May 2026 Marketing Performance
Monthly review covering leads, web traffic, paid media, email, and marketing program status for May 2026.
Today's Meeting
Agenda
For Today's Meeting
Discussion Items
Campaign 2 content ideation
Campaign 1 is fully in market — time to schedule a dedicated session with Corey to scope Campaign 2 topics and direction. Confirm timing today and flag any themes Ellie wants to prioritize.
Persona focus: Campaign 1 targeted State Executive Digital Leaders almost exclusively. Does Campaign 2 deepen there, or expand to Agency/Department Digital Leads or Large Municipality leaders?
ABM email initiative: 5 state campaigns flagged as Q2 priority. The intel Jenna brings back from Texas — which agencies are engaging, what questions they're asking, what's resonating — should directly feed the Campaign 2 content ideation. Should we schedule a combined session for when she's back?
Peer video / videocast
We discussed peer video and a potential videocast revival at the last meeting. Jenna mentioned reaching out to Jasmine at Georgia as an accessible starting point — wanted to check in on where things stand.
Video Q3 kick-off: Q3 start confirmed. Jenna is primary on-camera talent; Seth/leadership second wave. Low-fi production (webcam + Zoom, batched). Open: topic list per format, batch recording window, and who coordinates scheduling on Lullabot's side.
Auto-response: align before nurture activates
Jenna is already sending a personal plain-text auto-response to Playbook downloaders (copy written by Ellie, CTA to the maturity assessment). Corey has recommended routing it through Act-On for lead tracking and domain reputation — but the current version isn't running through Act-On, and LB-010 nurture activates June 4. Jenna is open to the switch but wants it to remain a simple, personal-looking email from her rather than a branded send. Both are waiting on Ellie's input. Ready to decide today.
Zoho Marketing Plus: The auto-response is the last known dependency. Once resolved, is the team ready to cancel Zoho entirely — or are there other workflows we haven't surfaced?
The Weekly Drop: It sent 128 referral sessions in May — the second highest referral source. Would love to hear more about it and whether there are other internal channels or initiatives like this that we should have on our radar.
Program Update
Marketing Status & Priorities
✓ Completed Since Last Meeting
- —LB-009 "Digital Governance: Architecture vs. Enforcement" published May 19
- —LB-005 Digital Modernization Playbook live at lullabot.com May 23
- —LB-011 Playbook Document Ad launched on LinkedIn May 20
- —LB-010 nurture emails built, activation scheduled June 4
- —LB-005 Zapier + auto-response email setup complete
- —Campaign 1 content pipeline fully complete — all core assets live
⏳ Awaiting Client Action
- —June Newsletter (LB-NL626) — test resent June 1 with one copy fix applied, awaiting final approval to send
🔧 In Development — Newfangled
- —June Newsletter (LB-NL626) — test resent June 1 with copy fix, awaiting final approval to send
- —LB-010 nurture sequence — final technical review before June 4 activation
- —3 companion article concepts from Playbook — outlined here, not yet assigned
- —LinkedIn awareness campaign assessment — PDF download test in progress
Alignment
Goals & KPI Alignment
TOTAL LEADS
400–800 / year
MQLs — good to track
est. 20–80 / qtr · 20–40%+ signals healthy quality
100–200
per quarter
SALES QUALIFIED LEADS
20–40 / year
5–10
per quarter
OPPORTUNITIES
16–24 / year
4–8
per quarter
DEALS WON
4–8 / year
1–2
per quarter
These are estimates based on industry benchmarks — we'll revisit and refine as lead data accumulates and conversion rates become clearer.
OPEN FOR DISCUSSION
Marketing attribution
How do we define a marketing-influenced deal — and what share of wins should marketing own vs. a collaborative goal?
SQL definition
The 5–10 / qtr target depends on how strictly we define qualification — once aligned, we can fine-tune everything above it.
Tracking opportunities
No CRM connected yet. Bring any active deals or prospects today and we can cross-reference against Insight Engine to validate marketing touchpoints.
Insight Engine
Lead Review & Highlights
| Month | New Leads | Active MQLs | Active SQLs |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | — | — | — |
| February | — | — | — |
| March | 18 | 7 | 3 |
| April | 38 | 19 | 5 |
| May MTD | 42 | 21 | 3 |
LEAD PROGRESS
42 new leads through May 29 — up from 38 in April and 18 in March. The ramp reflects the full Campaign 1 content stack now live and indexed.
TRAFFIC & CHANNELS
Act-On email continues to be the dominant lead source. Direct and organic remain the top traffic channels. We expect paid media influence to grow — the Playbook Document Ad launched May 20 and LB-010 nurture activates June 4. Notable: ChatGPT sent 51 sessions — the first meaningful AI referral signal worth tracking month-over-month.
Recent Featured Leads
Darran Anderson
Director of Strategy & Innovation · Texas Dept. of Transportation
View in Insight Engine ↗Pages
1
Conversions
0
Source
Act-On
Texas DOT is a prime ICP target — Lullabot is a Texas DIR–approved vendor. A Director of Strategy at a major state DOT is precisely the procurement decision influencer the "governance without authority" messaging was written for.
Pages
1
Conversions
1
Source
Converted via LinkedIn on first visit — validating paid social spend. State judiciary is a high-governance, multi-site environment in Lullabot's ICP. First-visit conversion is a strong signal worth a nurture follow-up.
Pages
1
Conversions
0
Source
Act-On
State of NC is direct ICP. A Lead UX & Accessibility Developer is the practitioner persona the accessibility content is built to reach. Second NC contact in the May pipeline alongside elena.talanker@nc.gov.
