To date, at GitLab, we've called it our "marketing website." As a $1B company about to go public we need to elevate our main marketing tool and operationalize our efforts by developing a "digital marketing platform." Currently, we do not have foundational elements in place to make this change. As such, we must mature our toolset and upgrade our technology.
| MAIN ISSUES | BLOCKERS |
|---|---|
| We can't scale effectively ⏱️ Efficiency |
- Our digital marketing platform is not optimized for results - We're missing key tools to enable scaling - The tools/technology we're missing are "boring solutions" that can be implemented in a series of MVCs that will allow us to iterate to a better future state - We don't have a system that we can operationalize - Our digital marketing platform is not optimized for the right group - Our experience is inconsistent (specifically, user flows and funnel progression) which makes it difficult to learn from/ improve upon |
| It's challenging to learn 🤝 Collaboration 👣 Iteration 👁️ Transparency |
- Lack of consistency minimizes the value of our data - The lack of focus on the loyalty flywheel minimizes the effects of the changes we make - Challenging to work as a community without a SSOT or understanding of our Customer |
| High likelihood of human error ⏱️ Efficiency |
- No automated build process - No weekly or bi-weekly review of automated or user generated data - Will enable us to shorten our iterations and cycle time |
| Hard to consistently stick to our plan 📈 Results |
- Without an operationalized approach it's harder keep a bias towards action against competing forces |
| WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN | VALUE |
|---|---|
| Implement a CMS | - Optimize and focus on efficiency for the right group (Content Marketing) - Increase ability to self-service and self-learn - Respects others' time. Frees up Digital Experience effort that is high frequency/ low value |
| Switch Static Site Generator (SSG) | - Align with GitLab's technology strengths (Ruby & VueJS) - Optimize and focus on efficiency for the right group (Digital Experience development team) - Allows Marketing to use better tools to unlock our potential to scale and deliver |
| Implement a Design System | - Lower the cost of iteration and release - Creates a common design language everyone can contribute too, and also supports our commitment to efficient "boring" solutions vs slow and expensive custom solutions. - Allows us to onboard, ramp up, and scale quicker - both team members and vendors |
| Incorporate a build process (Gulp or Webpack) | - Decrease human error - Boring solution that has been industry standard years - Faster page load times - Automate image compression - Minimize CSS + JS - Identify duplicate code - Automatically add above the fold styles to increase perceived load times |
| Remove images from GIT and push directly to CDN | - Reduces repo size - Makes the repo faster to work with - Faster to push changes |
| Customer Data Platform | - Gather an accurate understanding of our user segments - Enables a single source of truth accessible by all GitLab team members - Increases transparency by making information public within GitLab - Enable us to make informed lead decisions (we appear to be good with lag/data informed decisions) - Activate our thinking and opportunities for experimentation - Lay groundwork for an Experimentation Platform/Program and Personalization |
| Experimentation Platform/Program | Using LaunchDarkly and an agile/ spring based approach aim to significantly increase the amount of tests released and running on our marketing platform |
| Personalization | - Increase MQLs - Increase conversion rate - Increase engagement - Guide users towards IATV and LTV |
| Improve Marketing site's Information Architecture | - Increase focus on progressing through sales funnel - Increase conversion - Improve impact of experiments and changes - More valuable data |
| Add Session Replay / Logging Tool | - Understand how users engage with our marketing site - Identify any API or code issues |
| Identify Automation Opportunities | Free up our people to focus on what matters most |
This Get It Done Matrix highlights open epics and issues that we could use to begin elevating our digital marketing platform.
The numbers indicate large gains if we focus on Implementing a Design System, Implementing a CMS, and Incorporating a Build Process. The open bodies of work that present the most opportunity to deliver are Marketing Site Refresh Strategy and Phase 5: Systems for Continuous Improvement. Both of these epics are a decent way in the future and the hope of the Digital Experience team is to re-prioritize to unlock our potential.
