You've probably heard of agile processes in regards to software development. But did you know those same key values can have a huge impact if applied to marketing, as well? Being adaptive, collaborative, and iterative are necessary skills when we live in a world where Google can pull the rug out from under us at a moment's notice.
In today's Whiteboard Friday, we welcome guest host Jim Ewel, founder of AgileMarketing.net, as he describes what's important in the agile marketing process and why incorporating it into your own work is beneficial.
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Video Transcription
Hey, Moz fans, this is Jim Ewel. I'm the blogger behind AgileMarketing.net, the leading blog on agile marketing, and I'm here to talk to you today about agile marketing.
Agile marketing is an approach to marketing that takes its inspiration from agile software development. Like agile software development, it has a set of values and it has a set of benefits, and we're going to talk about those values and benefits today.
6 Values of Agile Marketing
Value number one: Responding to change over following a plan.
It's not that we don't plan. It's just that we don't write 30- to 40-page marketing plans. Instead, every quarter, we write a one-page plan that specifies our goals, our aspirations to get everybody on the same page, and then every two to four weeks, we reset our priorities. We say, "This is what we're going to get done during this two- to four-week period."
Value number two: Rapid iterations over "big bang" campaigns.
In traditional marketing, we get together in a room and we say, "We're going to run a campaign for three to six months to a year."
We hash out the idea of what we're going to do for that campaign. Then we communicate to the agency. They come up with creative. They review it with us. We go back and forth, and eventually we'll run that campaign for three to six months. And you know what happens at the end of that campaign? We always declare victory because we've spent so much money and time on that campaign that every time we say, "It worked."
Well, we take a very different approach in agile marketing. We take an iterative approach. We start out with a little strategy. We meet for half an hour or an hour to figure out what do we think might work. Then we figure out how to test it. We measure the results, and this is very important, we document the learning.
If something doesn't work, we test it out and it doesn't work, it's okay because we've learned something. We've learned what doesn't work. So then we iterate again, and we try something else and we do that, we get that cycle going in a very effective way.
Value number three: Testing and data over opinions and conventions
Here, again, the importance is that we're not following the highest-paid person's opinion. No HiPPOs. It's all about: "Did we test it? Do we have data? Do we have the right metrics?" It's important to select the right metrics and not vanity metrics, which make us feel good, but don't really result in an improvement to the business.
Value number four: Many small experiments over a few big bets
And I like to talk about here the 70:20:10 rule. The idea behind the 70:20:10 rule is that we spend 70% of our budget and 50% of our time on the things that we know that work. We do it broadly across all our audiences.
We then spend 20% of our budget and 25% of our time modifying the things that we know that work and trying to improve them. Maybe we distribute it in a little different way or we modify the content, we modify what the page looks like. But, anyways, we're trying to improve that content.
And the last 10% of our budget and 25% of our time, we spend on wild ideas, things where we fully expect that only about 2 or 3 out of 10 ideas is really going to work, and we focus those things on those creative, wild ideas that are going to be the future 70% and 20%.
Value number five: Individuals and interactions over one-size-fits-all
Now, I like to think about this in terms of one of the experiences that I have with SEO. I get a lot of requests for link building, and a lot of the requests that I get are form requests. They write me a little message that they're writing to hundreds of other people, and I don't pay any attention to those requests.
I'm looking for somebody who really knows that I'm writing a blog about agile marketing, who's interacting with me, who maybe says something about a post that I put on Agile Marketing, and those people are the ones that I'm going to give my business to, in effect, and I'm going to do some link building with them. Same thing applies to all of our marketing.
Value number six: Collaboration over hierarchy and silos
One of the key things in many marketing organizations is that different silos of the organization don't seem to talk to each other. Maybe marketing isn't talking to sales, or marketing hasn't got the ear of senior management.
Well, one of the things we do in agile marketing is we put some processes in place to make sure that all of those groups are collaborating. They're setting the priorities together, and they're reviewing the results together.
4 Benefits of Agile Marketing
As a result of these six values, there are four important benefits to agile marketing.
