Feeling stuck? Laboring along under the questionable power of a traditional marketing plan is the equivalent to driving with your foot on the brake. Grease your demand engine with the experiment-driven, innovative methodology that is agile growth marketing. Here are six reasons to make the switch ASAP:
1. Responding to Change Over Following a Plan
As of 2017, online video was expected to account for a whopping 74 percent of all online traffic. That trend is echoed by the incredible popularity of visual marketing on Facebook, where 85 percent of videos are watched without sound. Both stats indicate major changes in how consumers are using the internet and brands have to react quickly or risk fading into the background.
That’s where agile growth marketing comes into play; instead of biding your time, you can gauge, analyze and quickly act. Plans are great, but the only if there’s room for constant modification and innovation.
2. Rapid Iterations Over Big-Bang Campaigns
Huge product launches are attention-getting, but not always for the right reason. Take the Pepsi and Kendall Jenner video, Dove’s tone-deaf skin-shedding soap ads and Bud Light’s downright shocking “for removing ‘No’ from your vocabulary for the night.” All were bankrolled by deep corporate pockets, all were thoroughly vetted by multiple C-suite executives and all failed miserably while standing in the brightest of public spotlights.
Swap out big-bang campaigns in favor of the rapid iterations inherent to agile growth marketing and you’re testing efficacy (and taking the temperature of your audience) along the way, so you can deftly dodge unexpected roadblocks before they blow up in your face.
3. Testing and Data Over Opinions and Conventions
There’s a great meme out there that says, “Opinions are like mixtapes; I don’t want to hear yours.” In marketing, one person’s opinion is interesting, but the opinions of a hundred people may be useful. Combine that crowdsourced feedback with invaluable analytics collected during the experimentation and testing processes, and you’ve amassed the kind of information that agile marketing both provides and relies on.
4. Many Small Experiments Over a Few Large Bets
There are two kinds of bettors: those who hedge their bets by spreading their investment out — small wagers on a handful of Sunday games, for instance — and those who embrace “no guts no glory” and plunk down a couple Benjamins in hopes of winning big. In business, losing the big bets can be catastrophic. Waiting on the results of a big bet can equally damaging. With agile growth marketing, you can actually risk less and walk away with more thanks to incremental experimentation and rapid execution.
5. Individuals and Interactions Over One Size Fits All
Engagement is a crucial component of any successful marketing plan, but there’s a caveat: people aren’t interested in sweeping, bland proclamations and videos full of stock photos and MIDI music. Really get to know your audience, and tailor future marketing collateral to address their interests, questions and pain points. And remember, individuality applies to the brand itself, too. Cling to authenticity, and infuse everything you do with personality like your company’s life depends on it — because it probably does.
6. Collaborations Over Silos and Hierarchy
Most big companies are comprised of multiple departments that operate relatively independently. Once a week or once a month (or never), all the department heads get together and compare notes. Those notes then get sent on up the chain of command, orders come back down from the executive in the cushy corner office and changes are implemented.
All that time passing between the ideation and tweaking phases is the epitome of flushing resources down the corporate toilet. Stop separating marketing out from other departments or, even more commonly, operating marketing channels such as social media and on-site copy independently. Instead, agile growth marketing encourages working in tandem, sharing information in real time whenever possible and adopting an umbrella marketing strategy that delivers exponential growth.
Frustrated by a stagnant business model or stifled by a consumer base that never seems to engage? Agile growth marketing may be the accelerator you’ve been searching for. Book your free discovery session with our team at Flux + Flow and learn how you can reach the next level (pain free!).
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