I’m probably a little late for the agile marketing train. It’s only in the past few weeks that I’ve been reading everything I can about the concept, and I've been working to integrate some of the ideas I’ve discovered into our existing daily practices at my company, Mack Web Solutions; I can already see that it is going to be a very powerful approach for us. Agile has been such a huge part of my last few weeks that I'd like to share my newfound appreciation and takeaways, and hopefully you'll fall just as hard as I did for this wonderful practice.
Agile marketing is not rocket science
Maybe I’m missing some hidden depths, but I think the simplicity of agile is the point. It’s meant to be extremely practical, easy to grasp, and begging for you to take it for a spin. Who doesn’t want a company that can adapt quickly to change, provide amazing experiences for their team and their clients, measure the results of their efforts with actual data, and efficiently create remarkable products?
When I first started reading about the concept, I realized that Mack Web was a natural fit for agile marketing. At our current size of four, we are inherently collaborative and can be extremely flexible with how we work. I can certainly see how it will play a significant role in shaping our company in the years and team members to come.
What the heck is it?
Simply put, agile marketing centers around the customer. It’s a small shift in focus and perspective, but it really does mean big changes for how you work with your team and your customers.
Based off the methods of agile software development, agile marketing pulls together a variety of different elements to create a sleek, flexible, data-driven approach to any project. There are a lot of technical aspects to it: shorter production cycles, continual testing, lots of analysis and feedback. But the underlying philosophy of the thing is, in a word: people.
Agile marketing forces you to break down the barriers that normally come with departments, systems, and processes. Instead of letting your processes drive (as I have now realized we are guilty of doing), the agile process is people-oriented, both internally and externally. It is the interaction among these people that contributes to success (which makes a lot more sense than asking that of a systematized process).
Agility in marketing centers on the understanding that clients and employees are people with different skill sets, different outlooks, and different limitations. Agile encourages groups to find a way to make differences work in a complementary (as opposed to adversarial) way, and then ground the process in the indisputable facts of solid data. All you’re left with is pure win.
Encouraging the individuals on your team to collaborate fosters creativity and communication, allowing them to deliver exceptional products, services, and valuable results each day. That collaboration, along with the transparency that true teamwork requires, is what makes agile successful.
See...Agility. Teamwork. They go together (except that there's no Denzel).
Being agile is using what you've got
The beauty of agile marketing is that it is, by definition, very adaptable. The entire intent is to enable you to run things smoothly and efficiently with the pieces you have in place.
That means that even adopting agile as a new method can be done with agility. Our company has long been process-driven because we got both results and peace of mind that way. But as we’ve grown more self-aware, we’ve realized that part of the reason our processes work is that we were subconsciously enacting some agile principles almost by default.
Now that we’ve come to this realization, we’re slowly transitioning our conscious process to match. This approach is working because, honestly, throwing all of our current systems out the window at once was very much a baby-bathwater situation. It’s also a great way to make sure that business tanks, that our clients feel insecure and unsatisfied, and that our office descends into chaos. Not good.
And definitely not agile.
So, slowly but surely, we’re using the principles of agile marketing as a filter for our internal processes: does this method actually work for all clients? For the individuals on our team? Does it allow us to easily change course mid-stream or does it put us between a rock and a hard place?
So far, so good.
Agile and your 'team'
With agile marketing, even the concept of your ‘team’ takes on a new meaning. For example, instead of maintaining the walls of separate departments like SEO, design, link building, social media, and content generation, everyone works together as a unified whole. And, not just your team, but with your client’s team as well. For us, this was extremely important.
My discovery of agile marketing came at a perfect time. As we transition our clients away from their traditional understanding of SEO, we’ve also started looking for new clients who understand that the work we do is demanding and goes beyond just keyword research and link building. To actually deliver real company stuff, help them build relationships in their online community, and work towards their business objectives, we rely on their involvement in the process.
Internally, we’ve established a highly collaborative environment; we thrive as a team. Our ideal clients embrace the spirit of participation and are willing to engage with us, to be active and responsive, and to grasp the magnitude of what it will take to succeed.
What we have found (and there’s no surprise here) is that in order to achieve results, the client has to be on board. We truly integrate ourselves into the client’s world. We learn everything there is to know about their company. We become familiar with their customers’ pain points and challenges. We solve issues that save them time and money. We can’t do this without complete participation from the client. For us, client collaboration is imperative for customer satisfaction and success. It’s also a fundamental principle of agile marketing.
