Getting Started With Agile Marketing Measurement

Posted by Kimberly A. Whitler 

The benefits of agile measurement and marketing are clear. As an example, a McKinsey study published in Harvard Business Review rated the analytics and agility capabilities of various companies’ marketing orgs on a scale of 1 to 7; they found that being 3 points higher on the scale corresponded to 1% higher profits.
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Agile marketing is grounded in a rapid test-and-learn cycle. New information is an opportunity to learn, decide and act. Thus, every time we measure performance, it’s an opportunity to grow the business. And increasing the frequency of this cycle has an exponential effect on growth.
But how can marketers put agile measurement in place? In the fifth article of a six-part series on agile marketing, the experts advise starting small, focusing on iteration, and keeping things on track with strong leadership. For more insight, see Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

The team of experts:

​Jennifer Zeszut  
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Jim Ewel


Mark Verone​
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​Roland Smart


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​Scott Brinker  

CEO, Beckon

President of Peel the Layers and publisher of the Agile Marketing.Net blog

VP, Global IFE Operations & Automation, Gogo

VP of Social & Community Marketing, Oracle & Author of The Agile Marketer: Turning Customer Experience Into Your Competitive Advantage
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Co-founder & CTO of ion interactive; Editor of chiefmartec.com; Program Chair of MarTech, Author of Hacking Marketing: Agile Practices to Make Marketing Smarter, Faster, and More Innovative ​

Kimberly Whitler: What trends are you seeing around agile marketing measurement and analytics?

Scott Brinker: Marketers have a mandate to leverage the wealth of data that the digital world offers them. As a result, data is steadily being democratized in marketing, albeit at a faster rate in some organizations than others. Agile marketers embrace that opportunity and invest in not just tools, but also talent development to use data effectively.

Mark Verone: I would argue that most e-commerce companies have leveraged the basic concepts of agile marketing before it became an industry buzzword. E-commerce companies built entire platforms on audience data, personalization and real-time metrics. They perfected the idea of multivariate testing as a way to conduct market research on their own product. Online companies have the luxury of running CSAT and NPV scoring at the end of the purchase path or within 24 hours of a purchase.
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Technology has also opened the door for real-time, offline transactions analysis, but marketers need to find the right hook to generate this real-time feedback. The other night after dinner at a restaurant, I was presented with a “phablet” device along with my check. The server said to me, "Would you mind answering a short, five-question survey about your experience tonight?" This was an immediate feedback loop—I was filling out a CSAT survey while signing my credit card receipt. The Internet of Things (IoT) landscape makes it easier to collect, sort, analyze and use information in a very agile way.

Whitler: What are some best practices for deploying agile measurement and analysis tools?

Roland Smart: Like all things agile, start small and iterate. Just as agile teams don’t try to predict what the final product will be, we should not become attached to a vision for the data platform we need. Instead, we should start with a minimum viable product (MVP), and iterate to support our agile teams. The technology in this space is moving so quickly that taking a waterfall approach will fail badly.

​Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2016/12/27/getting-started-with-agile-marketing-measurement/#2cc96aba1dcd