Digital Marketing KPIs

In 2020, LFN is focusing on a digital marketing strategy. These are the proposed KPIs to measure that effort. 

LFN Webinar Series (Q1/Q2)

Analysis: The LFN Webinar Program has been extremely successful in generating community awareness and engagement around key LFN initiatives as well as garnering 1,245 new contacts/leads to supplement the LFN Salesforce Database for community engagement tracking and member prospecting. A 49% attendance rate is above the industry average which speaks to the timeliness and importance of the content and strong on-demand viewing suggests that that webinars make a valuable additions to the LFN content library. As we expand into member webinars and more niche topics, and as the industry experiences some degree of webinar fatigue, we expect these numbers to come down somewhat in Q3/Q4. 

LFN Events (Q1/Q2)

Analysis: Participation in LFN Technical Events remains strong, particularly from ONAP and CNTT/OPNFV. The event in Prague was the largest technical (physical) event to date at the time (with 210 registrations) and the most productive. Switching to a a virtual format in the Spring brought with it some challenges on engagement, but allowed participation from a greater number of community members (nearly 2x the attendees). Registrations/participation grew even more for the June event as we cultivated participation from the OpenDaylight and Tungsten Fabric communities as well. Marketing events (e.g. ONES, OSN Days, etc.) have been on hold and ONES in September will provide us with an opportunity to learn from other LF virtual events and translate the physical ONES event into a virtual format. 

Web (Q1/Q2)

*Included 2H2019 for a benchmark. 

Analysis: In 2H2019, we began to evolve the LFN website from a simple high-level umbrella towards being a content-rich industry portal. We did this by reintroducing the newsroom (announcements, blog)  and enriching the content library (under the "publications" tab) for the LFN umbrella as well as the 8 LFN projects (as well as cross-posting on the project websites). The digital marketing focus in 2020 has doubled down on this strategy and significantly revved up the content engine as well adding 15 whitepapers, case studies, solutions briefs, reports, etc. In 1H2020 we see this strategy paying off as the % of traffic coming from organic search has grown from 15% in 2019 to 23% in 2020. An increased focus on the LFN social media has grown the proportion of traffic almost 3X from 2% to nearly 6%. The increased marketing/comms activities overall (SEO, content, social, campaigns, etc.) has significantly increased web traffic (2X+ Users, New Users, and Pageviews) and 4X+ increase in content downloads. 

Downloadable Content (Q1/Q2)*

*Note: This only includes downloadable content pieces from the LFN website. Does not include messaging docs, webpages, blogs, press releases, infographics, vidoes, etc. Also, does not include download numbers for content published in 2018 and 2019.

Analysis: Quality content is the engine that drives our digital marketing efforts and dedicated campaigns. Users that just saw the asset webpage were able to see a summary of the piece and its significance. Those downloading the asset were able to take deeper dive (our preferred result). The 2019 Year In Review Report has proven to be our most visible and downloaded asset and something proven to be well worth doing. The LFN community generated pieces (TAC, EUAG, CNTT whitepapers) were also popular (especially the TAC Whitepaper). These pieces are cumbersome and take long cycles to produce so this is good validation that it's worth the effort. The January tech event report was also popular so we are exploring now ways to evolve the format to cover online, virtual events. 

Email (Q1/Q2)

*Technically sent in Q3 (July 6th, numbers are early)

**Special LFN Mailer on US Political Situation in the USA

Analysis: The LFN Newsletter Has grown to over 25K mailable prospects and continues to be a valuable vehicle for communicating general news quarterly, achieving ~1,300 clicks on our key content. To fill in the gaps between newsletters, and to raise the communications frequency with members, we started sending out member mailer update emails bi-weekly starting in mid-March. These achieve an average open rate of ~30% and serve to keep members appraised of our current activities. In April, we also initiated an email nurturing campaign for those downloading industry guides in our 3 campaigns (Edge, Cloud Native, 5G). Filling in the form initiates a 4 email series over several weeks pointing to community onboarding materials and a path to LFN membership.

Social Media

Analysis: The start of 2020 brought an increased consolidation of Social Media focus on the LFN Channels (vs. the various project channels) and the need to ramp-up our social media program in support of our digital marketing focus and efforts. To help solve resourcing issues, we brought in an indepent contractor to ramp up focus, engagement, and activity on the LFN channels (Twitter & LinkedIn). A new LinkedIn group was launched in May to reach our key audiences and is growing slowly but steadily. The Twitter channel has grown considerably in 2H2020 and has become a prime driver of awareness and engagement for the LFN umbrella, its projects, special initiatives (CNTT, OVP, etc.), new content pieces, webinars, news, and more. It's our recommendation to retain the contractor and hold the course though EOY. 

Social Media Influencer (mid-April to mid-July)

Analysis: In order to help boost our social media growth, reach, engagement, and results, we hired a social media influencer with a large following strong in the networking space and recommended by several LFN members. The LinkedIn channel has only been live just over 2 months and the activity/results there have been modest. However, recent growth in followers and visitors can likely be partly attributed to this activity. The results on Twitter have been pretty good in terms of driving engagements (RTs, Likes, Shares, Comments) and clicks to our top news, content, programs, etc. While we feel this project was moderately successful, we will not renew the influencer's contact, and instead focus more on organic, community-driven results and activity in Q3/Q4.

PR / AR / Comms

Analysis: As LFN projects mature, the narrative is moving from the "shiny new object effect" common at the start many open source projects to proving market impact. That said, a general decline in press clips is expected; however, the quality of mentions is moving towards messages of thought leadership (note: implications of covid has slowed thought-leading momentum).  However, a continued, steady cadence of news has upheld our general drumbeat momentum with more deployments, new releases, and evolution of innovative initiatives such a CNTT and OVP. We expect momentum to continue through H2 with an uptick in thought leadership. 

Community Growth / Membership Outreach

*Launching in July

*Launching in July

Analysis: