Marketing Case Studies

Between mid-August and now, we killed/merged 847 blog posts. 23% of all our content. And considering our average cost per post ($ 308.67)...$261,443 worth of content. And the pages we decided to "kill" drove 24,193 (twenty four thousand!) visitors in 2024 (8 months) alone! Was it a scary decision to make? Hell yeah. But the first results are in - and - ladies and gents, it was worth it. Our traffic went up by 16% and we're on our way to hit our highest-ever visitors' count by December. To be perfectly honest - it was a calculated risk. Before pulling the trigger, I've read dozens of case studies of websites that saw a big traffic lift from pruning their low-performing pages - and reducing the number of indexed pages in total. Reading all these case studies led me to believe that even if traffic per number of indexed pages is not explicitly a direct ranking factor in Google's algorithm - it can be an indirect indicator of a website's health and content effectiveness, which may influence rankings. How did we decide what to prune? First of all, we had to decide what we meant by "underperforming": ⚫ Content that was not driving any conversions - we had 1 conversion in a year from these 847 posts... ⚫ Content that was driving hardly any traffic - 665 out of these 847 posts drove less that 10 visits per month in the last 8 months. ⚫ Content that had no Backlinks and was optimized for Zero-Search KWs or KWs with Low Search Value (SV) - Many posts had no significant backlinks or organic search volume - some were produced programmatically as part of our "Zero Search Volume experiment" in 2022-23 - but what worked back then, didn't seem to be working anymore... ⚫ Duplication and Redundancy - despite our efforts to avoid duplicate content, the SERP has changed over the years and some search intents which were considered separate at the time of writing, now were changed or merged. So we did have some duplicate or overlapping content on similar topics that now had to be merged or removed to reduce cannibalization. ⚫ Outdated or Irrelevant Content - Obviously, over the years some posts became outdated (e.g., event-driven content from 2020) or no longer relevant to the target audience or our current upmarket growth strategy (e.g. posts intended for small startups on a budget) What we pruned - top categories: ⚫ programmatically produced posts with programmatically generated keyword combinations (e.g. three-way competitor comparisons that didn't make a lot of sense) that had zero search volume and traffic: e.g.  /blog/walkme-vs-apty-vs-userpilot/ These posts were very cheap or even free to produce in the first place - so we didn't loose a lot of content budget in particular creating them. ⚫ translations into languages where there were no search queries in that language: /blog/fi/appcues-vaihtoehtoja/ (Finnish) /blog/sr/усер-онбоардинг-гамифицатион/ (Serbian) Read the full analysis with a STEP-BY-STEP instruction on how to do content pruning 👇

The Power of "Swiftonomics" Recently, I attended a Taylor Swift concert in London with my daughter, earning some brownie points. I couldn’t help but see her journey as a masterclass in entrepreneurship. Here's why: 1. Early Start and Continuous Reinvention: Swift began songwriting at just 10 years old and has never stopped. This early start and her fearless shift from country to pop show the importance of continuous reinvention in business. Entrepreneurs must be willing to evolve and adapt to stay relevant and successful. 2. Regaining Control: Taylor’s decision to re-record her earlier albums as "Taylor's Versions" was a brilliant move. It gave her creative control and sparked discussions about artist ownership and fair compensation. Similarly, entrepreneurs should strive to maintain control over their work and make strategic decisions that safeguard their interests and promote fairness. 3. Economic Impact: The term "Swiftonomics" highlights the economic power she wields. Singapore’s exclusive deal for her Eras Tour is a perfect example. This mirrors how successful entrepreneurs can create significant economic impact and influence markets. Strategic moves can open new opportunities and drive substantial growth. 4. Dedication Beyond Performance: Her work ethic is unmatched. From meticulous analysis of past performances to her pre-show rituals, Swift's dedication and creative talent are key to her success. Entrepreneurs need the same level of dedication and attention to detail to achieve and sustain success. Consistent effort and refinement are crucial. 5. Disrupting the Industry: By releasing music independently, she challenged the traditional music industry, cutting out middlemen and retaining more control over her work. Entrepreneurs often need to disrupt established norms and innovate to create value and gain a competitive edge. Challenging the status quo can lead to significant breakthroughs. Her journey shows that success in any field requires a blend of talent, adaptability, and relentless dedication. What lessons can you apply from her story to your own entrepreneurial journey? #business #passion #growth #economy #Swifties

