The Agile Marketer: Turning Customer Experience Into Your Competitive Advantage

PRAISE FOR THE AGILE MARKETER

"The breakneck pace of change in today′s marketing world has made the traditional annual plan a thing of the past. A customer–centric organization faces enormous challenges in navigating this increasingly dynamic ecosystem. Technology and marketing must work together more closely than ever to be nimble, and The Agile Marketer crisply captures the necessary steps to make it happen."
CRAIG DEMPSTER, EVP, Digital Agency Group Leader for Merkle and co–author of The Rise of the Platform Marketer

"The Agile Marketer is an essential read for transformational strategies to make your business focused, fast, prioritized, and predictable. The world of technology just became a lot more manageable."
BRIAN SOLIS, digital analyst and author of X: Where Business Meets Design

"In The Agile Marketer, Roland Smart convincingly argues that we need a new approach to marketing, one that is agile and focused on the customer experience. Filled with examples from his career both at startups and at Oracle, Roland′s practical advice will help marketers at companies of all sizes serve as better stewards of their company′s customer experience."
JIM EWEL, Blogger, AgileMarketing.Net

"Marketers are facing tectonic shifts in the media landscape coupled with ever–increasing customer expectations. In The Agile Marketer, Smart concisely captures the realities of marketing in this new environment and shares innovative approaches to support modernization. While Agile is not new, Smart explains why it is critical to modernization and how to make it work in a marketing context. Anyone who is interested in transforming the way marketing works should read this book."
FRANK DAYS, Tech Marketing VP and host of the Marketing Agility Podcast

"In this age of the empowered customer, this book should be required reading for any marketing leader in a data–driven world. The Agile Marketer is full of insights from Smart′s experience in the startup world and at Oracle. A fantastic read to help chart your plan to stay competitive."
JUDITH SIM, CMO at Oracle

"Roland is a student of the game and his book hits on all the right notes. Practical, witty The Agile Marketer should be on your shelf if you aspire to be a modern marketer."
JASCHA KAYKAS WOLFF, CMO at Mozilla

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

I How Development Methods Influence Marketing 1

1 Why Marketing Needs to Adapt 3

Why do marketers need a new approach to marketing? Because traditional approaches fail to address contemporary consumer expectations. Two high–profile companies provide starkly contrasting case studies that demonstrate the importance of aligning innovation and marketing teams with adaptive development practices.

2 The Modern Marketer s Challenge 13

How can marketers modernize their practices in today s complex and rapidly evolving marketing–technology landscape? By emulating and collaborating with developers. Plus, how successful point solutions fueled the vision of an integrated marketing platform.

3 Scaling Sales: Marketing and the Role of Automation 21

How can the marketing function use technology to scale sales? An increasingly self–directed buyer s journey requires companies to influence buyers long before they reach out to the sales team. An adaptive approach to automation can help, but not before aligning sales with marketing (so sales is free to focus on the highest–value opportunities).

4 The Rise of Agile 29

To understand what makes the adaptive approach to automation more effective, you must be familiar with the Agile Manifesto. This simple document establishes core values and principles underlying an adaptive approach to development. Here, we look at how Agile differs from traditional approaches, when it provides a competitive advantage, and when it s appropriate to adopt it.

II Adaptive Methods for Modernizing Marketing 41

5 A Snapshot of Leading Methods 43

Which adaptive methods are relevant to marketers? Some methods are better than others for your initiative. Success requires tailoring your method to your, project, team culture and company culture.

6 The Skinny on Scrum 45

How does Scrum work, and how can it be applied to marketing? A thorough review of Scrum fundamentals to support a deeper understand of Agile. Plus, insight into how Scrum teams are organized and their most common practices.

7 Kanban: Lean Meets Agile 53

How is Kanban different than Scrum? More important, what is it good for? An overview of Kanban s origins and an explication of how Kanban leverages Scrum practices while operating under a different primary constraint. Why Kanban is often the best Agile practice for marketers and how methods can be combined.

