The marketing world is ever-evolving and as new technologies come into play, businesses are required to adapt faster than ever to understand consumer needs and to meet the demands of their customers. This new school of business requires flexible marketing leaders and effective marketing methodologies that enable teams to keep up with competitors while being able to quickly shift their thinking to adopt new marketing practices. While this sounds exhausting, the practice of agile marketing is an effective way for marketers to keep pace with industry changes while garnering real results for the businesses they serve.

How Agile Marketing Works

When using an agile marketing approach, teams collaborate on high-value projects in sprints. They aim to complete these projects quickly and cooperatively and once completed, they work together to measure the impact of their efforts and determine areas that can be improved. The team will make changes & iterations to their processes between sprints to improve the results of their marketing efforts.

The History of Agile Marketing and Sprint Zero

While agile marketing isn’t necessarily a new idea, it was in 2012 at an event called Sprint Zero that it truly gained momentum and became a solidified marketing practice. At this event, marketing leaders gathered to discuss the future of modern marketing and developed the Agile Marketing Manifesto — a comprehensive document that outlines the transformation of marketing into an agile profession.

The Benefits of Agile Marketing

Agile marketing provides marketers with opportunities to incorporate new methods and technologies regularly while quickly adapting to changing markets. Additionally, it’s a great way to ensure that marketing campaigns are effective by checking results regularly and optimizing techniques over time. Other benefits of an agile marketing approach include:

• Marketers have the opportunity to obtain input from other departments or team members regularly
• Teams can try a variety of approaches and quickly see their results
• Collaborative approach encourages marketers to gather ideas and think outside the box
• Data is consistently available to support campaign ideas

How to Implement Agile Marketing Methodology in Your Organization

If you’re looking for a way to ensure that your marketing team is consistently outperforming competitors and improving their processes, implementing agile marketing is a great place to start. Agile marketing practices can be customized to meet the unique needs of your business but it’s important to incorporate the following features in some way:

• Project Sprints: Sprints are quick bursts of working time in which your team has to complete current projects — this typically ranges anywhere from two weeks to as long as six weeks. If you’re working on a major project, it’s good to keep in mind that multiple sprints might be required to get the job done.
• Daily Progress Meetings: Each day your team should have a quick meeting to discuss the progress they’ve made the day before and issues they’ve encountered or overcome. If issues are persisting and preventing a team member from adequately completing their work, the team should come together to solve the problem immediately.
• Progress Tracking Board: Whether you use a traditional whiteboard or a digital solution, it’s important to create a visual that enables your entire team to view and track progress.
• Collaborate Team Environment: While individuals might be responsible for individual aspects of a project, the project itself is the responsibility of your team. It’s important to have team members who are prepared to collaborate on all parts of the project so that issues can be dealt with quickly and projects can be completed on schedule.

How to Determine if Agile Marketing is Right For Your Business

Before you dive in and transform your entire marketing process, it’s important to determine if this is the right approach for you. If you’re currently working with a team of marketers who are happy and produce results, sticking with what you’re already doing or adopting a hybrid approach, such as Scrumban, might be a better way to go.

However, if your team is overworked and underproducing, agile marketing could be the solution. Providing your team members with the opportunity to collaborate with peers in a more structured way can take pressure off them and ultimately, can increase productivity among your team. Additionally, if you’re struggling to keep up with competitors, the agile marketing approach might be just what you need to gain a competitive advantage.