Introduction to Agile Marketing
Agile marketing is a methodology invented by software developers and this approach enables you to become more effective by putting in the same amount of work.
Agile marketing is a strategic marketing approach where the marketing team communally identifies important projects of high value to focus on. These projects are then completed by the entire team, their impact measurement and the result is continuously improved over time. Agile marketing makes the marketing department more efficient. It enables the team to work unitedly with the sales department, customer service and the other departments in the company to get fast feedback and better results.
Need
Agile marketing keeps the company ahead by disintegrating the project into smaller portions known as “sprints”. They are then rapidly addressed, according to the changing market conditions and also the data collected from customers other prospects. These sprints can cover two to four weeks.
It enables the marketing department to rapidly adapt to the ever-changing environment, new strategies are integrated, better-suited technologies adopted and focus is kept on the most effective ones.
The company can take advantage of the upcoming new trends, products can be brought to the market faster and thus competition can be taken care of.
Agile marketing brings value to the business in the form of profitable revenue growth and is also beneficial to the customer.
Developing an Agile Marketing Team
For agile marketing to develop, it needs to have certain prerequisites. The organization needs to have a clear vision of what it wants to accomplish with the agile initiative. Sufficient data, analytics and proper infrastructure should be present. The senior leaders must also shift to agile so that there is support whenever this new way of working encounters resistance.
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Another important feature is to bring together a small but talented team of people who can work with speed, possess the required skill, who can be released from the day to day business to work together full time. The team needs to be small enough to be accountable to each other, 8 to 12 being the maximum size.
How does an Agile Marketing Team Work?
Below is a list of work/process for a successful agile marketing team.
1. Aligning with the Leadership and Setting Goals
Firstly, the team meets with the leaders of the marketing department to identify the goal. It is made clear that the former rules and norms do not apply, regular collaboration, speed, putting aside the regular business, discussing opinions and keeping the customer at the center of all decisions.
Analyzing Data and Identifying Opportunities
Now the real work of putting in insights begins. Identifying irregularities and issues is on the agenda. A standup meeting is held each morning for a quick report on what has been accomplished the previous day and the plan of that day. This is a very powerful practice as everyday accountability makes all strive harder to achieve.
2. Designing Tests
For every irregularity or issue that has been identified, the team develops ideas and a method to test those ideas. The testing methods have key performance indicators (KPI). The tests generally have two criteria: the impact on business and easy implementation.
3. Running Tests
Tests are run to check whether the implemented ideas have worked. It is important for the team to show efficiency so, short and to the point, meetings are held and a streamlined production and approval process is put together.
4. Agile Organization
As the team works its way through tests, the results of these tests will start showing across the marketing organization. As the tests generate promising results, more agile teams can be added which can parallel in a company.
Each team should focus on a specific goal, product or service based on the requirement of the company. It is recommended that new agile teams should be added only when the existing one is operating effectively.
As the agile teams grow and their capabilities increase, they can also take responsibility for establishing business rules and executing them too.
Agile marketing allows an organization to:
- Response fast to the changes in the market.
- Produce campaigns that can be tested, enhanced and upgraded over time.
- Try various processes and repeat the ones that succeed.
- Improve marketing efforts by using inputs from other departments.
- Choose the best campaigns and projects on the basis of actual data.
- Work together with team members for the best approach.
Implementation of Agile Marketing
Every department will have a different agile format which will work best for them, but its implementation will have these 4 features in some form.
1. Sprints
This is the time given to the team to finish its current work. It can range from 2 to 6 weeks. Some projects may be large enough to need more than one sprint so that the work can be managed better in parts.
2. Stand up Meetings
A fifteen-minute stand-up meeting should be done every morning, to discuss the work done on the previous day and plan about that day’s work. Any obstacles or issues should be discussed and sorted right away.
3. Tracking Project Progress
Everyone should have an easily accessible way to track the sprint, whether a whiteboard or software so that the related points can be noted down then and there.
4. Teamwork
A project might be owned by one person but the success or failure of the project lies on all the team members. It is the cooperation and collaboration of all.
“Going Agile” “is not something which we can cross off our list once we adopt the procedure. It generally takes two to four months to start seeing the benefits. Even after these few months, the organization will keep finding new ways of improvement. To avoid stagnation, there needs to be someone on the team who is dedicated enough to keep perfecting the continuous changes. As we all need to agree, that there is always room for improvement and all we need to do is to keep identifying those opportunities which need to be improved.
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