Agile Marketing blog series – Part 3: The Challenges of Agile Marketing 

It’s safe to say, as we cross the halfway point in our Agile Marketing 101 series, you now have a strong understanding of Agile, its benefits, and the type of team you’ll need to build to make it work for you. It all sounds so simple when we put it like that, but we’d be remiss to overlook some of the common challenges and roadblocks that stop businesses like yours from taping into the power of Agile. 

It was Bill Gates himself who rightly said that “success today requires the agility and drive to constantly rethink, reinvigorate, reach and reinvent,” and we couldn’t agree more. Especially when we think about the rapid innovation and ongoing digital transformation bought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Never before has speed, growth and a change mindset been so vital to success. 

In this blog we’ll be helping you do achieve all that and more, outlining key considerations and how to approach them so you can rethink your strategy, reinvigorate your efficiencies and ultimately reach further – giving your customers every reason to reimagine the value you can offer. 

Just like with any new approach or modern technology, the first hurdle is always the adjustment period. And we’ll be honest: adopting Agile is no walk in the park. But if you’ve read this far in the series, you’re no doubt ready for some exciting changes.  

Challenge #1: What do you do with all that unplanned work? 

Unplanned work is, unfortunately, just a fact of life for fast-paced marketing departments. There will always be ad hoc requests popping up at a moment’s notice. The real question is, what should take the highest priority? To tackle this effectively, it’s important to design a hybrid framework that can handle these unavoidable, last minute challenges.  

A service-level agreement (SLA) between a service provider and another department or client can help define quality, availability, and responsibilities, ultimately helping you regain control over your productive – and highly valuable – time. It’s also worth focusing on finishing the work you’ve already started before diving into something new. This way, you can deliver real value without distracting, overworking or overspreading your team. 

Challenge #2: How do you make your people want to change? 

So what if people start missing the old approaches, or are resistant to change? Change can be tough, especially when it comes to leaving behind long-standing practices that we’ve dutifully followed. But, while some habits are just hard to let go of, a combination of training, open socialization, office hours, and team coaching can help create a solid foundation for creating new and improved Agile habits within your company.  

These strategies help people adapt and embrace new ways of working, and will quickly have them forgetting about the inefficient and outdated practices of yesteryear. 

Challenge #3: Why bother getting smart about your team’s capacity and velocity? 

Finally, let’s talk about why it’s important to estimate team capacity and velocity. This can be quite challenging because there are many factors involved in accurately estimating how much work your team can handle and how fast they can deliver.  

But getting smart about capacity, velocity and how to minimise workflows for maximum output, is a challenge that pays off in the long run. It helps marketers understand their limits and capabilities, allowing them to take on work more effectively and service their customers with greater success. 

In conclusion 

If you’re facing challenges while implementing something new, whether that be friction from your team or unplanned, distracting work from your customers, just remember that there are plenty of benefits to be gained if you keep marching toward meaningful change. 

Whether you’re in the B2B or B2C world, successful marketing is crucial for customer retention and sales. Agile marketing offers a range of advantages, such as improved team morale, increased productivity, better quality results, faster workflow, enhanced competitiveness, flexibility, stability, and the ability to adapt to innovation more quickly. Ultimately, it brings happiness to companies and customers alike; and who wouldn’t want that? 

This has been part three in our five-part series on Agile Marketing. If you’re interested in embracing Agile and the benefits it offers your people, profits and customers, join us for part four, where we’ll introduce you to your new best friend: the Agile Marketing Manifesto.