The ultimate power move in music isn't a chart-topping hit—it's re-recording your entire catalog. When Taylor Swift's masters were sold against her wishes, she didn't just complain—she headed back to the studio. "When something says (Taylor's Version)," she explained, "that means I own it." Four albums in, her strategy has paid off spectacularly. Music copyright is multi-layered: composition rights (melody/lyrics), master recording rights (the actual audio), and performance rights (for public playback). Artists often control some but not all—which is why re-recording creates new masters they can fully own. Crucially, Swift retained her publishing rights for her early albums, making the re-recording strategy feasible in the first place. Swift isn't the first to play this card. JoJo re-recorded her early albums after a label dispute left them unavailable on streaming services. Def Leppard created "forgeries" of their hits to gain leverage in digital royalty negotiations. Frank Sinatra founded his own record label and re-recorded his classics for creative freedom. The financial impact is staggering—Swift's re-recordings consistently outperform the originals. Red (Taylor's Version) broke Spotify's record for most-streamed album in a day by a female artist, effectively devaluing the original masters. This strategy has contributed significantly to Swift becoming a billionaire in 2023—largely through music revenue, a rare achievement in the industry. Meanwhile, music catalogs have become hot investment properties, with over $5 billion spent on acquisitions in 2021 alone. Investors view music rights as stable assets that generate reliable returns. The industry has noticed. Labels are now extending re-recording restriction periods from 5-7 years to 10-30 years in new contracts. Musicians should consider strategic pushback: leveraging existing fanbase data in negotiations, pushing for shorter contract terms, and seeking reversion clauses that return masters after a certain period. If full ownership isn't possible, joint ownership structures with labels offer an alternative—even partial control provides a seat at the table for future decisions. As Brendan Brown of Wheatus, who re-recorded "Teenage Dirtbag," bluntly advised: "Never give away your publishing or your masters... there's no excuse not to hoard your s*** and keep it under your bed." If you could see any artist reclaim their back catalog through re-recordings, who would it be and which album deserves the "(Artist's Version)" treatment first? #IPidity #copyright #WorldIPday #MastersOfTheirDomain P.S. Interested in how IP supports investment in the music industry? Tune in to WIPO's IP Finance Dialogue on May 13. We'll be discussing ongoing research we're conducting on this topic. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eD9cXSak

Thinking back to when Jaguar had a 97% sales crash. One of the most spectacular brand collapses I've ever watched in real time. Some good business lessons here: • The Complacency Trap For decades, Jaguar was synonymous with British elegance. Enzo Ferrari supposedly called the E-Type "the most beautiful car ever made." Their founder's motto was "copy nothing." But heritage became a cage. By the 1970s and 80s, Jaguar was selling old-fashioned cars to old customers. Young buyers? They went elsewhere. First lesson: Even legendary brands die if they stop evolving. Being badass for 20 years doesn't give you a free pass for the next 20. • The Execution Disaster When Ford bought Jaguar in 1989, they tried to copy BMW's playbook — go downmarket with a cheaper sports sedan to capture volume. They totally screwed it up. The X-Type was basically a rebadged Ford Mondeo wearing a Jaguar badge. Traditional buyers hated it. The younger buyers they were targeting? Not impressed either. Lesson two: Copying a competitor's strategy without understanding WHY it worked is a recipe for disaster. They alienated their loyal customers and attracted zero new ones. • The Brief Comeback Fast forward to Tata Motors buying Jaguar in 2008 for just $2.3 billion (half what Ford had spent). They caught the luxury SUV wave at the perfect time. The F-Pace, E-Pace, and electric I-Pace were hits. US sales more than doubled from 2015 to 2017. Global sales hit 180,000 in 2018 — an all-time high. But beneath the surface, Jaguar was losing money on every car. Land Rover's profits were subsidizing the whole operation. Lesson three: Don't let parts of your business quietly become money losers. The best operators jump in and fix it or cut it. Jaguar just let it rot. • The Rebrand Catastrophe By 2020, Jaguar made a radical bet: shut down ALL production, go completely electric, and rebrand as an ultra-luxury player. Then in November 2024, they launched their rebrand campaign. No cars. Just androgynous models in wild outfits on Mars-like settings with taglines like "live vivid." They killed the iconic leaping cat logo for a minimalist wordmark. Even Elon Musk roasted them, asking "do you sell cars?" The timing was brutal. They designed this campaign during peak 2020-2022 when over-the-top fake stuff was everywhere. But by late 2024? People were tired of that. We wanted authenticity. And Jaguar delivered the opposite. • The Final Lesson You have to read the room. Don't tell the world something when they want to hear something else. As a potential customer, I'd love to buy a Jaguar built with care and soul. Instead, they're pitching a $200,000 electric GT wrapped in the most manicured, fake, over-the-top campaign imaginable. Their first new car launches late 2025. They're starting from scratch with burned dealers and confused customers. I'm not sure they can pull it off. What do you think, can Jaguar survive this rebrand? Michael

