending multiple offers, especially on the last day. I almost always send at least 3 emails. Do I send it to my whole list? No. I send it to the whole list in the morning, to opens in the afternoon, and then to my clicks in the evening. Life gets in the way, and even your raving fans need that final nudge.
And then—here you go—write the emails. Don't procrastinate like me. Just write the emails. Don't worry about formatting. Don't worry about any of that. Just write the emails. Get them on paper. Put them in Google Docs so that you've got them, and then you can mess with them.
Actually, you might even go to ChatGPT. Maybe you have some ideas of what you want to include. Tell ChatGPT exactly what you want to include, and let them write an email. Then you can go through and edit it if it doesn't have your tone and voice.
The number one thing when you write your emails—personalize it. Even if you take a swipe email—personalize it. Put a personal story in there as well. Every email that you send in this should promote one offer with one call to action, and be clear about what they need to do. No distractions. No multiple offers. One email and one mission.
Every email has one mission. And that whole week while you're gone, there is one call to action, and that is to go get that vacation campaign item—whatever it is you're promoting.
I will tell you, I've got a worksheet and a checklist inside our toolkit that can make this step super simple, even if you hate planning.
Now, before you go on vacation, you need to do one thing, and that is: check your tech before you jet.
This is where we make the dream of vacation more real. If you don't check to make sure that all your tech is working, you don't know what's happening, and you may come back to a lot of people asking for refunds because they can't figure out where to get everything.
So think about your email platforms, your course delivery system, your payment processors—is everything working? Go through and do a test purchase.
Now for me, I sort of test it, because I use Leadpages and Elementor for my sales page/landing pages. And then they are going to get email follow-ups from AWeber. They're going to land probably in ThriveCart to be able to get the shopping cart pages, and then they will pay in PayPal or Stripe.
I'm going to go through—and with Thrive, you can go through and do a test without ever spending your own money. You can test it all just to make sure everything's landing, and you're getting in the right campaign in AWeber, and you get the right course. It's delivered. All that stuff.
So test your tech before you jet.
You don't want to come home to a bunch of refund requests.
Now, you don't need to be famous, or have a massive audience.
To make this work, you just need a good offer, a plan, your map, and tech that doesn’t break while you’re awake.
That’s it. A good offer. Your map. And tech that doesn’t break.
Now, if you're ready to start planning your next time away—and you want to make some money while you're gone—I’ve just created something to help you do exactly that. It's called the Vacation Campaign Toolkit. Normally, it sells for $97, but this week, you can grab it for just $27. Use code: SMOOTHIE
You’ll find all the details and a coupon code in the show notes. And here’s what’s included:
- Three step-by-step video trainings that show you exactly what to do,
- A 4-week calendar with specific tasks for each weekday—so you never wonder what to do next,
- A detailed checklist to make sure everything’s ready before you go,
- A helpful worksheet to plan your campaign step by step,
- And a resource list with links to trusted tools—no more guessing or falling down a Google rabbit hole.
All you need to do is head over to https://kerrybeck.thrivecart.com/vacation-tool/ and grab your copy while it's still on sale. Just $27 this week. It's on sale this week ... retails for $97, so you're saving 70%! Use code: SMOOTHIE
I hope you take this and run with it—create your vacation campaign and finally step away without stress.
Let me know how it goes! And if you have questions, I’m always happy to help.
I’m Kerry Beck with Family Ebiz, and I’ll talk to you next time.