I. The first is that you can get more done
I've taught a lot of teams agile marketing, and, as a whole, they tell me that they get about 30% to 40% more done with agile marketing. I had one team tell me they got 400% more done, but that's not typical. So they're getting more done, and they're getting more done because they're not doing rework and they're working on the right priorities.
II. Getting the right things done
Because you're working with sales, you're working with senior management to set the priorities, you're making sure with agile marketing that you're getting the right things done, and that's important.
III. Adapting to change
Part of our life today in marketing is that things change. We know that Google is going to change their PageRank algorithm in 2017. We don't know exactly how, but we know it's going to happen, and we need to be able to adapt to that change quickly and accurately, and we put processes in place in agile marketing to make sure that happens.
IV. Improved communications
Improved communications both within the marketing team and, probably even more important, outside the marketing team to sales and senior management.
By representing what we're getting done on something like a Kanban board, everybody can see exactly what marketing is working on, where it's at, and what they're getting done.
So that's agile marketing in a nutshell. I'd love to hear your comments, and thanks for watching.
Thanks for putting this together, Jim!
Your video was extremely insightful, and I have to agree, this is a fantastic approach to marketing and getting your goals accomplished when the landscape is constantly changing! I think we all love this industry because of how it is constantly changing, but that doesn't make it any easier to stay ahead so you can be proactive rather than reactive with you strategy!
Thanks again for the great video.
Thanks for the kind words Blue Corona
This is a fantastic approach to marketing and getting your goals accomplished when the landscape is constantly changing. I think it is important to have a solid focus on how every part is going to flow together, but being able to adapt will ensure that any road blocks can be overcome.
In my day to day right now there is a client where to get a final approach to a marketing need takes round and round of changes to attempt to meet one goal when by the time we get there a new focus is needed for goals. A more adaptive agile approach to the end result would for sure get the job done quicker.
Good and interesting approach to the marketing atmosphere.
Awesome article Jim! Thank you for sharing your expertise, this is fascinating. When it comes to Marketing Strategy. I am always intrigued by processes that will lead to better efficiency and ultimately more desirable campaign results. Work smarter not harder, right?
I have a similar question to Mr. Bohlman, as far as "where the lines blur between being agile and being reactive."This is something that I am struggling with regarding this new concept as I have definitely learned my lesson picking winning variants prior to them having been exposed to a significant sample size. 2-4 weeks seems to be very accelerated, is this truthfully enough time for accurate measurement of campaign results that will help guide future related decisions? What if the one case is an outlier and we never return to it because we have based our decision off the short test? It seems like there are a variety of scenarios where we could be leaving plays on the field.
I am guessing this is just difficult for me to understand being earlier in my career and not having worked with some of the larger labels that have the traffic and engagement levels that make it possible for them to gather enough of a sample size in that short time period? I saw that in your Response to Aaron/Andrea you mentioned, "If you are testing something on the web and you get millions of hits a day, that period may be very short."
I guess my question in a few words is, how do we decipher the knee-jerk reactions vs. the rapid iterations? I like how you mentioned the sprint does not define the amount of time that is spend on measurement and analysis, but what is our best indicator that we are not jumping to conclusions too early?
Jake, you're absolutely on the right track when you refer to sample size. Essentially, we need a statistically significant sample. If you took statistics and are good at math, you can calculate this using the chi square formula. The easier way is to use a landing page tool that gives you a "confidence factor". I'd look for at least 80% confidence and in many cases more like 90-95%. I hope that helps.
Jim! Solid advice my friend.
Is there any reason we would want to run a Pearson Correlation or Spearman Correlation over Chi-square for 2 variable tests?
Also, when comparing averages what is your go-to out of the following: 1) ANOVA 2) T-test [Paired T-test (Related Variables)/ Independent T Test (Independent Variables)
One more thing on testing, just curious, how often are you using a Simple/Multiple regression analysis or a Wicoxon ranksum test?
