Location for inputs: In your Google Drive, search for (and bookmark) FY24 All-Marketing Calendar SSoT.
This is where all teams will input and categorize planned activities - with filters that align to key pieces of information (GTM Motion, Alliance Partners, Sales Segments, Regions, Language, and more). This will be iterative and everyone should feel open to share their feedback and ideas - comment in the issue to sare your thoughts!
The instructions below are to be followed by marketing team members. Add a row at bottom of All-Marketing Calendar spreadsheet or insert in the appropriate date (either way, this will be re-sorted by marketing periodically). If you don't have all the details, don't worry - fill in what you can and work together to outline the information that is valuable for integrating our marketing tactics as a team.
BASIC DETAILS
placeholder with focus on <add topic> if not yet determined)
KEY LINKS
GTM & PARTNER ALIGNMENT
AUDIENCE DETAILS
SUPPORTING TEAM COMMITMENTS
In the future, the goal is to visualize these inputs in a calendar format with filters (based on columns in the doc) to allow the team to see the plans in Sisense. View the Basic Mockup in FigJam!
Currently, the GoogleDoc has pre-set filter views to help you see plans by Region, Segment, etc. to be added by team members for their respective activities.
The marketing team utilizes a single all-marketing calendar where everyone can contribute, and we can answer key questions (using filters) related to upcoming marketing plans.
Please do not filter the entire doc (although Google Docs is now allowing personal filtering that doesn't affect all other viewers in the doc - need to test this!). 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, funnel stage, partners, 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 simliar filter view, and clicking on the top right gear icon, then selecting Duplicate.
Marketing uses GitLab for agile project management including groups, projects, epics, roadmaps, issues, labels, and boards. Read through the documentation on each of these GitLab features if you are unfamiliar.
Marketing Departments collaborate to produce Integrated Campaigns. An Integrated Campaign is a communication effort that includes several campaign tactics such as blog posts, emails, events, advertisements, content on about.gitlab.com, videos, case studies, whitepapers, surveys, social outreach, and webcasts. An Integrated Campaign will have a campaign theme that summarizes the message we are communicating to our market.
Have a new campaign idea? Make a suggestion
We cultivate a deep understanding of our own product by using GitLab to manage our planning, collaboration, and execution of Marketing activities.
The latest Project Management recommendations can be found here from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
The latest recommendations for Milestones from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
Within the www-gitlab-com repo (parent repo to Marketing) there are weekly milestones, which some teams use plan a weekly sprint cadence. Each of these sprints begins with "Fri:**" for the Friday upon which that sprint ends, making them searchable in a list here.
Each week on Monday, any open MRs and issues still assigned to the previous week's milestone are bulk moved forward to the next week, and the previous milestone is closed out. This is a manual process currently performed by Danielle.
The latest recommendations for Groups and Projects from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
The latest recommendations for Epics and the latest for Issues from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
/promote quick command.)
CMO label. (Don't apply the CMO label to other epics.)The latest recommendations for Labels and the latest for boards from FY21-Q2 Agility Project
mktg-status:: and one of four statuses. Status labels should be used on all issues within the Marketing group:
mktg-status::plan - work that is proposed, in an exploratory state.
mktg-status::plan to mktg-status::wip and creating an merge request (MR), if appropriate. The plan status is optional, as issues that don't require formal planning can be opened and labeled mktg-status::wip.mktg-status::wip - work in progress that has been accepted and assigned to a DRI.
WIP:. At GitLab we allow reviewers to start reviewing right away before work is complete.mktg-status::review and WIP: should be removed from the title.mktg-status::review - work has been completed enough that it is ready for formal review and approval.
mktg-status::scheduled - work that is complete but should be scheduled for a future date.
closed - when work is delivered the issue should be closed.Each Department within Marketing can have "additive" labels - meaning they are used to enhance the tracking and workflows for that respective team. These "additive" labels are used in conjunction with the broader Marketing labels. The Department label usage is documented on each of the respective handbook pages:
All of the projects within the Marketing subgroup include default issue text to ensure the Department labels are applied consistently and broader adoption of the global Marketing labels.
When a new issue is opened in any project, the issue description will contain a small snippet of text applying that teams' label & Marketing scoped mktg-status::plan label.
Apply Template and continue as normal
The default text is minimal and generic. Any team can make the collective decision to update the text. Access to modify the text may be limited based on group/project permission level, if you do not have access to the General settings section, please reach out to @mktg-ops via slack.
Please note this is not an issue bot there is no dynamic functionality. The default issue text applies to all issues opened within that project and the text should be broad enough to encompass a roles within that team.