How are you thinking about the balance between reach and cultural relevance in creator strategy? A$AP Rocky is a useful example of how influence evolved from audience capture into brand-building power. What he understood early was that the value was never just in the music. It was in the wider cultural ecosystem built around it. Music created attention. Style created distinction. Creative direction created brand equity. Partnerships turned cultural relevance into commercial value. That is now the playbook across the creator economy. The most valuable creators are not simply media channels. They are brand assets in their own right. They do not just offer reach. They offer a worldview, an aesthetic, and a level of cultural credibility that brands cannot manufacture on their own. That is why influencer marketing has matured. The old model prioritised impressions and distribution. The stronger model is about alignment, identity, and cultural fit. The key question is no longer who has the biggest audience? It is who has built a world people want to belong to? That is why Rocky matters as a case study. He showed early that influence can be extended into partnerships, product, IP, and long-term leverage far beyond the original art form. A lot of the industry still over-indexes on visibility. The bigger opportunity is understanding who can move culture; and how that can translate into lasting brand value.

Up to 60% of rebrands fail. The usual cause? Chasing a new look without a real plan. I’ve studied over 200+ rebrand case studies. The winners share four traits. The failures? They almost always prioritized aesthetics over strategy. 1. Strategy before beauty Three out of four consumers remember brands by their logo. That’s why most failed rebrands start there and end there. The successful ones invest months building a strategic foundation before touching design. 2. Voice that connects Brand voice isn’t just copy. It’s your personality across every channel. Nike doesn’t just sell shoes. Their voice is empowering, motivational, slightly rebellious, and it’s consistent everywhere. Harry’s and Dollar Shave Club both sell razors. Harry’s uses refined sophistication for premium buyers. Dollar Shave Club leans into irreverent humor for cost-conscious millennials. Same product category, opposite voices. Voice comes from knowing your audience, not guessing. 3. Visual identity with purpose Visuals work only after strategy and voice are clear. Tropicana learned this in 2009. They replaced recognizable packaging with a clean, minimal design. Customers didn’t recognize it. Sales fell 20% in six weeks. Royal Mail made the same mistake in 2001. They ditched 500 years of equity for a meaningless name: Consignia. The public mocked it. Within 15 months, they reverted, wasting millions. Visual identity should strengthen your strategy, not erase your history. 4. Live the change internally first If your team doesn’t believe in the rebrand, it will never take flight. Every employee must understand and live the new direction before the public sees it. McKinsey found that change programs with strong employee buy-in are 30% more likely to succeed. Internal alignment before external launch, always. Ignore this, and you won’t just waste money. You’ll destroy trust. LESSON: A rebrand isn’t about looking different. Kia proved it in 2021. They didn’t just tweak a logo. They redefined their purpose: “Movement that Inspires” and backed it with product innovation. Revenue jumped 18% to a record $60 billion. Kia invested in transformation, not cosmetics, and hit historic growth. In an example of what not to do, Gap launched a new logo on October 6, 2010. By October 12 - just 6 days later - they reversed it. Cost: $100 million down the drain. A new look only works if it’s built on a strong foundation. When you’re clear on why your brand exists and what it stands for, the visuals have power. They signal meaning people can feel. Get the meaning right, and the look will matter. Motto®

