Marketing Program Managers focus on executing, measuring and scaling GitLab's marketing campaigns, landing a message strategically focusing on a target audience using channels such as email nurture, digital ads, paid and organic social, events, and more. Marketing programs works with Content Marketing and Product Marketing to activate content in the most effective manner to drive leads for SDRs and Sales. Webcasts, gated content, and Pathfactory strategy/best practices are owned by the Digital Marketing Programs team.
Responsibilities
Jackie Gragnola Manager, Marketing Programs
Team Prioritization: plan prioritization of campaigns, related content and webcasts, event support, and projects for the team
Hiring: organize rolling hiring plan to scale with organization growth
Onboarding: create smooth and effective onboarding experience for new team members to ramp quickly and take on responsibilities on the team
Transition of Responsibilities: plan for and organize efficient handoff to new team members and between team members when prioritization changes occur
Agnes Oetama Sr. Marketing Program Manager
Integrated Campaigns: organize execution schedule, timeline, and DRIs for integrated campaigns.
Virtual Events: project management, set up, promotion, and follow up of all virtual events (webcasts, demos, virtual sponsorship)
Bi-weekly Newsletter: coordinate with cross-functional teams on topics and set up newsletter in marketo
APAC Field Event Support: campaign tracking, landing pages, invitations, follow up, and reporting of all events (working closely with Field Marketing team)
APAC Corporate Event Support: campaign tracking, landing pages, invitations, follow up, and reporting of all events (working closely with Corporate Events and Alliances teams)
Jenny Tiemann Sr. Marketing Program Manager
Integrated Campaigns: organize execution schedule, timeline, and DRIs for integrated campaigns.
NORAM - Central & PubSec Field Event Support: campaign tracking, landing pages, invitations, follow up, and reporting of all events (working closely with Field Marketing team)
Acceleration and ABM Campaigns: organize execution, timeline, and campaign tracking.
EMEA Event Support: campaign tracking, landing pages, invitations, follow up, and reporting of all events (working closely with Field Marketing team)
Nurture Campaigns: strategize and set up campaigns (email nurturing)
Zack Badgley Sr. Marketing Program Manager
Integrated Campaigns: organize execution schedule, timeline, and DRIs for integrated campaigns.
NORAM - East Field Event Support: campaign tracking, landing pages, invitations, follow up, and reporting of all events (working closely with Field Marketing team)
Nout Boctor-Smith Sr. Marketing Program Manager
Integrated Campaigns: organize execution schedule, timeline, and DRIs for integrated campaigns.
Corporate Worldwide Event Support: campaign tracking, landing pages, invitations, follow up, and reporting of all events (working closely with Corporate Events and Alliances teams)
Ad-Hoc Emails: coordination of copy, review, and set up of one-time emails (i.e. security alert emails, package/pricing changes)
Megan MitchellSr. Marketing Program Manager
Integrated Campaigns: organize execution schedule, timeline, and DRIs for integrated campaigns.
NORAM - West Field Event Support: campaign tracking, landing pages, invitations, follow up, and reporting of all events (working closely with Field Marketing team)
Conversion Optimization: A/B testing including gathering and analyzing data, formulating hypotheses, drafting copy, and reporting on performance
Data and Analysis: gathering data and reporting on patterns in email marketing program to drive qualified traffic to website for specific campaigns, date ranges, or email types
Marketing Operations
Cleaning and uploading of lead lists post-event
Creation of geo target lists in SFDC for email promotion of events
Each team member contributes to making day-to-day processes more efficient and effective, and will work with marketing operations as well as other relevant teams (including field marketing, content marketing, and product marketing) prior to modification of processes.
Order of assignment for execution tasks:
Primary responsible MPM
Secondary MPMs (if primary MPM is OOO or not available)
Marketing OPS (if MPMs are OOO or not available)
Holiday coverage for S1 security vulnerabilities email communication
In the event of an S1 (critical) security vulnerability email communication is needed during the holidays, please create an issue using Email-Request-mpm template and ping in #marketing-programs tagging @marketing-programs
Email marketing calendar
The calendar below documents the emails to be sent via Marketo and Mailchimp for:
event support (invitations, reminders, and follow ups)
ad hoc emails (security, etc.)
webcast emails (invitations, reminders, and follow ups)
milestones for nurture campaigns (i.e. when started, changed, etc. linking to more details)
Note: emails in the future may be pushed out if timelines are not met for email testing, receiving lists from event organizers late, etc. The calendar will be updated if the email is pushed out. Please reference the MPM issue boards (described below on this page) to see progress of specific events/webcasts/etc.
