“Hacking Marketing”

Today's marketers approach hacking as applying the innovative mindset of software development to marketing. While traditional TV, radio, and print ads still matter, marketing has gone digital. With everyone connected to the internet through various devices, how people buy things has fundamentally shifted. Companies that treat digital marketing separately will fall behind.

“Digital Dynamics”

The digital world runs on five key traits: “speed, adaptability, adjacency, scale, and precision.” Think about it: digital communication is super fast. You click, and boom, it's there. Changing stuff online, like a website, is a piece of cake. It's quick and cheap, and you can program it easily.

Ever notice how you can hop from one website to another with just a click? That's “digital adjacency” in action. And when it comes to reaching people, whether it's 10 or 10 million, the cost doesn't change much. That's scalability for you. Plus, there's practically unlimited space and computing power in the digital realm. Tracking what people do online? It's like having a superpower. You can see exactly what's happening and use that data to make smart decisions. That's precision.

In the last decade, digital stuff has shaken up marketing in five big ways.

1. Digital advertising, including mobile and online video ads, now receives a larger portion of companies' marketing budgets.
2. Location-based marketing, utilizing techniques such as QR codes or Bluetooth beacons, blurs the distinction between online and physical marketing.
3. Digital tools and features, such as mobile apps and digital payments, are revolutionizing the operations of non-digital businesses.
4. Social media influencers, online reviewers, and bloggers hold more sway over public perception than traditional brand-generated campaigns.
5. Modern marketing relies heavily on digital infrastructure and tools like analytics, customer relationship management, and campaign administration.

Current Marketing Management

Marketing in today's world relies heavily on software tools like marketing software, search engines, social media platforms, and digital device software. To navigate this virtual pipeline effectively, marketers have become creators of software themselves. While software developers handle the technical aspects of website creation, marketers take the lead in ensuring that websites meet their requirements. As marketing has transformed into a software-driven field, managing marketing projects now resembles managing software development projects. The key components of modern marketing management are "agility, innovation, scalability, and talent."

Agile Management practices for better efficiency and adaptability

The agile management movement was born out of the need to keep up with the fast-paced world of software development. Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland introduced Scrum, a method that revolves around quick, iterative work cycles called "sprints." Teams use a transparent worklog and divide tasks into prioritized sprints, working closely together to achieve specific goals. Daily 15-minute "stand-up" meetings keep everyone in sync, while regular sprint reviews and retrospectives help teams stay agile.

David J. Anderson developed Kanban as another agile method. Kanban teams operate within existing company structures but remain flexible enough to adapt to digital changes. The Kanban board serves as a visual representation of tasks and progress, helping teams manage workflows effectively. Scrumban, a hybrid of Scrum and Kanban, combines the best of both worlds. It emphasizes iterative and adaptive cycles of product development, offering a flexible approach to project management.

In 2011, Eric Ries introduced lean ideals into agile marketing with his book "The Lean Startup." He emphasized concepts like building a "minimum viable product" (MVP) and using A/B testing to gauge market feasibility. This approach prioritizes making decisions based on testing and analytics, ensuring products meet customer needs efficiently.

Utilize sprints effectively for streamlined project management.

Planners divide extensive projects into smaller tasks, tackled through sprints. Each sprint begins with a planning meeting where the team selects tasks from the prioritized backlog, which they regularly update by removing old tasks and adding new ones. Then, they start working on these chosen tasks. Throughout production, they convene daily for a 15-minute "daily scrum" or stand-up. Here, they answer three questions: "What did I do yesterday?" "What will I do today?" and "Are there any obstacles that might hinder me or the team from reaching our goals?"

Upon completing a sprint, team members and stakeholders convene for a "sprint review." This meeting serves to acknowledge individual and collective efforts, exchange information, gather feedback, and brainstorm new ideas. Following this, they hold a "sprint retrospective," where they reflect on successes, challenges, and areas for improvement. The sprint methodology enables swift adaptation to market changes, expedites product launches, facilitates feedback-driven adjustments, encourages experimentation with new concepts, and identifies and eliminates inefficiencies.

Enhance Decision-Making with Agile Management

The sprint cycle's speed turbocharges leaders' decision-making abilities, ramping up what we call "management metabolism." In the past, project managers would halt their current tasks to deal with unexpected issues, disrupting workflows and jeopardizing deadlines. However, the sprint process tackles surprises head-on by incorporating new problems, ideas, and tasks into a backlog. These items are then addressed in the next planning session or, if urgent, integrated into the ongoing sprint.

