boston content marketing forum july 2014 by frank days
DESCRIPTION
Does content marketing need Agile? Here are my slides from the Boston Content Marketing Meetup in July 2014. I explored the intersection of content marketing and Agile marketing at this event sponsored by Curata.TRANSCRIPT
Boston Content Marketing Forum
Frank DaysTech Marketing VP AgileMarketingBlog.comCohost Marketing Agility Podcast
Why I care about Agile?
A career as a CMO in small, fast growing tech companies
Need to be responsive and adaptive
Never liked marketing plans
Short shelf life for marketing plans
As an senior executive…
Results matter more than documentation so I need a lightweight approach
Agile to the Rescue
Agile marketing is a high-communication, low
documentation, rapid iteration process designed to provide more
frequent, more relevant and highly measurable marketing
programs
- IDC, Agile Principles and Practices, 2010
Applying ideas of Agile
development to marketing
Rebranding Agile
Credit: Scott BrinkerChief Marketing Technologist
Agile Marketing Milestones
2010 IDC creates first real report on Agile Marketing Marketing Agility Podcast
2011 Sprint Zero Meetup in San Francisco Agile marketing manifesto
2012 Pundits come out of woodwork
2013 Agile Marketing meetups gain traction
2014 Stories from real people really using Agile in marketing
Marketing adoption of Agile
Marketers often talk about little “a” agile (not big “a” Agile)
The dominant design is emerging for agile marketing
Small “a”: Marketing faster
Real-time
Growth hacking
Lean marketing
Big “A”: Applying Agile to marketing
From development
More responsive
More effective
Interviews with Leaders
Since April 2011
Interviewed pioneers
Lots of chasing
Many renegades
BACKLOG of all work
All are using sprints
Image: Wikipedia
Three monthly THEMES or EPICS
SCRUM at least three times a week … sometimes more…
What have you done for me lately?
What did you just finish?
What are you doing next?
What is the problem?
PRODUCT OWNER is also SCRUM MASTER
PERSONAS for core customers
Burndowns are infrequent
Image: Wikipedia
Other marketing Agile observations
Product owner and scum master the same
Some using user stories
More frequently small tech companies
More common in digital/demand gen team
Some waterfall remains
Some interesting innovations
What is working for my team
Transparent objectives/priorities
Adaptive attitude/responsiveness
Low overhead
Team cohesion
Making it happen
Personal worst practices in Agile
Things we could do better No post it notes No planning poker – accurate sizing No burndown charts No science fair
Agile for Content Marketing
Good news: content is still king
“$118.4 billion will be spent on content marketing, video marketing, and social media in 2013”
- eMarketer
“80% of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement.”
- Content Marketing Institute
“Content creation is ranked as the single most effective SEO technique”
- Marketing Sherpa
“27,000,000 pieces of content are shared everyday.”
- AOL and Nielson
Demos & Videos
Downloads
Modern marketing architectureSite Traffic
‘Actions’ on Site
Leads
Search Engines SEO & PPCContent
PR & Partners
Marketo SalesForce Sales
Prospect
Many old tricks don’t work any more
More data and better real-time analytics
We know the value of social
Conversation is always happening
Disconnect between planning and doing in content marketing
Life is short for a CMO
Responsible for entire marketing mix
Often more creative than quantitative
Sits at table with C-levels
Ave tenure: < 4 years
Up from < 2 year in 2009
Held more accountable than ever
Marketing mix is increasingly digital
Forced to test more before diving in
Can’t always tell what content will succeed…
Or this old content…
Less certainty about how things spread
Your agencies are probably waterfall…
Statements of work
Creative briefs
Risk reward balance
Waterfall prevents bad client behavior
Long lead times tasks
Events
Media buying
User conferences
Branding and product marketing less “agile”
Getting started
How Agile helps content marketers
Adaptive for increasing uncertain channels
Transparent process
Make team more effective by focusing
Free Advice***
If you are not in charge Start small – a single project Things that look like software development Areas with rapid change Something with strongly measurable ROI Talk with a developer who knows Agile
Agile Marketers Rockstars
Scott Brinker, CEO, Ion Interactive
John Cass, Cohost Marketing Agility Podcast
Jonathan Colman, Principal Experience Architect at REI
Frank Days, Tech CMO and agilemarketingblog.com
Jim Ewel, CEO, In Demand Interpreting
Jascha Kaykas-Wolf, CMO Mindjet
David Quinn, Director of Communications, EMC
Neil Perkin, Only Dead Fish
Mike Volpe, CMO Hubspot
Attend an Agile marketing meetup
San Francisco
Boston
Seattle
China
Many more
Let’s connect
Frank Days
@tangyslice
Tangyslice.com
Agilemarketingblog.com
Agile Marketing Group on Facebook
Marketing Agility Podcast on iTunes