Email nurture program
Visualization of current nurture streams
Top funnel nurture
The goal of the top funnel email nurture is to further engage early stage leads so they become MQLs and/or start a free trial. Currently the top funnel nurture is segmented into 3 different tracks : Cloud native, CI/CD and Reducing cycle times.
High level overview on the messaging for each track:
Cloud Native: The messaging for this track is centered around benefits of cloud native transformation (Kubernetes, containers and the likes) and how GitLab can help. This track is suitable for those that consumed cloud native assets off our website/partner sites and those that attended cloud native themed offline/online events.
CI/CD: The messaging for this track is centered around the benefits of GitLab's powerful built-in CI/CD, why this is better than a traditional plug-in CI/CD solution. This track is suitable for those that consumed CI/CD assets off our website/partner sites and those that attended offline/online CI/CD themed events.
Reduce cycle time: The messaging for this track is centered around the benefits of reducing cycle time and how GitLab can help to accomplish that. This is the more generic catch-all track.
The top funnel emails are sent out on a weekly basis on Tuesdays at 7 a.m. local time.
Note: A lead will be transferred to the stream related to the latest asset they downloaded. For example if lead A is already in the cloud native stream and they registered for the CI/CD webcast, they will move to the CI/CD stream and start receiving the first email in that stream. Currently, this is the best way to align content to the prospect's most current topic of interest. The framework is subject change if we eventually categorize assets by high-intent vs. low intent or if we bring on a content insight and activation platform.
Summary: Pathfactory ≠ Nurture. Pathfactory is a tool that - instead of driving to a single asset - drives to a related-content adventure.
Nurture is a channel to bring an individual to the content. Just like ads, social, website, etc. drive to CTAs, Pathfactory link is the CTA - a powerful CTA because it can lead the individual down a "choose your own adventure" path of consumption which we track.
FAQ:
What is the Goal of PathFactory and Marketo?
Marketo nurture: To keep the conversation going about GitLab (keep us top of mind).
Pathfactory: To increase consumption/activation of GitLab content.
Do the lead lifecycle stage play into each nurture (For example, do we only want leads with status "Inquiry" to receive PathFactory nurture and leads with status "MQL" to only receive Marketo nurture?) ?
No, both Marketo and Pathfactory can be leveraged to help push leads further down the funnel.
Can records be in Marketo nurture and PathFactory nurture at the same time? If not, is 1 prioritized over the other?
Yes, the Pathfactory track acts as a supplement to the existing Marketo nurture instead of a replacement.
How does the post event follow up process look like? Specifically, when will it be appropriate to add leads to an existing Marketo nurture vs. just linking to a PathFactory track in the follow up email?
1) For event leads where there is no relevant Marketo nurture: In the follow up email, attach a link to a piece of content in a relevant PathFactory track.
2) For event leads where a relevant Marketo nurture exists: In the follow up email, attach a link to a piece of content in a relevant PathFactory track that is not referenced in the Marketo nurture. Additionally, if/when requested by the FMM team, we should also add the leads to the Marketo nurture to keep the conversation going.
How we work together
Issue management in GitLab
How our team stays productive
Below are issue views that the Marketing Program Team monitors for in-progress and upcoming action items:
Marketing Programs: General labels to track all issues related to Marketing Programs. This brings the issue into the board for actioning.
MPM - Radar: Holding place for any issues that will need Marketing Program Manager support, including gated content, events, webcasts, etc.
MPM - Supporting Epic / Issue Created: Indicates that the epic and supporting issues were created for the MPM - Radar issue. At the time this label is applied, the "MPM - Radar" label will be removed.
MPM - Secure presenters and schedule dry runs: Used when MPM is securing presenters and Q&A support for an upcoming virtual event.
MPM - Landing Page & Design: Used by Marketing Program Manager to indicate that the initiative is in the stage of landing page creation and requesting design assets from the web/design team.
MPM - Marketo Flows: Used by Marketing Program Manager to indicate that the initiative is in the stage of editing/testing of flows in Marketo.
MPM - Create Target List: Used by Marketing Program Manager requested of Marketing Ops and in collaboration with Field Marketing to receive a list curated for the geo target. Marketo smart lists for larger metro areas around the world are built to expedite list creation. Additional curation done in Salesforce.
MPM - Invitations & Reminder: Used by Marketing Program Manager when the initiative is in the stage of identifying segmentation to target and outreach strategy.
MPM - Follow Up Emails: Used by Marketing Program Manager when initiative is in the stage of writing and reviewing relevant emails (reminders, follow up, etc.).
MPM - Add to Nurture: Used by Marketing Program Manager when initiative is in the stage of being added to nurture.
MPM - Project: For non-campaign based optimizations, ideation, and projects of Marketing Program Managers
MPM - Blocked/Waiting: Designates that the MPM is blocked by another team member from moving forward on the issue.
