Blog2Print

A smart product and digital marketing strategy paired with effective technical management kept this enduring web app profitable and engaging long after the blogging surge had subsided.

Challenge & Solution | Takeaway | Approach

Challenge

Following XanEdu's acquisition of Blog2Print, I was tasked with leading knowledge transfer and product management, leveraging my expertise in digital and web-to-print products. That was the beginning of an 11-year run with the product, during which the fundamental challenges remained consistent for a product serving an increasingly contracted blogging community: reach and engage bloggers with meaningful content and functionality supported by an optimized user experience and reliable app performance.

Solution

After a successful knowledge transfer and thorough audit, I worked with our leadership team to craft a renewed, data-driven product and marketing strategy. We evolved the product with strategic feature updates (e.g., Instagram integration), improved app performance, and a streamlined book-making experience. We continually engaged the audience through a rich content marketing program, including regular blog and social channel engagement, and sustained search engine, email and social ad campaigns. The result: we saw several competitors retire blog book products while Blog2Print continued to serve its loyal customer base and maintain profitability.

Takeaway

While Blog2Print appeared to run effortlessly, its success stemmed from a multifaceted, adaptive digital product strategy and intentional collaboration across distributed teams. The communication channels that I coordinated enabled rapid knowledge exchange, allowing diverse experts from operations, product, marketing, engineering and customer service to support the product together with minimal overhead.

Approach

Technical Product Management

Blog2Print was one of several apps that I managed in parallel for XanEdu. I participated in roadmap planning and prioritization of feature development, and code releases, while coordinating agile sprints and quality assurance testing. Over the years I managed significant feature implementations (e.g., Instagram integration), WordPress website updates, redesigns and migrations, as well as an email migration to HubSpot. For printer migrations I managed the book printing aspects of quality assurance. Throughout, we maintained XanEdu’s commitment to a rapid iteration approach with minimal customer service issues.

Digital Marketing & Design

Beyond strategic planning, I co-managed daily marketing operations. When SEM costs became unsustainable, I contracted a Google-certified partner who helped us optimize our campaigns, achieving substantial long-term savings. I also led a website redesign—hiring and directing a web designer/developer to create a flexible design system that served us for years without major reinvestment. Throughout, I provided creative direction across all channels: web, social media, email campaigns, and advertising.

UX/UI Design

In addition to introducing new features periodically, we also performed a comprehensive app redesign, addressing multiple pain points in the book-making process. I led the UX effort, creating workflow diagrams, wireframes, and prototypes to facilitate collaboration and support a smooth development process. The result was a streamlined, more intuitive book-making process, and a modernized app appearance that remained fresh and effective for years with minimal updates.