Five strategies for agile marketing

While some may cringe at the word, we all know we need to be more agile.

Econsultancy recently hosted a roundtable event on Digital Transformation.

The following were five strategies put forward by attendees for becoming a more agile marketing organisation…

Prototype

Ash Roots of Direct Line Group spoke at the event and told of his team’s approach to creating prototypes that might never be used:

We were building sites that would never go live.

His team would build a site in two weeks and then have the harder conversation about whether to integrate that site.

As one example, they developed what they believe is the future of a mobile site. The approach removes the shackles of what exists to allow marketers to aim for what is possible.

Reduce budget expenditure by reusing content

In most cases organisations can re-use existing content to respond to external events. Attendees at our roundtable spoke of the difficulty of responding quickly.

Re-using existing content speeds up approvals and reduces the need for more resources.

Move toward strategic pivoting

Many attendees said that their organisations have moved away from five year plans toward strategic pivoting.

Managers are now being asked for three, six and twelve month plans and forecasts. With shorter time frames for plans and forecasts, it is easier to change resource requirements in response to market change.

Adopt lean methodology

Project size was mentioned as another barrier to agility. A scenario familiar to many attendees was that by the time a huge digital project is discussed, drafted, planned and signed-off, it is out of date and nothing ends up being rolled-out.

Lean methodology can be a remedy; running small pilots, which are on-going with an always-on approach. These can then be used to showcase digital and validate the agile process for other teams.