FY24Q2 Increase Traffic To GitLab Marketing Site
https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/marketing/digital-experience/-/epics/276
Executive Summary
Q1 of our marketing site traffic plan laid the foundation for success by focusing on enhancing content, SEO, lifecycle marketing, paid digital marketing, digital campaigns, and social media marketing. We made significant progress in optimizing top pages, launching new campaigns, and establishing a content calendar to drive conversions.
Our Q2 plan builds upon the achievements of Q1, emphasizing personalization, user experience, and performance optimization. By the end of Q2, our marketing site traffic strategy will have evolved to deliver more personalized and targeted messaging, ultimately driving increased visits, conversions, and purchases on the marketing site.
Business Goals
Primary (leading indicator): Increase sessions by 9% and users to the Marketing site by 3.5% YoY (vs. May, June, July).
Secondary (lagging indicator): Drive engagement/free trials and pass quality sign-ups to the Growth Team or connect qualified Enterprise leads to Sales.
Working Group
DEX: @fqureshi
DEX Analyst: @dennischarukulvanich
Content: @chandlergibb
SEO: @ncregan
Lifecycle: @Aklatzkin
Paid: @jshin3
Campaigns: @aoetama
Social: @award4
DRI: @mpreuss22 & @bstallings
Phase 01: Implementation (30 days)
SEO:
Continue click loss optimizations (next top 20 pages) to regain lost traffic and measure results.
Identify new high-impact content opportunities and conduct keyword research (topics folder focus: optimizations & create net new topics pages and continue building folder traction).
Work cross-functionally with the Digital Experience team on identifying and road-mapping technical SEO fixes.
Paid:
Monitor the performance of the newly launched ad channels and optimize for better ROI.
Utilize Bizible data to optimize campaigns towards more meaningful goals (MQLs, free trials) and explore new bidding strategies.
Collaborate with Digital Experience to continue paid landing page CRO
Lifecycle Marketing:
Launch personalized email campaigns using the new email templates designed by the Digital Experience team.
Transition trial and free user emails to Iterable to be able to enable insights to optimize and drive further conversion/adoption metrics.
Work with growth to develop trial/free user nurture tests to improve free > trial > paid conversion.
Improve audiences/grow use cases for newly launched trigger-based emails
Campaigns:
Activate campaign bundles refreshed in Q1.
Develop and launch new assets as per refreshed campaign bundles content plan outlined in Q1.
Digital Experience:
Complete collaboration with Lifecycle Marketing to enhance designs of mobile and desktop email templates
Begin development of personalized experiences for Commercial (SMB or Mid-Market) and Enterprise prospects on key pages of the path to purchase journey.
Identify opportunities to improve mobile user experience and site performance and create a plan to implement the improvements.
Work with the SEO team to identify technical SEO improvements and create an action plan to address them.
Content:
Review performance of click loss optimizations from Q1 and adjust approach as needed.
Align content production with the predefined content calendar for the rest of the year, focusing on high-impact content that drives conversions.
Social:
Analyze the impact of social media boosting on Marketing site traffic and engagement and provide recommendations for boosting program
Finalize social media playbook and introduce social media strategy to marketing and sales
Relaunch Bambu, social media employee advocacy program, and increase GitLab team member shares and traffic to marketing site
Phase 02: Execution (60 days)
SEO:
Assess the results of the top 20 pages optimization and identify additional high-impact pages for optimization.
Implement on-page and off-page optimization for new high-impact content topics identified. (striking distance terms/CTR opportunities/link opp. etc.)
Paid:
Continue optimizing campaigns based on Bizible data insights and evaluate new bidding strategies.
Expand existing paid media channels through continuous testing and optimization.
Assist activation of content syndication platform with Campaigns.
Assist social promotion (organic, not paid) with the Social team.
Lifecycle Marketing:
Analyze the impact of the reusable email snippets and new personalized email campaigns.
Develop new email campaign ideas based on engagement data and target audience behaviour, focusing on nurturing high-intent prospects.
Campaigns:
Monitor the performance of the new campaigns launched in Phase 1 and optimize them based on data insights.