I attended Chris Brown's concert last night and it was a masterclass in showmanship, customer experience and a lesson in how to run a world-class operation. Chris didn’t just entertain us; he respected us. He didn’t treat African fans as “other” or less-than. He treated us as valued clients. The kind of respect that’s rare in the entertainment industry—and one we won’t forget. If you run a business, this is what you can learn from Chris Brown: 1. Seamless Execution = Trust From traffic management to security, everything ran smoothly. Zero chaos. A crowd this size could’ve been a logistical nightmare. And when the show started at 7PM sharp, the message was clear: Your time matters. Lesson: Consistency builds trust. If you say you’ll do something, do it—every time. When customers know they can count on you, they’ll come back again & again. Keep your word, and you’ll earn respect. 2. Deliver Value That’s Unmatched Chris wasn’t just singing; he was flying through the air, and dancing like his life depended on it—all while singing LIVE. The energy? 1,000%. The production? Flawless. He made it clear: You didn’t just buy a ticket. You invested in an experience. Lesson: When you deliver massive value, you’re uncancellable. People care about the value you bring to them. Keep your focus on the customers who buy from you and trust you, not the critics who don’t. 3. Customer Experience is the Real Game-Changer 90,000+ people. Zero chaos. Smooth traffic, secure parking, and stress-free entry. Every detail was handled with precision. Lesson: Your product isn’t just what you sell; it’s how you make people feel. Invest in the full experience—before, during, and after the sale. When customers feel cared for, they’ll remember it. 4. Authenticity Wins Every Time Chris didn’t phone it in. He connected. From bringing in South African cultural touches to giving 110% on that stage, you could feel his respect for the crowd. Lesson: Know your audience and connect with them authentically. People don’t buy from businesses—they buy from people who understand them. 5. Nostalgia is a Superpower When Chris performed hits from 2005, 2007, 2011, and 2012, the stadium went wild. Every beat was a trip down memory lane, reminding us why we’ve stayed loyal for nearly two decades. Lesson: Nostalgia builds emotional bonds. Tap into shared memories to create loyalty that lasts. 6. Cancel the Noise—Focus on the People Who Matter Despite the noise around him, Chris focused on the fans who filled that stadium. Lesson: Your critics aren’t your customers. Stop chasing approval from people who aren’t invested in your success. Focus on delivering excellence to the people who are. Chris Brown didn’t just perform last night. He created a case study in what happens when talent meets respect, execution, and connection. Stats back it up: 20+ years in the game, 40 million albums sold, 100+ awards. But the real flex? Making every fan—from the front row to the nosebleeds—feel seen.

Google’s core update wiped out 44% of our keywords. Here’s why we’re not panicking... Algorithm updates are the known unknowns of SEO. You know they’re coming. You know they’ll shake things up. But you never quite know how—or whether your site took a hit because of something you did, or just collateral damage as search results evolve. The December update? It took out 44% of our clients' informational keywords across certain page groups. What did we do? We didn’t panic. We audited. By categorising every page type in our reporting dashboard, we instantly pinpointed where losses clustered—and whether they aligned with (or wildly deviated from) our YoY projections. From there, we sliced and diced every lost keyword to identify patterns: Here’s what stood out: 1️⃣ Many lost keywords were low-value searches we shouldn’t have been ranking for anyway—think tangential topics (or even spam) that diluted our core focus. The update did us a favour. 2️⃣ In 2024, we saw category pages and product pages ranking side-by-side for the same queries—Google had been gradually reducing these duplicates, but the December update slammed the door shut. Here's the thing: - Outside of the lost keywords, 70%+ of keywords had seen improvements. - Leads were stronger than the same period last year. This isn’t a "win" story. It’s a reminder that data cuts through noise. When traffic drops, ask: - What’s actually being lost? - Does it align with business goals? - Where do we rebuild—or let go? Not all traffic is good traffic. Not all losses are failures. And sometimes, algorithms force you to focus on what actually moves the needle. When’s the last time you audited your traffic losses—not just to fix them, but to ask if they were worth keeping in the first place?

