GitLab Marketing Campaigns, 28 Sep 2022

Previous Meeting Next Meeting

⏯

youtube image

►

From YouTube: Sept 28, 2022: AMER/EMEA Campaigns Team Connect

Description

Sept 28, 2022: AMER/EMEA Campaigns Team Connect.

A

Okay uh and to your point, we don't have that many things on the agenda today, but I do want to introduce you all to me Linda. If you haven't met her already. She is our newest campaign manager uh responsible for the American Commercial segment. uh Melinda. Do you want to introduce yourself tell us where you were before you left?

A

Why you wanted to join the team where you're located and what you like to do outside of work, yeah, Louise, so hi everyone um good morning or afternoon or evening, depending on where you're at um I think I've had an opportunity to to meet with um most of you on the call today so very excited to join the team.

A

Let me see if I can remember all the questions, because there were five or six, uh let's see so I um most recently, I come from all tricks, which is a data analytics company um I wore multiple hats, um while there so I started in field marketing, transitioned to Global programs, I managed our trial program um for about a year and a half and then transitioned to the integrated campaigns team, um which is a global team at all tricks too kind of similar to the teams here um so yeah I was I, was looking for um kind of a change of pace to um disrupt my comfort zone, really is kind of why I went out into the market to look for a new opportunity, so so really excited to be here: I'm based in Southern California in Orange County.

A

um Any other questions that I that I miss a few. What do you like to do um for fun outside of work? What I'd like to do for fun outside of work? Okay, um so I have a 15 month old daughter, uh who consumes most of my time outside of work. um What I love right now is, just um you know, introducing new experiences and kind of seeing life in the world through through her eyes, since everything is um brand new and um yeah, that's a lot of fun right now, foreign.

A

Okay, so I think we only have one really major thing to discuss: I guess that is around forester service units, I know Irene and Andrei, and thanks for putting that in the slack uh I started that discussion. So um let's kind of discuss uh much based on what we try to put in this live. um Okay as well.

A

The key items that Jackie wanted to hello.

B

C

Think alsoever.

B

The comment I think we were talking about like the process for this. Oh, my God. What was it in slack yeah.

D

Yeah I I posted on slack because there was a couple of different issues and threads within the issues about utilizing like Forester or Gartner um units, and they all like asked for our opinion about certain assets and they were all across different campaigns, so everyone had to input about their respective campaigns and um and then like they were asking about budget as well.

D

For you know extending like, if we were to do a webcast, we would need to extend it for like six or four months, so that would require a budget of our own budget uh about that.

D

um So, there's like it felt like there was no cohesive like strategy around this about um like. Is it a particular time in the year that we need to plan for uh for analyst assets and what campaigns will they be aligned and what resources would need it behind it?

D

Because then I think uh the end result was to select one for auto SD uh I, think that was the result out of all that and then I think it would it needed to be set up in like three days because the units would expire or something so in general. I. Think we would uh benefit of a more structured um of a more structured approach with this.

C

And just to add to what Irina says like before the process was that our product marketing managers like Cormac, was for devops um sort of like giving that feedback more proactively and also um I. Guess you know sort of like you know driving. You know the timeline, I guess um and right now it feels a little bit more on us from that perspective. So I, don't know what what has changed in the process, but just wanted to add that as well I'll.

B

Give you my two cents like analyst relations, is something that I've tried to Shield you all from since getting here, because it's always been such a cluster like knowing.

C

B

Like I've worked with Ryan for the last four years on this, like knowing when reports are supposed to come out when they actually come out. Okay, where do we place what we do look to product marketing for is like look at this report. We may be in a good quadrant or it may shine a light on gitlab. It may not be the light we want to shine on gitlab. So, even though we're like hey, that's a great topic that aligns with our campaign. Sometimes it's like Cindy's, looked at something where we actually looked like.