Not sure if this is a comprehensive list but those are the ones I remember from my Research Methods course at Chapman. More or less just curious how often you are working outside of the Chi Square distribution test. If the answer is, I use all of these depending on the test, feel free to just give this a thumbs up, I would hate for you to have to go into detail of which conditions you use which test in! We can connect offline about that when time permits!
Jake, you're way ahead of me on the statistics. At my last job, I was CEO and I had a guy who was responsible for running the statistics. Not sure which of these he was running. Happy to connect offline.
Interesting Topic Jim, great points and Agile Marketing values I especially agree with Value number three: Testing and data over opinions and conventions and also Value number six: Collaboration over hierarchy and silos. I work in a HubSpot agency and we have seen great results utilizing this "values" and approaches. Great article sir!
Thanks Nicholas. Hubspot was one of the early adopters and proponents of Agile Marketing. I learned a lot from them. Jim
Nice video Jim!
One question I have, is where the lines blur between being agile and being reactive.
I find that in my team we are so keen to adapt to changes in results or circumstance that we perhaps don't give our efforts a chance.
Maybe the right question is how long should the iteration (or build - measure - learn) cycle be?
I'm sure Jim will have a great answer to this too, but in my experience most Agile marketing teams end up using a 1-2 week iteration. Any longer and there has been too much change to even such a short term plan.
Re: your question about being agile vs. reactive - that's a very smart thing to ask because most of us have to be reactive, but few of us achieve agility. IMO, being Agile (capital A) is about choosing a specific methodology (i.e. Scrum, Kanban, Scrumban, Lean) to manage the inevitable adaptation and change of modern marketing.
Looking forward to hearing Jim's thoughts!
Thanks for your response Andrea, I think 1-2 weeks is a good period of time to get enough data to test a particular hypothesis but short enough that you're not flogging a dead horse for too long either.
In terms of the word reactive, I meant it in the negative sense when you end up constantly responding to events and not setting the agenda yourself. This, in my experience, can lead to a panicked approach which is not conducive to smart decision making. Once again I think if your iteration cycle is right and consistent then this should be avoidable.
I too would be interested in Jim's opinion on this.
Thanks Aaron for the kind words and thanks Andrea for jumping in. I find that marketing teams who practice Scrum run Sprints that are 2-4 weeks long, generally a little longer than most development teams. But the length of the Sprint doesn't have to determine the length of the build-measure-learn cycle. Many teams will build during one Sprint, then keep something in market for however long it takes to get statistically significant results. If you are testing something on the web and you get millions of hits a day, that period may be very short. If you only get 10-20 hits per day, that's obviously going to take longer. The learn portion of the cycle may occur during yet another Sprint. In large companies, the build team may also be different than the measure-learn team, so they may be on different Sprint cycles.
Thanks Jim for the response, that certainly helps answer my question :). So it's combination of time and the quantity of data you can get in that time which defines the length of the cycle.
I always enjoy when someone is enthusiastic about their ideas and materials. Jim is certainly all of that, bordering on an evangelist.
I didn't view this WBF as an ad for his company. I thought Jim was just sharing their methodology and processes. Everything was about how to do it for yourself, not having them do it.
My daughter now works for a company that uses agile and she started talking about her scrum master and poor old dad was scratching his head. Having taken a quick look at your web site and reading some of the linked materials, I now understand what she was talking about. Many thanks for that!
Finally, I agree with most of what Jim said. We believe in constant 'course corrections' when steering our marketing boat. Just because you write down a strategy on a piece of paper doesn't mean you are locked into that strategy. We support the concept of testing everything and following the results.
I agree. I didn't see this as marketing. He presented an approach that you can adopt and use without becoming a client. If you do need to become a client, the most dangerous part of that is finding the right service provider. Here you got a good look at what Mr. Ewel does and his style. You then have the option of reading his blog for free.
HR departments have started applying Agile methodologies to recruitment and its only a matter of time before being Agile becomes a requirement across all departments and not just SEO. For senior SEO managers involved in working with HR to hire new recruits into your teams, I would advise having a look at the Agile HR manifesto https://www.agilehrmanifesto.org/
In my opinion there are both risks and rewards involved with agile marketing. What might not work today doesn't mean it won't work in the future.
