DRIVING A 249% INCREASE IN UKBF’S SITE TRAFFIC WITH BLOG CONTENT AND EMAIL MARKETING

 

Brief

UK Business Forums wanted to increase site traffic and drive membership sign-ups.

Client

UKBF

Services provided

Content strategy

Content marketing

Email marketing

 
 
A screenshot of the home page of UK Business Forums

Content and email were used to drive new membership sign-ups

 
 

THE CHALLENGE

UK Business Forums (UKBF) is a thriving community of small business owners, with thousands of members posting every day. However, while its forums were buzzing, email engagement was low, and the blog content struggled to attract readers.

UKBF’s team wanted to improve these channels so they could reinforce the site’s position as an authority on small businesses and increase the number of business owners signing up as paid members.

“Having recently acquired UKBF, we wanted to tap into Inkwell’s knowledge of marketing to business owners. We’re happy to say the impact has been immediate, with a dramatic increase in email performance and an uptick in the number of people reading our guides.”

— Rebecca Hill, CCO of Business Data Group, which owns UKBF

A screenshot of a UKBF email newsletter that shows the number of new members and discussions

Email newsletters showcased popular discussions and members to increase engagement

 
 

​THE PROCESS

We made changes and ran a series of experiments to increase email conversion:

  • Updating the layout to make it more visually appealing and scannable

  • Experimenting with subject lines to increase open rates

  • Featuring audience-led content ideas

  • Introducing a Top Threads section to reward the community

  • Making the tone of voice more conversational and fun

We also added onboarding journeys and ran a reengagement campaign to improve the health of the list.

A number of steps were taken to increase blog readership and encourage visitors to become members:

  • Introducing long-form articles to increase traffic from search engines

  • Featuring member interviews and comments in articles

  • Using forum discussions to generate content ideas

Writing guides based on popular forum topics led to a dramatic increase in page views

 

​THE RESULTS

Newsletter clicks to the website grew by 102% in the first six months of the retainer, beating the client’s targets. Page views on the Guides section of the site increased by 249% over the same time period,

Dwell times on several of the most popular long-form guides exceed five minutes, demonstrating the value in content we created.

“Inkwell have worked hard to support and advise us on our wider marketing and commercial strategy. It’s been great fun to work with the team and we’re proud to have made such an impact in just six months!”

— Rebecca Hill, CCO of Business Data Group, which owns UKBF

 

 Work with inkwell

Want to reach small business owners with your next project? Get in touch with the Inkwell team today.