I spent over 20 years working in the Software Development industry before starting Web Journey, and during that time, I used many different methodologies (and combinations) for managing and executing software development projects. After spending many years using traditional waterfall approaches followed by more modern evolved methodologies, I soon learned that the Agile Methodology was the way to go in most cases. Projects were more successful, were delivered on time, stayed within their budgets, and the client got exactly what they wanted.
Because I am a firm believer in the benefits of Agile and have seen the results you can achieve, we apply the same methodology and principles as a tactic for our own marketing as well as for our clients' marketing here at Web Journey. Here are the key reasons why...
Traditional Waterfall Approach
A waterfall approach is a traditional sequential one with no iterations. When each stage is completed, you move on to the next step. The biggest downside to this approach is that you can't go back easily to accommodate change without incurring additional costs and project delays.
A waterfall approach doesn’t take into account a business's ever-evolving needs. If the client realizes that they need something different along the way, then it is very expensive and time-consuming to go back and change it. The further you are in the project the more expensive and difficult it becomes. As a result, projects can easily overrun, go over budget and not quite achieve the goals you set out to meet when using a waterfall approach.
Agile
With Agile, instead of a sequential process, the Agile methodology follows an incremental approach where teamwork is a critical factor. Agile marketing is an approach in which teams identify and focus on high-value projects, complete those projects, measure their impact, and then constantly monitor and improve the results over time with new iterations.
The main benefit of Agile Marketing is that it allows you to make changes and make them quickly. With agile, you can make changes based on campaign results or when you want to keep up with the latest developments in your industry, changes to your business or what your competitors are doing. In the ever-changing marketing industry, Agile is an approach that needs to be considered by marketers. It makes just as much sense for marketing as it does for software development projects, given the rapidly changing business needs, marketing trends, best practices and of course, the ever-evolving marketing technology.
If you value the following
- Customer-focused collaboration over silos and hierarchy
- Adaptive and iterative campaigns over Big-Bang campaigns
- The process of customer discovery over static prediction
- Flexible vs rigid planning
- Responding to change over following a plan
- Many small experiments over a few large bets
Benefits of Agile
Some of the key benefits of agile marketing are that it allows marketers and companies to:
- Respond quickly to changes in the market or with competitors or your product.
- Collaborate with team members and other departments to prevent a 'single-person' approach and vision to marketing.
- Produce faster, higher-value campaigns that can be tested and optimized over time.
- Experiment with different ideas and quickly repeat the successful ones.
- Justify marketing spend and particular campaigns with hard facts.
- Use input from other departments to strengthen marketing efforts and increase all-around motivation by valuing other teams' inputs.
- Hit problems quicker and tweak faster, e.g. if a campaign isn't producing results, you can re-group and change your approach.
Both Waterfall and Agile methodologies have advantages and disadvantages. So, you must look hard at your business and decide which is right for you. Just be sure to look at both options and not be afraid to change tactics for greater success.
If you embrace this methodology, you will become much more efficient, have much happier leads and customers, have a more motivated marketing team, and be better aligned with the business and its overall goals.
If you are considering Agile marketing but need guidance on how to make that change, we'd be happy to help.