B

We scored pretty well, but she looked at what competitors were in there and how somebody might actually assess it and was like I, don't know if I'd recommend buying this one, so I think product marketing needs to give some input and then probably from our perspective like how would we leverage it? So maybe we need to take that two-pronged approach and formalize something, but to your question on timeline, my understanding is that it's all just aligned to I think it depends on the analyst some of them.

B

They just come out of nowhere and some of them they have estimated timelines and then some of them. We have reprint rights schedules, but then they can be very different. Like some, you have a reprint right for six months, some for a year, then we might extend it or we might turn it off and we need a new link. So all to say this is very complex and what I wanted to at least pass over to you all is like.

B

Would this be something that you could see value in like a gap in the campaign where hey, we don't have a lot of?

B

um They don't have a lot of decision purchase stage content for a given campaign, so we need something. There. We've also been seeing a lot more I'd, say more consideration, stage, content coming from the analysts, so different versions that aren't just magic quadrants and how do we want to play those in?

B

um They might not want to be using magic quadrons at the front end, and we might want to wait till they're actually showing some indication of Interest dumping a lot out there, but it's just it's a complicated process to figure out what we want from them and then the budget coming from us. That's something new I had not heard from AR, usually when we're buying something with an analyst.

B

The price of the reprints is built in so depending on the cost, we'll just need to.

A

B

I think we need to like expand it over the 12 months or whatever. The rights are.

D

I think it's a replay right, not like expanding like it's. um We did it before with the Forester webcast for devops platform, yeah and.

B

Then you want to use a longer period of time, so.

D

Yeah because it doesn't make sense to display it live once and then some people attend, and then it expires all right. Yeah.

B

So good example, I agreed I'll make room in the budget for it. I ex I put that line item throughout the year for the 12 months that we would have the rights and then Finance jackets that, like no, it was already paid for so I'm like wait like I. Think, there's just a lot of like where, like how is this actually structured, um but Agnes and I have a meeting with Ryan today, so we can at least try to get another sense of like okay from your purview.

B

What's coming, what does the budget look like and try to iron some of this out, but I think first things first like we do need to have a sense from product marketing on if it's, if content Wise It's a good investment for us, because most of the content that he was sharing I'm like this aligns with all the different campaigns we have running so like. How do you make the decision?

B

Does one speak about git lab in a more positive light or speak about the industry in the direction of devops platform in a way that's more effective than the others.

A

And I think to your point: Jackie there's like so many moving pieces with ar, but I think there's one that I think with this one specifically I'm actually wondering, and we can definitely uh chat with Ryan, because this is regarding, like service units expiring, not a particular asset, expiring I, wonder if at least we can um get some timing, you know what I mean.

D

Because, usually.

C

A

Like the expiration date of these units, based on your contract renewal or something real yeah, it's something that I would want to like check with you, because I feel like. If we know it's a yearly contract thing that we have to use it by, then we can plan for them.

B

Questions we need to delve into with Ryan just about like what were the agreements that he signed with the different analysts. What are the time frames and then some of them will not have a time frame like I, think the gigaon radar and 451 research off the top of my head I think those two are unpaid, so they say: hey we're producing this thing.

B

It's coming, or they say hey we have this, do you want to use it and then we're going okay, let's figure out how to get this live and start using it, but should we be more judicious about looking at like how do we want to leverage it before? We just see it as like a snap reaction, and we don't have to like if something's live, that we just got from an analyst.

B

We don't have to do it right immediately, I think if we can activate as soon as possible from the live date great, but in this case there's so much. We can't plan around if they don't. If we don't know the timeline from analysts.

A

But what do you think about you? Because.

B

Like I think, that's.

A

A specific report coming out right, like from say, uh uniform or something but like for with regards to like Forrester Forester, usually like we, we buy it um more from uh like a like, almost feels like we buy points from them. Is it like here's? How many points you have and then you can feel free to use these points for three assets or something that you can think right, but we should like I, guess like in week time when these points will expire. Please, because it feels like from that issue is.

B

That conversation about the last three years so I think so for Forester, but there's also like add-on things that have come through it's all. We need all that information from Ryan. So that's.

