Agile Marketing – Being adaptive is a matter of methodology. For this reason, more and more teams are cancelling pyramid structures and large long-term projects to approve agile marketing. This new way of working offers the flexibility we need to respond to a changing environment, but it also implies a profound change in the company’s culture. We will see what agile marketing is and the keys to implementing it successfully.
Agile methodologies for product and software development have obtained such positive results that their principles have been transposed to other strategic areas of the business, such as marketing.
In this new market mentality, short work cycles, clear objectives, evidence evaluation, and a focus on results and metrics prevail.
Table of Contents
What is Agile Marketing?
The agile methodology applied to marketing strategies consists of shortening work cycles, prioritizing metrics, valuing joint work and always having the customer at the centre of any action. The four principles of agile marketing are:
– People and interactions are more important than processes and tools;
– Strategies that work are more relevant than complete documentation;
– Collaborating with the client is worth more than negotiating contracts;
– Responding to change is better than following a plan.
According to Moz, a benchmark company focused on SEO, companies that bet on agile marketing have a 30% to 40% higher performance. One of the important names when it comes to this agile methodology applied to marketing, AgileSherpas, revealed that within this work model, there is a 10% better division of tasks between team members; 13% greater visibility on the status of projects; 13% faster identification of impediments and problems; 14% more improvement at work; 18% increase in the quality of work; 17% deliveries in less time; and 16% greater alignment with team priorities.
How to Apply Agile Marketing?
Agile thinking can use several methodologies, such as lean, kanban, and Scrumban. However, marketing teams have been working within the logic of Scrum, a process management model that prioritizes agility and goals with sprints.
Sprints are nothing more than defining cycles to achieve specific results. It is recommended that the limitation period does not exceed one month. At the beginning of the sprint, the objectives of the cycle and the tasks of each one are defined. Quick meetings are held daily for team alignment, also called Stand-up Meetings, as they are so short that they can be done standing up. And at the end of the period, a review is carried out to follow the metrics achieved and analyze the success of the actions.
Cultural Change
The effectiveness of it is directly related to the change in people’s mentality. Through being able to think in short cycles, focusing on actions, and arranging metrics, it is possible to find errors faster, test assumptions, overcome challenges, and achieve results in an agile way.
Even within the shorter project-focused periods, there is still planning and a blueprint for achieving long-term goals. To achieve short-term goals, teams can and should rely on tools that make their work easier.
Characteristics of Agile Marketing
How is Agile Marketing Recognized?
Each of it implementation is different from the rest, although most share some key characteristics. Among them, the following seven should mention:
- Mindset Shift – Marketers on an agile team think about their jobs differently. They exhibit respect, collaboration, pride in ownership, improvement and learning cycles, focus on delivering value, and the capacity to adapt to change. This mindset is compulsory to cultivate high-performing teams with incredible value to your customers.
- Frequent experimentation, iteration, and releases – Rigid long-term plans don’t fit in an agile environment. So instead, an agile marketing strategy should frequently see many small “experiments” launched. The team then smears the results of those initiatives to their next round of work.
- Adherence to the agile manifesto – At the end of the day, the values and principles of the agile manifesto should be the pillar that most decisions about an agile marketing team would have to rest on.
- Servant leadership – Managers, directors, and others act differently in an department. They focus on helping the team succeed, not achieving results at any cost.
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- Teamwork and collaboration – Members of an agile marketing team also behave differently, always looking for ways to join forces to do a better job more efficiently. This tactical approach helps create a better work environment by preventing problems that are so common in marketing departments, such as internal conflicts, rivalry or envy.
- Data-Driven Marketing – All modern marketing teams need data to guide their efforts, but agile teams truly driven by their data; otherwise, how would they know whether or not their initiatives were successful? They ensure that all of their work is measurable and rely on empirical evidence to make decisions.
- An agile team looks, functions, and acts differently. If the group is perceived to be and work in a distinctly different way after adopting the agile marketing approach, it confirms that they are on the elegant path.
Top brands across industries embrace the dynamic and unstoppable approach to agile marketing. Rooted in the disruption-hungry world of software development, the agile approach is a powerful tech industry legacy that has proven to be the perfect solution to today’s toughest marketing challenges.
Conclusion
It involves applying an Agile methodology to manage and improve how a marketing team works. This methodology has several important differences from traditional marketing. Such as focusing on frequent launches, deliberate experiments, and a commitment to audience satisfaction.
The agile methodology has its origin in the software development sector more than 20 years ago. Therefore, it coinciding with the development of the internet. At the time, developers had to contend with ever-changing protocols as they struggled to discover and exploit new network capabilities.
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Review Agile Marketing – Information About, How to Apply, Characteristics, and More.