Last month we setup an email campaign for delivering HTML newsletters to the membership database of the New Zealand Snowsports Instructors Alliance (NZSIA). Our chosen platform was Campaign Monitor. And we were impressed. The functionality was extensive, the approval process for campaigns was thorough and the reporting stats are substantial. 100% recommended!

For NZSIA the newsletter performed well. 50% of recipients opened the newsletter (which is very high for email campaigns), 25% clicked a link and only 0.35% unsubscribed. Pretty good results I’d say. The fact that the recipients of the campaign were a highly targeted market certainly helped. However the newsletter’s clean and simple design plus, getting back on topic now, the well-thought-out readable content would have made the biggest impact – particularly with the clicked link and low unsubscribe rates.

Yep, content is still king, that’s for sure. However, without the vessel to communicate such content the message would have never reached the audience. In this case the vessel was an HTML email campaign in the form of a newsletter. In another cases it might be a Twitter stream or a Vimeo channel, but the vessel must be matched with the message and suited to those you’re trying to reach.

Whilst both Doug and myself are the leading partners in the Tactic Group business, we’re both still self-contractors and have fingers in a number of other pies. Recently Doug has launched his own Web site promoting his services as a specialist User Experience Designer. Check it out at dougsomerville.com.

Me, well that’s been a bit of a roller coaster ride. I’ve recently published a book about skiing and snowboarding in Japan, called Snow-search Japan and am currently in the land of the rising sun promoting the book whilst doing a little other work. To keep track of all the projects I’m involved in I decided to start a mini scrapbook of projects with Posterous.

2010 will see Tactic Group begin a number of new projects including a Blog strategy and design project for the New Zealand Snowsports Instructors Alliance and a re-design for our own site. Watch this space!

More recently we undertook a social media strategy and monitoring project for Cardrona Ski Resort in New Zealand.

Both were fun, interesting projects that, not only opened new doors for Tactic Group, but helped us push our knowledge and abilities in a number of different web mediums. We’ve since written a casestudy about each project that provides a good insight into the processes and techniques we employed, check ‘em out…

Cardrona Casestudy

A Social Media strategy and monitoring for one of New Zealand’s premier ski resorts. Here’s a snippet from the casestudy itself…

Utilising RSS and various web applications we created a monitoring and recording system that allows Cardrona to not only see what is being said when, but to respond to concerns quickly and engage customers in online conversation almost instantaneously.

Snowsports Coaching NZ Casestudy

A web research, design and e-learning project for a new coaches’ education initiative. Here’s a snippet from the casestudy itself…

What begun as a research and design venture, evoloved into a full site development project, complete with content strategy, a CMS install, Social Media intergration, and an e-learning solution in the form of online coaching modules.

There’s more projects on the horizon for Tactic Group, including a large event-based blogging project, a self-funded project or two, and a small re-design of our own site. Check back soon.

It’s actually a good thing we waited to write this post, as we’ve since performed a fun social media project for our friend, and the interviewee in this post, Camilla over at Whiteroom Pictures.

WRP blog project

Camilla was in the process of re-designing her web site and wanted to develop her brand within the social media world. With a strong Facebook following already, this was easily done with a Wordpress blog. We designed the blog to fit alongside her new web site with very similar aesthetics and layout, but just a few subtle differences. We also created a blogging strategy to assist her as time goes on.

For more information about the project we performed look out for the case study, coming soon on Tactic Group.

In the meantime, let’s get back to the topic at hand…

So why commission a pro photographer?

In our first photography post, we discussed the different methods of sourcing images for your web site. These were:

1. Shoot it yourself
2. Look for public domain images
3. Find Royalty Free images (or stock photography)
4. Rights Managed (or liscenced images)
5. Commission a shoot

We discussed the pros and cons of each option in detail and established that ‘Commissioning a shoot’, whilst expensive and potentially time consuming, provides absolutely unique images with relevant landscapes tailored to you business niche.

Things have changed in the past year. In our current economic climate the above cons certainly make the decision to hire a pro photographer hard to swallow. But let us think about the Return On Investment (ROI) and how it can be realised. Of course it costs to hire a pro, but the investment will offer return in the form of more sales or higher brand esteem. Not expending the cost in the first place will obviously save you money but, on the flip-side, it can miss you the opportunity for increased sales.

You know your business much better than we do, so it’s simply a question of weighing up the odds. However, to help you evaluate these odds we have a professional lined up for an interview next week. So be sure to check back and see the experts perspective.