MPM - Switch to On-demand: Used by Marketing Program Manager when switching webcast landing page and subsequent marketo programs to on-demand post event.
MPM Priority: to be used by MPMs to organize their top priority tasks. These are not to be applied by other team members.
Process to request an email can be found in the Business OPS section of the handbook.
Primary party responsible for various email types can be determined using the table above.
MPM Process for an ad-hoc email (security, support, etc)
We use both Marketo and Mailchimp to send ad-hoc emails. Marketo is the primary system for all marketing emails and the regularly scheduled security updates. Mailchimp should be used for emails to gitlab.com users as these users are not in our marketing systems (unless they have signed up for content). Examples of emails to be sent through Mailchimp: Critical security updates, support updates that impact a specific subset of users, suspicious account activity notifications.
Once an email request is received using the process above, the MPM determines which system to send the email from. This is usually Mailchimp unless it is a marketing email to our database.
Log into Mailchimp and select "Audience."
Select "View Audiences" from the "Manage Audience" drop down on the right side of the screen.
Select "Create Audience" and name the audience using ISODate_CampaignName. Complete the Default From email address and name (usually info@, but can be security@ or support@ depending on the email). For "Remind people how they signed up to your audience" select "Entire Database" then click Save.
For instructions on adding contacts, review this documentation. You can also copy and paste the contacts if the list is small enough. You will be asked to map the fields on your import to the database fields prior to upload.
Select "Campaigns." Find a prior campaign that used the same type of email you want to use (plain text or regular). Security emails, privacy policy updates, and terms of service updates use plain text, support emails can use regular.
Select replicate, then select the audience you created above. If you do not have the list yet, you can select an existing audience and change it later during the review process.
Name the campaign using ISODate_CampaignName. Lay out the email as normal. For information about using Merge Tags, review this documentation.
Send a test email to yourself first to confirm email is correct and the links work properly. Then, make any changes and send a test to the designated approvers.
Once fully approved, review the audience (and update if necessary), sender, subject line, email and schedule to send.
Email Marketing Best Practices
Content
Email copy should be shorter and more conversion-oriented
Avoid walls of text when possible
Use extremely clear wording and remove words that don't provide value
Minimize CTAs (calls-to-action)
Take advantage of content hierarchy
Use humor when it makes sense
Craft compelling subject lines and employ the preview text as a complement to the subject line
Focus on value-first content and CTAs. Ask yourself: "what's in it for the subscriber?"
Design
Consider resposive design
Code all text in HTML
Minimize CTAs
Images should add to the goal of your email and not take away from it
An email is not a landing page
Consider accessibility
A/B Testing
Each test group should include at least 1000 people
You need a bigger test group if you're testing for click-through rate versus testing for open rate
Have a goal and idea regarding what you want to improve and how your test is going to help with that
Test one variable at a time
Due to our small sample sizes, we recommend a full 50/50 split versus a 10/10/80 or 20/20/60 split
Remember your subject line or "from name" (testing open rates) could have an impact on click-through rate and conversion rate
Let the MPM know at the beginning of the project if you're interested in running an A/B test and what your goals/hypothesis is
Keep track of the split test learnings so we can learn and innovate!
Requesting to add leads to the top funnel nurture
To add leads to the top funnel nurture, please reach out to one of the marketing program managers through an issue. The marketing program manager will assess the request and can add the leads to the proper stream via a 'Request Campaign' marketo flow step.
In order to prevent people currently in a stream from switching streams due to a manual add to nurture, the MPM will exclude anyone in the 'Member of Engagement Stream' Smart List. 'Member of Smart List' -> Person NOT IN 'Member of Engagement Stream'. The 'Member of Engagement Stream' Smart List includes anyone who has not exhausted content in their current stream or is not paused in a stream.
Flow step to add leads to TOFU nurture 'Cloud Native' track -> 'request Smart Campaign: TOFU nurture.Add to stream 1: Cloud Native (trigger)'
Flow step to add leads to TOFU nurture 'CI/CD' track -> 'request Smart Campaign: TOFU nurture.Add to stream 4: CI/CD (trigger)'
Flow step to add leads to TOFU nurture 'Reduce Cycle Time (Generic DevOps)' track -> 'request Smart Campaign: TOFU nurture.Add to stream 2: Reduce Cycle Time_Forrester (trigger)'
Requesting to add a new asset to the top funnel nurture
If you'd like to add an asset to the top funnel nurture, please create an issue in the digital marketing programs project, explaining why you'd like the asset added and which stream you'd like it added to. Please assign the issue to @aoetama and ping her in the comment.
Note: If the asset does not fit into one of the active streams, we will keep track of it as a wishlist and reference as input when we decide to roll out new streams in the future.