How agile is helping to solve client collaboration challenges
Agile has helped us to solve a common problem that we were having when it came to things like ongoing implementation of our content and social media marketing efforts. At the outset, we explained that it was an inherently collaborative process and our clients would smile and nod and say they understood. Then we would all sign a nice, simple agreement stating that we would, jointly, undertake their ongoing implementation and they would pay us for it.
A few months later when we had no results to show because we could never get the client to hold up their side of the deal, or because they were expecting more than we were able to provide within the confines of the agreed-upon budget, no one was happy.
So, we decided to really take to heart the agile ideas of transparency, flexibility, communication, individual abilities, and collaboration right from the outset.
And that’s why we’ve been trying this
Before we even go under contract (we’re talking acquisition phase), we have found that this has really helped:
Why we think it works
This approach is purely transparent. It helps the client to understand exactly what is expected of them, what they are committing to, and what they can expect from us.
This also provides a perfect opportunity to discuss budget (remember, we’re not even under contract yet). The level that we’re showing here requires the client to contribute approximately 10 hours of work to achieve desired results. If the client cannot dedicate the internal resources necessary to handle this volume (and they have the luxury of a larger budget), we can take on more and reduce the workload on their internal team.
Transparency is necessary for successful collaboration
To us, this approach is very agile not only because it’s transparent, but it satisfies the human element and client-centered approach. We understand that every company is made up of people with different skill sets, schedules, and personalities. We have found that people respond well when they understand what is expected of them. When they agree up front to commit to the work, then we have the permission to push and hold them accountable. Remember that with agile, the client is a part of your internal team, not separate from it.
This level of transparency has made an enormous difference in the type of clients that we are attracting. (By which we mean, we’re starting to pull in those we actually want to work with). It has been essential to the success of the projects we are working on and certainly with the relationships we’re building. By defining these tasks before the project gets started, everyone involved knows what they’re signing up for. And, even more importantly, they know that there is a lot more involved than "SEO."
Once we get under contract, what we do (and what the client does) on a daily basis is obviously a lot more involved than this (we reveal those details in their content and social media marketing strategy). Starting with an agile strategy is what ensures that expectations are clear. We’re setting everyone up for success.
As for flexibility, we frequently have clients who start out with good intentions in terms of their participation and then realize how big the commitment (once they’re actually staring at it in-house). With all the tasks spelled out in advance, it becomes pretty easy to reallocate responsibility based on who is best prepared to take it on. No plan survives the first encounter, but a sufficiently fluid plan allows for rapid adaptability.
Which is, really, just another way of saying agility.
Agile is different for everyone
There’s no right way to integrate agile marketing. The concepts are there for you to mold and shape into the right fit for your company and your customers. Agile marketing at Distilled is going to look different from what we do with it at Mack Web. That doesn’t mean either of us are doing it better. It’s just how it fits our specific companies. Agile marketing isn’t really agile unless it works for you, your relationships, your personality, and your culture. (And just as you and your stuff are different from us and our stuff, so too will your version of agile be.)
Are you on the agile train?
What’s your journey been like with agile? Have you integrated pieces into your company? How’s that working for you?
Certainly there’s a lot more to agile than I’ve explained here, but this has been our journey so far. We’re also working on improving our weekly meetings and as the owner, I’m learning how to get out of the way. Call it agile, or call it whatever you’d like. It’s inspiring us to look at what we do in a whole new way so that we can do things better, provide more value for our clients, and enjoy the work that we do each day.
Phenomenal explanation to Agile Marketing by Mackenzie!
I think the concept of Agile will change the way people work at least in the online/digital marketing industry because of the fact that its actively changing and one cannot wait for approvals of directors and managers before the shit get started.
I think agile mold the straight line in to a circle where all have to sit together and work collectively instead of a long and shitty approval process...
In my opinion for In-House it’s a pretty difficult task to handle as they might turned down this idea due to the long and painful process they are already dealing with (and several other reasons) but agencies (especially who are small and planning to grow) can actually adopt this and get amazing results out of it.
The integration of Agile on client is another as real difficult tasks to work on because most of the time it’s pretty difficult for client understand why he is involved in to work when he is paying. Bad clients might not like the Agile concept but if you get success with the integration of Agile on client end you will see a great drop of bad clients from your pocket and you will see some great clients coming in what you would love to work with.