A

Like that should be our agenda for today, maybe we'll ask him like which ones can we anticipate and which ones we can't like? You know and then kind of go from there right, yeah.

B

Believe me, the whole process of expiring assets is something that I don't want you to have to deal with, like I've, been doing it for the last four years and I just started pulling Agnes in on it because, like I, trained Zach on it- and he was like my head- is spinning trying to figure out how to do this, like we can't make every campaign manager learn this process because it comes off so infrequently, but it's so detailed. It's it makes you just want to sign your head against the wall.

B

To be honest, so um the choosing them is the more fun part to.

C

B

To figure out the asset like expiration is a whole nother story, so sometimes I even wonder like is the time investment on getting these live and then expiring them are we getting enough juice out of the lemon and make it worth squeezing, or should these really be assets that sales is leveraging in their conversations through high spot?

B

And we just say that's a purchase stage- we're not going to go through the whole circus of getting a landing page that nobody even converts on and we aren't using in our digital campaigns, and we only have it in email, because if it came down to that- and we just made the like concrete decision- We're not gonna have a landing page for this, because historically, our conversion has been little to nothing.

B

um Then I think we can also assess that, because that would mean that maybe that it's not as much on us to make the decision it's on like sales enablement, hey, is this something that we you could foresee, enabling sales on and having them leverage in their um like their sales law goals.

B

So just another thing to consider and that's something: I've talked with Ryan about too I'm like we're jumping through hoops and then when we need to expire, it's actually probably double or triple the time to get all the pieces out of play that we've put into play. So it I, don't know if it's worth the time. Investment except.

D

B

Really Imports.

D

It would be interesting to look at Roi on those reports actually and I. Don't know how we would do that because they're not used like on paid digital unless, like they're a TI or something like that, but I I looked at that Forester video, which took so much time and resource to make, but it wasn't utilized and like it was a very little budget span for pay digital, so the ri was really small as well so I don't know if it's worth it like think all of that you're right.

D

Maybe it's more of um of a sales play.

A

Then we would settle on this being, like bottom funnel assets that leverage myself yeah well.

C

So I don't agree that it's only bottom funnel assets because some like the future of devops will never be the low funnel and actually some some are very general. So that's why it's really important we kind of read through because some of the the reports that Ryan shared was like Automotive specific or like any industry specific. It's really doesn't really, you know, take all the boxes we need and I can't really assign them to one specific, funnel and I. I can only agree with what Irene has mentioned is um Roi is very little.

C

um You know, resources uh requirement is high and in the end of the day, I don't know who actually benefits from those um analyst reports, maybe which is limit one a quarter and be a little bit more strategic, but don't go with. You know higher quantity and just you know let them sit somewhere in in a factory where nobody's using him.

B

Yeah I'm starting a matrix just to like iron, some of this out too, um because I think maybe this can help with the decision framework around this, so one being for what types of asset, because you bring up a good point like it's not just mqs and waves. It's sometimes um like the the more I, don't know what they're calling them these days, but like more end of an analysis of where the industry is going, I can't think of an example right now. The.

C

10. surveys, so basically one was based on the survey about you know like the resources needed for a devops platform and things like that. So it's based on um I guess the survey results. So it's more report type.

B

Yeah, so it's a good example and like what channels would we leverage for that um like a digital?

B

Would we do something on organic social I'm, not sure that would be more of a question um for like well, not will.

A

I I would probably add contents indication um specifically working with these types of vendors targeting senior leaders like director level Plus.

B

It's a good point if there may be a space for it, but that still wouldn't yeah like we might not need a landing page for it. If we're getting the leads back, but yeah no good point.

B

What are like so filling this out with like what are the channels and what are the ones we would use them and what stage reviews like email, potentially for all three um and then when it comes to like the decision making like what, if you have a new piece of content, a like pmm's perspective like would they give it a thumbs up thumbs down and then like campaigns perspective, and we just do this for each new piece of content, that's being discussed.