Programs reporting
MPM uses SFDC reports and dashboards to track program performance real-time. Data from the below SFDC reports/dashboards along with anecdotal feedback gathered during program retros will be used as guidelines for developing and growing various marketing programs.
The SFDC report/dashboard is currently grouped by program types so MPMs can easily compare and identify top performing and under performing programs within the areas that they are responsible for.
The webcast dashboard tracks all webcasts hosted on GitLab's internal webcast platform. It is organized into 3 columns. The left and middle columns tracks 2 different webcast series (Release Radar vs. CI/CD webcast series). The right column tracks various one-off webcasts since Jan'18.
The LIVE Demo dashboard is organized into 2 columns. The left column tracks the bi-weekly Enterprise Edition product demos (1 hour duration). The bi-weekly Enterprise Edition product demos ran between Q1'18 - Q2'18.
The right column tracks the weekly high level product demo + Q&A session (30 minutes duration). The weekly high level product demo + Q&A session was launched in Q4'18 and currently running through the end of Feb 2019.
Key Metrics tracked in ALL virtual events dashboards
Note: Virtual Events include Webcast, LIVE demos and Virtual Sponsorship
Total Registration : The number of people that registered for the virtual event regardless whether they attend or not.
Total Attendance: The number of people that attended the LIVE virtual event (exclude people who watched the on-demand version).
Attendance Rate: % of people that attended the LIVE virtual event out of the total registered (i.e: Total Attendance / Total Registration).
Net New Names: The number of net new names added to our marketing database driven by the virtual event. Because a net new person record may be inserted into our CRM (SFDC) as a lead or a contact object therefore, we need to add Total net new leads and Total net new contacts to get the overall total net new names.
Influenced Pipe: Total New and Add-on business pipeline IACV$ influenced by people who attended the LIVE virtual event. The webcast and live demo dashboards currently use SFDC out of the box Campaigns with Influenced opportunities report type because Bizible was implemented in June'18 and therefore the attribution report did not capture data prior to this. We plan to migrate webcast and live demo influenced pipe reports to Bizible attribution report in the next dashboard iteration so they align with overall marketing reporting.
Programs logistical set up
Webcast
Webcast program set up can be found in the Business OPS section of the handbook.
Newsletter
Process for bi-weekly newsletter
Open an issue in the Digital Marketing Programs project using the Newsletter template, including the newsletter send date in the issue title.
Assign to @aoetama and a member of the editorial team, based on the following schedule:
8/25 - @vsilverthorne
9/10 - @skassabian
9/25 - @vsilverthorne
10/10 - @skassabian
10/25 - @vsilverthorne
11/10 - @skassabian
11/25 - @vsilverthorne
12/10 - @skassabian
12/25 - @vsilverthorne
Creating the newsletter in Marketo
A day or two before the issue due date, create the newsletter draft. It's easiest to clone the last newsletter in Marketo:
Go to Marketing Activities > Master Setup > Outreach > Newsletter & Security Release
Select the newsletter program template YYYYMMDD_Newsletter Template, right click and select Clone.
Clone to A Campaign Folder.
In the Name field enter the name following the newsletter template naming format YYYYMMDD_Newsletter Name.
In the Folder field select Newsletter & Security Release. You do not need to enter a description.
When it is finished cloning, you will need to drag and drop the new newsletter item into the appropriate subfolder (Bi-weekly Newsletters, Monthly Newsletters or Quarterly Newsletters).
Click the + symbol to the left of your new newsletter item and select Newsletter.
In the menu bar that appears along the top of your screen, select Edit draft.
Editing the newsletter in Marketo
Make sure you update the subject line.
Add your newsletter items by editing the existing boxes (double click to go into them). It's best to select the HTML button on the menu bar and edit the HTML so you don't inadvertently lose formatting.
Don't forget to update the dates in the UTM parameters of your links (including the banner at the top and all default items such as the "We're hiring" button).
Sending newsletter test/samples from Marketo
When you're ready, select Email actions from the menu at the top, then Send sample to preview.
Enter your email in the Person field, then in Send to you can add any other emails you'd like to send a preview too. We recommend sending a sample to the newsletter requestor (or rebecca@ from the content team for marketing newsletters) for final approval.
When you are satisfied with the newsletter, select Approve and close from the Email actions menu.
Sending the newsletter
When the edit view has closed, click on the main newsletter item in the left-hand column.
In the Schedule box, enter the send date and select Recipient time zone if the option is available.
Make sure Head start is checked too.
In the Approval box, click on Approve program.
Return to the newsletter issue and leave a comment telling requestor (@rebecca from the content team for marketing newsletters) to double check all has been set up correctly. Close the issue when this is confirmed.
