Digital marketing blog and insights
Insight from the work we actually do.
Practical digital growth thinking from over a decade in the work. Honest, useful, and free of the buzzwords.
Should You Use AI To Build Your Website?
We rebuilt our own website with AI. Done blindly it would have been slow, close to invisible in search, and quietly expensive. Here is what actually makes an AI-built site work, and why the real unlock is context, not the tool.
30 July 2026
What a Record Ski Rental Season Actually Looks Like
Real numbers from independent ski and snowboard rental stores, why marketing is an investment rather than a cost, and how the results compound season after season.
8 July 2026
Direct Bookings vs the OTAs: What It Really Costs to Compete
The maths on competing with the OTAs for your own bookings. Real numbers from a scenic helicopter company: a 1.73% effective commission through Google Ads versus 20-30% through the OTAs.
7 July 2026
The State of Tourism Digital Marketing: We Reviewed 538 Businesses and Almost Nothing Improved
Our proprietary two-year study of 538 tourism businesses across 44 countries. Over a third have no analytics at all, most of the rest track nothing useful, and a year later several measures got worse. Here is everything we found.
7 July 2026
GA4: what you actually need to get right
Having GA4 and having it set up properly are very different things. The handful of things that matter most.
12 April 2026
Google Ad Spend Budgets Explained: Why Lower Budgets Can Hold Back Your Success
Starting Google Ads with a small budget to 'test the waters' usually backfires. Why spreading too little across too many campaigns starves your data, and how to structure spend so the platform can actually optimise.
1 September 2025
What Hasn't Changed in Digital Marketing in the Last 11 Years?
Digital marketing is obsessed with change, but the fundamentals that grow a business have not moved in over a decade. The five that still matter most, and why chasing the next shiny object rarely helps.
17 February 2025
A Good Content Marketing Example: Wilderness Motorhomes
A walkthrough of how one New Zealand motorhome company uses structured, in-depth content to rank consistently, and the content principles you can copy to lift your own SEO.
6 November 2024
Digital Marketing for Ski & Snowboard Rental Businesses
The full playbook we use to grow ski and snowboard rental stores: early planning, proper tracking, local SEO, email, Google Ads and Meta. Real results, plainly explained.
8 October 2024
The Importance of High-Quality Content Marketing for SEO: Lessons from Finns Beach Club
Content is only one part of SEO, but most sites do not have enough of it. Using Finns Beach Club in Bali as an example, what great, well-structured content looks like and how to build your own.
14 August 2024
The State of Tourism Digital Marketing 2024
We audited 538 tourism businesses across 44 countries. Almost none could see where their bookings actually came from. Here is what the research found, and what it means for your business.
15 February 2024
Do You Depend Too Much on One Traffic Source?
When one platform goes down, or its algorithm changes, businesses that lean on a single traffic source get hurt. Why a website you own, plus email and reviews, is the backup that keeps you trading.
5 October 2021
Digital Marketing Audits & Priorities: Too Many Cooks Can Spoil the Broth
Free digital marketing reviews are everywhere, and taking every one can leave you with conflicting advice and no action. Why a holistic set of priorities beats four opinions pulling in different directions.
6 July 2021
Google Page Speed Improvements & the Benefits of a Fast Website
Site speed and user experience are direct ranking factors, yet page speed rarely makes it into a website brief. Real before-and-after results, what slows sites down, and how to fix it.
25 May 2021
5 Reasons Your Google Analytics Data May Be Misleading
The most common reasons a Google Analytics setup quietly reports the wrong numbers, from spam referrals and unfiltered internal traffic to missing revenue and attribution, and how to spot each one.
13 May 2016
Imagine If Your Marketing Budget Justified Itself
Marketing gets treated as a cost until you can prove the return. How to use analytics to show what each channel gives back, so next year the budget argues for itself.
5 May 2016
10 Ways to Piggyback on Your Regional Tourism Operator's (RTO) Digital Strategy on a Shoestring Budget
How a small tourism operator can piggyback on a big destination marketing budget: ten practical, low-cost advertising tactics, from interest targeting to remarketing, that punch above their weight.
19 April 2015
Questions You Should Ask Your Web Developer
The questions worth asking whoever you put in charge of your website, from who really owns it to how it will be built for search, so you end up with an online presence, not just a site.
30 May 2014
5 Questions Your Web Developer Should Ask You
If your web developer never asks about your goals, your keywords, your USPs or your calls to action, you are likely to end up with a website, not an online presence. The questions a good one asks first.
16 May 2014
Why Your Business Doesn't Need (Just) a Website
Everyone wants a website, but a website is only a slice of your online presence. Why spending the whole budget on the site, then wondering why it does not work, is the classic mistake, and what to build instead.
28 April 2014
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