Agile Marketing 101 : What Is Agile Marketing, and Where Does It Come From?

At VI, we talk a lot about being "agile". When we guarantee performance and deliver continuous growth, it's the agile marketing approach that drives our success. I'm excited to share a series of articles on what agile marketing is, how we use it and how other can start using it as well to learn more about your potential students, strengthen your brand and drive performance.

Think back to the 90s when the internet first took off. Now, fast forward to 2007 when smartphones put that power in everyone's pocket. The pace of change has been insane, and marketing has been swept up in the chaos. New ways to reach people, mountains of data... it's a whole new ballgame.

But here's the problem: Many marketing teams are still playing by the old rules. Yearly plans, rigid strategies, and waiting until the end to see what worked? That just doesn't cut it in today's lightning-fast world.

It's time for a new playbook: Agile Marketing.

Agile Marketing helps you stay flexible, adapt to change, and use data to drive real results.

Think of it like this:

• Traditional marketing: Quarterly and annual planning and evaluation of results.
• Agile marketing: A dynamic roadmap that guides you while allowing for adjustments along the way. Continuous measurement and optimization based on latest learnings.

Beyond Buzzwords: Agile Marketing 101

If you’re wondering what Agile Marketing is all about, you’re not alone. At Validated Insights, we’ve been practicing Agile Marketing since our founding. We want to demystify what Agile Marketing is and explain how it creates real value for our clients. This is the first article in our Agile Marketing 101 series. In the series, we’ll discuss:

• Where did Agile come from? (Hint: it wasn't a marketing guru)
• What are the guiding principles? (Spoiler: it's about more than just speed)
• Agile vs. traditional: What's the difference, really?
• What does an Agile team look like? (Collaboration is key!)
• Tools and techniques: We'll demystify the jargon.
• Why you might want to work with an Agile agency

?This first article sets the stage by exploring the roots of Agile Marketing and its core principles. By the end of this series, you'll see that "agile" is more than just a trendy buzzword. It's a powerful approach with real-world benefits,.

Agile Marketing Has Roots in the Software Industry

In 2001, a group of 17 tech executives and software developers were frustrated with the rigid hierarchies and top-down approaches—particularly the development methodology known as the “waterfall methodology —that had become common in their industry. They felt these practices stifled innovation, were no longer suited to the emerging internet-driven economy, and that their firms were doing customers a disservice by continuing to follow them.

This group of tech leaders met at a Utah ski resort in February 2001 and began to compare notes: how were corporate values misaligned with the goal of making good software? What attitudes would support innovation better?

This meeting of the minds resulted in the 68-word Agile Manifesto , a declaration of core values that prioritize:

• People over rigid processes: Value individuals and their interactions over strict adherence to tools and procedures.
• Working solutions over exhaustive documentation: Focus on delivering functional software over mountains of paperwork.
• Customer collaboration over contract negotiations: Work closely with customers throughout the process rather than getting bogged down in legal details.
• Adapting to change over following a rigid plan: Embrace flexibility and respond to evolving needs instead of stubbornly sticking to a pre-set plan.

These tech pioneers took these values back to their companies and started putting them into practice. This meant more teamwork, regular feedback from customers, and constantly improving their software in small steps, rather than waiting years to release a "finished" product.

Sound familiar? This focus on flexibility, collaboration, and customer-centricity is at the heart of Agile Marketing, too.

Adapting Agile Principles for Marketing

The Agile Manifesto wasn't just a game-changer for software development; it sparked a movement. As Agile practices spread throughout the tech world, marketers started to take notice.

Think about it: marketing and software development have a lot in common. Both involve complex projects with constantly shifting goals, evolving customer needs, and unexpected challenges. Just like those frustrated tech execs, marketers were tired of the old, linear way of doing things.

