The GitLab Marketing team operates as one team and is organized by the following departments: Integrated Marketing, Brand and Product Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Operations, and Analytics, Sales Development, Growth, Corporate Communications, and Developer Relations & Community. This page documents our shared team philosophy and processes, while the individual department handbooks contain more detailed information.
GitLab is the leading DevSecOps Platform that empowers organizations to deliver quality software faster and more efficiently while strengthening security and compliance. The marketing team’s purpose is to amplify the value of the GitLab platform, authentically and transparently, by putting customers and the community at the center of everything we do.
As the GitLab Marketing team puts customers at the center of everything we do, the marketing strategy aligns with the customer journey. The journey’s purpose is to provide a clear and cohesive experience to a prospect/customer from the minute they become Aware of GitLab, to Considering the platform and Converting into a happy customer, and then of course Expanding over time and becoming an Evangelist.
Each stage has a purpose which is the guiding indicator for the marketing team to measure our success. Everything the team plans and executes in the short and long term will revolve around the customer journey, and we will also measure our success along each step to hold ourselves accountable.
Our FY24 Marketing Strategy and Plan can be found in the internal handbook.
Each quarter, the Marketing team creates OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that cascade from the CEO's OKRs.
Each department within the Marketing team manages their own cascading OKRs.
How we work as one team aligns with the GitLab Values.
Results - The team measures success together along the customer journey. Each quarter, we align CMO OKRs based on company goals set in the CEO OKRs. This helps us stay aligned with company-level goals while also understanding if what we are doing quarter over quarter is moving the needle on our marquee metrics along the customer journey. Being data-driven as a team is essential for team success.
Iteration - Like the rest of the company, we aspire to be agile and experimental where possible. In every area possible, we roll out campaigns, brand updates, messaging, etc. in small iterations, measure the success, and take next steps accordingly.
Transparency - We strive to be as transparent as possible in all areas of marketing. We welcome thoughts and feedback from each other, other GitLab team members, and the community at all times.
Collaboration - A major key to success is operating as one team. Leveraging the different backgrounds, cultures and, skill sets of an entire company and community, the marketing team operates in a way where everyone can contribute. Collaboration is key to taking Marketing to the next level.
Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) - With GitLab team members being located across the world, we strive to always keep DIB at the core of everything we do. Like the rest of GitLab, we follow asynchronous meeting principles, welcome diverse perspectives, and as marketers, foster an environment where quirkiness is welcomed.
Efficiency - We keep efficiency at the forefront of everything we do. Whether it is bringing in marketing technology to automate menial tasks and foster collaboration, finding ways to save cost, or simply doing the right things to be respectful of others’ time, efficiency drives faster results for marketing.
Goal: Align all Marketing team members on activities in progress to achieve our goals, and update the team on cross-functional items.
The meeting is 50 minutes and runs as follows:
All team members are encouraged to bring forward discussion topics that they want to share with the team or to have covered during the call.
Goal: Provide the team a smaller forum to ask any questions they may have, offer feedback, and brainstorm ideas directly with the CMO
Goal: Foster an environment to empower managers overseeing different functions to collaborate and share ideas and feedback.
Goal: For managers to work with direct reports on removing roadblocks, brainstorming, coaching, and providing/receiving feedback.
| Topic | Where to reach out | Sub-Team |
|---|---|---|
| Blog posts, webcasts, the newsletter or other marketing content | #content |
Content |
| Swag | #swag |
Brand strategy |
| Design requests, logo usage questions | #marketing-design |
Brand |
| External PR (public relations) agency, discuss GitLab media mentions, and evaluate speaking/podcasting/commentary opportunities | #external-comms |
Corporate Comms |
| Anything regarding the marketing website and website development | #digital-experience-team |
Digital experience |
| Questions about tools in the marketing tech stack, evaluating new marketing tools, marketing system process improvement | #mktgops |
Marketing Operations |
| Salesforce | #sfdc-users |
Sales Operations (not marketing) |
A complete list of marketing slack channels can be found here.
#marketing Slack channel for questions that don't seem appropriate to use the issue trackerPlease follow the CMO handbook for review request workflows, and communication guidelines.
All teams are responsible for requesting social posts themselves. If you are not the DRI on a specific category or campaign and want to request a social post, please reach out to the teams’ point person identified below as a first step. Team Members in these roles reserve the right to say no to your request. If they say yes, coordinate with them to create a new social request issue so that the social team can process the request and schedule the post(s). The point person on the team or a member of the marketing or social teams may adjust copy to ensure consistency in brand voice.
