Agile Marketing: Obstacles and their solutions

Over the past few years, companies are adapting to agile marketing methodologies to match up with the unprecedented need for speed and flexibility. The agile methods are different for different industries. The methods used for agile software development will not be the same for agile marketing. The main goal of agile marketing is to streamline and rearrange the existing process that benefits the marketer and the entire enterprise. Agile marketing is a more experimental approach where a substantial amount of learning experience is obtained instead of measurable failures.

With new techniques comes enormous challenges. Let's dive deeper and examine the challenges of agile marketing and the methods to overcome them.

Handling unplanned works

Unplanned works are usually proposed by the stakeholders mentioning them as urgent. By considering the way it is submitted, it is inevitable to skip the task. Hence, it bypasses the team prioritizations, and the work gets done. This collapses the teamwork and distracts the overall strategy of the goal.

In the absence of a correct approach, problems arise while allocating the resources and in the delivery of what was committed already. It leads to conflicts within the team, with the stakeholder, and finally, the entire project is at risk.

Fortunately, with a few best practices of the agile marketing methodologies, we can overcome this unplanned work.

Service Level Agreements, SLA are made with the team and stakeholders to control the expectations. It states how work comes in, how it gets done when it should be delivered, quality standards, and time frames for delivery.

Implementing prioritization systems in a project is based on classes of service (COS). COS are groups that separate different tasks based on their urgency.

Limiting the work in progress is a powerful tool. Only after the allotted list of work is over a new task can be assigned for the team to commence.

Preplanning for the unplanned works solves the entire problem. Preparing the team with the forecasting ability will aid in streamlining the process.

Overcoming the existing method

When adopting a new method, certain old practices demand to be abandoned. There's a possibility that agile names will be called, and the same old methods will be implemented.

Traditional marketers find it hard to fit into new procedures. It requires a lot of consistency and patience.

This challenge can be overcome by educating every single person in the team and making them embrace the new change. Consistent training and socialization aid in the quicker transformation to the new framework.

Before implementing the whole agile framework, teams can be made to experiment with only a part. The experience and lessons learned can be shared. If the team is unable to finish the task before the conclusion of the sprint, hold a retrospective to analyze what went wrong and correct the plan for the future.

Training the leaders in the team will help more marketers move to an agile marketing framework. Thus lessening the chances of moving back to the old methods.

Focusing on team only approach

Occasionally, only the marketing team moves to the agile framework. On the other hand, the other teams are left with the old methods. In such cases, interacting with the non-agile teams and getting things done will be awkward. There are chances for disconnects, breakdowns in communication, and friction between the team members.

The methods listed below are used to overcome this difficulty.

• Provide importance on transparency and increase the communication between teams.
• Invite the stakeholders to participate in the review meetings.
• Loop the non-agile teams into the work progress.
• Share the visual flow with the non-agile teams for better clarity.

Frequent changes in plans

Agile methods, unlike traditional methods, are subjected to frequent plan changes. They have short cycles. Iterations occur frequently, and the outcome of the previous iteration will lead to a modification in the plan in the next iteration.

This can be overcome when the leaders take responsibility for the short-term plans. Changes can be plotted to benefit the customer demands. The direction of the plan may change concerning customer feedback.

Miscalculating the team size

It's tough to estimate the size of a team, especially in agile marketing, where plans change frequently. Underestimating the team's capacity might lead to a lot of confusion, and as a result, poor delivery quality.

The problem can be solved by taking into account the input of the teams and analyzing the teams over time. The number of resources required for the job can be determined by taking into account the number of tasks and the delivery time.

Conclusion

The transformation from traditional methods to agile marketing methods can be challenging. Backsliding on moving to the old practices happens in every change, but only sticking to the new frameworks and practicing them will pave the way. The agile marketing leaders need to keep control over the implementations. Proper communications, socialization, organization of unplanned work, administering the tasks following the customer feedback, and calculating the team size concerning the plan changes will diminish the negative consequences and helps overcome the challenges.