What is Agile Marketing?

Agile Marketing is an approach to marketing that takes its inspiration from Agile software development and that values:

Responding to change over following a plan
Rapid iterations over Big-Bang campaigns
Testing and data over opinions and conventions
Many small experiments over a few large bets
Individuals and interactions over one size fits all
Collaboration over silos and hierarchy

The goals of Agile Marketing are to improve the speed, predictability, transparency, and adaptability to change of the marketing function.

 

Agile Marketers also support a set of principles, statements that expand upon what it means to be an Agile Marketer.

 

Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of marketing that solves problems and creates value
We welcome and plan for change. We believe that our ability to quickly respond to change is a source of competitive advantage
We deliver marketing programs often, from every couple of weeks to every two months, with a preference to the shorter timescale.
Great marketing requires close alignment with the business, sales and development
Motivated individuals build great marketing programs. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.
Learning, through the build-measure-learn feedback loop, is the primary measure of progress
Sustainable marketing requires you to keep a constant pace and pipeline
Don’t be afraid to fail; just don’t fail the same way twice
Continuous attention to marketing fundamentals and good design enhances agility.
Simplicity is essential.

 

Agile Marketers follow a process called Scrum, designed to increase alignment with the business aims of the organization and the sales staff, to improve communication, both within and outside the marketing team, and to increase the speed and responsiveness of marketing.  The process copies that of agile development, with some differences in the details.
Agile Marketing Process

 

This process is iterative, allowing for short marketing experiments, frequent feedback, and the ability to react to changing market conditions.

To learn more, check out the featured posts section to the right.  You can also subscribe to my blog for regular updates on Agile Marketing.

This Post Has 181 Comments

  18. Pingback: 8 Good Guesses For What Marketing Will Become in 2013 | POSTMKTG

  20. Pingback: Learning to fail, the agile way - AIDA Marketing Support | AIDA Marketing Support

  25. Pingback: B2B Marketing Trends: watch! | The Marketing Department

  27. Pingback: Five B2B Marketing Trends to Watch | Seo Experts Services

  35. Arden April 4, 2014 Reply

    Thanks for this valuable post. It is always great to read your content. As usual, it delivers insights and examples that are useful. Agile is an iterative and adaptive process where small, highly collaborative teams work in a series of short cycles, incorporating rapid feedback, to deliver emergent solutions, emphasizing transparency among all stakeholders.

    2. Lubi February 9, 2019 Reply

      First of all, agile is not a process but rather an approach or mind set as Jim pointed out as well the 17 creators of “agile”.

  40. Pingback: 3 Must-Have Traits to Thrive in an Agile Marketing Environment

  44. Pingback: There a new trend amongst us: Agile Marketing • The Customer Marketer

  45. Pingback: Agile at Get Fresh | Playbook

  52. Pingback: Playbook | Playbook

  53. Pingback: Customer Service Playbook | Playbook

  55. santosh jain February 6, 2015 Reply

    Sustainable marketing requires you to keep a constant pace and pipeline
    Don’t be afraid to fail; just don’t fail the same way twice

  60. Pingback: Important Social Media Tendencies for Manufacturers in 2015 | Posts

  64. Pingback: Agile Marketing in Social Media | Gabriella Mari Garza

  70. Pingback: How to Successfully Launch Your First Marketing Automation Program | Articulous.net

    1. Jim Ewel March 27, 2017 Reply

      Thanks for the comment, Daniel. I checked out the article you linked to and found it quite helpful.

  171. AR Ranieri June 18, 2019 Reply

    Hello Jim,
    Thank you for the useful article. I’m very new to Agile Marketing and I has a question I hope you can answer. I see that there is always a team mentioned in the Agile Methodology but I wonder if you can work with this approach also when your project are run by only one person which is my case. Thank you. Anna

    1. Jim Ewel June 18, 2019 Reply

      There are some aspects of Agile Marketing that can be applied by one person. First, you can practice Personal Kanban. I do this myself, and find it to be very helpful. There’s a good book on Personal Kanban by Jim Benson. Second, you can apply the iterative, testing and emergent approach to marketing, rather than the long plans and campaigns approach. I hope that helps.

  172. Youssef November 4, 2019 Reply

    Many thanks for sharing. A great article

  173. Agile Metrics February 23, 2020 Reply

    Recently, we’ve published a detailed guide to agile-metrics. We made our own in-depth research backed up with a trusted expert opinion and resources.

  174. amapiano 2020 April 30, 2020 Reply

    Agile marketing is a tactical marketing approach in which marketing teams collectively identify high-value projects on which to focus their collective efforts. … After each sprint, they measure the impact of the projects and then continuously and incrementally improve the results over time

  175. Marketer January 7, 2021 Reply

    Many thanks for sharing. A great article to be shared on social media

  176. William Hruska January 25, 2021 Reply

    Great article with a lot of information. Thanks for sharing.

  177. Zumm December 18, 2021 Reply

    Great article and thank you for sharing this. I did my dissertation in agile and this article has contributed a lot.

Leave a Reply

Leave the field below empty!


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.