Marketers face enormous pressure to deliver superior buying experiences that build their brands and increase return on investment. It's not a problem you can solve by throwing more resources at it or amassing more data. 

Marketers need to change how they operate if they want better results. Agile may be the solution. Initially reserved for IT and development teams, agile concepts are becoming more popular as businesses struggle to pivot quickly in response to tumultuous times.

What is agility?

Agile is a flexible way of working that helps organizations meet the changing needs of customers. Agile emphasizes cooperation and creativity, in addition to fast adaptation.

According to McKinsey, organizations looking to be agile need five components:

• A common strategy 

• A clear structure

• Standardized processes

• Engaged people

• Next-generation technology

But building an agile marketing team isn’t as simple as checking those boxes. Agile marketing focuses on the bottom line and business impact instead of traditional deliverables. Teams spend less time planning and more time testing, collecting data, and changing tactics as the landscape changes.

Sprints keep teams progressing without getting caught up in red tape or debates. Marketing teams can use them to execute campaigns or experiment with new tactics (such as A/B testing to see what customers respond to and pivoting from there).

5 steps to launch an agile marketing strategy

Create a marketing strategy that can adapt to trends, shifts in customer behavior, and disruption.

Step 1: Bring a new perspective to the boardroom

To launch an agile marketing team, start by getting buy-in from the top. Leaders need to recognize when the old way of doing business isn't effective anymore. Plus, marketing should take the lead in trying something new.

For agile marketing to succeed, you must build agility into the company culture—which is impossible without executive support.

Since you'll be developing fresh concepts, you’ll have to change the mindset of other business leaders. You’ll have to explain your ideas and get comfortable with questions and doubts. The business needs to accept that not every idea will succeed.

Step 2: Plot your strategic framework

Agile teams constantly refine their strategies as they go. Determine the starting point for your team and map out timelines for your sprints. Flexibility for your team is essential, but you need a clear set of goals and expectations. Say you’re launching a new product. Your past go-to-market strategy may have included a launch day when all assets (such as a landing page, press release, external communications, and a blog article) would go live. After the fact, you’d then review analytics to see what worked and what you can do differently for the next release.

But with agile marketing, you use shorter sprints to stagger asset creation in response to campaign performance. For example, while the initial launch still includes a landing page and external communications, feedback on those pieces influences what you do next. The data could tell you that an FAQ page is more helpful than a blog or that your audience is looking for more in-depth information in an ebook.

So, once you make some decisions about your assets, your team knows they’ll be working on more content to support the launch. Find out the importance of measuring campaign success with attribution and analytics to show how you impacted ROI.

Step 3: Identify your dream team

When you're building an agile strategy, remember that people are at the heart of it. When you've determined what your team will start working on, find the individuals who can make it happen. Empower all team members to experiment, make decisions, and act quickly.

A small group will have a better chance at success than a large one. Not all hands make light work. Additional voices in the room lead to multiple opinions, reviews, and approvals. Lean agile teams prioritize speed over endless debate. Go to bat for your team and push back on other lines of business as needed. Although IT, legal, or other departments want a say in marketing plans, agile teams should operate with minimal interference.

Step 4: Invest in technology that supports your mission

Marketing technology has changed the way businesses operate. With automated processes, comprehensive data collection and analysis, and artificial intelligence that speeds decision-making, marketers are moving faster than ever before. Get up to speed on the latest marketing news, trends and events with the Inside Modern Marketing Newsletter.

Step 5: Sprint!

In order to know if agile marketing works for you, try it out with your team. Let them complete several sprints and adjust your course as needed. In today's changing world, strategizing for a few weeks at a time instead of months or a full year is an effective way to respond to changes and experiment with new ideas without interrupting plans.

Build agility into your marketing team

Agile marketing is only possible with the right martech stack. Comprehensive data will prove critical when doing so. It makes quick, effective decisions possible. That’s why investing in powerful technology is an essential step in creating an agile team.

Don't sit back and wait for unexpected issues to derail your project. Provide your team with a structure that leaves room to change course. There will always be challenges, but you can put your team on a path to success with the right contributors and technology.