Agile marketing is gaining significant traction. According to the AgileSherpas’ 2022 State of Agile Marketing Report, over 40% of the 513 marketers surveyed are using some form of agile methodology in their work. Among the 42% who still use traditional marketing approaches, 91% plan to implement an agile framework within a year.
all about speed, flexibility, collaboration, communication, and data. These qualities are essential to navigate today’s constantly changing marketing landscape. It allows marketers to quickly adapt their campaigns and test new strategies in near real-time. The approach is popular because it helps companies manage the entire marketing process more efficiently — from rapidly changing priorities and increasing brand visibility to boosting productivity.
What is Agile Marketing?
AM is a framework that uses self-organizing, cross-functional teams working in frequent short bursts called “sprints.” This enables marketing teams to adapt campaigns and strategies quickly based on continuous feedback and data.
Agile marketing borrows principles from agile software development methodologies, including tools like Kanban, a visual project planning system (think sticky notes on whiteboards), and Scrum, a sprint-based approach to team collaboration. However, since marketing is not the same as software development, agile experts like Stacey Ackerman, a MarTech contributor and agile coach, are developing frameworks like the Agile Marketing Navigator specifically for marketing teams.
Gartner defines agile marketing, or “agile marketing project management,” as a method that uses tools, processes, and organizational design concepts inspired by software development to make marketing programs more relevant, adaptive, and efficient.
Core Values of Agile Marketing
According to the Agile Marketing Manifesto, agile marketing incorporates several core values:
- Outcome Over Output: Agile marketing prioritizes customer and business needs over simply engaging in marketing for its own sake. Teams must agree on a desired outcome before any work begins, ensuring initiatives and tasks are purposeful and collaborative.
- Iterative Approach: Agile marketing focuses on delivering value early and often rather than attempting to launch a perfect campaign right away. It emphasizes efficiency and viability, using simple approaches to quickly seize opportunities and refine them over time.
- Data and Experimentation: An agile approach is data-driven, with learning derived from constant experimentation and strategies based on actual results rather than opinions or outdated conventions.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Agile marketing relies on collaboration using self-organizing teams. It eliminates silos by unifying departments and aligning teams with organizational goals rather than individual departmental objectives.
- Responsiveness: Agile’s iterative approach makes it inherently responsive to changing needs, allowing for continuous adjustments based on market changes, customer needs, or campaign performance.
Why Marketers Should Care About Agile Marketing
Agile marketing is outcomes-driven, allowing marketers to measure success in early intervals and quickly pivot when something isn’t working. By following agile methodologies, marketers can try new things, repeat what works, and support their decisions with data-backed evidence.
Agile teams are collaborative and self-guided rather than siloed and hierarchical. This enables marketers to develop and modify campaigns by coordinating with multiple teams and departments, allowing quick pivoting based on real-time market and customer feedback. This flexibility helps companies remain competitive while increasing efficiency and productivity.
Who Uses Agile Marketing Tools?
Agile marketing tools are designed for collaboration, data management, task management, and team communication. Here are some of the key users of these tools:
- Stakeholders and Practice Leaders: Align marketing objectives with company goals, ensure team members have a vested interest in marketing output, and review progress.
- Marketing, Sales, and Team Leaders: Foster collaboration and facilitate execution.
- Project/Program Managers: Create plans, prioritize work, track progress, and liaise with team leaders.
- Developers and Tech Managers: Maintain tools, develop digital assets, and optimize content/workflows.
- Content Creators and Marketers: Develop content assets, execute plans, and optimize campaigns.
- Analysts: Collect campaign data, create actionable insights, and inform campaign strategy based on data and results.
Technologies That Support Agile Marketing
Agile marketing uses a variety of technology solutions to facilitate team collaboration, break down silos, track performance, and maintain project workflow. Some common tools include:
- Marketing Work Management Platforms: Tools like Adobe Workfront and Airtable help distributed employees collaborate, track hours, and manage data assets.
- Project Management Tools: Tools like Jira and Trello support agile frameworks with Kanban-style interfaces for managing workflows.
- Data Gathering and Analysis Tools: Tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Audience Manager help teams collect data, create insights, and inform strategy.
- Collaboration Tools: Tools like Slack and Asana act as hubs for collaboration, allowing teams to track progress and communicate effectively.
- Customer Data Platforms (CDPs): Tools like Blueconic and Tealium unify customer data from different sources, enabling personalized experiences.
- Digital Experience Platforms (DXPs): Tools like Acquia and Contentful manage content assets, support customer journeys, and optimize messaging.
- Marketing Automation Platforms (MAPs): Tools like Salesforce and Acoustic automate marketing processes such as lead nurturing and email marketing.
How Agile Marketing Can Help Marketers Succeed
Agile marketing helps marketers succeed by being more flexible, responsive, and customer-centric than traditional models. It facilitates close alignment and communication with company stakeholders and customers, ensuring that marketing campaigns align with organizational growth objectives.
According to AgileSherpas, marketers using an agile approach report higher satisfaction and confidence in their outcomes compared to those using traditional methods. Benefits include better handling of fast-paced work, clearer understanding of marketing’s contribution to success, and increased confidence to experiment with new opportunities.
For example, MetLife’s pet insurance division implemented an agile framework and saw a significant increase in policy sales. This success allowed them to roll out the agile approach to other departments, demonstrating the iterative nature of agile marketing and its ability to refine strategies until finding a winning formula.
The Future of Agile Marketing
Agile marketing is still in the early stages of adoption. Marketers need more training, certification, and confidence in using agile tools. However, its popularity is growing. According to AgileSherpas, 31% of respondents reported their marketing departments are fully agile, and 62% of partially agile teams plan to go fully agile within the next year.
Agile frameworks are also extending beyond marketing teams to promote total organizational agility. Data from AgileSherpas shows that when departments like finance and human resources use agile, marketers are significantly more likely to report success.
For agile to be truly successful, executive buy-in is essential. AgileSherpas notes a strong correlation between agile success and executive support. Agile marketing has matured significantly over the past five years, and we can expect even more exciting developments as companies move away from traditional frameworks that struggle to adapt to changing customer behaviors, market trends, and organizational needs.
By embracing agile marketing, companies can stay competitive, improve efficiency, and foster better collaboration across departments, ultimately leading to greater success in their marketing efforts.
