In Marketing We Trust increases Globus’ conversion rate 148% with Sitecore migration

Detailed audits and subsequent improvements to enhance onsite and SEO performance were undertaken in advance of migration on staging sites

In Marketing We Trust also overhauled and unified the approach to analytics across Globus’ large portfolio of sites

With approximately 30% of traffic to the websites of Globus family of brands coming from organic search, the risk to visibility as a result of an aggressive migration plan was a significant consideration.

To mitigate this risk, In Marketing We Trust created a Sitecore migration success plan, which included rolling out one brand at a time with a rollback option based on priorities and testing the site with live traffic. We also focused our efforts on SEO to reduce the risk of a drop in organic visibility. 

We greenlighted stages throughout the migration journey and held daily standup meetings with the Globus marketing teams and their developers to mitigate any risk. 

A comprehensive audit of the Globus sites was carried out before migration planning would begin, which produced a list of errors and elements to fix to maximise SEO authority.

We also audited the Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager set-ups of all the Globus family of brands websites and developed a relevant measurement and implementation plan for the sites post-migration. 

Staging sites were put in place to prepare for the migration and the auditing and implementation processes were run through repeatedly in staging to make sure the sites were 100% ready for the move.

In Marketing We Trust planned redirects to ensure transferring of authority with URL and image mapping. We also identified all key pages and the existing footprint before the migration. It was important to set benchmarks with KPIs and metrics pre-migration in order to provide insight on performance post-migration. 

How we got there

The comprehensive preparations carried out helped make the transition smooth for each respective website when the migration day came.

The Sitecore Google Analytics migration was just as important to the overall success as the SEO related tasks. Prior to migration each of the 52 sites had a different tracking setup, so we rectified this situation to put a uniform solution in place. 

We interviewed key Globus stakeholders to determine their analytics goals and pain points as well as their vision for future marketing needs. We determined their requirements for reporting, in order to design the perfect set-up and architecture.

A tailored solution design and implementation plan 

In Marketing We Trust then developed a solution design and implementation plan based on business input, technical input, client resources and best practices. We built a measurement plan to apply across the 52 sites, translating Globus’ top-line business objectives into goals, KPIs, targets and segments. 

We had observed that users wander across various Globus brand websites while searching for tours, so we unified the tracking solution accordingly. To reduce the complexity of the analytics account by 75% we merged the four brands into a single property across each country.

It was agreed to use one Google Tag Manager container for 52 sites, creating one unique set of tags to collect data. 13 analytics properties were created with four brands merged across 13 countries and the same set of Google Analytics tags, triggers and variables were used to collect, transform and send data to the 13 properties.

Uniform approach to analytics simplifies decision making

Since the deployment of the new tracking through Google Tag Manager and the unified analytics configuration, reporting and performance comparisons can be done at a brand or country level. Globus therefore now has a single customer view and can make accurate data-driven decisions.

Also, by implementing hreflang across all 52 websites we were able to indicate to Google that all Globus family of brands websites should coexist on search results. Google is now able to serve the correct website to users based on their location and the sales teams are able to correctly measure their KPIs. 

In Marketing We Trust also provided post-migration training on how to complete health checks, training on Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Google Ads and training on “Advanced Analytics for Travel Marketers”.