agile innovation for the b2b marketer

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Agile Innovation for the B2B Marketer

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Agenda

•  B2B Marketing today •  What is agile? •  Agile for marketing •  Four pillars

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B2B Marketing Today

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It’s a changing world

12 searches before B2B researchers visit a supplier website.*

91% growth in last two years in smartphone use throughout the path to purchase.*

57% of the purchase process is complete before B2B buyers contact suppliers directly.**

89% of B2B researchers use the internet during the B2B research process.*

*Source: Think with Google. The Changing Face of B2B Marketing 2015: Google/Millward Brown Digital, B2B Path to Purchase Study, 2014 **Source: CEB & Google. B2B Digital Evolution 2013

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Reset B2B customer expectations

Helpful answers and explanations

On the device they are using

At the time they are looking

In the channel they are using

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3,874 marketing technology solutions.

Source: Scott Brinker, ChiefMarTec.com http://chiefmartec.com/2016/03/marketing-technology-landscape-supergraphic-2016/

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The rise of content in marketing

Source: Content Marketing Institute & MarketingProfs - B2B Content Marketing - 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends - North America

76% of B2B marketers plan to create more content than they did one year ago

51% of B2B marketers plan to increase content marketing spend this year

88% of B2B marketers use content marketing


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Producing engaging content

Measuring content effectiveness

Producing content consistently

Measuring the ROI of content marketing program

Lack of budget

Producing a variety of content

Top challenges for B2B Content Marketers


60%

57%

57%

52%

35%

35%

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What is agile?

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Requirements Design

Build Test

Launch and maintenance

Long development cycle à

Market conditions changed Business requirements changed

Traditional “waterfall” methodology of software development

Software Development & the Agile manifesto of 2001

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“Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage.”

“Business people and developers must work together throughout the project.”

1 to 4 week cycles of sustainable development

Ship Ship Ship

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3

Agile methodology

14 Source: VersionOne 10th Annual State of Agile Report (2016)

87% ability to manage changing priorities

85% increased team productivity

81% increased team morale/motivation

84% improved project visibility

Benefits of Agile

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Agile for marketing

Image source: Flickr. Artist credit: Peter Petrus. License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

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Big launch campaigns

Micro campaigns

A micro approach to a big challenge Essential to sustainable marketing in a new economy

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Campaign idea Plan

Create Implement

Launch and measure

6 months

Message not resonating Missed opportunity to respond

Big bets, big campaigns, big expectations

Traditional marketing planning and execution

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Agile methodology applied to marketing

2 to 6 week cycles of building on customer insights.

Cross-functional, self-sustaining teams, creating micro campaigns, generating rapid insights.

Launch Launch Launch

Sprint 1 Sprint 2 Sprint 3

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Blogs promoted through social media and syndication

Thought Leadership webinars, whitepapers and case studies

Promotions in social media on Twitter & LinkedIn

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Four pillars

Team

str

uctu

re

Tool

s &

pro

cess

es

Ret

hink

Goa

ls

Mea

sure

& o

ptim

ize

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Today’s marketing organization

Product Marketing A

Digital & Social Creative Content Ops Data & Analytics

Product Marketing B

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•  Campaign Manager, Strategy •  Creative •  Email •  Social Media, Blogging & writing •  Content Ops •  Analytics

Agile marketing team structure

Common Goal

Smaller, more nimble teams foster alignment towards a

common goal

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Purposeful meetings

Templates •  Editorial calendar •  Landing page; email

templates •  Social media specs •  Reporting

Tools •  Excel, Trello, Microsoft

Project, Asana, Moovia, AgileZen

Agile tools and processes •  Quarterly & Sprint Planning •  Daily or weekly “stand-ups” •  Review •  Retrospective

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•  Attainable and measurable within shorter window •  Consider the sales cycle: if longer, what micro-

conversions or indicators are possible to evaluate performance in short term vs. longer?

•  Marketing Ready Leads •  Accounts visited (DemandBase) •  High value engagements (tally of online activities,

indicating engagement)

•  Evaluate performance toward bigger goals at appropriate intervals

Rethink goals

Teams work together toward a common goal

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•  A/B test •  Optimize based

on performance •  Learn from

results, apply in next cycle

Test, measure and optimize

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Increase risk-taking and creativity by breaking down big projects to smaller, measurable chunks of work.

Collaborative, nimble, self-contained, cross-functional and productive teams.

Streamline work through templates, structure, tools and processes – leaving room for creativity.

Test and learn – gain rapid insights to optimize and feed into next cycles for continuous improvement.

Benefits of agile marketing

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Ensuring success

Key Considerations

ü  Garner executive support and buy-in.

ü  Provide training for teams.

ü  Establish effective project management to ensure work moves in a rolling cadence.

ü  Share learnings and best practices across teams.

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Resources

•  Agile Marketing – http://www.agilemarketing.net/ – Hacking Marketing, by Scott Brinker

•  Content marketing & B2B Marketing Trends Research – LinkedIn Sophisticated Marketer’s Guide to Content Marketing eBook – Content Marketing Institute’s 2016 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America – Think with Google: The Changing Face of B2B Marketing

Q & A Thank you! Delphine Cherewick @d_cherewick [email protected]