Lifecycle Marketing is responsible for strategizing, executing, and optimizing a data-driven user lifecycle communications strategy and overall email marketing plan, including ongoing nurture email campaigns.
This role works closely across Marketing for all things email, and directly with the Product Growth, Data, and Self-service Teams to collaborate, plan, and prioritize communication to better engage GitLab users and progress them through the buyer and customer lifecycle. The lifecycle marketing manager will focus on user paths to revenue, including engaging free .com users, trial users, and paid users of GitLab.
For a comprehensive view of our nurture programs, best practices, email processes, and more, please go to our Email & Nurture Handbook page. Please reach out to Allie Klatzkin or Luis Diego D'ambrosio with any questions.
Luis Diego D'Ambrosio Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager
Allie Klatzkin Senior Lifecycle Marketing Manager
OKRs = Objective + Key Result
Add in details
To outline and organize overall marketing campaign strategy aimed at converting free users to paid customers.
In line with GitLab's overall communication guidelines, lifecycle marketing managers work through MRs first and issues second (in order to preserve documentation), and our slack channel #lifecycle-marketing is used for team updated and quick questions.
The #marketing_integratedmarketing channel is used for weekly check-ins and interaction with the larger integrated marketing team.
In between bi-weekly Lifecycle Marketing Team calls:
UPDATE: <brief description>
(i.e. UPDATE: Marketo segmentation live for sales segment
)DISCUSS
DISCUSS: <brief description>
(i.e. DISCUSS: Marketing tool champions
)Most of our team meetings are recorded and can be found in our notes doc.
Is our single source of truth (SSoT) for processes and relevant links
DG-Priority::Top
: Immediate action needed, aligned to OKRs. This category will be limited because not everything can be a priority. Timeframe: Immediate action needed.DG-Priority::High
: Not requiring immediate action, but aligned to OKRs, intelligent nurture, or free user journey. Timeframe: Within weeks.DG-Priority::Med
: Requests submitted that align to OKRs, intelligent nurture, or free user journey. Process improvements to fix broken processes, or improve lifecycle marketing team efficiency. Timeframe: Within months.DG-Priority::Low
: Requests submitted that would be helpful, but can be pushed for higher priority issues. Nice-to-have improvements for lifecycle marketing team processes. Timeframe: No specific timeline.DG-Priority::ToBePrioritized
: Requests that have not yet been prioritized by the team.mktg-demandgen
: DRI is in Demand Gen teamdg-lifecycle
: DRI is in Lifecycle Marketingdg-campaigns
: DRI is in Campaigns Teamdg-request
: Issue requesting Lifecycle Marketing support (did not originate from DRI team)mktg-status::blocked
: there were insufficient details in the issue for work to be completedmktg-status::wip
: the issue is assigned and moved into appropriate time-based milestonemktg-status::plan
: this is used for work that is in an earlier stage of planning and a specific request has not been made
We ask that teams request work using the following issue templates in the campaigns project. These templates more clearly indicate what information and details are required in order for the request to be triaged.
Note on timelines: The campaigns team is focused on campaign strategy, execution, and optimization. Team member milestones focus on work to drive MQLs and SAOs, and requests will be committed to as bandwidth permits at discretion of Campaign Team Manager.
The following issue templates are used by the campaigns team to organize their work, with appropriate labels applied for project management.
?? should we replicate some of these for lifecycle?
The following issue templates are used by the campaigns team to organize their work, with appropriate labels applied for project management.
/assign @
- issues should have only DRI based on who will complete the work in the issue. If work needs to be completed by multiple people, consider breaking into separate issues with clear deliverables and due dates. (example: /assign @aklatzkin
)/due 2021-
- add due date based on workback schedules (example: /due 2020-07-13
or /due tomorrow
or /due 07/13/2020
)/milestone %
- add milestone based on the due date of the issue (example: /milestone %"Mktg:
)/weight
- add weight between 1-5, with 1 being easiest (between 1-4 hours of time) and 5 being most complex (a full week of work). The majority of issues should fall into 1-2. If estimation is weight of 3+, break into separate issues for more manageable pieces to fit into milestones. (example: /weight 1
)/epic
- add epic of the overarching campaign or project to keep things organized. In almost all cases, there is a larger initiative that the issue relates to, so it is best practice to associate issues to the most relevant epic for visibility. (example: /epic [https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/marketing/-/epics/370](https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-com/marketing/-/epics/370)
)Team manager completes daily review of lifecycle marketing issues in triage assessing the following standards:
Submitter Checklist
sufficiently complete in order to begin work?
mktg-status::wip
, assign based on triage diagram, and put in current milestone (to be adjusted as needed by assignee)mktg-status::blocked
When a team member is picking up an issue from the backlog:
/label ~"mktg-status::wip"
/assign @
/milestone %Mktg:2022-
This will change the status to wip (work in progress), allow quick assignment and add to the appropriate milestone.
The lifecycle marketing team uses the overall 2-week marketing milestones (format of Mktg: YYYY-MM-DD) to organize, prioritize, and balance campaigns, projects, and requests.
Lifecycle Marketing Team Current Milestone - this board provides a high-level status view of issues in the current milestone by team member.
All Milestones Board - this board provides high level of all milestones in consecutive order
The Lifecycle Marketing Manger is responsible for coordinating execution of Free User campaigns. They will develop an initial strategy in collaboration with Growth Product, Marketing Ops, Data, and other teams. The steps to execute have certain issue templates, which are built into the process (see epic code below).
Overall Steps:
The workback timeline is to be created by the Lifecycle Marketer to organize the execution of a new campaign. The workback is a starting point, to be discussed and agreed with the teams involved.
The Lifecycle Marketer will create the epic with the following structure. Issues will be created an related to this overarching epic to organize execution action items.
<!-- NAME THIS EPIC: Free User Campaign: [Name of Campaign] (i.e. Free User Campaign: active First Order namespaces without recent outreach from GitLab) -->
### [Campaign Execution Timeline >>]() - to be created by Lifeycle Marketer <!-- Template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Mrp0xNkpbfS_kvqDB-kFhhBqD-sNK86trx3qswOe6B0/edit?usp=sharing -->
### :star: Background and Scope
<!-- Provide a brief overview of the audience, campaign, and project. How did this idea arise? -->
<!-- Example: Target leads that have indicated that they are using GitLab for company use when signing up for free user license -->
### :dart: Goal
* Primary KPI:
* Secondary KPI:
* Measurement Plan (to be developed with Business Analytics)
- For reference: [UTM Strategy Handbook](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/utm-strategy)
## :busts_in_silhouette: Team
* Lifecycle Marketing: @Aklatzkin
* Growth Product:
* Marketing Operations:
* Data Team:
### :bar_chart: Supporting Data
<!-- Provide any links to raw data and analysis that drove the idea for this campaign. -->
<!-- Example: analysis of namespace <> sfdc account matchup that indicated we are missing opportunities to engage -->
### :question: Open Questions
<!-- As we kickoff this campaign, what are existing open questions that we have? What do we need to address first? -->
<!-- Example: Are the users we are planning to target email compliant? Do some of these users already exist in SFDC? -->
### :link: Links
<!-- Add links like target lists, Marketo programs, etc. -->
* [Add here]()
* [Add here]()
/label ~"dg-campaigns" ~"mktg-demandgen" ~"mktg-status::wip"