B

So we have it documented in one spot like what does pmm think and then, where would we leverage it.

A

B

Oops in here like marketing channels and if we're saying, okay, content, a or email only or like sales. Only um and like maybe get sales enablement perspective too.

B

Like is this something that they would use that they could see the sales team using? Then you can make a decision on like okay, if this is only going to be used by sales, but it's something that they would find really valuable. Maybe we do want to buy it, but we don't have to do anything for the piece of content versus hey.

B

This isn't that sales would maybe leverage, but maybe sdrs would- and maybe we could use it in our marketing channels, like I'm, just spitballing ideas on how we could actually make this more of a structured approach. So any ideas totally like drop them in here, but I was so.

A

Framing I was just gonna I think it would be helpful to identify campaign alignment and then Persona alignment to for the specific assets.

A

That way, you can kind of tie it back to your content, Matrix to see how it if it fills a gap, I think we don't even like lines of Campbell. We want okay, so we're so we're discussing assets that they've already developed that they're asking us to sponsor or participate um or spend our credit promoting. Is that correct versus US proactively engaging the analysts to develop an asset according to our outline yeah, it's basically using what they developed to see if that will fit into our current campaign messaging or fill in any gaps, then, okay,.

E

They were talking about kind of formalizing. This is about formalizing. This entire process.

B

Yeah, so we're not slapped with a surprise like hey, make a decision on this and we're like how do we make the decision? Should we actually be making the decision and again I? Think Ryan always comes to me and asks he maybe he's doing that independently with sales enablement too. But it's almost like okay?

B

Well, we can make a decision for marketing, but actually these assets, especially the reports where we are featured as a contender or a like disrupter and it's showing us compared to other um other competitors like that's the type of thing that we typically would give to sales to potentially leverage in a conversation like look. We are a standout winner in this like analysis by an external analyst that everybody trusts and.

E

And it's and you said: go going forward, did you say going forward it's coming out of out of our budget. No.

B

No okay, okay. That is exactly what we need to talk with Ryan about, because I do not know any of his renewals. When does he talk with Cartner? When does he talk with Forester gig on 451 like? Are there other analysts that things come from, because there are cases where it says: hey they just publish this thing. Can we use it?

B

It's like well, if it's free, we can look at how we can use it, but then that sends out someone like a little bit of a fire drill, not that we have to do it immediately like we can always tell him like Hey. This is last second, we'll give it to you in 30 days time, but I think you.

B

We also talked through, like an analysis of what is the return on these I'd, be curious to use high spot data to see today what has sales been using in their pitches um if you're not familiar with high spot, it's basically like a path Factory for sales, where sales sends out like presentations and they can see the engagement data.

B

How long is someone spending on the different slides and then they can like more accurately, follow up with them, based on what they're engaging with whereas path Factory we're seeing the engagement um sales can look at path Factory, but a high spot is built for sales teams. So could we see if they're actually using the analyst relation content and then from our side, do we get form fills out of these? Like? Are people landing on it organically, or is it only when we're pushing to them from email straight into path?

B

Factory, it's maybe an assessment of our current analyst content would indicate to us if it's worth the investment and if we want to pick a couple that are in this list to say: hey, maybe based on our data. We say it isn't worth it, but that's when we're looking at mqs and waves and instead we should think about how we can better use the top funnel content from the analysts.

A

That would be a nice kind of like scripture like like, for example, yeah. We don't have enough stuff, funnel content like how.

B

Can we leverage it also curious if we're seeing every single option available from Ryan or, if he's hand, selecting them or if they're teams like Forester and such are hand, selecting them for him, like we used to see all this CI content and then suddenly, all the waves are different and is that the industry's shifting or is it that we've told Forrester like hey these? Are our Focus areas and they're, giving us back hand selected content?

B

D

A question yeah: it's a great question.

A

Do we have a monthly sync with Ryan I'm, assuming he's AR.

