In today's high-tech world, the pace of communications is accelerating rapidly. The development of the Internet as a communication channel has led to people who are highly connected to each other and expect instantaneous results. Instead of managing television, radio and print campaigns, marketers must also pay attention websites, search engine optimization, social media, mobile communications and more. If you are on a marketing team for a company in the traditional manufacturing space, this will affect the way you promote your products. The methods by which you manage the workflow has to change in order to respond to market disruption and innovate on the fly.
What is Agile Project Management?
In a traditional project workflow, the complete campaign is designed up front from start to finish. This process flows like a waterfall. The problem is that the goals are based on today's view of where the opportunity is as if this were a static target. If the project duration is longer than a year, the market opportunities may change significantly over this time rendering your campaign less relevant to your customers.
With agile project management, the workflow is organized into a series of small iterative steps. At each iteration, the goals of the project can be reevaluated so that they stay relevant to current market conditions. These short iterations, called sprints, often last for one month at a time. The project is broken down into smaller tasks to be completed during the sprint. When the sprint ends, a new set of tasks is planned for the next sprint. This allows the project deliverables to be adjusted in response to real-time market conditions.
Agile and Scrum Methodologies
One way of executing agile project management is known as scrum. In this system, each day the participants have a meeting called a scrum. The goal of this meeting is to check in with the team and let everyone know how the project is going. The meeting is supposed to be short and sweet, so everyone remains standing. Each member of the teams shares what progress they made yesterday, the scrum master assigns the tasks for the day and short-term progress is charted out. This allows the team to innovate daily as they work on the project. They can respond effectively to setbacks and problems or take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
How Can You Apply Agile Methodologies to Marketing Projects
Agile methodologies are highly successful in software development projects where teams of developers must remain flexible in order to take advantage of opportunities presented by emerging technologies. Marketing teams must also remain flexible to take advantage of the rapid flow of information and communication in today's society.
Instead of brainstorming a creative marketing campaign that will be launched in 18 months, marketers have to remain flexible and respond to trends in social media, communicate with customers and respond immediately to changes. Managing campaigns with agile methodologies promote this. The tasks of a marketing campaign can be broken down by hours. Each day specific hours can be assigned to the team for each task. So things like planning, research, writing and editing can be assigned daily to keep the campaign moving forward. The daily scrum allows the team to respond and adjust to changing conditions.
Examples of Agile Marketing in Action
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Trending Topics: The advent of social media has opened a space for people to drive conversations that span the globe. For example, one day a security guard named Greg Heaslip emailed his boss to request some time off for a vacation. Instead of forwarding this request to human resources, Greg's boss accidentally sent the request off to everyone in the company – over 3000 people. People in the company start joking with each other online about the request, but eventually, what started as an inside joke went viral. #GiveGregTheHoliday was born, and people around the world started to express their support for Greg's vacation.
Brands with agile marketing teams can respond to this trending conversations. Trek America, a travel company, sensed an opportunity. They tweeted an invitation to Greg to take a free trip to Las Vegas. No one seems to know if Greg actually took this trip, but the more important result is the promotional value of this single tweet inserted into the right conversation.
Because Trek America's agile marketing team was organized to respond to online conversations related to its brand, it was in a position to capitalize on the opportunity presented by #GiveGregTheHoliday in a way that traditional marketing teams could not.
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Newsjacking is another way agile marketing teams can respond to trending conversations. Piggybacking on the right news story allows marketing teams to participate in a larger conversation while promoting their brands.
For example, a recent pop culture news items featured actress Kate Winslet. She was visiting millionaire Richard Branson on his private island when a fire broke out in his home. Winslet reported rescued Branson's 90-year-old mother from the fire. The London Fire Brigade took advantage of this opportunity to promote themselves and their work by offering Winslet the opportunity to take some rescue training with the Brigade.
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Marketing in Real-Time allows marketers to plan marketing activities to live ongoing situations. For example, a big high-profile event like the Superbowl can be an opportunity for agile marketing teams. For example, Kraft took the 49ers Superbowl loss as an opportunity to promote its brand. It sent thousands of cases of Jell-O to drop sites in San Francisco to console mourning fans.
Customer Use
- “We’re combining marketing, technology, and the creative process into one set of iterations. We’re building the look and feel of the Website, the customer journey, [and] our knowledge of persona into the product design and content at the same time.” --Ben Watson, WhatsNexx CMO and Carsurfing marketing advisor
- “Shortening time to insight has been really critical. How quickly can you synthesize data and take action on it?” --Lisa Arthur, CMO Teradata Application
- “Because of the volume of projects that come up in the Web environment, you’re changing things on an ongoing basis. A way to manage those and prioritize them, so you’re always working on the highest value projects is very much congruent with how agile operates.” --Barre Hardy, senior director CMG Partners
Benefits of Agile Marketing
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Enhanced speed. Campaigns get released much faster with agile marketing.
- Adaptability. Campaigns can be flexible and adjust to changing marketing conditions.
- Productivity increases. The continual evaluation and prioritization of tasks make teams more productive.
- Identify high-impact opportunities. Agile methodologies help teams to identify tasks that will make the most impact and devote resources to those tasks first.
- Customer Focused. The ability to respond to market conditions puts the focus on the customers and allows marketing campaigns to be more relevant to what customers want at the time.
All these benefits add up to business results
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The speed, productivity and increased relevance of marketing leads to improved business results.
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Employees that work on agile teams are more satisfied with their work. They see more clearly how their role has an impact on the business and the world.
Matrix Marketing Group can help you implement an agile marketing strategy so that your brand's marketing can navigate today's challenging communications landscape. Matrix Marketing Group professional are trained and use Agile and Scrum methodologies. Agile methodology used in software development yields greater marketing effectiveness and efficiency.
