As a regular reader of this blog, or even a first time visitor to us, you'll no doubt be well versed in the practices of digital marketing. There is no need for me to wax lyrical on the challenges faced with an increasingly fragmented media landscape, continued growth and influence of social and the customer demands to be spoken to as a"segment of one". I'm going to take it as a given that you've seen the proof, experienced it yourselves in your organisations and are "sold" on the challenges you face.
So what do we do about this?
The answer is beautiful in it's simplicity. We need to become more agile in our marketing.
Agile Marketing, a burgeoning concept that is highly lauded by the few who have adopted it, puts your customer at the very heart of everything you do. That may sound a little obvious, perhaps even a little simplistic at first glance, but think a little deeper on it. If the customer is at the core of every decision you make this means they influence:
- The projects you're working on.
- How and when a project or product is deemed ready for the market.
- Your promotional spend (where and how much).
- When, how and from whom you gather feedback.
- How and when a project is deemed a success.
- The type of job roles you hire - the team you build.
- How your team structure their working day.
- Product development cycles.
- Cross departmental collaboration.
- Office layout and structure (we'll come onto this).
We've discussed above the importance of having the customer at the core of what you do, but below I'd like to highlight some of the other key takeaways that he bring's up in his presentation:
Silos are structured for company benefit not users
Working in silos is sub-optimal so why do it? Some of the great innovative companies of today (3M, Pixar, Apple, Google) recognise this, it's no coincidence that they've structured their companies to work together and ensure cross departmental interaction on problems. Pixar are a great case in point, following the extended difficulties they had with Toy Story 2 Steve Jobs immediately moved all of their employees under one roof and ensured that everyone interacted no matter what their job role. The result? A catalogue of incredibly successful animated films. For more on this you should read Jonah Lehrer's Imagine: How Creativity Works.
Most great things don't happen in meetings
A great point! Meetings in their traditional format can be a massive time (and productivity) sink but they are also fundamentally necessary in collaborative projects. The agile framework of a daily standup, where you discuss only 3 things (what you did, what's in process, any complications) will focus the meeting and ensure actionable takeaways come from it. Make your meetings better and build in accountability and visibility for all, everyone will know what their next tasks are and how that will impact eachother's work. Trello and Scrum for Trello are great tools to help you with this.
What can we take on in a 2 week cycle?
The bigger picture is important, but what are those first steps you can take? Focus yourself and your team on achievable small goals. Avoid the paralysis so often encountered when trying to aim too big too fast and, as a result, never making inroads into a project. Additionally, during the 2 week cycle and feedback phase you may find yourself heading down the wrong track. But this is no problem, you'll have the agility to adapt and shift focus for the next iteration.
It's ok to fail
Possibly the hardest pill to swallow here, but remove the mentality that failure is bad. By employing the agile marketing ethos, failure becomes a very real and regular occurrence. You're moving quickly, you're going to break things! But those failures are small, they are short term, they do less damage to the company and they ensure you stay on the right track to reach your big goal. Embrace the chaos, designate a scrum master to remove any impediments to shipping and ship often. Then remember to gather feedback as part of the process, bring the customer into the fold and make them part of the product development process. This will ensure they build an emotive connection with your brand, feel invested in the project itself and you ensure what you're delivering has genuine value and demand. Let nothing get in the way of being valuable to the customer!
Today's CMO has a hell of a task. They must juggle the overwhelming influx of "big data", an ever changing digital landscape and increasing demands from their audience for personal relevance. They must finely balance the risk of innovation, whilst ensuring maximum ROI for their budgets and investments, and demonstrate bringing in real value to the business. It's a challenging and versatile role, that requires a flexible mind set and a sound business brain. We believe that building an agile marketing framework into your team will provide a lot of the solutions to these challenges. Not all of them, this is no silver bullet, but you will build a flexible, nimble and adapative team that can both plan ahead whilst deal with the demands of the "here and now". Below is our manifesto for you, embrace these principles and you shall be set for a successful future online:
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Who has embraced agile marketing in their teams? Any case studies or conflicting opinions? Please do share them below in the comments.