The first new resort in Utah in over 30 years is opening this Fall just a stone’s throw from my old stomping grounds. I haven’t heard back from their Marketing team to get their take, but with a million thoughts about what they should do, this week I’m temporarily going back to my daily-posting ways to share five quick things I’d do first and foremost if I were in their shoes.

The absolute first thing I would do is start to build an email list.

Cherry Peak has no brand, they need one. They have no owned reach, they need some. They have no sales. No matter how much they get from this first wave of buzz, they’ll want more soon enough.

Email is where people want offers. Email reaches the right people. An operation like this doesn’t have money to bun nor should they. In my book, email is the quickest and most affordable way to do all three.

The Site Swap
To do that I’d scrap their current site. Simply put, it’s not good enough. It looks like a 10 year old site from a 40 year old ski area. They need something better, something that gives people in Cache Valley a reason to take them seriously.

But before I rebuilt the whole thing, I’d put up a squeeze page and contest with a prize that would get people talking (plus a few teaser details about the area).

The contest would be simple and tie the community to the ski area forever by letting Cache Valley residents choose the names of the runs. This would require an email address to submit a name.

Winners would be chosen by voting. Each voter would be required to provide an email address to vote. I think you see where this is going.

Social as a Byproduct
Wanting to win, name-suggesters would take to social media to get their circles to vote for their idea. This gives people a reason to talk, fills the valley’s social conversations with Cherry Peak more than any brand profile ever could and…

…you guessed it, builds a massive email list along the way.

Meanwhile, I’d talk to a serious design firm and do it right: starting with refining the logo (or redesigning altogether), choosing better fonts that honestly match the tone they’re going to be speaking in all season, and then (and only then) finishing with the website.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.