The Adventure Company · Winter 2026–27

Off-Season Playbook

Ads go quiet after a historic low-water season. The retainer shrinks to match — but the work that fills next summer's boats keeps running: AI & SEO visibility, website storytelling, groups, the lodge, content, email, social, and TourMagic upselling.

Aug 21

Season closed for the year

−12%

Vs. last year — best on the river

84%

Positive AI sentiment score

8

Workstreams staying active

Scope of work

Eight workstreams, full strength

Top priority · the home run

AI Visibility & GEO

This is where the winter effort goes first — the single highest-leverage, zero-ad-spend channel.

  • Monthly tracking of visibility & sentiment score against commercial keywords (Browns Canyon, Buena Vista rafting, Breckenridge rafting)
  • Turn owner know-how into citable content — starting with the low-water decision-making story (new rafts, lighter loads, more duckies, no first-year guides)
  • Schema/structured-data review so the site reads cleanly to LLM crawlers, not just Google
  • Long-tail question mining (People Also Ask → blog topics) to widen the net of queries the site can answer

Owner: David / SEO team

Website & storytelling

Homepage & Tour Page Rebuild

The site converts well already — this is about making the story as good as the trip.

  • Homepage refresh around good / better / best pricing — half day, full day, private-raft upgrade
  • “Flexi-tile” icon panels on tour pages: hotel pickup, lunch, photos, private raft — scannable, not paragraphs
  • Luxury shuttle & Breckenridge pickup storytelling (17 pickup points, no school-bus vans)
  • Security/technical pass: plugin audit, broken-link cleanup, homepage page-speed fix

Owner: Jana

New this off-season

Groups & Private Trips

The private-raft math already works — it just isn't merchandised anywhere yet.

  • Formalize the Vail Resorts concierge relationship — 31 referred users generated $4,468 at an 8.96% conversion rate, best of any channel, currently running on a bare promo code
  • Revive the introduction to Mike Shipley — a path into Grand Vacations' Breckenridge concierge desk, currently closed off to a competitor
  • Dedicated Groups & Private Trips page merchandising “pay for one more, get a private raft” for reunions, corporate outings, church & youth groups
  • “Groups of 8+? Get a custom quote” CTA with fast phone follow-up — groups convert on a call, not a checkout

Owner: David / Jana

New this off-season

Stay & Raft — The Lodge

A Riverhouse Lodge is a real differentiator that the main site barely mentions today.

  • Give the lodge a featured homepage section, not a footnote — high-end mattresses, riverside deck, breakfast included, steps from the café
  • Package “rent the whole lodge” as its own product — the same private-buyout logic as the raft upgrade, and a natural fit for the reunion/small-retreat groups above
  • Build Stay & Raft bundles across good/better/best, not just the top tier
  • Cross-link and cross-schema theadventurecompany.com and ariverhouselodge.com so Google and AI assistants read them as one trip, not two businesses

Owner: Jana (site) · David (partnership terms)

Content engine

Blog & Authority Building

Keep publishing through the winter — solid posts now, sharpen them later.

  • Publish weekly, leaning on the owner's operational expertise as the differentiator (guide tenure, equipment decisions, water-level judgment calls)
  • Refresh older posts once the content backlog eases
  • Pursue PR — industry committee involvement, local press, credibility-building mentions

Owner: SEO/content team

Content calendar · new this off-season

Email: Dream → Plan → Book

Capture next summer's guests while they're still dreaming, and walk them to a booking by spring.

  • Launch a lead magnet (trip-planning guide) to start capturing names now, before the pre-season rush
  • Six-month themed calendar, Sept → Feb (see calendar table below)
  • Segment by funnel stage so messaging matches where the guest actually is

Owner: David / Bridget

Continuing as-is

Social Media Management

No change in cadence — and a direct feed into the AI/GMB signals above.

  • Regular organic posting continues through the off-season
  • User-generated-content concepts banked for spring: the Breckenridge luxury-shuttle pickup video, guide spotlights
  • Reinforces brand search, which continues to be a top revenue channel

Owner: Social team

New this off-season

TourMagic — Now Upselling

Already live and trusted by guests. The new part is putting it to work selling, not just answering.