#external-comms for assistance#social_media_action for assistanceSpeaking on behalf of GitLab at a conference, to media or on a podcast as a GitLab team member is a significant responsibility. Please see the Corporate Communications Handbook Page for guidelines and trainings.
Guidelines for how to pitch and submit a blog, including templates and formatting, can be found in the Blog Handbook.
Marketing Newsletter
Marketing and the Editorial team send out a monthly developer newsletter, called "DevSecOps Download", to our newsletter subscribers. The newsletter always includes information about the latest release post, links to our latest blogs, plus additional content for DevSecOps teams. The goal for this newsletter is thought leadership and awareness.
To add a content suggestion, please create an issue with "DevSecOps Download Content: [subject]" in the title (no template necessary) and tag @sgittlen (Sandra Gittlen, Blog Managing Editor). Anyone in the company can add suggestions, but the Blog Managing Editor will determine the final content.
Other Newsletter
To request a newsletter to be sent to an audience outside the newsletter subscribers, please create an issue in the Campaigns project, using the request_email_newsletter issue template.
Newsletter requests should be submitted no less than 5 business days before the intended send date to ensure there is enough time for Content and Marketing Programs Manager's (MPM) review and set up workflow.
We are happy to sponsor events and meet-ups where a marketing benefit exists, subject to approval by Field Marketing Managers. These sponsorships may be in cash or in kind, depending on individual circumstances.
Organizational or project sponsorships may also be considered where a marketing benefit exists. Typically, these sponsorships will be in kind - e.g., developer time commitments, or subsidized / free GitLab licenses.
Cash sponsorship of projects or organizations may be considered only in exceptional cases - for example, if a project or organization that GitLab depends on is struggling to survive financially.
We use Slack internally as a communication tool. The Marketing channels are as follows:
#marketing: General marketing channel. Don't know where to ask a question? Start here.#all-marketing: Read-Only channel for marketing team members, with the ability to post comments. CMO staff has the ability to post. Should a team member want to make a post, please reach out to our Marketing EBA with your written statement and as much as possible, provide an issue or MR with more details.#brand: Connect with Brand Strategy, Brand Marketing, and Brand Design here.#cfp: All call for speakers will be posted here.#cmo: CMO review requests and content shares.cmo-staff: (Private) CMO's private staff discussion room#content: Questions about blog posts, webcasts, the newsletter or other marketing content? This is the place to ask.#developer-relations: A channel for the developer relations team to collaborate.#dev-evangelism-and-technical-marketing: Discuss the latest tech in DevSecOps and Cloud-Native with the Developer Evangelism and Technical Marketing teams. You can request speakers and ask for technical content collaboration and guidance.#digital-experience-team: Channel for connecting with the website development and design teams#digital-marketing: Channel for all advertising, website analytic and general digital programs.#digital_production: Channel for communicating with the video production team#events: Everything you want to know about events.#external-comms: To collaborate with our external PR (public relations) agency, discuss GitLab media mentions, and evaluate speaking/podcasting/commentary opportunities.#fieldmarketing: Discuss, ask questions, stay up-to-date on events that are being organized by Field Marketing#fyi-only-all-marketing: This is an FYI only channel for CMO Staff to post important marketing only announcements#inbound-mktg: Growth Marketing channel, including global content, awareness campaigns, brand and digital design.#marketing-design: Discuss, feedback, and share ideas on Marketing Design here.#marketing-campaigns: Discuss, ask questions, stay up-to-date on campaigns and events that are being organized by the Marketing Program Managers#mktgops: Marketing Ops communication channel for questions and project updates#mktg-budget-holders: (Private) Discussion among all Marketing team members with budget responsibility#product-marketing: Discuss, feedback related to product news, features and vision#remote: Discuss and share impressions on the #allremote campaign, playbook and strategy.#sdr_amer: Americas team (North, Latin and South) all segnents#sdr_amer_commercial: Americas team (North, Latin and South) Commercial segment only#sdr_apac: Asia Pacific SDR channel - all segments#sdr_emea: Europe, Middle East and Africa all segments#sdr_emea_commercial: Europe, Middle East and Africa Commercial segment only#sdr_global: Worldwide SDR team channel#sdr_global_commercial: Worldwide SDR Commercial team channel#sdr_amer_east: Enterprise SDRs for Americas East (formerly NORAM - US East)#sdr_amer_central: Enterprise SDRs for Americas Central (formerly NORAM - US Central)#sdr_amer_west: Enterprise SDRs for Americas West (formerly NORAM - US West)#sdr-conversations: place for SDR team brainstorm & sharing of ideas#sfdc-users: Having issues with SFDC? Ask here first.#social_media_action: Use this channel to communicate and coordinate with the Social Media team. You can ask for amplification help and share cool tweets, posts, etc.#swag: Request or question regarding swag.#website: Discuss topics related to website redesign projectGet to know the people who work in GitLab's marketing team by visiting our READMEs.
