Global Transportation Firm Modernizes With HubSpot Web & Marketing Strategy
National Express hired Instrumental Group to lead them through a multi-phase, multi-organization replatforming strategy.
OVERVIEW National Express brings multiple business units into HubSpot.
National Express had navigated a host of acquisitions in recent years, ahead of being acquired by Mobico Group.
Instrumental Group was hired to lead a strategic, multi-phase re-platforming project to help them bring a host of brands into a centralized HubSpot environment where the organization could house its websites and marketing efforts.
Ecolane, Durham, Peterman, National Express Transit, and National Express Corporate would all be migrated into HubSpot over a two-year timeline that prioritized standardization and streamlined website management and marketing automation.
CHALLENGE Bringing multiples teams and technologies together.
National Express is a global transportation organization with thousands of employees in a host of different countries. Through growth and acquisition, they had stiched together a sizeable brand portfolio but each acquisition came with different technology stacks and nuanced histories.
- Five different websites, all requiring migration from WordPress and a brand facelift to align with the parent organization
- Scattered and inadequate marketing assets, contacts, and software solutions rendering the marketing teams helpless
SOLUTION Website migration and a Pillar SEO strategy
Website Migration Strategy - From WordPress to HubSpot
Each of the five websites were currently in WordPress. That was the good news. Instrumental Group put together a multi-site migration strategy, with the goal of rebuilding each site inside HubSpot's CMS.
Phase 1: National Express Transit
Phase 2: Ecolane & National Express Corporate
Phase 3: Durham & Peterman
Marketing Automation, SEO, and Content Cluster Strategy
While each site was being migrated, our SEM team developed each brand's search strategy. To address the lack of content and fuel further marketing efforts, we suggested a pillar and content cluster strategy.
The strategy identified three critical topics that would be the center of Instrumental Group's content and SEO strategy. Our SEM team then optimized each website to meet the strategy and set up the content team with a list of titles to support the cluster strategy.
Ongoing Optimization & Content Creation
With the websites now successfully hosted and managed in HubSpot's CMS, attention turned to developing content to feed the strategy and drive website relevance and traffic. The team worked month by month, year over year, creating fresh content and optimizing each piece according to the pillar strategy.
RESULTS Impressive website performance for all five brands.
As the pieces came together and Google began indexing the fresh content, results began to build. Over the 1.5-year period, the results of the pillar and content cluster strategy were undeniable: consistent traffic growth with increased conversions for each of the National Express brands.
- Organic website traffic grew by 248% across all 5 brands
- Peterman's website traffic grew by 116%
- National Express traffic grew by 179%
- Ecolane's website website traffic grew by 214%
- National Express Transit's website traffic grew by 277%
- Durham Transportation's website traffic grew by 388%
PERFORMANCE RESULTS IN ACQUISITION Aligned technology and KPI growth lead to acquisition.
Instrumental Group proudly serviced the National Express umbrella of brands for over six years. With dozens of projects, thousands of assets, and a ton of team work some amazing marketing and business minds at the National Express organization.
While Instrumental was sad to see National Express get acquired by the Mobico Group and shift priorities, we stand proud of our work as the results of our efforts contributed to significant shareholder value and eventual liquidity.