The world of marketing has been abuzz with chatter about agile marketing. The agile process was first identified with software development; after which the same techniques were used to come up with a marketing style. Most marketers and business managers have plenty of reasons to adopt agile marketing, as the key values of agile software development techniques namely adaptation, collaboration, and iteration will have a positive impact on their marketing campaigns.
All early adopters of agile techniques have nothing but praise for agile methods over traditional ones. As of 2016, highly agile marketing executives reported a 25% rise in profits, while non-agile marketers admitted to wanting to do more with their teams. 97% of companies that juggle many projects are opting for the agile marketing process for better adaptation. This is the reason why most of the professionals opt for Online Scrum Master Certification.
If you would like to jump from the status quo into this winning marketing methods, this article will show you the importance of agile marketing, in addition to how it works:
First things first: what is agile marketing?
Agile marketing is essentially an organizational effectiveness technique that uses self-sufficient and self-organizing teams to perform their tasks in frequent iterations. The main reason to adopt agile marketing is that it focuses on team efforts on campaigns that benefit your customers.
Many marketers are also applying agile marketing techniques as they are less stressful, with 36% of teams being able to switch gears quickly if feedback prompts them to do so, and 30% of marketers experiencing increased professional satisfaction and motivation.
The benefits of agile marketing:
The primary benefits of agile marketing are seen in the effectiveness brought by the major principles by which it works:
Response to change over following annual plans
While planning is crucial, agile marketing plans take a different approach altogether. Instead of bulky yearly plans, you come up with a short program to get all team members on board, then meet at least once every fortnight to determine whether our strategies are working. If not, then the team changes them immediately. This method of work makes your business flexible enough to adapt quickly to changes in the market.
Frequent iterations over massive campaigns
With traditional marketing methods, marketing teams and executives meet and come up with campaigns that will run for anywhere between three and twelve months. These campaigns are communicated to an agency that draws up the creative bit, the agency gets back to the team, and the campaign is run for at least six months. This process consumes a lot of time and resources.
Do you know about the business marketing strategy? The one which concentrates the resources of targeted accounts. It is an account based marketing strategy (ABM). It hosts the marketing from the existing accounts to encouraging the largest selling from the top accounts. It is beyond lead generation thus takes the holistic view of marketing.
To be an instance, ABM (account-based marketing) is a huge approach for large business accounts and the B2B community. It is generally for the companies, who try to sell a large number of goods and deals in the larger sizes. It does even provide more benefit to marketing approaches.
In agile marketing, an iterative approach is sought; small, short strategies are laid within half an hour, along with ways to test their effectiveness and measure results. If the strategies work, they are documented, and those that did not serve as learning opportunities. These short cycles are far more effective than the traditional cycle.
Testing and results over conventions
In agile marketing, the strategies are chosen based on metrics, analytics and test results rather than the opinion of the marketing executives. With the right metrics, better decisions are made because numbers do not lie; they give an accurate picture of what is on the ground. The use of metrics also provides a more accurate description of the team’s efforts, contributions, and results.
Many small experiments over a few big stakes
In agile marketing, the 70:20:10 rule applies. Here, 70% of the budget allocated to marketing is spent in campaigns and tasks that work, 20% of the budget on improving these result-driven techniques to get even better results, and 10% on unconventional ideas. This approach reduces the risk factor associated with massive investment in big stakes and provides an opportunity for the team to identify new ways to engage with potential customers.
Collaboration over hierarchy
In agile marketing, collaboration among different departments is essential; top-tier management, sales, production, and all other relevant departments should communicate and set priorities and goals together. This value means that the teams often meet over scrum meetings, which enhances transparency and openness within the groups.
5 Reasons to adopt agile marketing:
- Ensures speed and more productivity
One of the reasons why Agile is important is that agile teams are smaller, efficient and faster at achieving their objectives. Their campaigns enter and make their mark in the market faster than traditional ones do, owing to their short term strategies and goals. They are also more productive because of the iterative process that leans heavily on customers’ feedback.
- Better professional satisfaction for marketers
Agile teams report better satisfaction than their non-agile counterparts. This may be due to the ability to spend their time and mental resources doing the right things as dictated by metrics and feedback, rather than their superiors’ orders. Agile marketers are also better specialized with their projects, which allows them to utilize their creativity to get results. In addition to the facts above, collaboration enhances cohesion and communication, which is one characteristic of a great working environment.
- Flexibility
The short-term strategies allow for far better flexibility. With agile marketing, you can quickly get back to the drawing board and analyze your metrics for reasons why your current policies aren’t working. You can use customers’ feedback to make the necessary adjustments to your strategies and content.
This flexibility also allows marketers to react quickly to sudden changes in the marketing environment and trends. This flexibility enables your marketing team to remain relevant in a dynamic business environment.
- Goals and results are measurable
Agile marketing places its emphasis on small, regular tests and metrics to ensure that the strategies they choose work. Measurability is one great way of maintaining accountability and ensuring that marketing campaigns remain relevant in the current business environment.
- Increases your competitiveness
In this era of evolving technology, consumers’ tastes and SEO algorithms, change is the only constant thing. Agile marketing techniques ensure that your marketing department keeps up with these changes and gets results in spite of them; thus, you can remain ahead of the competition.
Conclusion:
The goals of agile marketing aim to improve the speed, predictability, adaptability, and collaboration to transform the marketing function of your business.