8 Implementing Agile: Key Considerations 63

How do you plan for an Agile implementation? Four key considerations as you prepare for your Agile implementation. Plus, thoughts on C–Suite partnerships, the role of the Agile coach, your choice of methods, and setting expectations about timing and progress.

9 Implementing Agile: Common Objections 75

What questions should you expect to hear from detractors? (I have an inkling: It doesn t scale, it will be disputive, you can t plan ahead, and you can t budget. ) Here s what you need to know to address these questions before they arise.

10 Your North Star: The Agile Marketing Manifesto 81

How do you keep your Agile practice on track? The Agile Marketing Manifesto is a key resource that translates the Agile Manifesto for marketers needs. Plus, a review of Agile in action, with examples for marketers; and insights on Agile design, Agile content creation, and Agile system development.

III Linking Innovation and Customer Experience 87

11 Integrating Marketing and Innovation with Agile 89

How does Agile support marketing s collaboration with the innovation team? Teams that share practices are easier to align in everything from product strategy and UX to communications. Learn how Agile practices are increasingly becoming a platform for engagement between all facets of product management and marketing.

12 Beyond Agile: More Methods to Link Marketing and Product Management with Innovation 97

Who owns innovation? The practice of innovation is broader than Agile practice and represents an opportunity for marketing and product management to collaborate. Two exercises provide a framework for defining which groups own the inputs to the innovation process.

13 Beyond Agile: Marketing s Role in the Customer Experience 109

Who owns the customer experience? Different groups may own different parts of the customer experience, but marketers are uniquely positioned to map and measure it. Learn how marketing driven research programs and psychology provide insights into opportunities that would be overlooked from a purely Agile perspective.

IV Modern Marketing and the Customer Experience 121

14 From Deeper Customer Relationship to Richer Customer Experience 123

How does the customer relationship change as companies modernize their marketing function? When customers help design the product, more opportunities arise for them to advocate for it. (Incidentally, they are ultimately advocating for your culture as much as they are for your product or service.)

15 Growth Hacking 125

What if the product was also the marketing? A case study illustrates how the freemium model is both a product and a marketing service. Also, how to leverage gamification to support the marketing of your products.

16 Lessons from the Collaborative Economy 139

Can your community also be your competitive advantage? More and more companies are using the crowd to disrupt markets, and marketplace–based business models are disrupting many industries. The so–called collaborative economy, in which both customers as well as external providers actively shape the product (or service), is now passing an inflection point. Established businesses must consider either how to become crowd companies or adopt crowd practices to advance their products and services.

Conclusion: The Steward of Customer Experience 151

How does modernization lead to the stewardship of customer experience? As keepers of the most foundational customer information source –the customer database– marketers are singularly positioned to be the steward of customer experience. Data helps us read the customer s digital body language, understand how customers respond to every touchpoint, and determine how the customer experience should be managed. Here, we revisit the customer lifecycle model, exploring its connection to the customer database. A case study on Oracle s approach to managing the customer lifecycle illustrates what a marketing modernization program looks like (admittedly in one of the most complex business environments imaginable).

Appendix 1 Content Marketing: An Agile Approach 165

How does the Agile approach apply to content marketing? We present a framework for running an Agile content marketing team, including a series of exercises to get started developing your content strategy.

Appendix 2 The Product Manager s Perspective on Agile Marketing 183

What do product managers think about the adoption of Agile on the marketing side of the house? Interviews with product management leaders offer insights on the changing relationship between product management and marketing and how product management can foster alignment with marketing.

Resources 197

Endnotes 199

About the Author 207

Index 209

ROLAND SMART serves as the VP of Social & Community Marketing at Oracle, where he oversees a range of programs designed to enrich the communities associated with Oracle′s products and services. His previous experience includes foundational roles at a number of start–ups. He speaks at industry events such as the ad:tech, Modern Marketing Experience, The Social Media Optimization Conference, and SXSW. He has also written for such industry publications as Forbes and iMedia.