How we 3x'd a AWOL'S Outbound using The Scientific Method
20.4k
Sent
304
Reply's
3.5%
Reply rate
120
Leads
1:70
Lead:Contacted
Before
December 15th > January 15th 1 Month
After
Feb 15th > March 15th 1 Month
Overview
AWOL is a startup helping independent restaurants take back control from platforms like Tripadvisor and other marketing tools.
Their core product enables restaurants to build direct, commission-free relationships with customers - through loyalty, remarketing, and first-party data tools that are shared with every restaurant.
Before we got involved, they’d already worked with another outbound agency.
The results? Underwhelming.
From Dec 15 to Jan 15, their campaign barely moved the needle: low open rates, templated messaging, and barely any signal-based targeting.
They were essentially batch-sending cold emails to scraped lists with no real context.
They came to us frustrated but open to doing things differently.
We rebuilt their outbound motion around one key change: relevance.
Instead of sending generic messages, we scraped data directly from Tripadvisor, used Apify to pull hyper-local restaurant info, and ran Clay enrichments to find references to their menu, location, and cuisine.
Tech Stack Used
Research
ICP
For this campaign, we were targeting independent restaurant owners in the UK — especially those relying heavily on Tripadvisor for customer acquisition and online visibility. This is a very different persona from our usual B2B SaaS audience, but the outreach fundamentals remain the same.
Persona Profile
- Title: Owner, General Manager
- Business type: Independent restaurants (not chains or franchises)
- Location: Major UK cities and tourist-heavy towns (e.g., London, Manchester, Brighton, Edinburgh)
- Tech maturity: Low – most don’t use any CRM or outbound tooling
Pain Points
- Frustration with Tripadvisor's control over their reputation (fake reviews, poor support, high visibility tax)
- Difficulty standing out in local search
- Lack of direct channels to reach customers or build loyalty
- Limited marketing budget — most rely on word of mouth or walk-ins
- No internal bandwidth for lead generation or digital strategy
Other Solutions Tried
- Tripadvisor paid listings
- Hiring local agencies or freelancers for SEO/social media
- Listing on Deliveroo, UberEats (with high commission)
- Occasionally trying Google Ads or Facebook Ads — usually with poor ROI
Status Quo
- Relying almost entirely on Tripadvisor and organic foot traffic
- Passive approach to marketing — not proactively acquiring customers
- No automation, no CRM, no outbound
- Most communication is inbound, reactive, or customer service-related
Key Value Props of a New Solution
- Offer a way out of Tripadvisor dependency by helping them build direct relationships with customers
- Provide highly targeted outreach to locals, influencers, or groups looking to book events
- Deliver done-for-you marketing without jargon or tech-heavy onboarding
- Position ourselves as a partner, not a platform — someone helping them take back control
Platform overview
This time, we targeted a completely different vertical - restaurants across the UK and applied the same outbound methodology that worked in SaaS.
We built a full-stack prospecting system using Apify, Clay, and Instantly to reach independent restaurant owners at scale.
The key insight? Tripadvisor is an essential discovery platform for restaurants, but most owners hate it - the platform recommends the tourist spots, controls reviews, and gives them little in return.
So we focused on that pain point and built a campaign around it.
List-building process
Step 1: Identify Restaurants in the UK
We used Apify to scrape restaurant data location-by-location from Tripadvisor. We pulled down key info including:
- Restaurant name
- Cuisine type
- Location (postcode-level granularity)
- Review score
- Popular menu items
- Review highlights
It’s worth noting: Tripadvisor is the pain point. We didn’t just scrape it — we used it as the wedge. Most restaurant owners resent how much control Tripadvisor has over their online reputation, and that opened the door to meaningful conversations.
We also looked at Awol, a competitor to Tripadvisor, to understand positioning gaps and value props we could lean into.
Clay Table Process
Here’s how it looks in Clay.com:
Once we had our base list, we pulled it into Clay and enriched the hell out of it. The process went like this:
- Import scraped data from Tripadvisor via Apify
- Use Claygent to find the restaurant owner's name and email
- Use Clay’s AI fields to:
- Pull review summaries
- Identify frequently mentioned menu items
- Call out location context ("top-rated sushi spot in Manchester", for example)
- Add a final AI field to write a custom line per lead based on the above fields
We ended up with a list where each row was uniquely personalised — not just “Hey {First Name},” but actual references to their menu, their 4.2-star rating, and their city, what items are on their menu, and what type of food they serve. That level of detail is what gets replies.
Messaging
Message 1
Hey - saw you’re doing something special in {{location}} with your {{Menu Item}}.
I run a business similar to yours and as you're probably aware Tripadvisor doesn't really help our businesses - it just gives the same recommendations to anyone.
That’s why we created AWOL—to match customers who love your cuisine, not just recommending the closest to tourist areas.
We’re currently rolling this out in your area. Would you be up for testing it at zero cost?
Thanks,
P.S. We’ll actually send you 100 customers, and you won’t have to pay a thing.
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{{accountSignature}}
Message 2
Hey - saw you’re doing something special in {{location}} with your {{Menu Item}}.
If I told you I was gonna send you 100 customers this year, would you be upset with me?
I'm dead serious - we're in the process of helping {{Competitor}} get set up on AWOL too.
Interested?
Let me know so I can send over a link.
PS. I saw your {{menu item}} on your site. Is that your best-selling dish? Our app sends {{cuisine}} lovers to your restaurant based on their dining history.
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{{accountSignature}}
Free Materials
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