Objectives

Serve the needs and interests of our key audiences:

  1. Users of GitLab: software developers and IT operations practitioners.
  2. Buyers of GitLab: IT management, software architects, development leads.
  3. Users of and contributors to OSS on gitlab.com.

Generate demand for GitLab by:

  1. Showcasing the benefits of the most important GitLab features and how they can save time and money.
  2. Compare GitLab vs competing products.
  3. Provide customer case studies which illustrate 1 and 2.

    Scope

    The GitLab marketing website, or simply the “GitLab Website” refers to all of the content on https://about.gitlab.com except the blog and handbook.
    The website does not include
  • The Docs: docs.gitlab.com
  • The GitLab.com product: gitlab.com
  • The Handbook: about.gitlab.com/handbook
  • The blog: about.gitlab.com/blog

See Where should content go? to learn which web property is the most appropriate place to put different types of content. To learn what section of the website different content belongs see definitions.

Definitions

Topics

A topic is an industry trend, theme, or technology related to GitLab and our customers. For example, DevOps, GDPR, Containers, etc. Topic pages on our website educate the reader about the topic and share GitLab’s point of view while providing additional links to resources related to that topic. These pages are intended to attract search traffic.
Topic pages should exist at the root level of the website without being nested inside of another directory. e.g. /continuous-integration
Examples of other companies who have topic pages:

  • https://www.redhat.com/en/topics/containers
  • https://pivotal.io/containers

  • https://pivotal.io/topics

    Solutions

    A solution is a combination of products and services that solve a business problem. For example, accelerating software delivery, enabling remote teams, ensuring compliance, etc. Solution pages on our website show the application of GitLab capabilities and services to address a business problem while providing additional links to resources related to that solution.
    Solution pages should be nested inside of the solutions directory. e.g. /solutions/continuous-integration
    Examples of other companies who have solutions pages:

  • https://www.redhat.com/en/challenges

    Product section

    The product section of our website has pages that describe what GitLab does and the value provided. The functionality of GitLab is ordered in a hierarchy with 4 levels: Stage, Categories, Capabilities, and Features. You can find details on the Product Categories Handbook

  • Stages relevant to users are listed on the product overview page with details about the stage on the stages page.

  • Categories relevant to users are listed on the product overview page.
  • Capabilities are listed on the category page they belong to. Capabilities may also have their own landing page.
  • Features are listed in many places on the website: on the features page, the capabilities page they belong to, the pricing page, comparison pages, and the ROI calculator.

Category pages should be nested inside of the product directory. e.g. /product/continuous-integration
Examples of companies who have product/features pages: https://mailchimp.com/features/https://www.groovehq.com/features

Compare sections

There are two comparison sections on our website, /compare/ and DevOps tools.
The DevOps tools section provides an in-depth, feature by feature comparison of GitLab and our competitors. Pages in the DevOps tools section are maintained by the Competitive Intelligence team, which is part of the Strategic Marketing team.
Pages in /compare/ are shorter and focused on a single Call to Action that offers relevant resources to visitors arriving via paid advertising. Pages in /compare/ are maintained by Digital Marketing Programs and Marketing Program Managers.
Examples of companies who have comparison pages: https://postmarkapp.com/compare/sendgrid-alternative https://www.zendesk.com/support/features/zendesk-vs-intercom/

Overlap

Similar content can appear as a topic, solution, and in the product section with different emphases on each page. For example continuous integration:

  • A topic page: /continuous-integration would talk about what CI is at a functional level.
  • A solutions: /solutions/continuous-integration. would talk about why CI is important for businesses to adopt.

  • A category page /product/continuous-integration would talk about the capabilities and features that are part of GitLab’s CI functionality and the value it has.

    Ownership and responsibilities

    Everyone can contribute to the marketing website. While the Strategic Marketing and Pipe-to-Spendteams have primary responsibility over the website, the goal of these teams is to build systems, structures, and processes and empower everyone to contribute. Below is a breakdown of the ownership between Strategic Marketing and Pipe-to-Spend.

    Website team

  • The website team (part of marketing) is responsible for the design and development of the website.

    Digital Marketing Programs

  • CTAs (Calls to action): The Digital Marketing team owns all buttons on the website including which pages get CTAs, the text used and where they link to. (Note: the website team still owns the design and styles of the buttons to ensure they are consistent and on brand.)

  • Build and implement online growth strategy:
    • Search Engine Optimization
    • Paid search and social
    • Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and a/b and multivariate testing
      • CRO Process: Not all changes to pages need to be tested, only pages that we want to optimize for conversion activities. These pages/elements are often being tested
        • Homepage
        • Top navigation
        • Pricing page
        • Free trial
        • Contact sales
      • Please check A/B test issue board for pages you plan to update. The URL will be the first word or HP for the homepage. If you have an update to any of the pages in the Doingcolumn contact @lbanks. More details on CRO and testing in the Online Growth Handbook section
  • Web analytics, tracking, and reporting
  • Request a tracking review for a new campaign
  • Our Google Tag Manager system is designed to flexibly track a variety of events using Google Analytics across about.gitlab.com. Whenever we launch a new campaign we need to verify tracking performs as expected. Please use this issue template to verify campaign tagging.
  • These items are values we across about.gitlab.com to maintain our web analytics workflows.
    • CTA buttons must include cta-btn in their class. looks for this value to fire Google Analytics events and without it we won’t be able to see how visitors interact with our CTAs.
    • Forms need to push appropriate event label to trigger conversion tracking through Google Tag Manager. See the Marketing Operations page for the event label list.

  • User journey optimization

    Updating the Marketing Website

    Naming conventions

    Use consistent language across the site when naming links, page names, directory names, page titles, etc. If you see inconsistent language, log an issue to correct. We use american english on the site. Here are some examples below. If in doubt, ask in the #marketing slack channel for language help.
    Do use nouns when appropriate

  • /product/

  • /community/
  • /events/

Do use the imperative tense as much as possible

  • Get started
  • Install
  • Contribute

Don’t use noun forms of verbs

  • Installation
  • Contribution

Don’t use present participle (“ing” words)

  • Installing
  • Getting started
  • Contributing

Nouns may end in “ing”

  • Pricing (link to with the imperative “Get pricing” or “See pricing”)
  • Training (link to with the imperative “Get training” or “Find training”)

    Minimum Viable Change

    Use MVCs to update the website. Create new pages and add the minimal amount of viable content. You can add images and more content in iterative steps.
    We have 10-20 seconds to tell visitors why they should stay on our pages. Tell visitors what value the page will give them. Start with a high-level summary opening the page. This could be as simple as a single sentence, but we shouldn’t put the burden of discovering the value of the page on visitors.
    The page title and URL should include keywords visitors might use to discover the page you’re creating. If you’re not sure what terms a visitor might use, ask the Digital Marketing Programs team for suggestions in your Merge Request. We have a list of high priority topics and recommended keywords to use