Every month, another AI tool lands in my inbox promising to “revolutionize” marketing. Most of them are noise. But some actually work—and we’ve tested them across three resort clients.
Here are the seven tools we actually use, the realistic price you’ll pay, and where they fit into a resort marketing workflow.
1. Claude (by Anthropic) — Content Drafting & Strategy
What it does: Generates email copy, social media captions, blog intros, campaign briefs, and strategic recommendations in seconds.
Price: $20/month (Pro) or pay-as-you-go at ~$0.01-0.03 per piece of copy.
Best for resorts: The backbone of content creation. Feed it a campaign brief, get five variants in 30 seconds. Beats ChatGPT for marketing copy in our testing.
Affiliate link: claude.ai
2. Canva AI — Design & Graphics
What it does: Generates matching social graphics, email headers, and promotional imagery from text descriptions. No design skills required.
Price: $14.99/month (Canva Pro) + optional Canva Teams for collaboration.
Best for resorts: Creates on-brand Instagram posts, TikTok thumbnails, and email headers in minutes. Huge time-saver if your team isn’t trained in design.
Affiliate link: canva.com
3. Descript — Video Editing & Transcription
What it does: Auto-transcribes video, removes filler words, generates captions, and edits video like a document.
Price: $24/month (Creator) or $120/month (Teams).
Best for resorts: Mountain footage + Descript = polished social videos in 1/10th the time. Auto-captions make content accessible and boost engagement on silent-scroll platforms.
Affiliate link: descript.com
4. Beehiiv — Newsletter Platform & Growth
What it does: Email marketing + newsletter monetization + audience growth tracking. Freemium model, pro features from $60/month.
Price: Free tier or $39-$60+/month for premium.
Best for resorts: Beats Mailchimp for conversion tracking and affiliate revenue sharing. Built-in AI writing suggestions and analytics dashboards designed for modern marketers.
Affiliate link: beehiiv.com
5. Surfer SEO — Content Optimization & Research
What it does: Analyzes top-ranking competitors, recommends keywords, suggests content structure, and rates your draft for SEO.
Price: $89-$179/month depending on usage.
Best for resorts: Write a blog post about “best ski resorts near Denver.” Surfer tells you exactly how to structure it to rank. Huge advantage if you’re competing against larger media sites.
Affiliate link: surferseo.com
6. Midjourney — AI Image Generation
What it does: Generates high-quality custom images from text prompts. Photorealistic or stylized.
Price: $10-60/month (subscription) or pay-per-generation.
Best for resorts: Create hero images for blog posts, Instagram pins, and email campaigns without stock photo licensing fees. Perfect for conceptual imagery (“skier in golden hour light” → infinite variations).
Affiliate link: midjourney.com
7. Make.com — Marketing Automation & Workflow
What it does: Connects your AI tools, CRM, email, and analytics into automated workflows. (Formerly Integromat.)
Price: $10.59-$299+/month depending on workflow complexity.
Best for resorts: Automate the “publish” step. New blog post → Canva generates graphics → Beehiiv sends newsletter → Twitter posts automatically. One-time setup, infinite time savings.
Affiliate link: make.com
The Stack: How These Work Together
A typical workflow for a ski season campaign:
- Director briefs Claude (cost: ~$0.02)
- Claude generates 5 email + social variants (5 minutes)
- Team picks best version
- Canva AI generates matching graphics (cost: $0.50 if using Pro) (2 minutes)
- Descript processes any video footage (3-5 minutes)
- Surfer SEO validates blog post structure (5 minutes)
- Make.com automatically publishes to Beehiiv, Twitter, LinkedIn (0 minutes—it’s automated)
Total human time: ~20 minutes. Total cost: <$1.00. Traditional approach: 3-5 hours. Traditional cost: $150-300.
Which One Should You Start With?
If you have one budget: Claude + Canva. Those two alone will cut your marketing time in half.
If you run email heavily: Add Beehiiv.
If SEO matters: Add Surfer.
If you create video: Add Descript.
When you’re ready to scale: Add Make.com to automate the whole pipeline.
Which of these is your team already using? Reply and let us know what’s working for you.
