Good morning, do you feel like you’re constantly juggling work priorities?
If so, implementing an agile marketing practice when working with internal teams may be the solution. Agile coach and expert Stacey Ackerman says a lot of marketers are finding themselves in the position of “order taker” when it comes to taking on marketing and martech requests, with internal stakeholders unable to see the value the marketing and marketing op teams bring to the table.
“With agile marketing, we can gain empowerment to do the right things with our teams while also building healthy partnerships with stakeholders,” writes Ackerman.
She outlines three steps marketers can take to institute an agile marketing practice and build stronger partnerships with teams — and the stakeholders — outside of marketing. First, set clear boundaries with your stakeholders around what they want and the deliverables.
Once boundaries have been established and project terms have been determined, plan out the work collaboratively with the rest of your team. “A great way to form a healthy partnership is to run a quarterly planning session with both stakeholders and the marketing team that’s going to do the execution work,” writes Ackerman, “Getting everyone in the same room helps build trust and transparency at all levels.”
The final step: designate a “marketing-owner” to streamline communication. Sometimes referred to as the product owner in scrum, this role prioritizes future work for the marketing team and determines next projects without telling the team how to do their job.
Don’t stop reading yet, or you’ll miss the soapbox on evidence-based ads and Folloze’s new Personalized Marketing Platform for ABM programs.
Amy Gesenhues,
Senior Editor
