Credit for coining the term ‘Scrum’ for product development goes to Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka when their introduced it in their 1986 Harvard Business Review article, “New New Product Development Game”.
Agile marketing is a technique that borrows a lot from software developers where it aims at improving transparency and speed when doing marketing. It is therefore imperative to look at the definition of agile in software development. Agile is usually a time boxed iterative approach to software delivery that builds software incrementally all the way from the start of the project instead of waiting to the end so that the project can be delivered all at once. Agile methodology usually works by breaking down projects done into some little bits of the user functionality which are known as the user stories and thus prioritizing them then continuously delivering them in short two week cycles called iterations. Agile will function in the same way that you will function when you are faced with too many things to handle but you have less time at hand. First things first you sit down with you customer and you make a comprehensive list of features that they would like to see in their software. The above mentioned can be called the user stories and they become a to do list for your new project.
Agile Techniques
Agile methodology has dome estimation techniques that will size your stories relatively to each other. They will help you to come up with an idea as to how long you think each user story will take. Like most of the lists, there always seems to be more to do than time allows, therefore you need to ask your customer to prioritize their list so that you get most of the important things done first and then you can easily start delivering some value. According to the agile methodology you start off from the top of the prioritization list working your down to the bottom as you get feedback from your customer. As you progress in the agile chain you and your customer start delivering and in a normal agile process you will definitely realize two things happening, either you go fast enough which indicates that all is good or you find yourself having too much to do that the time which available for you.
Digital Marketing defined
Digital marketing on the other hand is usually an umbrella word that covers all your businesses related online marketing efforts.Companies may market their products or services using the current digital platforms available. Like Facebook ads, search engine optimizations, twitter campaigns, pop up ads, display advertising and any other available digital media. Currently businesses are focusing on leverage of digital channels which include; google search engine, the social media platform, email platform, and their websites and as to find and connect with the firms current and prospective customers.
Digital marketing is usually coined with agility for the digital marketing purposes in what is known as the agile digital marketing which is simply defined by Greg Meyer as a means to create, communicate and deliver unique value to an always changing consumer or a business in an always changing market with an always changing product. It is described as the ability to adapt to market, customer and the competitive signals and turning that information into actionable insight that facilitates easier and quicker decision making.
How does agile methodology enhance digital marketing?
Basically in agile digital marketing you manage your marketing department, project and campaigns in the business that helps you to deal with the fluctuating priorities, the evolving needs of the customer and new technological developments. Agile methodology is therefore able to do this through allowing a rapid response to industry developments, by ensuring that the procedure uses adoptive& strategic planning, through proper communication, honest and transparent waysand moreso working in iterations. To make it more practical way of understanding how agile interacts with digital marketing, the 70:20:10 rule is the best tutor. 70% ought to be your normal marketing as a normal organizations activity, 20% is the automated and programmed by marketing and finally 10% ought to emanate from agile marketing efforts.
Agile and Digital marketing project management
Use of the scrum workflow
A scrum is the team that manages an agile project. A scrum needs to hold a planning meeting or event at the beginning of every project. Here they come up with a work flow that shall guide the project to completion. The workflow includes; sprint planning, daily scrum and sprint review. A scrum workflow guides an agile marketing team on the various stages involved to have a successful digital marketing campaign.
Allocation of time and tasks for various projects
This refers to an iterative process of managing the layout and tasks of information technology and other areas of expertise that design new and interactive products. When planning on iterative projects it’s important to let members of your team to pick specific tasks they are good at. This is to ensure there is individual commitment and tasks are completed within set timeframes. This also ensures that all aspects of a digital marketing campaign are thoroughly dealt with.
Using the pre sprint planning
A sprint refers to an individual part of development or an individual in a project team or a scrum. Sprint planning can be defined as an effort by the project manager who is also referred to as a scrum master to clarify the product specifications and their various go to market strategies. Once every member of the agile makes a commitment to deliver on a certain aspect of the project then it has to be done within set timeframes. Digital marketing platforms normally have strict timelines that you can run them. It is therefore imperative to have a strict sprint planning process.
Conclusion
Agile is important in implementing successful digital marketing campaigns. Once a team meets at the planning stage of a digital marketing project, they are able to understand the objectives clearly understood. Through continuous meetings or daily scrums throughout the digital marketing campaign, sprints are able to identify gaps in the initial plan ensuring there is continuous improvement in having a successful digital marketing strategy. This will eventually completely eliminate the possibility of failure.