Marketing from the early days of the 21st century has evolved a great deal from the traditional ways of print and billboards. The internet age may have introduced some simplicity to the marketing world. But several major hurdles still exist for marketers to move through a set amount of work efficiently. Along the line of the marketing function’s continuous evolution, agile methods were an effective way to release better work for improved business outcomes.
Today, Aile marketing has become a lot of things for modern marketers exposing the agile framework to several misconceptions. Here’s a guide on agile marketing and how to leverage agile principles for better work and conversions.
Agile Marketing Defined
Principles of agile software development may have existed longer than we know. Identifying the marketing function as agile may have existed in marketing circles long before what is currently the norm. However, the forward-thinking meeting in 2012 that led to SprintZero’s introduction took agile marketing beyond restrictive core principles into an adaptative mindset.
The agile mindset inspired a cultural change with new items like the Agile Manifesto, which has become the basis for agile work. In a nutshell, the agile marketing approach focuses on pooling collective efforts from multiple individuals to scale high-value projects. Agile marketing works in several ways. But its main components include:
- Sprints: A sprint relates to the deadline or given time for which a small team needs to perform a work item. It could be a couple of weeks to under half a year. The first step is to reduce work to actionable elements and individual tasks chopped into short sprints. The agile marketing process’s primary objective is to designate a set amount of work to the right people who can get things done at the end of the sprint.
- Stand-up meetings: Daily stand-ups can be the next step in agile marketing projects. The agile team lead needs to facilitate daily stand-up meetings ensuring team members always attack each new day with optimum clarity. Standups afford an independent team with the clear goals needed to work at an increased speed.
- Board: Boards help track project progress in agile development. It can be a whiteboard with colored sticky notes for easy identification. A simple Kanban board that lists tasks in a hierarchy can also guarantee incremental delivery.
- Team work: Traditional marketing can be led by a star team player whipping up all the ideas for a marketing team. The team lead is the content marketer and shoulders all other marketing functions. Going the agile way puts every stage of the work in the hands of the entire marketing team. Each team has a seat at the table and has a shot at decisions that can make and unmake an agile team’s strategic vision. Agile marketing embraces failure as a collective, unlike traditional ways where the star team player takes the fall when things go south.
Agile Marketing Characteristics
Agile marketing efforts have increased in adoption over the years. According to the State of Agile Marketing Report, about 51 percent of today’s marketers favor the agile approach. And the agile marketing approach is underpinned by some key characteristics, including:
1. Efficient Collaboration
The concept of marketing as an engine driving visibility and lead can’t be a stand-alone function only left entirely to a marketing department. Efficient marketing requires a culture of collaboration feeding on interdependencies across other departments. And cross-functional collaboration is a mainstay of agile marketing implementation. At the end of the day, marketing isn’t shy of knowledge work that requires deep learning tactics with an appetite for constant experimentation and results to effectively meet customer needs.
2. Data-Driven Decision Making
Agility denotes resilient operations unperturbed by any obstacle or external interruption. The only way to manage such an environment is through data management. Hard data affords the agile team insights to run the agile workflow efficiently.
3. Frequent Iterations
Agile disciplines allow for openness. Practicing a culture of transparency can be the best way to access frequent feedback and rapid iteration.