B

Yeah um I've previously again, like I've, gone directly with him, because I think, if you see the process for getting rid of it, you will never want to touch analyst relation content, um it's hard to peel back yeah, but we might need to make it more less of a one point of discussion like maybe we do open that up and have you all sync with him: I pulled Agnes in so she can at least have a second instead of eyes and like perspective on, should everyone be involved in that conversation because sometimes it's so it's not even about choosing content like this is surprising that it's all coming at once.

B

Usually he and I are in the Weeds on. How do we get this landing page down? Is this going to impact SEO? Is this out of the email channel? Are they using this in digital, like we're just in the weeds trying to remove content and and everything's on a different schedule, which is not ideal? Yeah.

A

B

It was on a schedule yeah a similar time or I mean it gives us the opportunity to do more. Pushes, but I can build a stronger approach for analyst content and or decide that certain analyst content is not a fit for marketing and more of a fit for sales conversations.

B

So there's all the layers to them. Yeah analyst content. If anyone wants to learn the supporting process for content, I'm sure.

A

I hear I hear you on the complexity of that, because it's difficult to peel back on anything digital once you once you take it live and then keep track of every single moving piece. Well,.

B

What was helpful too helpful is that using it, so we could cross that we're like, let's take it out of email.

B

Ryan is a whole other analyst page, which then links to it is it used like we just are trying to assess that it's not used anywhere before we take it out of path Factory and make it for somebody, because that's a bad user experience if they land on the landing page organically get into the pages like nothing's there. They fill out their information and don't have anything to show um all right.

B

You guys you all can carry on I need to jump to a call with demand base, but um next steps on this who knows to pick up the analysis of analyst contact, assuming it's all tagged properly in path, Factory I think that if it's really low, we should strongly consider like not investing the time unless it's we have a strategic approach that we want to use with the content.

A

I can I can think of them. I mean I'm already trying to do some analysis for Ryan anyway, on um on our webinars for Forester, so I guess I can thank you. Yeah.

B

I'm with the webinars I'm, a huge proponent of replays, like I, think that when we have an analyst on our Live Events, like those are really huge. So if Also, let's make sure to talk about that with Ryan like how much is the cost of the replay, because we are putting so much investment into getting that webinar those webinars like live and run. We should be leveraging it for more than just a single day.

A

Yeah I think mostly what I was trying to uh figure out what the yeah, maybe that's a good start to see you.

B

Know it's also a bigger one. I want to see what they've produced this year versus the old one.

D

um It's out now, like I, literally just Ryan, just messaged me that the report is in and it's about ultimate like uh it's about GitHub, ultimate, okay,.

B

I, remember that being something that had some pushback like, was it relevant for SMB? So then.

A

Yeah because, basically, it's quite relevant uh with regards to like yeah yeah, so I think for this one, but I think he was trying to figure out if um this CEI report, like is worthwhile to convert to webcast, which we did um previously, this is the numbers I was gonna, do so just to clarify. So if you need any additional ones, uh we can chapter it. Traditional Tei reports, not analysis on what, like analyst webcast.

B

So yeah yeah, possibly.

A

Yeah, that's chapter: it um I'll.

B

Let you all to it um it's a discussion and a lot of no I'm glad we're chatting through it before we go talk with Ryan, because a lot of good food for thought, yeah all right carry on thank y'all.

A

I know we we have a few more minutes, so uh I don't know if you all have anything else, but or are you all happy with that next step where you know we'll, do the analysis I'll try the chapter with Ryan some of these uh try to get some structure.

A

um Or at least anticipate when things will come up or where we can.

A

Anything else we will discuss on this for now.

C

I think just one comment on the organic exposure so before we had like the resources page, which was on the menu, so you know big piece to that execution was to either to resources page and now we it isn't on the menu, so no point there and if it doesn't fit the journey or like the segment. The message I don't know: I had some weird ones coming through that I executed that it just didn't even activate on the email, because one was on the IPO for git lab um again, I I, don't really know it's.

