Olga AndrienkoHeadofGlobalMarketingatSEMrush

AgileMarketing:AStep-by-StepGuide

@olgandrienkoSlideshare:bit.ly/agile_brighton

We ALL face the challenge of winning on the market that is constantly changing.

#BrightonSEO

Every minute…#BrightonSEO

Long-term planning doesn’t work

Your beautiful 1-year marketing plan is outdated!

So what helps to handle the pressure?

Adapt to change and pressure the right way

Adapting to change Embracing change

ADAPTING TO CHANGEChanges your company, but not the environment

Changes the environmentEMBRACING CHANGE

Agile Marketing

Validated learning over opinions

Adaptive and iterative campaigns over Big-Bang campaigns

Customer focused collaboration over silos and hierarchy

The process of customer discovery over static prediction

Responding to change over following a plan

Many small experiments over a few large bets

Flexible planning over rigid planning

Step 1: Empower your people

Push decision-making down the hierarchy and find ways to increase

the focus on the customer.

#BrightonSEO

People are the only element of your success that your competitors can’t replicate.

What marketers love

CREATIVITY FREEDOM BUDGETS J

What to give to your marketing team

CREATIVITY FREEDOM BUDGETS RESPONSIBILITY

Autonomous cross-functional teamsProduct owners or process leads are setting a direction, not telling how to achieve goals

10Imagesource:https://labs.spotify.com/2014/03/27/spotify-engineering-culture-part-1/

Agile marketing doesn’t mean chaos

Leaders explain

“what” to do, but not

“how”. And all

leaders are involved

in the process

themselves.

Step 2: Performance management and workflow

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Agile frameworks to increase productivity

SCRUM KANBAN SCRUMBAN

Scrum tests: 2-week vs. 3 week sprints Marketing is distribution and promotion. 2 weeks are not enough to plan and execute

10Imagesource:http://chiefmartec.com/2013/10/3-myths-agile-marketing/

Scrum

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3-week sprints (tested 3 vs. 2 weeks)

The team defines the “how”(“what” comes from management + the team)

Backlog is created through brainstorming sessions

Planning sessions, standups and retrospectives

Test: task management tools Teams can use whatever tool they like best. Tools tested: Trello, Asana, Wrike, Todoist

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Next steps: Create backlog with ideas

Small campaigns and experiments

Always listen to the customer and check data

Agile marketing cases in actionCompanies that incorporated agile principles in how they market

What was changed

Switched to in-house design team from agency

Constant feedback: Voice of the Customer surveys (via SurveyMonkey)

Switched email client to cheaper and easier option that would enable teams to create content themselves

Source: https://simplehq.co/blog/saving-money-with-agile-marketing/

Saved $3m in costs in 2 years

In-house creative department alone saved about $1.4 million

Source: https://simplehq.co/blog/saving-money-with-agile-marketing/

Marketing budget of $9 million brings $12 million in value

NPS changed from 48 to 72 in 12 months

“The understanding of our differentiation proposition was lower than our competitors. We’ve dramatically improved that in the past 12 months.”

Darren Gunton, CMO of Chemmart Pharmacy

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Transparency culture at Buffer

Distributed team worldwide

Transparency and happiness culture

Customer feedback incorporated in the roadmaps

Transparent roadmap at Buffer

Ideas are immediately tested

Transparent Pricing by Buffer

The price of the subscription divided by the costs Buffer has

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Agile marketing in SEMrush

Local presence without being local: SEMrush Pizza Time (Australia)

Reacting to trending news: Adding Dothraki database in SEMrush

Applying strengths of the team to marketing: #SEMrushchat (Twitter chat)

Local approach at SEMrush

> 90% growth for emerging markets in 2016

500,000 new users within 8 months

Closer connections with clients and the industry because we really listen

Challenges of agile marketing

Proactive team members sufferfrom the lack of involvement of others. Hiring mistakes lead to disfunctional teams and communicational disasters.

HIRINGProactive + creative + responsible + flexible team players areextremely hard to find

Equals find it hard to give negative feedback and kick out the team members who are not performing

FIRING

GIVE YOUR TEAM THE FREEDOM TO CREATEAnd remember:

Happy and motivated people create awesome things.

@olgandrienko via#BrightonSEO

When a team commits to something they initiated themselves, it's likely to be finished, because they care about the end result.

@olgandrienko via#BrightonSEO

Natural leaders stand out immediately. Every team member reveals talents and focus on what they do best.

@olgandrienko via#BrightonSEO

There is a saying…

You can’t do epic sh*t with basic people

But the truth is different

All people are epic, but often there are basic rules that block creativity.

Thank you!

Olga Andrienko

Head of Global Marketing

@olgandrienko

o.andrienko@semrush.com

Slides: bit.ly/agile_brighton