What is Agile Marketing and How to Use it to Improve Your Marketing Performance

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It’s hard to sift through all the buzzwords and jargon floating around the marketing industry. What should you listen to? What will have an impact on your business? What’s worth ignoring?

It’s not easy to know what trends and terminology are worthy of your attention. But if you had to listen to just one, agile marketing might be the one you’ll want to watch.

 

What is Agile Marketing?

Agile Marketing takes a page from the “Agile Development” playbook.

Agile Development aims to:

  • React instead of plan
  • Make swift updates over major overhauls
  • Use data instead of opinion
  • Put individual needs over larger target markets.

When executed correctly, companies are better able to adapt quickly to change and improve speed, predictability and transparency in marketing tasks. That sounds good, but what does that look like in real life?

 

Implementing an Agile Marketing Strategy to Boost Performance

Think of Agile Marketing as a constant sprint. Because it’s goal is to move you quickly through the market’s demands, Agile Marketing requires you to sprint through each stage. From planning to retrospective reviews, your marketing strategy is always on the move.

Here’s how to manage a typical Agile Marketing campaign effectively:

 

Minimize the Planning

Sounds scary, doesn’t it? For people who rely on solid plans before moving forward with any task, this strategy can feel unnerving.

Putting too many details on paper limits your ability to ebb and flow with the market’s needs. Instead of thinking about your marketing campaign as a full-blown campaign, break it down into bite sized, easily managed chunks. Instead of crafting extensive reports and expectations, write your next marketing campaign in a simple outline format. For example:

  • Stage 1: Begin Initial Buzz Creation
    • Send press release
    • Schedule social media image releases
    • Add creative to the website
  • Stage 2: Drive Customer Engagement
  • Stage 3: Introduce New Products
  • Stage 4: Analyze and Shift Course Where Needed

 

Give Yourself Room to Grow

The goal of Agile Marketing is to change course continuously and quickly. If you start with a big campaign, you won’t have as much flexibility to make those fast-paced shifts.

Start small and give yourself room to grow. This way, you’ll have a better opportunity to react to changes, obstacles or challenges as they inevitably come your way. It’ll save you money and build a stronger brand image. Through that, you can bet that the performance of your marketing will improve.

Have you ever used Agile Marketing in your campaigns? Tell us about it in the comments.