Great video though.. Totally agree with 70:20:10 rule.
Thanks for the kind words Farhan. Yes, you're right that there are both risks and rewards. One of the most significant aspects of Agile Marketing is that we shouldn't be afraid to "fail". Failure means learning, and as you say, something that didn't work today, might work tomorrow when conditions are different.
Hi Jim aka Mr Agile! Thank you so much for sharing this. You are absolutely spot on when you say interaction may exaggerate link building. Short term strategies are good for organization who feeds on improvisation. Agile marketing can really push the creative think tanks to the edge. Businesses do have a chance of growing up using agile marketing but I am not sure whether this idea can help internal teams and customers too.
Just loved the post..This is completely a new approach..
Hey loved this post! Actually i'm les knowledge about agile marketing. And i never use before. But you push me think about it and it's really amazing to do that.
Great Article.
Thank you for sharing this.
Dear Jim,
Your post is exacly what I think about how marketing should be done. In my case, I rewrite the strategy every two months and change the things that didn't work for those that do.
Thigs change, the world change. One day we were using Myspace for the next one be using Facebook. We need to adapt (and be constantly trying new things).
Maybe I should be more constant on measuring the results but... I guess everyone has its ways :D
Have a lovely day!
Very good exposure! If we want our projects to work both online and offline we must be constantly updating our knowledge as everything evolves very fast. The one that is not constantly updated will sooner or later end up ruining your business.
Great Post sir,
I am a learner and I invest 80% of my time in exploring new possibilities along with the known ones. This led to slow development process. But from now onward's I will follow 70% (development + optimization) 20% (improving CTR) and 10% (experiments).
Hope to learn more from you.
Thanks once again Jim
Rohit, glad you found it helpful.
Great answer Femi. I couldn't have said it better myself.
Thanks for the video Jim.
This is the first time I've heard of Agile Marketing, but may to try a few of your points, our team do always adept to google changes so i guess we're taking that on bored a tad, but by the sounds of it from your video there's allot more to be done and try out.
As the saying goes 'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail' - Makes sense in marketing!
Agile Marketing is new to me but I will be looking into this. I was trying to get all my notes in the video then realised that there was pictures of that whiteboard further down the page aha.
Jim Ewel Thank you so much for this post, I will be printing this off and showing the team!
Well, that's Agile Marketing. i have a question what is HiPPOs in agile marketing?, also please tell me more about the Rapid interaction.
Highest paid persons opinion
Haha - thanks for that - I was also looking for that answer.
HIPPO is the practice of making decisions based on the HIghest Paid Person's Opinion (HIPPO) rather than using data.
You ask for more information about Rapid interaction; I think you mean Rapid Iteration. At least, that's what I was trying to convey. This is the idea that the faster you can cycle through the Build-Measure-Learn loop, the faster you learn, and the faster you learn, the faster you grow. This is one of the central principles in Eric Ries's book The Lean Startup, which I recommend for all marketers, whether or not you work in a startup.
...was waiting for exactly that reference! :-)
Eric Ries has made a huge impact on how I view almost everything business related. Brilliant book, just go get it and don't ever leave home without it.
Great job, Jim! It's SO HARD to tackle Agile marketing basics in just a few minutes but you covered the foundations really well. Thank you for spreading the Agile word! :D
Hi Jim, love your enthusiasm! In general I try to follow many of the processes you lay out but often the documentation and/or management process proves daunting. Is there a tool or set of tools that you find have helped in this process? I see on your site you mention the scrum methodology as a good starting point with a few modifications, care to throw out any scrum tools you have used or other tips on getting started and getting organised?
Lynn, good question. Right now, I'm teaching Kanban as well as Scrum, and many people are picking and choosing from both to find a process that works for them. The tools I recommend are all Kanban boards. Trello is the most well known in this space, and its fine for getting started but I find it doesn't have some important features. I tend to favor Kanban boards with greater functionality like LeanKit, Kanbanize or SwiftKanban.