Although I am a little late here but a phenomenal article i must say!
Thanks Moosa. We are really embracing agile and it is helping us to look at things very differently. Really excited about the changes to come.
This is a really great post Mackenzie and I will be sharing it with my whole office (as I am trying to be the driver of the agile train here).
This is a great way of presenting the exact reasons why agile is such a great marketing philosophy. Managing the clients expectations and what is expected of them is definitely key in the process. I imagine that this sets up for a much more fruitful professional relationship with clients and get better results.
The "Client Job/Our Job" table you have here is great, really allowing clients to visualize the process that is going on.
Thanks Philip. It really has worked for us. Mostly it has helped us to attract the clients that are a fit for this approach. Let me know how it goes when you implement. Would love to get your ideas and feedback.
Great post you have post excellent content about the agile marketing. There are many reasons and requirements in our business for implementing agile marketing. It will help in improving custimer satisfaction and competitiveness.
Thanks very much Sanket. I really appreciate that. And I hope this does prove to be useful for your company.
One thing that I have found especially within social media campaigns that we carry out is that the clients that are working closely with us and that are proactive are the ones seeing the best results.
We aim to almost integrate ourselves into a part of their business in order to keep a completely fluid workflow. With any online marketing campaign that we work on it is very much focuses around bringing in every aspect of the client's business and creating synergy amongst them. The likes of agile marketing is the perfect solution to this and making sure that simple things like regular communication happens as well as a two-way project plan.
I really liked the Weekly Planner that you have put together and it is something that I will look into putting together myself. I think that above all, the most important part of the relationship with a client needs to be transparency. It is all too often that companies promise the world to clients, when in reality it is am much about managing expectations as it is delivering results.
Great post Mackenzie, thanks :)
" One thing that I have found especially within social media campaigns that we carry out is that the clients that are working closely with us and that are proactive are the ones seeing the best results. " - and the only this?
That's so true Matthew. This approach also helps to weed out clients that are not a fit for our values or our approach. Everyone has to be all in.
Thanks - time to get as Agile as a tree frog...!
Mackenzie,
In May, our company held the Agile Marketing Summit in SF.
We had speakers from top publishers, brands, and agencies discussing the value in moving from waterfall to agile marketing. Flite provides a platform that enables marketers to become agile.
We run an active blog and share best practices, learnings, and ideas from our customers and partners about how move to agile and drive success.
Example post: https://blog.flite.com/home/2012/7/9/traditional-vs-agile-marketing-4-scenarios-when-agile-market.html
Will
Hi Will-
Yes, I've been reading your blog and have been speaking with Winnie about writing a post for Flite. Thanks for sharing the resource. I look forward to getting to know your community.
Great article Mack. It's interesting to see more and more SEO agencies implementing Agile Methodologies in-house and for their customers.
I have one question though. When working closer with your customers, are you spending any time in-house and are you adopting some sort of scrum framework? (that's 2 questions actually)
Thanks Eric. To answer your questions:
When working closer with your customers, are you spending any time in-house
Yes we are. In fact, we're going to be integrating more client training that takes place throughout our work cycles (not just at the beginning of a project or new client relationship). We have realized that our clients could use a lot more support with the daily stuff that we take for granted (especially in social media). So we're looking for opportunities to spend more time at their locations with their teams getting them more comfortable and efficient.
Are you adopting some sort of scrum framework
Yes. Right now I'm the scrum master, but as we grow, that responsibility will certainly shift to other members of the team. At each of our meetings, I'm making a list of roadblocks and challenges so that I can make it a priority to get a solution in place. I'm not the only one responsible for removing roadblocks, but I am the scrum facilitator at this time.
Hope that helps answer your questions. Certainly I'm open to feedback and further discussion.
Awesome and inspiring post Mackenzie! I like the way you broke this all down. I am currently in a situation where I am the internet marketing manager for a company and we are quickly running into issues with department silos, workflow and the like. Seeing how your company has implemented agile marketing has me hopeful, that maybe with a similar approach we can turn things around. Especially with the transparency in regards to client involvement.
