When the Agile software development methodology came into prominence in the early 2000s with its own Agile Manifesto, it changed how software companies managed their work mindsets and production processes. To put it mildly, it electrified the industry and started spawning unbelievable success stories. Eventually other industries realized Agile could be adapted to their own workflows.
Marketing teams especially found it essential due to these Agile methodology advantages:
1. Customers' needs and tastes constantly change.
Success means delivering products that customers need and want to pay for. But if customer needs are always in flux, marketing teams need a way to adapt quickly otherwise they doom their campaigns to failure or irrelevance.
2. Company priorities are perennially shifting.
With marketing teams bombarded by requests for collaterals, or social media viral hits, or email marketing tactics, there is a real need to stay flexible enough to serve EVERYONE in the organization while still maintaining its own metrics for success.
3. Marketing technologies are always new.
Shifting to new technologies often means changing the way work is processed. While it's never a good thing to try every shiny new gizmo that comes along, without testing new technologies marketers might miss out on the tech that truly makes their work more efficient.
Agile marketing answers all the above needs, providing marketing with the framework to be customer-centric and also entirely flexible enough to handle sudden changes in strategy, direction, or even tools. How does Agile do this?
• By promoting adaptive planning
• By working in iterations
• By promoting communication and transparency
• By allowing rapid response to change
These four benefits are tackled in more detail in the Slideshare below:
4 Reasons Why Marketing Needs to be Agile. Follow us on Slideshare!
If you want truly in-depth strategies for making your marketing team Agile, download the free eBook, 7 Steps to Developing an Agile Marketing Team.