As far as getting started goes, get started by documenting your existing process in a Kanban board. Get really clear about who owns every step, and document the policies for moving from one step to another (what constitutes done, what needs to be available for someone to perform this step). Then figure out the waste, and try to improve the time it takes to move something (a campaign, a piece of content) through the process (this is called the cycle time).
I hope that helps.
Thank you for sharing Jim ! I have seen some projets move form V model to Kanban and it's realy awsome. Some times complicate especially in big company with old methods and people who don't want to change their mentality but with some help of a specialist it can be realy gainful.
Keep going :)
It is true that in traditional marketing and online marketing there is a long-term strategy and goal.
Often we have to set long-term goals first then short-term goals. But here we will have to change to accommodate short-term goals and adjust long-term goals
Giaphat, it's not that you can't have long term goals or even short term goals. It's just that we're skeptical that you can make detailed long term plans for reaching those goals. To use an analogy, let's say your goal is to drive across the United States, from New York to San Francisco. With traditional marketing, you would write a plan with each day's stops mapped out. With Agile Marketing, you might map out the first week (Scrum like), take it as it comes (Kanban) or perhaps plan out a day or two in advance (Scrumban). You'd adjust along the way for weather, driving conditions, the chance encounter with someone who you wanted to spend some time with, and perhaps you might even decide to make your final destination Seattle, rather than San Francisco. That's Agile Marketing.
hi,guys,i checked the backlinks of my website on MOZ and google search console,
but it seems moz not show all backlinks,why?
regards,
John
Hi there, John, thanks for the comment! :) I would actually recommend reaching out to our help team for a detailed answer on this; they'll be well-equipped to take a look at your URL and let you know what's up. You can reach them at [email protected]. Hope that helps a little!
This is pure advertising post about Jim Ewel and his company.
Disappointed on this WBF.
Thank you !
Hi Shubham - to clarify on Jim's behalf, he isn't pitching Agile marketing as his company. Agile marketing is a generic concept, an approach, an idea that Jim happens to be an expert on. He's helped many teams apply the principles he discusses so he's got a good handle on them, but Agile marketing is an approach, not a company. Hope that helps alleviate some of your disappointment and maybe drives you to look into the idea a little further.
Hello Andrea,
Thanks for the clarification and i respect that. To be frank, I have shared what I thought about this post. It was not meant anything against or wrong about Jim, it was just my point of view and I never hesitate sharing my views.
Thank you !
Idk why the downvotes, this seems relatively accurate. It also has almost nothing to do with SEO
I think that it is applicable to almost anything and especially to SEO.
Yes, it is applicable to SEO. In my experience, the best way to apply Agile frameworks and principles to SEO is to stay away from applying the Scrum methodology because most SEO as we know it is an ongoing activity with dependencies on external functions like social media, web analytics and content marketing, for example. I recommend preparing a list of all of your On-page and Off-page SEO activities on a Trello board as Jim suggested. Start with four columns (Task list, Doing, Done, Approved) and two rows (On-page SEO and Off-page SEO). This setup will help increase task completion rate and reduce multitasking as explained in my recent LinkedIn post: "Multitasking Reduces Productivity" https://goo.gl/d0N6zx
For people interested in learning more about Agile marketing, there are a few books about Agile marketing on Amazon and I would recommend reading more about the topic on some of my previous LinkedIn posts as well:
How to Create Agile Marketing Teams: https://goo.gl/2JPRSW
Applying Scrum in Non-IT Teams? https://goo.gl/D4v3jD
I would have liked to hear more about how to accomplish these things, not just what we should be doing. In this sense, it felt a little too much like a pitch.
Thanks for the feedback Matt. The challenge is to do this in a 7 minute video. Most courses on how to do Agile Marketing, including my own, are 2-3 days. But perhaps another time, I or someone else could drill down on just one aspect of Agile Marketing and explain how to accomplish it.