Yaoxin Chen
Web Developer & Associate Application Programmer · NY State Unified Court System
View in Insight Engine ↗Pages
1
Conversions
0
Source
Act-On
NY State court system — another state judiciary contact alongside Stacy Westra. Technical implementer profile which the video content strategy is designed to reach. Two court system contacts in one month is worth noting.
ALSO NOTABLE
21 active MQLs · 3 active SQLs MTD
Paid Media
What the data is telling us
LINKEDIN — FORMAT CHANGE WORKING
The switch from single-image to Document Ad format is already paying off. The Playbook Document Ad is converting at $48/lead after less than two weeks live — compared to $154/lead on the previous campaign. 3x more efficient on a fraction of the run time.
GOOGLE — BRANDED SEARCH
Capturing visitors already searching for Lullabot by name — 20.3% CTR and 110 clicks in May. This is a brand protection campaign, not a conversion campaign, so 0 conversions is expected. The goal is simply ensuring Lullabot owns its own search real estate.
Month at a glance · May 1–31, 2026
Total Spend
$1,040
vs ~$1,500 budget
Impressions
9,019
Google + LinkedIn
Total Clicks
151
110 Google · 41 LinkedIn
Conversions
8
LinkedIn only
| Campaign | Platform | Spend | Clicks | CTR | Conv. | CPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Branded Search | $441 | 110 | 20.3% | 0 | n/a | |
| Playbook Document Ad | $290 | 13 | 0.41% | 6 | $48 | |
| State Gov Websites (Accessibility) | $309 | 28 | 0.53% | 2 | $155 · Paused |
Google Analytics · Full month MTD · May 1–29
Web Traffic & Search
Direct
4,021
↓ vs 5,722 Apr
Organic Search
3,498
↓ vs 4,375 Apr
Referral
601
↓ vs 1,003 Apr
251
↓ vs 416 Apr
Paid Search
133
↑ vs 59 Apr
Traffic note: May sessions are down across all channels vs. April. April benefited from two newsletter sends and the LB-008 publication spike. May's volume reflects a single article publish plus the ebook launch, most of whose traffic impact will carry into June.
TOP REFERRAL SOURCES
AI REFERRAL SIGNAL ✦
ChatGPT sent 51 sessions this month — the first meaningful AI-driven referral traffic. Nothing to act on yet, but if this grows it would validate doubling down on that content type.
Email & Content
May Program Performance
Newsletter Performance
| Newsletter | Recipients | Opens | Open Rate | True Open Rate | Clicks | CTR | CTOR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark | — | — | 20–25% | — | — | — | 10% |
| May (LB-NL526) | 2,707 | 1,450 | 54.02% | 13.64% | 84 | 3.13% | 5.79% |
| April (LB-NL426) ↑ larger than prior sends | 2,770 | 379 | 13.82% | 14% | 34 | 1.24% | 9% |
| March | 1,788 | 616 | 34.7% | — | 105 | 5.9% | 17% |
| February | 1,782 | 661 | 37.1% | — | 119 | 6.7% | 18% |
| December | 1,822 | 595 | 32.7% | — | 68 | 3.7% | 11.5% |
WHAT IS TRUE OPEN RATE?
The standard open rate counts any open — including automatic pre-fetches by Apple Mail Privacy Protection, corporate spam filters, and security systems that scan every link before a human ever sees the email. True Open Rate filters those out, counting only opens attributed to an actual person. It's a more conservative but more accurate measure of real engagement. May's 54.02% includes automated opens; the 13.64% True Open Rate reflects confirmed human engagement.
MAY AT A GLANCE
2,707 delivered, 99.15% delivery rate, 0 spam reports. The 3.13% CTR and 5.79% CTOR are the most reliable engagement signals — clicks require a real human action that privacy systems can't inflate.
NOTE ON LIST SIZE
Feb and Mar were sent to a smaller segment (~1,800) due to an incomplete Zoho list pull — April's 2,770 reflects the correct full list for the first time. The larger, colder list likely accounts for April's lower open rate vs. prior sends, and is the right baseline going forward.
Content Published — May 2026
"Digital Governance: Architecture vs. Enforcement"
Published May 19 · Darren Petersen · LB-009
Newsletter Pipeline
| Newsletter | Send Date | Status | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| April Newsletter (LB-NL426) | Apr 12 | Sent | First send on correct full list — prior sends had pulled an incomplete segment from Zoho |
| May Newsletter (LB-NL526) | May 5 | Sent | 2,707 sent · 54.02% open rate · 13.64% True Open · 3.13% CTR |
| June Newsletter (LB-NL626) | ~June 3 | Awaiting Approval | Test resent June 1 with copy fix (Lullabot → "we") · awaiting final approval |
May 2026 · Monthly meeting
Client Updates & Retrospective
Campaign 1 complete
All four core content assets are live — LB-007 (visibility), LB-008 (consensus), LB-009 (governance architecture), and LB-005 (Playbook ebook). The full nurture infrastructure (LB-010) activates June 4. This closes the foundation phase and shifts the program to lead development and conversion.
What's working
- ↑Lead volume growing: 42 new leads in May (up from 18 in March). The ramp is tracking the content-live timeline.
- ↑Playbook ad efficiency: $48/conversion on the Document Ad in its first 10 days — strong early signal for the new LinkedIn format.
- ↑AI referral traffic emerging: 51 ChatGPT sessions — thought leadership content is surfacing in AI-assisted research.
- ↑ICP lead quality improving: Texas DOT Director of Strategy, Michigan Supreme Court administrator, NY State court systems — tighter persona alignment vs. prior months.
CLIENT UPDATES
- →Any upcoming events or initiatives we should be aware of?
- →Anything else that would impact our marketing efforts?
MONTHLY RETROSPECTIVE
- →What went well?
- →Was anything confusing or concerning?
- →Is there any way we can better support you?
The information contained in this presentation is privileged and confidential.
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