The Kanban board acts as a visual roadmap for tracking tasks during a sprint. It provides team members with a clear view of task progress through different stages of completion. Imagine it as a digital bulletin board with columns like "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done." More elaborate boards might include additional stages like Create, Review, and Test. Tasks start in the "To Do" column, and team members independently select items to work on. As tasks progress through creation, they undergo review for approval and then move on to testing. Finally, completed tasks are shifted to the Done column to be reviewed during the next sprint session.

“Iterative” and “Incremental”

Agile management breaks big ideas into smaller parts so teams can learn and plan better. In the digital world, testing ideas is quick and cheap, leading to better marketing. Instead of doing everything at once, you make small improvements over time. This helps gather feedback and introduce new ideas regularly. Software folks say "RERO: Release Early, Release Often," and in marketing, it's "MEMO: Market Early, Market Often."

Iterations are changes to improve something, like making a website better over time. For example, if you have a landing page, each change aims to make more people click or fill out a form, which is known as Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). Marketers try lots of small changes based on data to improve tactics without taking big risks. By breaking things down and testing ideas, marketers can make smarter choices and improve performance over time.

“Big Testing”

Digital's flexibility allows marketers to conduct low-risk experiments through A/B testing. "Big testing," a company's dedication to extensive experimentation, revolves around three key ideas. Firstly, it encourages innovative thinking that challenges the norm and connects with target audiences in fresh ways. Secondly, there's the concept of the "big tent," where everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas, making testing a natural part of everyone's role. This broad approach pushes team members to explore beyond their comfort zones, fostering deeper engagement with their tasks. Lastly, there's the "big deal" aspect: top management actively supports extensive testing, integrating it deeply into the company's culture.

“Customer Stories”

Crafting customer stories helps teams stay focused on creating products that meet buyers' needs. The template for a customer story goes like this: "As a (type of customer), I want (content or experience) so I can (benefit/reason why)." For instance, ", “As a mid-funnel prospect in the middle of the decision-making process, I want a pricing guide to help me see if this product fits my budget." These stories guide teams in organizing their tasks by highlighting the most important marketing goals for customers.

Transform teams into agile units for streamlined productivity and adaptability

Distributed leadership empowers agile teams to make decisions independently, promoting ownership and transparency. In agile, teams grab tasks from the backlog and take full responsibility for them. Every step of the sprint process, from backlog to Kanban board to review, is open and clear. Instead of focusing on activities, agile teams prioritize outcomes. They stay connected with the public through social media and testing, seizing opportunities as they arise. While sprints offer flexibility, strategic leaders still set the overall direction. "Manage for outcomes instead of activities." 

Today's marketing revolves around creating innovative experiences that delight customers. Every interaction shapes how customers view your brand. Marketers must constantly innovate to keep the pipeline filled with fresh ideas and stay ahead of the competition. Innovative companies foster a culture where everyone is encouraged to contribute ideas. Management supports this by providing teams with the time and resources to develop new concepts.

“Bimodal IT”

When a small-scale idea proves successful, it's time to see if it can grow. In marketing, this means getting more support inside and reaching out further. But it's not easy because there are lots of different ways customers interact with a product or service. So, marketers borrowed a strategy from software developers called "dual bimodal IT." They think of new ideas as being on the "edge" of the organization. Then, they gradually bring successful ones into the "core."

The "edge" and the "core" are like the two gears of "bimodal marketing." Ideas start on the edge, where they're researched and tested. If they work well, they move to the core for full production. When an idea becomes successful, it's considered part of the core marketing plan.

“Accidental and Essential Complexity”

Software developers have identified two main types of complexity that can get in the way of innovation and problem-solving: accidental complexity and essential complexity. Accidental complexity comes from human mistakes or problems in development. Agile and lean practices are good at cutting down accidental complexity. 

Essential complexity, on the other hand, comes from things like the growing number of touchpoints, different channels, fast-changing customer tastes, and advanced data analytics in marketing. To deal with this complexity, it's important to be careful and purposeful when deciding which new ideas to go for. You don’t need to jump on every new technology that comes along. Avoid making things too complicated by adding unnecessary features or processes, which is what we call "over-engineering." It's also a good idea to shut down old systems and features that people don’t use or need anymore.

Talent

The quest for discovering, nurturing, and retaining talented individuals is what propels modern marketing. Exceptional digital marketers crave learning and challenges. They prefer autonomy and seek meaning in their work. To attract top talent, companies must provide opportunities for contribution, achievement, and advancement.