Rebranding Lessons From The NFL. The anticipation for the NFL season is building. It had me thinking about the journey the NFL has made the last decade. The NFL restructured its identity through infrastructure, not optics; building a brand designed for scale, loyalty, and cultural relevance. Safety became a system for talent development. Youth reforms and Olympic flag football established new pathways for participation and international expansion. Female engagement created alignment at the household level. Mothers moved from observers to advocates. Taylor Swift accelerated momentum, but the segmentation strategy was already activating multi-generational value. Youth flag football emerged as a global growth engine. With deep investment, the sport now reaches beyond traditional boundaries geographically and generationally. This is long-view brand construction. Not just entertainment. Not isolated campaigns. Architecture built to expand, replicate, and endure. Brands looking for longevity should study this closely: Strong positioning starts with internal structure, not external reaction. Growth happens when every initiative feeds the system. The result? Category leadership that compounds.

We audited an accounting software site with 3,000+ pages doing 10K monthly traffic. Deleted 2,000 pages. 13 months later: 340K monthly traffic. They were competing against themselves for "invoice template" and losing. We forced Google to pick winners. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 The site had 20+ variations of "invoice template" pages, 15+ "how to make an invoice" articles, 40+ duplicate templates with minor differences, and 200+ thin pages targeting industry-specific invoices. Google was paralyzed. 10K traffic across 3,000 pages = 3 visits per page average. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗯𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺 They had separate pages for: - Invoice template - Free invoice template - Simple invoice template - Professional invoice template - Business invoice template - Invoice template Word - Invoice template Excel Plus 193 more variations. All ranking position 25-60. Zero on page 1. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 Export all URLs with traffic data. Group by search intent. Keep the strongest page per group. 301 redirect others to the winner. Merge unique content from deleted pages. 2,000 redirects later, the transformation began. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 Month 1-2: 10K traffic (Google processing) Month 3: 18K (first movement) Month 4: 35K (rankings improving) Month 6: 74K (hitting page 1) Month 9: 180K (featured snippets) Month 13: 340K (complete dominance) Same domain. Same backlinks. 34x traffic growth. 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀 "Invoice template" - consolidated 47 pages into 1 mega-guide Result: Position 48 → Position 2 Traffic: 500/month → 65K/month "How to make an invoice" - merged 23 pages into 1 comprehensive resource Result: Position 31 → Position 3 Traffic: 100/month → 28K/month 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁 When you consolidate: - Link equity concentrates - User signals improve - Dwell time increases - Google trusts your domain more - Other keywords start ranking organically Unexpected keywords that exploded without targeting: "billing software" (22K searches), "invoicing for small business" (8K), "quotation template" (15K), "receipt template" (31K). Google recognized the site as THE invoice authority and rewarded related keywords. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗪𝗲 𝗞𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝘃𝘀 𝗞𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗱 Kept: High-traffic performers (top 10%), comprehensive guides, interactive tools, unique angles Killed: Everything under 50 visits/month, duplicate intent pages, thin location/industry variations, outdated yearly content 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝘁'𝘀 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆 Initial reaction: "You want to delete 67% of our content? We paid $50K for those pages!" 13 months later: "Can you audit our other sites?" Results silence objections. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗻𝘁 Audit ruthlessly. One page per search intent maximum. Merge variations into comprehensive resources. Redirect aggressively. Build topical hubs, not page sprawl. Wait (this takes months). Scale exponentially. 34x traffic growth is possible. You just have to be brave enough to delete.