• Analytics
  • International SEO
  • Migration
  • SEO
  • Tag Manager

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

About the client

Globus family of brands is a global group of coach tour, river cruise and independent travel package companies which operate worldwide. With four brands in 13 countries and 52 websites, Globus chose In Marketing We Trust to provide support during, pre and post Sitecore migration. The goal was to create a better user experience for both consumers and travel agents, growing both B2B and B2C sales and to improve brand positioning in the market.

Challenge

A year of planning was required in order to fully support Globus before, during and after the Sitecore migration of 52 websites

The ultimate goal was to create a better user experience for both consumer and travel agents to grow sales

Globus family of brands manage four brands in 13 countries with a unique domain for each brand in each country. So with a total of 52 websites to migrate the project was a huge undertaking. A year ahead of the move In Marketing We Trust began planning to provide support during, pre and post Sitecore migration.

With In Marketing We Trust providing insight on the improvements to be made, the decision to migrate to Sitecore was straight forward, with clear issues to be resolved on non-converting websites that were not customer focused. The old websites lacked functionality with a blanket approach to marketing communications due to dirty customer data.

Mitigating risk due to site structure complexity was crucial

The initial migration plan put forward to In Marketing We Trust was challenging due to the volume of sites and the risk to organic visibility. In addition to that risk, Globus had very little trust in their analytics data as all 52 websites had a different analytics setup. Due to the complexity of the portfolio and a previous lack of maintenance, faith in the analytics data had been lost. Also, 10% of Globus family of brands pages were 404s so this needed to be rectified. 

Without fixing these issues before migrating to Sitecore, there would be no way to correctly measure the impact of the migration. Overall our objectives were clear. In Marketing We Trust would maintain the pre-migration footprint and rankings, transfer all the authority from legacy websites to the new websites, facilitate smooth indexing of the new websites and maintain KPIs and metrics measurements.

Solution

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”.

Results

Since migrating to Sitecore, Globus now has a significantly enhanced platform in place and has achieved a more human-centric digital presence, which has made a big difference to their brand placement and revenue. The Sitecore migration has meant a reduction of manual processes and cost savings through efficiencies. They have also communicated a new energy internally and with a single customer view they are able to make accurate data-driven decisions. The results have been massive. 

148%

increase in conversion rate for Globus

178%

increase in booking enquiries

529%

increase in calls from website

92%

increase in traffic

273%

increase in goal completions

95%

increase in conversion rate

Globus

50%

increase in traffic

244%

increase in goal completions

148%

increase in conversion rate

63%

increase in traffic

89%

increase in goal completions

30%

increase in conversion rate

Taking Cosmos Australia as a specific example, our work has produced big improvements in terms of SEO-related site performance. 404 page errors have been reduced by over 13%, sitemap relevancy has increased to 100% and page speed has doubled, with average load time down from four seconds to under two seconds. Domain authority has been increased and the spam score has been reduced to zero.

With the same budget for SEO, PPC and Display pre and post migration, we were able to increase Globus family of brands visibility dramatically which resulted in an 85% increase in conversions from SEO. There has also been a 144% increase in conversions from PPC and a 721% increase in conversions from Display traffic, with improved analytics data enabling this uplift.

Testimonials