  • Configure conversational upsell prompts triggered by what guests are already asking — a family question nudges toward the private-raft upgrade, a multi-day question nudges toward Stay & Raft, a large-party question nudges toward the groups quote path
  • Gift certificates and café add-ons offered in-conversation, not just at checkout
  • Track upsell attribution as a new off-season KPI — another proof point with no ad spend behind it
  • Quarterly Q&A log review continues, doubling as a source for new upsell trigger phrases

Owner: David

Timeline

The winter runway

  1. September

    1. Wrap & Foundations

    Close the season, open the funnel

    Finish the ad wind-down and retainer conversation. Run the plugin/security and page-speed audit. Launch the lead magnet so email capture starts before the dreaming season peaks.

  2. October – November

    2. Build

    Homepage, tiles, groups, and the lodge

    Homepage and flexi-tile redesign ships alongside the new Groups & Private Trips page and a featured lodge section. Blog publishing ramps to weekly. Email calendar goes live with the first “dream phase” sends.

  3. December – January

    3. Compound

    Let the visibility data pile up

    Monthly AI-visibility and sentiment reporting. PR outreach lands. Outreach to Vail's concierge team and the Mike Shipley introduction happen here, ahead of spring group-planning season. Email shifts into trip-planning and early-bird territory, including the Stay & Raft bundle.

  4. February

    4. Spring Prep

    Reload for the relaunch

    Refresh ad creative using the winter's content and UGC. Stand up Bing ads for the 55+ demographic. Final “book before spring break” email push. Ads ramp back up in March, pending snowpack.

Lifecycle marketing

Email content calendar

MonthThemeContent focusCall to action
SeptSeason Wrap & Thank YouRecap the year, thank past guests, share highlights from a historic low-water season (audience: past guests)Leave a review / follow social
OctDream Phase KickoffWhy Buena Vista over the usual Breckenridge stay — the “off the beaten path” story (audience: new lead-magnet subscribers)Download the trip guide
NovPlanning Your 2027 TripGood / better / best explained — half day, full day, private raft upgradeBrowse trips & pricing
DecGift the RiverGift certificates, lodge + café packages, holiday framingBuy a gift certificate
JanMeet Your GuidesThe no-first-year-guide story, guide spotlights, family trip planningEarly-bird booking
FebBook Before Spring BreakSnowpack update, scarcity on peak dates, early-season pricingBook now
Segment trackRuns alongsideFocus
Groups & RetreatsOct – FebReunion, corporate, and camp organizers — private-raft math, group quote CTA (separate list: past group inquiries + lead-magnet signups who flag group size)
Stay & RaftNov – FebLodge cross-sell — “rent the whole lodge,” bundle pricing, holiday gift angle in Dec (segment: subscribers who've clicked a lodge or lodging link)

Scope summary

What pauses, what doesn't

StatusWorkstreamNote
PausedGoogle & Meta ad spendResumes ahead of spring, timed to snowpack and booking-window signals
ContinuesSEO & AI/GEO visibilityFull effort — this is the highest-value channel with no media spend attached
ContinuesSocial media managementNo change in cadence
ContinuesTourMagic chatbotStays live answering guest questions year-round
New this winterEmail lead nurtureLead magnet + six-month content calendar, built fresh for the off-season
New this winterHomepage & tour-page redesignScoped as a one-time off-season build
New this winterGroups & Private Trips pagePlus Vail Resorts and Mike Shipley outreach — relationship work, not media spend
New this winterStay & Raft — lodge integrationFeatured homepage section, whole-lodge buyout package, cross-site linking with ariverhouselodge.com
New this winterTourMagic upsell configurationSame chatbot, now prompting private-raft, Stay & Raft, and group upgrades in conversation

$2,000 / month

New off-season retainer, September through February. Replaces the paid-media management fee with the eight workstreams above — no ad spend included until campaigns resume in spring.

Reporting

Proving value with no ad spend to point to

The monthly recap

Same one-page format already in use — just swapping ROAS for the metrics that actually move this winter:

  • AI visibility & sentiment score trend, keyword by keyword
  • Organic rank movement on the commercial terms
  • Email list growth and open/click engagement
  • Blog cadence — posts published, topics covered
  • Social follower and engagement trend
  • TourMagic upsell attribution — upgrade offers made vs. accepted