Marketing Functional Conversations are modeled after Group conversations. While Group Conversations offer high-level insights, Marketing Functional Conversations are meant to drill deeper into the various functions within the Marketing Department. The goal of Marketing Functional Conversations is to create increased awareness and mutual understanding of the functions within Marketing. Awareness and understanding is an essential building block for effective collaboration.
Recordings of the Marketing Functional Conversations can be found on the GitLab Unfilitered YouTube Channel
Product and Brand Marketing represents the GitLab story at the brand, solution, product, and technical levels. We accelerate GitLab’s path to market by developing market insights, leadership positioning, messaging, and narratives that elevate our brand, show value in our solution, and fuel demand for our platform. We activate brand ambassadors and customer advocates to show momentum and trust in the market. The team includes Solutions & Product Marketing, Brand Marketing, Design, and Content.
The Integrated Marketing team is focused on creating awareness, generating demand and collaborating with the broader ecosystem globally, through a co-ordinated and unified approach. We connect the dots and bring content and messaging to life by leveraging various channels as our levers to communicate across segments, regions and personas.
The team includes Field Marketing, Channel, Corporate Events, Account Based Marketing, Campaigns, Lifecycle Marketing, Digital Strategy, Social Marketing and Digital Experience.
The Sales Development organization is focused on serving the needs of prospective customers during the beginning of their buying process.
The Sales Development department is composed of 2 groups: the SDR team who handles all the inbound interest and the BDR team who specializes in outreach of prospective customers.
When prospective customers have questions about GitLab, the SDRs assist them or connect them to a technical team member as needed. During the initial exploration, if the prospective customer is interested in continuing their exploration of GitLab, SDRs will connect them to an Account Executive (AE) or Strategic Account Executive (SAE).
BDRs contact people who work at large organizations to uncover or create early-stage sales opportunities for GitLab SAEs. The BDR team will plan with their paired Sales counterpart to approach interesting accounts and develop a plan for prospecting including contact discovery, understanding enterprise-wide initiatives that GitLab could assist with, and ensuring accurate data quality of accounts and contact in salesforce.com.
Marketing Strategy, Operations, and Analytics includes Marketing Operations, Analytics, and Globalization and Localization. The team focuses on enabling efficient operations and actionable analytics insights, working across all Marketing teams. The team also owns the MarTech stack used by Marketing.
The GitLab Growth department is dedicated to making it easier for teams to find value and increased efficiency within the GitLab platform. We work across stages within the product experience to make the product as easy as possible to adopt and use.
Developer Relations & Community includes community advocacy, code contributor program and evangelist program functions. The team is focused on answering the following questions:
The mission of GitLab’s Corporate Communications team is to amplify GitLab's product, people and partnerships in the media, via social media channels and through award wins. This team is responsible for global public relations (PR), social media, and executive communications (speaking).
The marketing team utilizes a single all-marketing calendar where everyone can contribute, and we can answer key questions (using pre-set filter views) related to upcoming marketing plans.
Please do not filter the entire doc. Instead, you may use pre-set filter views (click down arrow selector next to the filter icon on the bookmark bar) to see activities grouped by GTM Motion, segment, region, team, language, and more.
Below are some pre-set filter examples:
If there are other views you would find helpful, please feel free to duplicate an existing filter view, and include some sort of categorization (i.e. team, segment, etc.). You can do this by going to a similar filter view, and clicking on the top right gear icon, then selecting Duplicate.
For more information about adding events to All-Marketing SSoT Calendar, please click here.
This front page of the Marketing Handbook is intended to serve as the external face of the marketing team. We've created a dedicated Team Processes page that is intended to house our internal processes, workflows, and guidances relevant internally to the marketing team.