Agile has been a hot topic in the marketing landscape for years. You’ve probably heard terms like “scrum” and “kanban” used to describe the various frameworks that enable iterative learning, flexibility, and scalability. At Beckon, we like to keep it simple and define agile as using data to make better, faster decisions, and ultimately drive business growth. Considering 61% of traditionally structured marketing teams are planning to implement agile by 2019, “agile” is a buzzword that’s here to stay. But what does a truly agile marketing team look like?
Traditional planning cycles are lengthy, and results are notoriously slow to arrive. Consequently, marketers often spend months executing intricate, strict plans only to discover months later that a significant portion of the campaign budget was spent on low-performing creative, audiences, and channels. Agile teams monitor in-flight marketing investments closely and reallocate dollars as they notice low performance, ultimately making those investments go further. The digital era demands a strategy that supports rapidly changing consumer behavior.
Of course, marketing data is core to any effective agile strategy. Testing, learning, and optimizing at the speed of modern marketing demands 24/7 access to performance insights. Implementing an agile strategy allows marketers to do more in less time while using up fewer resources. With good, solid data in tow, brands can quickly identify low performing creative, audiences, programs, etc. and reallocate valuable marketing dollars to the high performers on the fly.
Done well, an agile methodology promotes a culture of experimentation and innovation. Finally, brands can execute a series of low-risk experiments to learn more about an audience group, a new message, or even new channels, knowing that they can be ramp (or halt) investment at a moment’s notice. These experiments help brands better understand their consumers.
If you’re ready to get started, our library of agile resources can help. And remember, in the true spirit of agile, you don’t have to spend months restructuring your approach all at once. Taking simple steps towards a more efficient feedback loop and better, faster optimizations can start with just one campaign, brand, channel, or program.