Otus

Background

Otus is a Chicago based educational technology company founded in 2012 by former middle school teachers. The platform was created to unify fragmented classroom tools into a single, user-friendly system that integrates learning management, assessment, data analytics, and progress monitoring.

Serving over 1 million students across more than 200 school districts, Otus empowers educators, administrators, students, and families by centralizing academic, behavioral, and social-emotional data to support personalized learning and informed decision making.

The Challenge

Otus faced a series of interconnected challenges that hindered their digital growth and operational efficiency. As their business scaled, the limitations of their existing website infrastructure, data accuracy, and system integration became increasingly apparent. The team struggled with a lack of agility, inefficiencies in content management, and unreliable analytics.

Lack of Scalability

Otus had outgrown their existing WordPress website - a site that had already been redesigned and rebuilt twice in the previous three years. The recurring need for large-scale redevelopment indicated a fundamental issue with scalability and maintainability. Each small update often became a heavy lift, creating a resource drain on the team.

Technical Skills Required

In addition to scalability concerns, the backend interface was overly technical and limited content management to only individuals with developer-level knowledge. This bottleneck prevented the Otus team from quickly updating content, launching campaigns, or optimizing site features.

Distrust in Data

Compounding these challenges was the inaccuracy of analytics data. Years of redesigns, fragmented platforms, and inconsistent tracking had corrupted their dataset - making it hard for Otus to trust their website analytics, much less use them to inform strategic marketing or sales decisions.

Disjointed Systems

To top it off, Otus' tech stack was disjointed. They were using WordPress, Salesforce, and Pardot independently, and without strong integration, reporting and automation were compromised. In an increasingly competitive EdTech market, the lack of agility and insight placed Otus at risk of falling behind.

The Solution

To address Otus' digital infrastructure challenges and empower their team with scalable, user-friendly tools, Blue Frog proposed and delivered a fully custom website redesign and strategic platform migration - transitioning Otus from WordPress to HubSpot Content Hub.

Blue Frog's approach was guided by four key pillars, each rooted in HubSpot's powerful capabilities and tailored to the specific needs of Otus.

Scalable Architecture

Blue Frog architected the new site from the ground up using HubSpot's flexible theme structure, building a library of custom, reusable modules that enable scalability without compromising design integrity. This system ensures Otus can grow their content and features organically, avoiding costly rebuild cycles that plagued their former WordPress setup.

Empowered Backend Users

Otus and Blue Frog worked together to understand the roles, responsibilities, and comfort levels the Otus team has with digital tools. Leveraging HubSpot's intuitive drag-and-drop editor and user permissions, Blue Frog customized the backend experience to remove technical barriers. Now, non-technical users can confidently manage content, update landing pages, and launch campaigns without developer intervention - dramatically increasing their team's agility.

Reliable Data & Analytics

To combat the historical distrust of their data, Blue Frog configured a clean and reliable analytics environment using HubSpot's reporting and dashboard tools. This included aligning lifecycle stages, setting up campaign attribution, and creating dashboards that offer actionable insights. Otus now operates with full visibility into how users interact with their content, enabling smarter marketing decisions.

Integrated Tech Stack

Understanding the importance of Otus' existing CRM and automation tools, Blue Frog ensured a seamless integration between HubSpot's Content Hub with Salesforce. Through strategic configuration and field mapping, form submissions on the new website flow directly into Otus' CRM ecosystem, enabling real-time lead scoring, segmentation, and nurturing - all while maintaining a cohesive user experience from front-end to backend.

In addition to those core pillars, Blue Frog led the project through a comprehensive collaborative process from kickoff to launch, which included:

Our primary goals for the project were to modernize the site’s look and feel, improve mobile responsiveness, and enhance user experience across all devices. Blue Frog delivered on all fronts with creativity, technical expertise, and excellent communication. The design team brought fresh ideas to the table while still respecting our brand identity. They introduced a clean, intuitive layout with clear calls to action, making the site much easier to navigate. Feedback was incorporated quickly, and the iterative design process felt collaborative and efficient.

Kristine LeBlanc | Digital Marketing Manager at Otus

This project not only solved for Otus' immediate operational pain points, but also laid a sustainable foundation for long-term growth and innovation. The result is a modern, scalable, and insight driven digital presence that serves educators, students, and families - while giving the Otus marketing team full control and clarity over their marketing engine.

The Results

The launch of the new Otus website on February 7, 2025, marked a turning point in their digital strategy. What had previously been a bottleneck became a growth engine - enabling faster workflows, data-driven decision making, and more meaningful engagement with their audiences.

Operation Efficiency

One of the most immediate outcomes was the dramatic improvement in internal processes. Where content updates once took several days and required developer intervention, Otus' marketing team can now accomplish within a few hours. Thanks to the flexibility and intuitive design of the HubSpot backend, this shift has unlocked new agility for campaign launches, promotions, and timely content deliver.

Data They Can Trust

Reliable data was a major gain for Otus. The newly implemented, clean analytics environment in HubSpot restored confidence in performance reporting. Otus can now track attribution accurately, monitor campaign results, and make strategic decisions based on complete and trustworthy data. This has created a stronger bridge between marketing, sales, and leadership.

Early Engagement Wins

Initial feedback from both internal stakeholders and site users has been overwhelmingly positive. Early engagement metrics from newly launched content show notable improvements - a testament to the optimized UX, refined content architecture, and advanced features such as dynamic resource listing and educator-friendly filtering tools.

Organic Traffic Growth

The new site also delivered measurable SEO gains in a short time. Comparing pre-launch (Dec 1 - Feb 6) to post launch (Feb 7 - Apr 13):

• Average monthly organic traffic increased by 16%
• Traffic grew from a baseline of 28,780 to 32,990 average monthly visits

One standout success: the keyword "data driven instruction" rose in ranking from position #3 to #1, generating a 70+ monthly traffic increase for that search term alone.

Even more promising, non-branded organic traffic nearly doubled, increasing from 6.1% to 12.2%. This shift indicates the site is now attracting a broader audience beyond existing brand-aware visitors - an important win for long-term visibility and lead generation.

In addition to organic traffic growth, Otus made notable gains in SEO market share, increasing their traffic share among top competitors from 9% in January to 12% by April. This upward trend reflects a stronger presence in key search results and signals that Otus is capturing a greater portion of prospective users actively researching EdTech solutions.

Finally, while Otus' total number of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) feature appearances returned to pre-launch levels in terms of total numbers, the composition of those features has evolved in a meaningful way. Visibility has shifted away from image pack placements (which are more passive and less likely to drive high-quality traffic), toward People Also Ask and AI Overview features, which signal deeper topical relevance and authority. 

These placements not only improve Otus' discoverability in high-intent search moments, but also indicate that their content is now being surfaced in more contextually rich, user-engaged environments; a strong indicator of SEO content maturity and search engine trust.

Together, these results demonstrate how a strategic migration to HubSpot's Content Hub, paired with a thoughtful design and technical execution, transformed Otus' website from a burden into a competitive advantage.