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Tactacam: From tinkering in the garage to a massive success story

Good morning! Welcome to LTV SPOT. We are the white rabbit to follow whenever you get lost in the eCommerce world. We will show you around this shocking Wonderland, introduce you to bizarre founders and CEOs, and help you re-emerge from the rabbit hole with way more knowledge and way less insanity.

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🚀 Exploding brand of the day:

​Source: Exploding Topics​

💡 In 10 minutes or less, here's what you’re discovering:

• How a driven leader can take one single core product line and build a successful, massive brand if there is enough demand within the marketplace for it.
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• Obtaining patents for your IP may be costly and time-consuming, but it can be well worth the effort in the long run.
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• DTC eCommerce may not be the only (or best) distribution channel for selling directly to your consumer. Sometimes, a hybrid DTC eCommerce/retail strategy is best.
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• How social media can and should be used to build communities within your target and current customers. These can help create stickiness and grow your LTV.
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• How eCommerce brands can utilize upsells (to increase AOV) and retargeting (to save potential sales).

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Tactacam’s metrics

Founder: Benjamin Stern

Country: USA

Started in: 2013

No. of employees: 326

Funding Amount: Undisclosed private equity LBO

Revenue: $7.5mm

Specific cause of success: Knowing their customers, where they shop, what they need, and how to reach them

Extra:

• Monthly Similar Web Traffic: 73,452
• FB Ad Library: Tactacam FB ad library​
• Link to Hero Product: Tactacam 6.0 action camera (Amazon)

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Most marketing agencies, product development teams, and executive leadership for large companies in the US are located in the coastal areas or big cities (New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, etc), and don’t really have a solid understanding of what makes middle America “tick.”

Every once in a while, a company comes along that has that understanding, and it’s usually because the founders themselves are from the proverbial “flyover country” of America. Today, we’ll talk about one such company that started with a single type of niche product - hunting cameras - and how their understanding of what their target demographic wants leading to a 99x traffic growth over 4 years for camera manufacturer Tactacam.

One type of product can be enough

One might look at Tactacam and wonder how a company that really only offers one product - cameras built for outdoor enthusiasts - could achieve a 99x growth rate in traffic and massive business success.

Those who understand the outdoor enthusiast economy know better.

$536.7 billion was spent by Americans on outdoor gear in 2022, and that’s a trend that has risen pretty much every year as long as it has been tracked. Tactacam is not the first type of camera that is targeted towards outdoor enthusiasts (GoPro), but the brand focuses on a totally different Total Addressable Market (TAM).

While GoPro focuses mainly on adrenaline sports (mountain bikers, skiers, etc), Tactacam targets hunters, conservationists, farmers/ranchers, off-grid residents, RV owners, campers, boaters, and fishermen.

It may surprise some city slickers who read this newsletter that 29% of the traffic for a company that focuses on the above activities would be female, but it’s not surprising for those who grew up in the Midwest or South.

What is surprising is the age distribution that is relatively even from age 25 all the way up to over 65.

And while we call the wide suite of Tactacam offerings “one” type product, we do understand the major differences between their multiple lines of that type of product.

While they are all essentially cameras, the variations sold by Tactacam are each designed for a different purpose:

• Hunting
  • Action cams that fit on your bow or rifle
  • Trail cams to track game
  • Cams that can be mounted on a tripod
• Fishing
  • Waterproof cameras to document your catch
• Security
  • For your home, RV, campsite, ranch, farm, or boat
• Conservation
  • Track the migration patterns or yearly birthrates of animals
• Land management
  • If you own or manage a large amount of land, the only way to check on it all previously was by physically doing so. Now Tactacam motion-activated cameras can be set around the property, powered by solar, and watched through the app on your devices

Many of the products listed above will be targeted and sold to the same general audience - think Iowa or Texas vs New York City or Los Angeles - but even that population has to be segmented for offers based on interests.

The very first Tactacam was an early beta version of the brand’s best-selling action cam series. Founder Ben Stern went to school for videography, and his grandfather made fun of him for telling a story about a buck he shot while hunting but not having any video to back up the story.

Ben used what he’d learned in school to build a very basic camera that could be mounted to his rifle, took it out hunting to test and refine it, and began to share it with friends. It soon became so popular that the company was born, and the product lines grew from the action camera to other offerings which facilitate all of the activities listed above.

Ben knew his customers, knew the current demands that were not being met within the marketplace, and got to work building an outdoor camera empire.

Patents & IP can make you primed for a buyout or acquisition offer

As of this writing, Tactacam has 12 patents for its technology, from the cameras to mounts and stabilizers. Some entrepreneurs go into business out of a love for what they do or building teams, but some just want to make as much money as humanly possible - and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Getting patents for your products or ideas can be an expensive, time-intensive, and bureaucratic process, but if your product is new or novel it can be well worth your time to do so.

And if your goal is to see your company eventually acquired by a larger brand or private equity firm - after which you can cash out and live the rest of your days on a beach sipping mai tai cocktails - having the rights to IP or patents that can be sold or licensed to other companies is a good way to do it.

Know what your customer wants and where & when they want it

The core of marketing is understanding how to reach your customer with the perfect marketing tripod of, “right time, right place, right message.” Tactacam is a hybrid DTC eCommerce company with most of its products sold through retail channels because it knows how its customers shop.

Additionally, and most importantly, they know where their customers shop:

If you know anything about hunting, fishing, or outdoor enthusiast culture, you know the brands listed above. Tactacam also has deals with outfitters, which are companies that lead and “outfit” hunters with gear and supplies on hunting trips.

Each of these tactics - outfitters and retail channels - allows the brand to meet its target consumers in the places where they are already seeking gear for the activities Tactacam products are used for.

If a hunter or fly fisherman doesn’t even know that Tactacam exists but is provided with one of the brand’s action cams for a big game hunt in the backcountry of Montana, there’s a better-than-average chance that hunter will go home and buy one for themselves.

You can also see this conscious tactic play out where Tactcam doesn’t offer sales channels:

The brand is pretty active on social media, mainly YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram:

They have some static posts, but most of their content on social media is either long or short-form videos, including Facebook and Instagram reels:

While it’s not very large, the brand does have a few ads in its Facebook ad library:

If you notice, these ads all began on November 14th, after a marked reduction in traffic to the website:

Despite the social media focus, the brand doesn’t have stores on any of its social media platforms. In fact, the links included in these videos point you to the brand’s website, but the only products that can be purchased on that site are the Reveal brand cameras (and not the flagship action cameras):

Outdoor enthusiasts are more prone than other groups to be in the “trust, but verify camp.” They are more likely to want to put their hands on an expensive product before buying it, especially if it’s going to be a part of their trusted kit or hunting load out.

By putting its products on the shelves in trusted retail channels, the brand gets additional marketing through shelf placement, which is noticed when its target customer is already shopping for the gear they need.

It also forges alliances with these trusted retail brands.

And as stated above, the brand’s customers aren’t likely to buy something just because they saw a cool ad or post for it on social media.

Know how to talk to your customer and where

Besides the retail sales channel, where else does Tactam put its marketing focus?

Direct, organic search and paid search are the top 3 channels for the brand, with the remaining 3 marketing disciplines (referrals, social, and display ads) coming in far behind.

With their focus on creating social media videos for content, it’s not hard to understand why a lot of the traffic comes from mobile users:

Notice where the paid vs organic is. The target demographic for this brand may see things they like on social, but will go to their desktop to perform searches, and likely when it’s time to buy. They aren’t as likely as urban customers to conduct a purchase via mobile.

Let’s have a look at the keywords that Tactacam targets in its search efforts:

Most of these keywords focus on the brand name, which could indicate it’s a strategy built to ensure the brand catches people who either hear about the products from a friend (word-of-mouth, some of the most powerful marketing in the world), or who see products somewhere and decide to perform their own search.

What about the search ads that Tactacam runs?

Notice the search ads also focus on the brand name (Tactacam) or brand name + products.

The brand knows that it’s already a “known quantity” in the industry, and is pointing potential customers in the right direction to do their own research on Tactacam products.

Since the brand owns a dozen patents for its technology and products, they don’t have to worry as much about knockoff competitors as other brands would.

Social can help brands build communities

There are many social groups that were extremely popular in the days of our parents and grandparents that have fallen on hard times because not as many people these days are inclined to be a part of those groups.