C

It's been like almost seven months when it was produced. It was like old news, so it was IDC report and anyway, some really random ones that I executed and just they don't really have any visits. To be honest because we didn't find the channel for them.

D

The resources page I have an open issue with digital yeah.

D

um Not much movement, but it's an open issue and they have I, don't know um and that due date or something on it, but I haven't seen any movement yet on it. But they want to put it back into the main navigation and possibly update the look and feel.

A

um All right, let us know if you hear anything, but we can follow that issue also so Okay, so I guess with this one that should be taken care of by The Matrix. If we can suggest it right um yeah.

A

C

This is that decision, tree I, think that will help yeah.

A

So I think the decision three would be key to kind of put some structure around it. um So, let's I'll kind of play around I mean I asked Jackie to leave the documents as well. So maybe we can continue iterating on how we want to analyze it. um That's all and just figure out how to roll this out with ar I'll bring it up in the call at least give him a heads up that we may want to do something like this, but I'm sure exactly.

A

I think it would be helpful if we agreed on um like an SLA in terms of promotion timeline like just how much advance notice they can provide to the team if there are new assets that are launching. When are the live dates?

A

um How long do we have um to to analyze each piece of content working with product marketing um and then deciding on you know, different promotion tiers, whether that's one, two or three and then kind of what those minimal assets are, so that if we do need to do a peel back in six, you know six months to a year.

A

um What does that look like and what's the what's, the potential impact of the team and I think that would help us?

A

um You know in deciding whether or not the asset is worth it to launch a market in the first place, like from my experience um like there's a demand gen perspective to this when it comes to um you know, securing responses and then sometimes there's also an executive sponsor response to because a lot of times these analysts will go directly to your CMO and say: hey. We have this great content.

A

uh Why are you not putting in a market, and then in that instance, we become reactive, because then it becomes and our internal executive leader asking us why we're not promoting a particular piece of asset so having this type of decision Matrix would benefit us in the long run, because we can just go to the leadership team and say you know these are our considerations, and these are the steps that we took based off of this Linus light in this SLA makes sense, yeah I, think that will help for sure I know we have kind of slas in activation, but I think the challenge becomes is like sometimes some of these it literally Falls even outside of activation more like.

A

Can you make a decision whether you want to get this thing or not or yeah yeah like this many credits that will expire in like a week besides, now we how we want to use it, that's kind of like the SLA that I don't think, we've chatted about because it just comes to us only and just we have like a week just like all these things or like two weeks and I I, always think that burden would be on the AR team, because it's it's their budget, it's how they're managing it- and um you know, if they're waiting until the last minute to to communicate these types of timelines, then that's really on them and their renewal cycle.

E

So so from our standpoint, it's just it's just driving it and then getting yes or no from each each one of those stakeholders as to whether or not they think they'll they'll use it correct. Yeah.

A

Basically, it's a yes or no, but you know it's still a lot of because, like they give us a list of like seven assets like go figure out which one's useful for your campaign like we still need to take time to read all of these seven right as a campaign manager to figure out like, is this something that I would use for my campaign right and that reading takes time as well, because.

E

Yeah sure and then present, but present it to everybody in some kind of what you know issue or whatever, just an organized fashion. You know like, instead of just throwing things over the fence, yeah.

A

Yeah, what I've seen it's typically more effective when we go to the analyst in a more proactive Manner and we're collaborating with our team on developing content. That specifically serves a need for our brand and messaging and content um versus kind of the inverse, where they're coming to us with survey or or research reports, where there, where we're one of many vendors, that they're that they're listing in whatever asset that they're, promoting we're taking a market.

A

Well, good discussions. I will take try to pick this bit better. At least you know into the call with Ryan next um but yep um anything else. We want to discuss on baseball before we end. We have like four minutes.

A

So hmm all right, well, I guess we can wrap up three minutes early thanks everyone for the for uh the collaboration and discussion, so I will see you all in the next fall weekend. We're all honest! Thank you. Bye.