Running an Agile Marketing Campaign for Client Success
Operating in the Marketing Chaos:
Marketing is chaos. It’s literally living in a day-to-day world that is equivalent to that of a crazed hipster who spontaneously jetted to Spain to run with the bulls. Said hipster also made this decision after they had sustained their entire life on a diet of gummy bears and diet coke. Bulls constantly are running at marketers, and they aren’t always prepared for the ever-changing scope of the industry.
Even if we pretend traditional marketing doesn’t exist, the wide variety of digital mediums, platforms, deliverables, projects, designs, etc., etc., is enough to make it entirely too easy to miss a step, or make a simple mistake that derails an entire campaign.
Communication in marketing is one of the most important pieces to ensuring campaigns run smoothly. Internal & external communication are absolutely crucial. Running an agile and transparent campaign with all parties drastically improves results for marketers.
Agile Project Methodology Background & Application:
“Agile organizations successfully complete more of their strategic initiatives than less agile organizations. (69%to 45%)” - PMI.org
The agile methodology was created for software developers, and has since been adapted into a wide variety of industries. The agile methodology allows for small teams to work in sprints where it allows them to be creative, and held accountable for their own projects that they identify together as a team. We like to take it one step further, and include our clients in the agile process.
The #1 principle of agile marketers, and we at Foxtail Marketing hold ourselves to is this:
Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of marketing that solves problems and creates value. - Agile Marketing Manifesto
The Secret Is to Involve Your Client
Without involving your clients, from Step A-Z, running agile doesn’t work very well. You can scrum through campaigns, but what if you didn’t hit the right messaging? With complex projects, and timelines, it’s often easy to miss the mark without all hands on deck.
Before we here at Foxtail Marketing went agile, I heard the same 3-4 excuses internally on a day to day basis:
- I’m waiting to hear back from the client.
- That was so-and-so’s responsibility.
- I’m not sure how that happened.
- (Ok, so maybe it was only 3, I’m probably missing one.)
And then we went agile… and BOOM! I no longer here this nonsense. We allow our clients to be completely involved in the entire process, from A-Z. With full transparency, we are able to get more accomplished, build trust, collaborate with our clients, and be able to do what really matters. Create ROI from our marketing initiatives.
How do we do it?
After agonizing and doing months of searching for the best PMS system to use, we found our new best friend, Teamwork.com. Teamwork has been an absolute lifesaver when it comes to our project management. The second we onboard a new client, we open up the floodgates. Our clients receive full access to our project management system. Inside the system, our clients can see the entire roadmap of our campaigns. Not only can they see who’s working on what, when things are due, but they can also upload files, add comments, and much more.
All team communication is done in one place, where everyone working on the campaigns has full access to see everything the client is looking for. This provides complete transparency for both our clients and our internal employees. Effectively cutting back chaos 10 fold.
Running agile, while collaborating with our clients all in one place, has allowed us to improve customer satisfaction, easily adapt to change, and measure campaign performance better. The benefits of running an agile marketing team are endless, and we’re pretty proud of the team we have running with us.
Do you want full transparency with your digital marketing agency? Contact us to learn more.
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