Agile Marketing

Originally posted on RBM Blog

I had the pleasure of speaking on a panel for the first ever Agile Marketing Meet Up hosted by Atlassian. It was a great event and I really enjoyed the conversation with fellow panelists Jascha Kaykas Wolff and Paul Willard. I learned quite a bit from their experiences.

I wanted to highlight some of the key points I made in my presentation and my observations on Agile Marketing.

As all of us are aware and experiencing the fact that marketing continues to be disrupted. We now have to work at the pace of digital:

• Technology has disrupted marketing which, I think is fantastic by the way.

• Companies are facing less brand control — it has become a two way conversation. They no longer get to dictate the brand but now have to find new and authentic ways to influence it.

• There is increasing media fragmentation with new channels being created rapidly.

• The good news is there is lots of data now, but the bad news is that we are now paralyzed by all of the data.

• The days of simply building a website and walking away are over. No longer can one write a marketing plan for the year. Nothing stays the same.

• This increased complexity of marketing means one needs a team of cross-functional experts that can adapt quickly to an ever changing environment.

Most companies are ill-prepared for these changes, and not structured to succeed in the midst of so much turbulence.  Many of them have old structures in place and team silos that prevent the cross-pollination of ideas and knowledge.

So what has become abundantly clear to me, is that companies have to be built for change. And that is where Agile Marketing fits in.

What does Agile Marketing mean to me?

• I see Agile Marketing as a shared set of values that can help guide us as we navigate the tremendous change occurring in marketing. It creates a framework, in a sense a new operating system, for marketers.

• Agile Marketing is an excellent platform for managing constant change and enables us to benefit from it rather than be penalized by it.

• One of the most important elements of Agile Marketing is delivering remarkable customer experiences in collaboration with stakeholders. Marketing is now about creating experiences in an ecosystem of media and channels.

• It increases the velocity in which we can deliver these solutions to our customers.

• It is about interaction and collaboration over processes and tools. I can’t stress this enough. Most projects and products fail because of poor communication.

• An important aspect of Agile Marketing is the ability to take small steps to reduce the risk, time, and cost of trying new things. This is key and what an agile approach enables. Given how much innovation is occurring, you need to build experimentation in to your marketing strategy.

• Marketing strategy is a constant evolution. It needs to be responsive to the various stages that a customer goes through, and evolve with the customer.

The principles/values that are important are important to me, as I think about how to implement Agile Marketing at RBM:

• Alignment – in my view, brand has never been more important, and it is the glue that creates consistent and passionate experiences for employees and customers.
   
• Culture– marketing starts with your employees, and emanates across the company. It is no longer a department, but a business strategy.
   
• Cross-functional but small teams move faster and collaborate better. They need to have the ability to adapt and the power to make decisions.

• There is now an increased need for better knowledge management and communication.

• Continuous improvement and assessment is critical. Constantly asking how one can improve regardless of the result, which means having access to the right data and analyzing, is important. Feedback loops are key to implement.