EdTech Marketing Case Study

Building a Data-Driven Funnel for an International JavaScript School

3× Lead Growth, 20% SLO Payback, 5-Day Buyer Journey

Background

An international online school teaching Frontend and Backend JavaScript developers across 50 countries.

Initially, I joined as a marketing strategy consultant to audit funnels, messaging and acquisition channels. After delivering the first strategic recommendations, I was invited to take over the marketing function as CMO and manage the team and budget directly.

Challenge

The company relied heavily on a single acquisition channel — the founder’s YouTube audience — which had naturally saturated after two years.
Marketing infrastructure lacked structured analytics, A/B testing, a messaging framework, and lifecycle marketing.

The core challenges were:

over-dependence on one channel (50% of all buyers)
unpredictable funnel performance
long buyer journey (up to 90 days)
low conversion across multiple landing pages
high CPL (up to €15 for free webinar registrations)
no attribution, no transparent KPIs
weak retention and no reactivation strategy

My Role

CMO responsible for performance, events, funnels, CRO, analytics, retention and attribution
Management of marketing budget (4–7k €/month)
Team leadership and KPI system launch

Strategy

I rebuilt the marketing engine around these core pillars:

Funnel audit & competitive research
Event strategy redesign (live → recorded + hybrid formats)
Conversion rate optimization and messaging overhaul
SLO and low-ticket monetization to accelerate payback
Retention & lifecycle marketing
Attribution and KPI implementation

Execution

1. Competitor and audience research. Mapped the market, analysed competitors’ funnels and identified high-performing messaging patterns.

2. Event strategy redesign. Replaced 90% of live webinars with high-conversion recorded sessions. Outcome:

mass reach
predictable conversion
lower CPL (€2–3 instead of €15)

Introduced selling presentations: Instead of 10 leads and 1 sale, there were 120 participants and 3 sales at once, the rest went into the nurturing flow.

3. SLO intensives (€15–20). Launched low-ticket intensives to increase cash flow and accelerate funnel payback.

4. Funnel and CRO optimization. Rebuilt landing structure and messaging.

5. Retention marketing: implemented reactivation and lifecycle flows.

6. Analytics and KPI system. Introduced transparent attribution: discovered that one core channel drives 50% of direct sales. Implemented KPIs tying individual contribution to revenue.

Results

Scaled lead generation 3× within 3 months while reducing media spend by 25%, driven by funnel diagnostics and conversion improvements across every stage of the customer journey.
Launched low-cost paid intensives (€15–20) generating immediate payback of up to 20% of all advertising spend and 15% conversion into the core product, shortening the buyer journey from 90 days to 5 days.
Delivered a full website and landing CRO overhaul: achieved 50–70% registration rates for free webinars, 12–35% conversions for paid intensives, and 3–12% conversion on core product pages.
Redesigned event strategy from low-performing broadcasts to audience-driven, problem-focused webinars with results in 10× more attendees (up to 120) and 5× lower cost per qualified lead.
Implemented lifecycle and retention marketing, activating the dormant database and generating 20–30 additional monthly purchases at zero extra cost.
Introduced a systematic marketing researches: CustDev interviews, audience research and competitor analysis; rebuilt messaging, SMM and website copy, maintaining the same lead volume with 50% lower budget.
Established transparent analytics and channel attribution, identifying high-performing acquisition paths that drove 50% of all direct sales
Implemented a KPI system for the marketing team, linking individual responsibilities to the quality of leads, funnel performance and company revenue that clearly shows how team member’s actions contributed to monthly sales and ROMI.

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