Develop and test new creatives for improved targeting and messaging to high-intent prospects.
Digital Experience:
Start A/B testing key pages of the path to purchase journey, emphasizing personalization for SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise segments.
Analyze A/B testing results from key pages and implement changes accordingly, focusing on optimizing the user experience and increasing conversions.
Continue developing personalized experiences for Commercial (SMB or Mid-Market) and Enterprise prospects on key pages of the path to purchase journey, incorporating feedback and learnings from A/B testing.
Implement improvements to mobile user experience and site performance.
Complete the technical SEO action plan in collaboration with the SEO team.
Content:
Publish new high-impact content based on the predefined content calendar.
Monitor content performance and adjust the content strategy to maximize conversions and engagement.
Social:
Monitor and optimize the social media calendar based on audience engagement and Marketing site traffic, focusing on promoting high-converting content.
Develop new social media strategies to increase reach, brand awareness, and engagement with high-intent prospects.
Phase 03: Monitor & Report (90 days)
SEO:
Evaluate the overall SEO strategy and make adjustments based on results from Q1 and Q2.
Develop an SEO roadmap for the next quarter, incorporating learnings from Q1 and Q2, prioritizing high-impact actions, new target content topics, and identifying new optimization opportunities based on refreshed data.
Paid:
Evaluate the overall paid digital marketing strategy and make adjustments based on results from Q1 and Q2. Begin implementing LTV and full-funnel conversion tracking metrics to inform media buying decisions.
Develop a plan for the next quarter, identifying new channels, optimization opportunities, and strategies to reach high-intent prospects using LTV and bottom-of-funnel metrics.
Upgrade successful lightning strike pilots to evergreen campaigns.
Lifecycle Marketing:
Refine email campaign ideas based on engagement data and target audience behaviour.
Develop a roadmap for email marketing strategies for the next quarter, focusing on nurturing high-intent prospects and personalization.
Campaigns:
Assess the overall performance of digital campaigns and make adjustments, focusing on targeting and messaging for high-intent prospects.
Develop a roadmap for digital campaigns for the next quarter, incorporating learnings from Q1 and Q2 and integrating campaigns across marketing channels.
Digital Experience:
Complete the development of personalized experiences for Commercial (SMB or Mid-Market) and Enterprise prospects.
Launch personalized experiences, monitor their impact on Marketing site traffic and conversions, and iterate as needed for optimization.
Assess the effectiveness of mobile user experience and site performance improvements, and make further adjustments as needed.
Review the technical SEO action plan with the SEO team and identify additional opportunities for improvement.
Content:
Evaluate the overall content strategy and make adjustments based on performance data, focusing on high-impact content for conversions and engagement.
Continue to follow the predefined content calendar, incorporating learnings from Q1 and Q2 and prioritizing high-converting content topics.
Social:
Evaluate the overall social media strategy and make adjustments based on results from Q1 and Q2.
Develop a social media calendar for the next quarter, incorporating learnings and new strategies to increase reach, brand awareness, and engagement with high-intent prospects.
Metrics
Primary KPIs - Project Objective
Sessions and Users
Target: Increase sessions by 9% and users to the Marketing site by 3.5% YoY (vs. May, June, July).
Evaluate sessions by source of traffic to optimize channel performance YoY
Evaluate brand impressions from search and social channels to monitor lifts YoY
Secondary KPIs - Business Objective
Evaluate the quality of the visit and visitor
Bounce Rate: engagement performance of the landing page.
CTA Click Rate: navigation to conversion pages (SaaS and Self-managed Trials, Self-service Checkout, and Contact Sales).
Leads CVR: top-of-funnel leads from Marketo forms and Drift email submissions.
Account Registration CVR: account registrations for the free and ultimate trial accounts
Trial CVR: Monitor SaaS and Self-managed trials
Evaluate ROI
ARR: Allow 40-days for the FY24Q2 cohort to fully mature, as a trial can take up to 30 days. Evaluate the cohort’s total ARR.
Cost: Factor in ad spend from paid campaigns