You mentioned the transition period. We are a company who as yours was, is very sit in processes and systems that are followed for every situation and every client, even if it doesn't always make sense. We aren't a very large company, but we definitely have a workflow that spans multiple departments (sales, internet marketing, design, writing, support, etc.) how did you manage to roll this out to your company in a way that had everyone on the same page?
I'd love your feedback, as I think this is something I would like to try rolling out at the company I work for, but would love to hear how other companies are managing the transition.
Hi Mike-
Rolling agile out to our company was not very difficult for two reasons: one, we are a small team of 4; and two, agile is a really natural fit for the way we already work (we're quite collaborative and work together really seamlessly). Agile has helped us to let go of processes that were holding us back (from bidding through integration of SEO, content and social media marketing). Although it's been work to integrate the approach, we are better for it and it seems like our clients are really receptive to it as well. We talk openly about it with the team and our clients and it's always very well received.
I'm sure that there are agile experts out there that could help you successfully apply a roll-out with a larger organization, but I would say you'd want to spend a great deal of time on education and training (in order to get everyone on the same page). I had my team read several articles on the subject, and certainly we talked about it a lot. In our work sessions now we talk about openly about agile principles especially as we're learning to break old habits. We're often talking about how we used to do something one way, but how we now approach it differently because of agile.
I'm happy to talk through some ideas with you, and even share some of the resources that I shared with my team to get them comfortable with the concept. I think the biggest thing to keep in mind is that agile is different for everyone. There are a ton of resources out there, and I'm happy to share what I have if it will help.
Agile marketing is still in use. And it still works!
Hey - great post. I missed this the first time around but I love the our job/ your job table. Great idea!Say - the YouTube video is busted - what was it?
Great breakdown of agile marketing. I can see why a team of 4 is so well suited for this type of approach. Thanks for including your document of what the client's job is and what your team's job is. Whenever you truly get a client to understand that SEO goes beyond links and is also in the realm of 'company stuff', they become an A client. A roster full of A clients is a company's dream!
Good article, and great to share some clear and practical examples of how to encourage client collaboration and accountability. It’s hard to contract "client collaboration," but I think your expectation setting early on sets the tone and also affords some specific metrics on how well collaboration is happening.
We (AgencyAgile Inc) like to employ tools like this when we help agencies and clients adopt Agile methods. Another trick is to set up time blocks for certain types of actives or communications for your teams and your clients. These blocks are not just reminders on calendars, but need to be treated with respect, where the owner of a particular tasks is going to work on that task, without interruption, for that block of time.
Agile is about behavior change, and by providing ground rules for not just what needs to be done, but when and how, we find the teams are much more productive, and that really helps drive marketing velocity up…another principle of Agile marketing that we aspire to.
I agree with everyone here. This is one of the most in-depth explanation on agile marketing out there. I will definitely be using this with my clients effective immediately.
Thanks Zach! Good luck with your agile journey!
Your client responsibility sheet ( you probably have a different name for it) is really life changing. Clients are looking for transparency, and they want to make sure their money doesn't go to waste. The contract is often signed, but the relationship is not foster, and the expectations ar not set. This often leads to unhappy relationships like you mention. Agile marketing has several benefits, but I can't help but feel it applies to client retention the most.
I agree completely. It's a necessary shift in perspective and approach that really pays off for all involved.
Transparency is what has gotten me this far.
All we have is our reputation online.
Rock On Mozzers
Your pal
Chenzo
Thanks Chenzo! So proud to be a part of this transparent and agile community!
Bravo - well done, Mackenzie! This is a great post that shows us how to move from Agile Marketing principles to practices that drive results. I especially like your clients contract that shows what you expect from them if they want to meet their goals in working with you. As well as the realization that Agile is flexible enough to fit in at any organization. Fantastic!
Thanks Jonathon. That means a great deal coming from you. I really appreciate your support.
As a small businessman your points about having your client on board are important. I am approached daily by internet marketing folks who start of by telling me how ignorant I am and only they can plumb the mysteries of getting my digital presence out front.
Such a mindset led me to do this on my own. I have actually had cold call marketers hang up on me when I explain I am already Adwords certified and they know that I know their pitch is patently a con.
Agility, with its transparency, will do just as much the online marketing industry by building trust as it will for making it more productive.
One last thing. Ok team: "Remember there is no 'i' in ag.... " Oh well, never mind.
Good for you Jeff!
If only all clients would buy into the process.
