Agile Marketing
Marketing has changed over the last decade with technology at the forefront of the change. Just as consumers have taken benefit from the increase in available information, companies must do the same to stay on top of new buying behaviors. More broadly, marketing is essentially based on the behaviors of customers, and the method of powering consumer action, as well as customer gratification. Therefore, in this sense, these behaviors constantly vary depending on an array of internal and external factors. For any company determined to market its product or service, the most important goal is to predict what these factors are and then, effectively adapt.
Understanding customers’ needs and behaviors, using past trends to predict future ones, and predicting what issues and opportunities are about to arise are the key ingredients in great marketing planning. Until lately, we were able to use these elements to set budgets and formulate schedules. But currently, we are missing that confidence and predictability as we face economic uncertainty and watch business rules change around us. Now is the time to develop a different approach to the marketing mystery and adjust the way we think about marketing. It is time to become an agile marketer.
In these uncertain times, companies need to be savvy in how they adapt to changes in the marketing scale. I explore Five effective ways or habits of how we can increase your adaptability as a marketer.
1) Connect to your customers: Marketing is all about building lasting relationships with prospective customers. Essentially, when we attempt to create a relationship with a customer, we desire to learn about their spending habits, their needs as a consumer, and their current financial situation. Many companies strive to understand changing consumer patterns because they struggle to relate to customers. To fix this issue, allocate time and effort to precisely understand your customer's behaviors. Once you understand what customers in your target audience are looking for, you can wisely adapt to our specific market.
2)Aim for growth over perfection: It is within your control, as marketers, to make continuous and uninterrupted growth. Over time with a constant and committed marketing effort, you will see more remarkable results.
Don’t agonize over perfection, your focus needs to be on the strength of small acts. Remember, with each small change you make you are moving forward. Don’t let the fear of inadequacy paralyze your marketing efforts.
3)Run micro marketing campaign and win big: Big things move slower than small things. It’s simple physics. When change is the norm, big is bad. The same pertains to marketing. If something doesn’t work, make a U-turn and try again the smaller ideas- the smaller ideas you try, the closer you come to delivering results. It is obvious that in this volatile time, you cannot be pushing out large marketing campaigns. It is, however, the time to start experimenting with micro marketing campaigns. These small-scale experiments enable you to explore into research, foresee market reactions, and prepare for future big games.
4)Minimize waste by reducing uncertainty: Agile Marketing requires to focus first on the marketing programs that you can do today and that you know will generate results because they are certain to create real customer value. Half-way ideas should sit on your backlog until they are fully seared and offer clear value in the eyes of the customer, otherwise, you will waste precious marketing drives on needless rework. Instead, you can use those additional drives to design marketing experiments with the specific goal of reducing uncertainty.
5)Use optimal decision: One of the most common proverbs in the business world is that the customer is always right. While this formula may be true to some extent, this kind of opinion can be risky when making crucial marketing decisions. Be mindful of your defined marketing goals, while still using your expertise and judgment to make close calls in specific situations. This will enable you to properly adjust to any difficulties that may arise.