Around 2010, inspired by the Agile Manifesto, marketers started creating their own versions. The most popular one, from the Agile Marketing Alliance (created in 2012 ), champions these values:

• Customer value over busy work: Focus on delivering real value to customers and achieving business goals, rather than just churning out tasks.
• Early and frequent results over perfection: Don't wait for the "perfect" campaign; deliver value incrementally and iterate along the way.
• Data-driven decisions over gut feelings: Use experiments and data to guide your strategy, not just opinions and assumptions.
• Teamwork over silos: Break down barriers and foster collaboration across different departments.
• Adaptability over rigid plans: Be flexible and respond to change, rather than stubbornly sticking to a static plan.

The Agile Marketing Manifesto also includes ten principles that elaborate on the values.

·???????? Great marketing requires close alignment, transparency, and quality interactions with internal and external customers

·???????? Seek out different and diverse points of view

·???????? Embrace and respond to change to enhance customer value

·???????? Plan only to a level sufficient to ensure effective prioritization and execution

·???????? Take chances, and learn from your failures

·???????? Organize in small, cross-functional teams where possible

·???????? Build marketing programs around motivated individuals and trust them to get the job done

·???????? Long-term marketing success benefits from operating at a sustainable pace

·???????? Agile marketing isn’t enough. Excellence in marketing requires continuous attention to marketing fundamentals as well

·???????? Strive for simplicity

Essentially, Agile Marketing is about creating a more responsive, customer-focused, and data-driven approach to marketing.

How Agile Marketing Works

At this point, you may be thinking, “Principles, values, and manifestos are fine, but what does that look like at your agency? How does it help me?” Let’s go point-by-point through the main principles.

• Collaborative, Cross-Functional Teams

Agile emphasizes the importance of collaboration between team members with diverse skill sets. At VI, we have copywriters, creatives, analysts, and project managers all working together to create campaigns.

Cross-functional teams like these promote a holistic approach to marketing, ensuring that everything from design to analytics, is considered throughout the campaign—not just brought in and out at set times.

• Iterative Planning and Execution

Agile Marketing divides projects into smaller, manageable tasks or iterations. If we work with a client to launch a campaign aimed at, say, encouraging nurses with master’s degrees to complete a Doctor of Nursing Practice, we don’t put all the pieces in place before launching.

Instead, we may launch Google campaigns first and monitor progress while the creative team and copywriters work on preparing Facebook and LinkedIn assets. If our Google launch shows that a particular line of messaging is converting well so far, we’ll work on incorporating that into the Facebook and LinkedIn ads. The result is that we continually reassess priorities and adapt strategies based on ongoing feedback and results.

• Centering Client Feedback

Agile Marketing places a strong emphasis on understanding and meeting customer needs. Regular feedback loops, customer insights, and data-driven decision-making help teams align their strategies with customer preferences and expectations.

We schedule regular meetings with clients to show them how campaigns are currently performing, what we’re doing to optimize performance, and to get their feedback on potential issues we see developing. The goal is as much transparency as possible.

• Measurable Results and Continuous Improvement

Agile Marketing relies on data and metrics to measure the success of campaigns, and today’s advertising channels make more data available than ever before. Here at VI, we love data—we’re called “Validated Insights” for a reason. The entire team, from media to strategy to account managers and yes, even creatives, is trained to be able to evaluate performance and optimize.

?This data-driven approach allows us to quickly identify what's working and what's not, so we can optimize for maximum impact.

• Flexibility and Adaptability

“Agile” means “flexible”, and Agile Marketing makes it possible to quickly adjust to sudden shifts in the market. When an educational client’s regional competitor announces that it’s going to close at the end of the semester, for example, we can quickly create and launch campaigns to attract potential transfer students. Or if, say, a global pandemic suddenly creates a massive shift to online learning, we can help clients highlight their online education experience and effectiveness.

Next Up: Agile vs. Traditional Marketing

We hope this gives you some insight into what “Agile Marketing” means in practice. Our next article will take you even deeper into the topic with a close look at how Agile practices and processes differ from traditional agency campaign lifecycles.