Getting Started with Agile Marketing How-To Guide
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The document presents an overview of agile marketing, a flexible approach to marketing planning and execution that is adapted from software development practices. It emphasizes the advantages of agility over traditional waterfall methods, highlighting the importance of collaboration, quick adaptation to change, and continuous evaluation. An action plan is provided to help organizations implement agile marketing strategies effectively.
Getting Started with Agile Marketing How-To Guide
- 1. How-To Guide © 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Agile Marketing Executive Summary When you hear the word agile, you probably think about agility, which refers to a system’s ability to change by adapting to its new environment. Similarly, agile movements are quick, light and easy. When we speak in terms of marketing, Agile Marketing is a method for planning and executing a marketing plan borrowed from the world of software development. Instead of long, “waterfall” methods of development that too often results in delayed or out-of-date products launching later than planned, the agile method follows a simple process of build, measure, and learn. Agile Marketing, then, is the application of these methods to marketing. Marketers all over the world are adopting this method to the extent that 2013 has been dubbed “the year of Agile Marketing.” This How-To Guide defines why Agile Marketing is important and outlines its key principles and identifies and action plan for getting started. Why it’s important While Agile Marketing is relatively new, it’s projected to make a big impact on the marketing landscape in 2013. To understand why, consider some of the differences between Agile Marketing over the traditional waterfall method: Responding to change as it occurs instead of sticking to the plan. Testing of products and using data instead of following opinions.
- 2. How-To Guide © 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Collaboration with employees instead of silos of hierarchy and upper management. Several small testing phases over one large plan. Engagement with employees instead of posting a plan set in stone to be followed. The waterfall method refers to traditional marketing plans that involve a fixed sequence of stages throughout the project lifecycle. You would not move to the next section, let’s say product design, until you had completed the previous section, in this case, research. The marketing plan was oriented vertically with a series of cascading steps, hence the waterfall association. The problem with this method is that it does not account well for project or plan delays, which are far too common. Once a section of work is complete in a waterfall plan, there is no return - or no climbing back up the waterfall. Agile Marketing improves marketing by enabling what the waterfall method never could – completing work in smaller chunks and adapting quickly and effectively to change. Through a system of checks and balances, Agile Marketing lets you evaluate your projects while they are works in progress. When something isn’t working, you’ll know it sooner, in time to try a new approach. This lets you make decisions more quickly about when it’s time to abandon part of the plan altogether. The value of this approach is flexibility. You cannot predict with 100% accuracy the market or how well your plan addresses its needs, but with Agile Marketing you can quickly adapt your plan as necessary, allowing you to achieve better marketing results.
- 3. How-To Guide © 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. How it’s being used Most marketing departments operate on a rigid set of scheduled timelines. There are usually annual targets and quarterly targets, but these targets are often unclear and don’t leave room to adjust to market changes. This is where Agile Marketing comes into play. Rather than having your team operate in large, time consuming “sprints”, it is much more efficient to work in shorter and more defined sprints, such as monthly. This allows your team to touch base consistently about where they are in their timeline and what is going on with the work they own. It doesn’t mean that you throw out your annual plan, it just means you work on smaller monthly goals that will all add up to your annual objective. In order to achieve the best results, it is important that everyone on your team have an equal opportunity to contribute. It’s time to abandon the silo and get everyone working together, whether a junior employee or regional manager. Employees at all levels and in all departments can bring something unique to your plan – the Agile Marketing approach gets everyone involved in creating and successfully executing your marketing plan. Most businesses using Agile Marketing have adopted the scrum technique: a cross- functional team, consisting of six to ten people. The idea here is simple: each scrum has a project deliverable (the user story) and works in sprints. The scrum meets frequently (stand-up) with the other groups to discuss your progress and get feedback, thus improving future sprints and project deliverables. At the end of each sprint, there is a review. Here you will determine if your goal was met and discuss possible improvements for the next sprint, and then the cycle repeats. Each sprint builds upon the last to achieve success in your overall plan; however, breaking each project down into smaller pieces will make your marketing plan much more manageable.
- 4. How-To Guide © 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Agile Marketing Action Plan While the concept of Agile Marketing has been around for over a decade, it’s only now becoming mainstream. Here is an action plan that will help you get started with Agile Marketing: 1. Assemble a Scrum: Build a cross-functional team, consisting of six to ten people. 2. Select a Deliverable: Define a task/user story - unit of work with expectations for a specific set of results. 3. Identify Story Points: The effort required to complete a task or user story. 4. Determine the Sprint: A period of time allocated to complete a unit of work, ranging from a few days to a few months. A Sprint represents a commitment to complete the work in the allotted time. 5. Schedule Standups: A frequent meeting (daily or 2-3 times weekly) of all project members where each responds to three questions: What did you do yesterday? What will you do today? What barriers are you encountering? 6. Review & Refine: Conduct a review at the end of each sprint and document lessons learned.
- 5. How-To Guide © 2013 Demand Metric Research Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Bottom Line Agile Marketing is the future of marketing. The success of your business ultimately depends on your ability to plan and execute well. Traditional marketing plans, based on the waterfall concept, take a long time to create, have notoriously short shelf lives and do not adapt well to rapidly changing marketing conditions. Agile Marketing overcomes these limitations and helps the organizations that use this method function as a nimble competitor.