This is a community web site, pulling local resources together to create a wide range of content in hope of appealing to a large cross-section of viewers. The site itself focuses 100% on a mountain in New Zealand that is home to two ski resorts run by the same company; Whakapapa and Turoa on Mt Ruapehu. The resorts are the largest in NZ, but relatively unknown overseas. A massive percentage of Ruapehu’s visitors are within 4 hours drive of the mountain and are what most would consider ‘regular customers’.

This being the case, it’s the perfect place to trial a new business model we’ve been working on. I won’t give away too much about it, but the model is aimed at adventure tourism communities with fairly captive audiences.

Take a look around and throw some feedback our way if you feel inclined to do so. It’s not quite 100% finished, but what web sites ever are?

Also, if you’re interested in what we’re doing, get in touch and we’ll tell you a little bit more about it. Maybe you know of a similar community where this model could be applied?

Nevertheless, I did find the time to edit this fun little movie about our trip and thought our readers here at Tactical Thinking might enjoy some ‘light-hearted’ viewing. Enjoy…

The trip was very successful. With most of the research done and new material currently being written, things are moving along nicely. Keep your eyes peeled for further mentions of this new publication from WSG Media – it’s completely under wraps for the time being though, so my lips are sealed.

While Japan is in peak-season and enjoying some great conditions he’s been touring various resorts updating reviews for the World Snowboard Guide, writing dispatches for various magazines and also finding time to research a new book.

Keith is joined on the trip by Steve Dowle of WSG Media, snowsports photographer Camilla Stoddart, and two female pro-riders from the UK – Posy Dixon and Vicci Miller. The journey has taken them from Nagano to Hokkaido, via Niigata; riding many new resorts along the way—and it sounds like they’re having a blast.

Regular updates and stunning photos are being posted on the WSG Japan 2008 blog. Beware – reading their adrenalin-fuelled dispatches is guaranteed to make you very jealous!

There we will be discussing some of the topics we cover here and other general aspects of the blog itself. We have surveys and vox-pops in the pipeline, and there’s talk of video screencasts in the future.

The group is designed to be interactive and to add another level to the Tactical Thinking experience, so get involved to make the most of it!

If there is anything you’d like to see us write about, or any burning issues you think we should cover, that’s the place to let us know. If you have a FB account join up and say hello.

We are syndicating our posts into the page, so if you’re reading this on Facebook then you found us. Thanks for passing by – it’s great to have you here.

Keith’s work in snow sports seems to take him all over the world – lucky him. This article, written by Keith for Whitelines Snowboard Magazine, explores international backcountry/off-piste culture and how it differs from country to country.

You can read the intro to the story here: Whitelines Dec ‘07. But if you want to read the full four-page article, you’ll have to buy the mag.

Tactical Thinking is a place where we at Tactic Group publish news and advice on web marketing, site management and brand development, with emphasis on how these subjects are crucial to the snowsports industry.

What it’s about

So you run a business in the snowsports industry? Is your business on the internet? If not, it should be! If you do have a web site, is it working to its full potential marketing your business globally?

This blog is aimed at anyone involved in managing a web site or marketing a winter tourism business. Whether you are a business owner, content author, marketer or sales manager we hope there will be something in here for you.

From January 2008 we will be publishing articles on various aspects of how to plan, develop and promote an effective web site and online marketing campaign. These articles will be accompanied by relevant news, links and advice that will also help you along the way to building a better business.

What you’ll get

Just to briefly outline why you should be bookmarking this site or grabbing our RSS feed, here’s a quick list of what you can learn from Tactical Thinking:

• Understand your target audience
• Build a compelling web site that provides a great user experience
• Get more traffic to your site
• Communicate your message to web users in different cultures
• Get more sales
• Monitor your web site to keep it performing at its best

Who will be writing here

At present there are three resident authors on Tactical Thinking. Here’s an introduction to who we are:

Keith Stubbs

Keith is a career snow sports instructor, freelance writer and keen photographer, living in New Zealand. Keith is also a founding member of Tactic Group. Here on Tactical Thinking Keith writes about web content creation, marketing strategies and the Winter Tourism industry.

Doug Somerville

Doug is a web professional based in the south-east of the UK, a keen snowboarder for many years and a founding member of Tactic Group. Here on Tactical Thinking Doug writes about designing user experiences, internet strategy and visual design/communication for online marketing.

James Morrison

James is a software programmer, developer and web administrator from the UK. His passion for the snow often takes him to Bulgaria where he is currently based. Here on Tactical Thinking James writes about web technologies, search engines and web development.