By: Patrick Rouillard
At the start of Market Charlotte 2016, the speakers asked for a show of hands from the audience of how many were familiar with Agile Marketing. Only a few hands popped up.
Personally, I was somewhat familiar with the concept of Agile, but was looking forwarding to learning more from the featured speakers – Russ Lange from CMG Partners and Roland Smart from Oracle.
And they did not disappoint! I left the event feeling like I just gained “insider knowledge” on a truly cutting edge marketing approach. And it’s probably safe to say I was not the only attendee who felt this way.
Here are 3 of my main takeaways:
1. Agile keeps the customer experience front and center
As marketers, we always intend to have the customer experience be the focal point in our campaigns. However, as the speakers pointed out, this requires the ability to pivot and adapt to changes midstream.
Traditional marketing approaches can make that difficult, whereas the iterative style of Agile allows for a continual series of “Launch. Results. Improve.” You are essentially building a continual customer feedback loop that you can base your next product developments around.
Why is all this important?
Moving forward, it is likely that competition of customer experience will only increase. And it seems companies that adopt Agile will have the leading edge.
2. The Peak-End Rule
I was somewhat familiar with the “peak-end” rule prior to attending Market Charlotte. However, having Roland Smart and Russ Lange explain it in the context of Agile only emphasized its importance.
As the speakers outlined, along the customer journey, the two most important points for marketers are the peak and the end. The peak represents the most ‘intense’ experience for the customer during that particular buying journey. It carries the most weight when averaging the final score of the overall customer experience. And it can be either positive or negative.
For example, as Roland Smart pointed out, you can hypothetically score a 10 on most of the touch points in the customer journey. However, if the peak experience is a 2 or 3, the overall satisfaction with the buying experience as a whole will plummet.
So if nothing else, at least for me, this emphasized the importance of gaining more control and flexibility over the customers’ buying journey -- which Agile allows you to do.
3. Agile can be molded to your needs
Towards the end of the program, both speakers made sure to emphasize that Agile is not a strict, prescriptive formula. Rather, it’s a mindset and methodology that can be assimilated into how your company is already doing things. The speakers also pointed out that Agile is not something that can be fully implemented after a 2-day workshop. It’s a process that requires ongoing diligence and commitment.
Needless to say, it was a real treat to hear Roland and Russ discuss a truly cutting-edge marketing approach.
Want to learn more about Agile Marketing? Click here.
And as always, a very special thanks to our sponsors who really make it all possible:
The Creative Group
Boingo Graphics
Passport
Helio One
Wray Ward
Marketing Talent Inc.
ACC Queen City Club
