Marketing Opinion South Africa

Why marketing professionals need to consider an agile approach

Thriving in a digital world demands the ability and the willingness to adapt. The agile methodology, despite its relative newness to marketing, has moved beyond the testing phase and has proven that it not only belongs in marketing, but can also transform the capabilities of marketing teams.
Photo by Kaboompics.com© from
Photo by Kaboompics.com© from Pexels

A recent study of marketers who have adopted agile marketing showed that 93% said agile methodology helped them to improve speed to market (ideas, products, or campaigns).

Marketing organisations need to change the way they work to drive increased performance and achieve the effectiveness and efficiency they need to stay relevant in the market. Agile offers that flexible, collaborative, data-driven approach. What's more, 87% of agile CMOs have found their teams are happier, more satisfied, loyal, and innovative. They engage more in their work because they have control over it. Let's face it - the marketing industry is tough!

Here are eight reasons marketing professionals are adopting a more agile approach

1. Enables better internal communication

One of the biggest reasons businesses should opt for agile marketing is because it transforms communication within the marketing team. Daily scrum meetings ensure every team member knows what the other is working on, and any challenges that may arise are immediately resolved.

2. Enhances productivity

Marketers who choose agile marketing experience increased productivity. The term 'productivity' refers to projects and user stories completed, points scored, and results. As every marketing task warrants a different level of effort, teams assign value points according to the level of work required to complete each story. Visitors to a site, return visitors, bounce rate, trials, and sales are all metrics to be considered. No matter what you measure, the objective should always be enhanced productivity and velocity of the marketing team.

3. Imparts competitive boost

Improving the productivity of marketing and adopting a customer-centric method boosts the overall competitiveness of the business and increases customer satisfaction. Timely delivery of projects results in faster time-to-market, which in turn drives better ROI and explosive business growth.

4. Mitigates marketing costs

Agile marketing is a cost-effective solution that helps businesses yield long-term results from their marketing efforts. It enables companies to efficiently and effectively increase their reach to a larger audience without any exorbitant investment in multiple solutions.

5. Ensures employee satisfaction

Happy marketers exhibit better productivity. According to a survey, agile marketers are more satisfied with their work management approach when compared to others. This is because agile marketers have a better ability to prioritize their tasks and accelerate the delivery of projects. When visibility, communication, and coordination improves amongst teams, morale does too. It's, therefore, no surprise that an increase in the quality of work and employee satisfaction go hand in hand.

6. Facilitates transparency

Agile marketing provides clear insights into projects being delivered by the marketing department. Sprint review meetings allow management to give constructive feedback, which subsequently leads to better results. It also affords team members the opportunity to bring up tangible contributions they've made, and be acknowledged for their hard work. Transparency, however, is not simply limited to team members, but also requires marketing to work closely with their customers to provide honest services to them.

7. Allows measurement of results

Measurement and accountability are the fundamentals of agile marketing. Agile marketing teams typically execute small tests to measure results. Based on these findings, they invest more time into strategies that prove to be working, and less time into those that don't. Additionally, it enables marketers to effectively communicate their contributions to management using data and metrics

8. Makes work fun

Agile marketing provides an open atmosphere to discuss projects, challenges and achievements, as well as an opportunity to better know your team mates. Daily standup meetings mean you're always looped in on what others are working on, which in turn leads to a more cohesive, empathetic, and accountable team environment. One of the biggest assets of agile teams is the inherent nature of collaboration and self-management.

About Ramatsobane Masemola

Ramatsobane Masemola is a junior writer at Work Agile
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