Agile is a method used in software development to speed up execution and achieve better results for marketing projects. Agile has been taken over by teams working in other areas such as governance, civil engineering and marketing.
As interest in agile marketing grows, consulting firms are trying to apply the six values and four advantages of adopting agile principles to marketing teams that work with their customers and internal marketing teams. Agile has evolved as a way to help software development teams, but other groups such as product management, project management and marketing also use Agile concepts in their own work. In order to achieve the best results, marketing teams must make progress in adopting the agile mindset as part of this new work way of working.
Agile marketing is an application of agile values and principles to control the way marketing teams do their work. It originated in the world of software development, where an agile way of working benefits well-functioning marketing teams. Agile methods are used by development teams by focusing on collaboration, communication and iteration to accelerate time-to-market, reduce waste and risk and respond to new trends and opportunities.
Inspired by the term “agile” in software development, agile marketing is a marketing strategy in which teams work together to realize projects in short, definite periods of time. Agile marketing teams use sprints, short, finite periods of intense work to complete high-quality projects. It is a conscious, long-term use of certain agile methods to manage and improve the way a marketing team does their work.
If you ask me, there aren’t many marketing teams that don’t benefit from an agile marketing approach to their work. To implement agile marketing, your team needs to develop plans in scrum meetings, work sprints and track progress through a task board. If you want to test new team structures, test new tools or adjust your WIP boundaries, here are some ways that agile marketing works for your team.
We want our team to be agile (lowercase: nimble, responsive, and adaptable) and to guide your marketing team along agile lines to set you up to do things better. Agile marketing works best when your team of talented individuals who perform specific functions and work well together need a clear direction of what they want to achieve and how they will do it, as well as what agile initiatives they want to improve, such as specific customer trips, targets they want to acquire, etc. Once you have defined and shared your expectations, ensure that every single person in your agile marketing team is ready to embrace a new way of working that requires hard work and teamwork.
To clear up any confusion about what Agile means in marketing, start with a consultant engagement and ask the team working there to write a post about what Agile really means to them. Start with what you want to achieve with your goals, get the backing of a senior marketing executive who can stand up for you against the rest of the team, and bring a small group of people with you to explain the new way to work with them. Cut an Agile Marketing Manifesto for the team that combines the principles of agile work with the identity and goals of the organization and produces a message telling team members how Agile Marketing can help them achieve their goals.
Marketers can use agile techniques to deliver content to potential customers and learn more about how this approach works. Coupled with software efficiency tests, this learning can set in motion a marketing strategy that helps teams identify what works and what doesn’t in the digital age. If you’re ready to take steps to improve the way your team manages marketing projects and workflows, it’s time to start reading and get to work.
It is a project management framework which takes the principles of agile software development which allows teams to work on time and on budget and applies them in the marketing context. Agile describes an approach to software development in which teams work in short steps with frequent release cycles. Agile marketing involves organizational strategies, including refining internal processes, fine-tuning functional teams dedicated to working on frequent iterations, and improving marketing tactics.
If your marketing team is filled with visual learners whose work does not fit into a given sprint timeline, Kanban is the agile framework for you. If they are burnt out and stressed and you want to help them get back to an agile approach, you can use Kanban. We can share many tools that are project management and team collaboration software that is ideal for managing marketing projects using agile methods.