In certain demographics, however, the desire to commune with like-minded individuals is as strong - and even stronger, in some circumstances - than ever.

The Tactacam potential customer demographic is one of those groups, and the brand has capitalized on that quite well.

With over 83k ratings for the Tactacam REVEAL app bringing it to a nearly 5-star average, the brand has a lot of “social proof” to help bring in customers and new users for the app - which is required to use the functionality for the brand’s products.

The brand also has communities within each of its social media pages:

This is especially powerful within the Tactacam potential customer demographic, which is far more community-based than other demographics tend to be.

Retargeting and upsells

Even though Tactacam follows an eCommerce/retail hybrid, the company still incorporates the tactics that we at LTV constantly say that every brand with an online presence should: upsells in the sales funnel and retargeting.

Let’s go down a quick sales path for the Tactacam products that are offered on the website. Remember, the company doesn’t sell many of its products on the website and has no social media shops.

I clicked a link in one of the brand’s social media posts, which took me to the product line page of the website:
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I selected one of the products that were neither the most nor least expensive:

And was immediately hit with the accessory upsell offers that would go well with this product:

After selecting to purchase the item above and abandoning the cart, I began to check my various social media accounts for retargeting efforts, and quickly found this:

While the brand didn’t end up in any pre-roll ads on YouTube, it did get this tile icon sponsored on my YouTube dashboard, which would have been a good location for it.

I didn’t find any more retargeting efforts, but given that the demographic most likely to purchase these products will do so through the stores listed above, it’s not hard to see why retargeting wouldn’t be one of their greatest ad spends.

Even if it’s minor, every brand should have comprehensive upsell and retargeting strategies baked into its marketing allocation.

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​Adcreative.ai​

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The Marketing Machine and Numbers Behind Tactacam:

Tactacam has had 137 different installs into its website tech stack over the years, but is currently down to only 42. This very well could have been a shift in strategy dictated by the private equity firm that bought the company out, but it certainly highlights a change:

Nearly all of the brand’s former advertising programs were removed (DoubleClick, Google Ads, Facebook Advertising, Pubmatic, Google Remarketing), but the video platforms remained (Vimeo, YouTube).

It very well may have been the PE firm that moved Tactacam from a pure e-commerce business model to a hybrid e-commerce and retail model, which would certainly necessitate a reduction in online ad spend.

Additionally, once the brand started seeing a meteoric rise within the closely-knit communities that make up its target customer group, the need for advertising greatly reduced - as happy customers are doing it for them.

The employee headcount ranges depending on where you look, with ZoomInfo reporting <25 employees and GrowJo reporting 160. Pitchbook puts the number at 326, and that platform is likely to have the most accurate numbers based on the LBO deal from the PE firm that bought Tactacam.

Revenue numbers also vary, and as a privately-held firm Tactacam doesn’t have to report them as a public company would. ZoomInfo puts revenue at <$5mm, but GrowJo seems to be a little closer to an accurate estimate at $7.5mm per year.

Overall, Tactacam has made great leaps and strides since it started off in the garage of founder Ben Stern. The brand’s story just goes to prove that if you know what your customer base wants and how to deliver your value proposition to them, the sky is the limit.

❓ How Can You Apply this?

Tactacam started when founder Ben Stern’s grandpa made fun of him for not putting his education to good use. Deciding to get to work and turning a hobbyist hunter into a brand-building success story certainly has some insights to be gleaned from Ben’s experience.

So what insights can we glean from the story outlined above?

Applicable insights:

• If there is enough unmet demand within the marketplace, one core type of product can be enough to build a successful brand - if you know how to play your cards right.
• If your product is new or novel, establishing and owning the patents & IP behind it can be a game changer that leads to a very successful future (and protection against competition).
• Know what your customer wants before you even start building a company or product.
• Know where to sell to your customer - it may not be the places where other brands are putting their efforts.
• Know how to talk to your customer, and where. Different platforms will often require different messaging and strategies. Know the difference.
• Social media platforms are a low-cost way to reach a wide audience. If you have a community-inclined target demographic, social should be used to build communities.
• Every single eCommerce brand needs to have strategies within its sales funnel for retargeting and upsells.

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