Agility: A Key Trend in Marketing for 2023.
How many times have you found yourself making a plan that you were convinced would work, only to encounter situations that, one by one, pulled you further away from your goal?
And what did you do then—did you adapt to the new circumstances or stubbornly stick to your original plan?
Maybe these questions have prompted you to reflect on your personal life, and no, we won't fault you for that. Today, however, we're going to delve into the concept of business agility. It goes without saying that when you adopt it as a business model, you can easily extend it to your lifestyle.
In 2021, over 50% of marketers embraced the agile work methodology. They broke down their projects into smaller, manageable steps, meticulously measured and closely monitored their activities' results, and consistently adjusted to the evolving landscape. Let's be honest: while strategy and long-term goals are essential, sometimes the short-term approach is the most effective way to achieve desired results.
As defined in the 2012 Agile Marketing Manifesto, agile marketing prioritizes audience-focused strategies over perfection, with a focus on tangible results. Agile marketers actively conduct experiments, closely monitor developments, gather feedback, and adapt accordingly. Collaboration plays a crucial role in agile marketing, with teams formed to ensure all members can contribute to every aspect of the project they're involved in.
"Agile marketing is likely the dream of every marketer—to set deadlines well, divide the work, and monitor every result along the way. However, the reality differs both from the client's and the agency's perspective. Our work is extremely dynamic, which is why even with the best organization, one of the links may fail. To ensure success from the start, it's crucial to have, or at least explain to the client, the benefits of planning campaigns, projects, or strategies in advance. Equally important is having a team that is ready to share and accept responsibilities, be accountable for their work, and meticulously monitor every metric. This way, when you need to react and make ad hoc decisions, you can be confident in your choices," believes Đina Grčić, account manager & copywriter at Smartpoint Adria agency.
While imperfect, agile marketing offers numerous advantages. Thanks to team engagement and cooperation, results are achieved faster, and with a well-divided workload, teams are also more productive.
Collaboration in agile marketing means transparency. Since every team member is involved in the project, open communication allows clear visibility and tracking of each segment—there are no secrets; everyone is aware of everything, and all information is readily available. It's crucial to note that this transparency applies not only to internal team dynamics but also to client relationships: only then can we ensure we're on the right track, delivering as expected within a suitable timeframe—through clear and frequent communication and feedback.
"If you're unsure about expectations or encounter doubts during work, don't hesitate to request a meeting with the client or the team for an open discussion and clarification, as every project member should have the same information. It's perfectly acceptable to ask questions and, if necessary, negotiate deadlines. Anticipating additional client expectations or needs in advance and offering solutions is also beneficial," advises Đina Grčić, account manager & copywriter at Smartpoint Adria agency.
As the name suggests, probably the most important characteristic of agile marketing is its flexibility. Agile marketers do not stick strictly and blindly to the plan but follow events "outside" and adapt to new changes. This means that reaching the goal can change several times during a shorter period if that decision is based on measurement and testing, which brings us to the following: agile marketing is data-driven marketing. Activities are always coordinated with feedback, concrete data, information, and previous results, because that way one does not wander but reacts in the most objective way possible.
However, it should be mentioned that the topic of monitoring the results itself is something that does not receive enough attention, says Grčić, raising the question of whether only numbers are important—such as the number of achieved conversions, clicks, search engine positioning, or how much the brand is talked about—or how many people were actually influenced by the value of the brand?
"Every campaign and every project have their own metrics—they cannot be duplicated and always look the same," she adds.
In the end, if we approach work in an agile way, we can increase our competitiveness—by monitoring results, adapting to changes, and repeating only what has proven to be good, we are actually always striving to be better.
To summarize the above: adaptation in planning and execution brings more innovation. Experimentation leads to improvement. Commitment to the audience and results enables flexibility, productivity, and faster completion of tasks. A positive outcome of this way of working is greater employee satisfaction, as they are more motivated to dedicate themselves to their work. However, to not only rely on such utopian work principles, it is necessary to assess whether, when, and how best to implement the concepts of agile marketing.
Here is some useful information: This form of marketing includes so-called sprints, which are deadlines for completing tasks. Usually, it is a shorter period, say, from two to six weeks. At the beginning of each working day, a meeting of a maximum of 15 minutes should be held to summarize what has been completed previously and what will be done next. For agile marketing, visualization is extremely important. In this sense, marketers use Kanban boards to monitor project progress, which are quite similar to vision boards but include text rather than photos and resemble a kind of excel table, only in material form.
Agile marketing cannot work without teamwork and cooperation, so make an effort to create such a work environment and really enable employees to contribute to the common project, each in their own domain. Like sprints, teams should be "mini"—it is believed that seven is the optimal number of members.
This approach to marketing can be considered the healthiest. Each of us "from the industry" has been dissatisfied with the outcome of a project at least once, but if we are agile enough, we will not consider it a failure, but will learn from our mistakes and be better next time. Adapt to what is happening around you, experiment, and don't be afraid to change the original plan—neither in marketing nor in life.
For Marketing mreža website text written by: Ivana Tomić, Smartpoint Adria Brand Specialist
Photo: Unsplash