GeneralExpand next to Default Issue Templatemktg-status::plan label in that sectionSave changes. The changes be applied immediately to any new issue opened.
If you have any issues &/or questions, please reach out to the MktgOps team (@mktg-ops) via slack.
Figuring out how where and how to create a board, epic, label can be confusing. The following diagram is a very high level example of how it all fits together. If there are questions please ask in the #mktgops slack channel (*must be GitLab team member for active link).
Please Note: We are transitioning from the use of Campaign Tags to Allocadia IDs for campaign expense tracking purposes. As a result, we are still detailing out the process below by referencing both Allocadia IDs and Campaign Tags at this time, but eventually we'll be deprecating the use of Campaign Tags.
Marketing Managers track costs associated with campaigns - such as events, content, webcasts, etc. Allocadia IDs/Campaign Tags can be applied to Expensify reports, Coupa PO's, corporate credit card charges, and vendor bills processed by Accounts Payable. Campaign expenses that are incurred by independent contractors should be clearly noted with the appropriate ID/tag and included in their invoices to the company. We then use these accumulated costs for budget to actual analysis as well as to update the Salesforce campaigns with actual costs.
Marketing tracks campaign costs utilizing Allocadia line items. Once you have created your line item in Allocadia, follow these instructions.
Note: As we move from campaign tags to Allocadia IDs for tracking campaign costs, the below section will eventually be deprecated.
GitLab makes use of campaign tags throughout our systems in order to better track associated costs. For consistency, we use the naming convention of ISODate_Campaign_ShortName. More details on the ISO Date:
ISO 8601 provides a standard cross-national approach that says:
- A general-to-specific approach, forming a date that is easier to process - thus, the year first, followed by month, then day
- Numbers less than 10 preceded by a leading zero
- Years expressed as "0" prior to year 1 and as "-1" for the year prior to year 0 (and so forth)
- Thus, March 30, 1998 would be: 19980330.
Once you have created your Campaign Tag, follow these instructions.
If your event or tactic gets postponed to a new date, you only need to request an update to the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag date in this tracker if the date pushes more than six months from the original tactic date. If postponement date is within six months of the original date, no requested adjustment is required to the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag.
Travel expenses (food, hotel stays, arline tickets, etc.) must also be tracked utilizing Allocadia IDs/Campaign Tags. You will include the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag in the classification field in Expensify when you are completing your expense report. The instructions for how to request the Allocadia ID/Campaign Tag be created in NetSuite > Expensify can be found here. Additional information regarding travel can be found here.
There are times when a rapid response is needed to address industry changes, competitive moves, news about the company, and other opportunities to provide comment or thought leadership. In order to effectively respond, GitLab marketing needs to monitor, create and publish quickly. Additionally, GitLab marketing needs to support GitLab executives with content, data and soundbytes for interviews, blog-posts, etc.
If a rapid response opportunity arises, please alert the head of corporate communications (or CMO if head of corporate communications is unavailable) via slack or text message. Rapid response collaboration will happen in either the #competition channel (if it is competitive) or in the #external-comms channel (if it is about other news). The head of corporate communications will propose a recommendation on how to best proceed with an external company message and recruit the resources to accomplish the plan (this becomes the #1 priority for each resource, unless physically impossible or their manager provides a replacement). A template for a rapid response can be found here.
The head of corporate communications will assess the rapid response request within 1 HOUR (9amEST-6pmPST). Urgency will be assessed and will be determined to be 3 HOURS (ASAP) or 24 HOURS turnaround, and the action plan will be scoped accordingly - with a bias towards releasing an MVC as soon as possible, and iterating as more news becomes available. Any disagreements on urgency or action will be escalated immediately to the CMO for a final decision.
While each response will be a custom plan, the rapid response team will leverage appropriate resources to execute on the agreed upon plan:
Please have the author of the statement/blog post comment with their approval on the MR before merging, even if you have received approval in other, non-public channels.
GitLab's Marketing team maintains a list of agency and partner firms in a protected Google Sheet (only accessible to GitLab team members).
The purpose of this list is to provide transparency to GitLab team members on agencies and partners onboarded to work with us. If you are considering an agency or partner to scale your team and create additional resource leverage, check this list first. If you have onboarded a new partner or agency, please add them to this list for others to view. We create added efficiency by sharing our recommended partners internally.
In order to focus our efforts around investments the company should make per country, worldwide, it was important that sales and marketing leadership agreed to countries to prioritize (P0, P1, P2, P3 and P4).
The investment checklist at each priority level is a wishlist of how we are aiming to localize in those areas. For example, in market sales and SDR support is included in P0 as well as much higher level of translations. More details can be found internally on the tracking sheet.
Check out the handbook page on the marketing career development program.