It seems larger clients are more likely to buy in, whilst smaller clients, who are often more demanding, have little concept of the importance of their involvement. Even if they do want to become more involved they can often lack the capacity to have any meaningful input.
That's life.
We have found that the companies that are ideal to work with are the ones who value our approach and understand that this is not only a monetary investment but also an investment in resources (i.e. time, creativity, being present). Even small clients can integrate these principles, they just may need to do all of the work internally.
Hi Mackenzie, you've mapped some great ways to involve clients in the process here!
After thinking about it more, I think it's a great idea for any SEO to use even consultants who are a sole member of the SEO team. You can actually pencil in the client as part of the agile team unveil a somewhat serendipitous process: By being brought on board early and becoming more involved, they more fully understand how much actual work is involved and what their responsibilities are ("Ahh, that's what you mean by engaging customers in social media"). By knowing what the responsibilities are, they begin to take ownership before anything is signed ("Hey, I can do that."). By taking ownership, they likely begin to sell themselves on the project ("This is going to be worth it!").
Great read Mackenzie. It was great meeting you at MozCon this year and I can see you are continuing to do great things in SEO.
Hey George! Nice to "see" you.
Yup, you're totally right. The other thing this process/approach does very well is help the client ask for help when they're not able to hold up their end of the efforts. It's a great opportunity to coach and walk alongside the client as you work together, and if you're observing that they can't manage all of the work, you can jump in to help. Once they've done "their" end of the work for the first 30 days, they will have such a great understanding of what it really takes to be successful that they don't mind increasing the budget and putting more of the work in your hands.
Great post Mackenzie. Our company utilises the Agile methodology for it's development work and have adopted this for our digital marketing streams. This ensures that our teams work collaboratively and that no area within the company is silo'd, ensuring our clients continuously receive value and we are able to adapt to change very easily. I believe this can be the breaking point for some of the more traditional agencies out there today. I think the Agile methodology is very well received through digital marketing and one that more and more agencies should "at least" consider....
Thanks Jay. That's exciting that you guys are already agile. We are in the process of revamping a bunch of stuff to be more agile, which takes a lot of work, but it's been worth it. Look forward to exchanging challenges and success stories.
I think having the client involved is absolutely crucial to any marketing activity. As fantastic as agencies are, the client is often far more knowledgeable and passionate about their own company and products, and leveraging this shouldn't ever be seen as a negative.
Working in collaboration can only benefit both parties. It's the sharing of the different aspects of knowledge that can see a campaign go from returning good results, to returning great results.
I think this does a great job of highlighting the benefits of an approach where everyone works together.
Thanks! It's really helped us to get everyone on the same page. Especially when companies are wondering what they're spending their budget on. This gives them an understanding of where their money goes and how hard we work on a daily basis to take care of their needs.
Your post rang a few bells with me and what we are trying to do here. Like many we get mixed results in terms of client buy-in and find that this is the major hurdle to a more agile approach.
I think that the layout of your weekly planner is spot on though. Having is side by side like that is quite a simple but powerful way of showing the how collaboration needs to happen. I'll be borrowing that, thanks :)
Well sure, Mat. Borrow away! Let me know how it goes.
Thank you for the posting. I concur that client involvement is great, but it's not for everyone. Most of my clients are business owners who lack time to manage blogs or social media. Therefor, it's more in Exodus Technology Solutions hands to improve their ratings. I do believe that the more involvement they have, the higher the results. An SEO firm can only manage so many aspects of market at a time so if a client is in part of any of it, the more work that's being managed.
No matter how professional our article writing, we aren't experts in every field. So the more content being put out there or written by our clients, the better. It will always be more valuable coming from our customers mouth then our own. Team building and relationship building should be concepts learned in every industry. Also, transparency should be used more. Many online marketing firms act like our industry is a big secret and rarely educate our clients on what we actually do. Personally, our work isn't usually hard, but like taxes, it's time consuming and no one wants to do it themselves.
Thank you again for the post and looking forward to reading future posts. https://www.exodustechsolutions.com
Thanks for discussing and sharing the idea. What the business owners need is to realise the need for its future result and be ready to implement them. Of course Agile marketing is not rocket science and needs time and proper ways to implement the ideas, but we can do this with a group of determined people to see the impact.
I agree. It's all about the team that you're working with. Ideally everyone is on the same page working toward the same goal; agency and client alike.