Jack be nimble

The why of marketing remains the same, but the who, where, how and how fast is shifting before our very eyes. So much so that, in order to protect ROI, marketers are adopting new guiding principles. One of these is Agile Marketing, which makes sense because embracing change as a driver is part of the package

“The main objective of Agile Marketing is to execute projects at a faster pace without compromising the quality of the deliverables. And to make this possible, you need to streamline everything.” (ProofHub)

Marketing: whose job is it anyway?

It used to be the job of Marketing to spread “the corn so the ducks will want to come to your field. Sales: Taking a gun and shooting the sitting ducks. If the ducks are not sitting in your field, don’t blame sales!” (Eli Goldratt)

But now, when it comes to making a purchase online, in app, or in store, which bits of the customer journey are down to Marketing and which to Sales?

If there was ever a time for cross-function collaboration within organisations, this is it. The 58% of marketers that are wise to creating Sales-Marketing department touchpoints (like setting shared goals, applying consistent measurement, automation) have improved collaboration and the results that come with it.

          “Marketing is not anyone’s job… It’s everyone’s job!”  (Jack Welch)

In fact, marketing has become a function shared by customers (word of mouth), influencers (paid and unpaid), Sales and Marketing, and everyone in the organisation.

And the blurring of lines doesn’t end here.

Budget: who controls marketing spend?

Campaigns must meet the customer at each and every touchpoint, and this requires multichannel marketing. Streamlining as a tool to achieving best marketing ROI includes how (not just where) budget is applied.

In other words, Agile Marketing demands a shift in focus from channel-first to results-first. And this means spending on the best opportunities as they arise.

Google partnered with Kantar, a leading data, insights and consulting company, to explore the importance of agility across media channels. Over 2,400 global marketers participated in the survey, the results of which leave no doubt: marketing success lies in purposefully choosing to be nimble when planning, allocating, and optimising digital budgets.

For Google’s own Marketing team, “we reforecast our global budgets regularly to ensure that we can request more funds if we have room to scale successful tests against finance-approved ROI thresholds. This gives us greater freedom to avoid artificial caps on digital media budgets that can limit our ability to improve results.” (Marie Gulin-Merle, Global VP, Ads Marketing, Google)

There really is no time to blink

For best results Agile marketers adjust their budgets frequently, sometimes as often as several times a week.

Agile principles can be applied any sized business, even to those who do not have Finance-Sales-Marketing silos . If your marketing budget is strictly allocated to specific channels without the freedom to be redistributed on the fly, you are missing out on opportunities to meet the customer wherever they are.

In other words, adapt to change, facilitate quick iterations, and improve through continuous experimentation and testing.

Facilitating the flow of resources to better opportunities . . . that’s how to get the best marketing ROI.