Agile marketing: how to implement it?

You already know the agile method applied to project management, but did you know that agility can also be adapted to the specificities of marketing? Agile marketing is a new trend that is very successful, especially with SMEs. Indeed, this new approach allows companies to be more flexible, responsive and adaptable in the face of increasingly frequent market changes, without affecting their performance.

For example, by practicing agile marketing, marketing teams can modify a marketing campaign at the last minute or test a product before investing significant amounts of money to launch it.

What is agile marketing?

Agile marketing is a flexible, iterative, and customer-centric approach based on the principles of agile method used in project management. It allows marketing teams to plan and execute marketing projects or campaigns together, quickly measure their impact, and continuously improve the results.

Initially created for the management of IT projects, the agile approach promotes collaboration and exchanges between the client and the project team. It takes into account the unexpected and allows sudden changes to be incorporated into the project through short cycle work (called iterations). The project is carried out step by step, each one being validated by the client to ensure that it meets their expectations before moving on to the next one.

Having become very popular, the agile approach is no longer only reserved for web or software project management, but it is adopted by other sectors such as marketing.

Today, we live in a world that is changing at breakneck speed, and implementing a marketing strategy over a period of 6 months or more is no longer at all appropriate. The market, consumer habits and digital marketing tools (social networks, emailing, Google, etc.) are constantly evolving. It is therefore becoming essential to master the new tools as quickly as possible and to be able to easily modify your marketing campaign so that it is in line with the needs of the company and the requirements of consumers.

Thanks to agile marketing, your company is able to adapt quickly to the various changes and evolutions of the market, which allows it to remain competitive and sustainable.

What characterizes agile marketing?

Agile marketing follows a number of principles:

• Short iterations : the marketing team works over short periods of time called “sprints”, which last between two and six weeks. The objectives and action plans change at the start of each new sprint based on the evolution of the market as well as what the team learned during the previous sprint.
• Flexibility at all costs : changes and unforeseen events are inevitable, so it is essential to be flexible and to be able to constantly adapt your marketing plan to the vagaries of the market and the changing behaviors of consumers.
• The importance of testing : the marketing team is regularly experimenting with new ways of doing things. For example, it tests two versions of an ad with different samples of prospects. It will broadcast the advertising that has obtained the best results. This is called A/B testing.
• The importance of data : it is essential that the work of the marketing team is measurable in order to know what works and what does not work. Employees thus rely on precise indicators to make the right decisions.
• The elimination of the silo organization: agility encourages collaboration between all marketing departments (product manager, research manager, data manager, copywriter, web designer, community manager, etc.), or even between all employees in an organization.
• Customer satisfaction : in an agile culture, customer satisfaction is at the heart of teams' concerns. In agile marketing, maintaining a good return on investment is also a priority.

How to implement agile marketing in your business?

Do you want to implement agile marketing in your organization?

Follow these 3 tips to get there.

1. Get your team ready

As we saw above, if your marketing department is compartmentalized (SEO, social networks, etc.), you must start by breaking organizational silos in order to promote collaboration between all marketing skills and allow for better communication, greater flexibility and employee accountability.

Next, make sure everyone on your team understands the principles and goals of agile marketing.

Finally, you need to clearly and precisely define your goals, what you want to achieve through your agile marketing strategy (improving the customer experience, increasing your website traffic, developing your contact list, etc.) so that everyone on your team knows what direction to go in.

2. Plan your sprints

It's important to plan your sprints so that each team member knows their roles and responsibilities. To do this, determine which project (s) and tasks will be carried out during a sprint, assess the priorities of the sprint, estimate the time and effort required to complete it, and define the people in charge.

3. Choose the right tools

To promote communication and collaboration within the team, you need to use the right tools. Project management software such as Wimi is perfectly adapted. You share your files and documents in a dedicated space and secure; you exchange in real time with your collaborators; you follow the progress of projects and tasks directly; you view the key dates of each sprint.

In short, such a tool allows you to be effective and to promote the development of agile habits within your team.

Conclusion

To summarize, agile marketing is an adaptive and non-linear approach that offers flexibility and responsiveness in the implementation of marketing campaigns.

With agile marketing, the marketing team quickly identifies what is working and what is not working, and can make the necessary adjustments or improvements more quickly than with traditional marketing.

To implement it effectively in your organization, you must prepare your teams well, plan your sprints and adopt appropriate tools.