Today, marketing is also digital, and as such must be inspired by the user’s behaviors. This observation implies a change in approach and a permanent questioning of the marketing operations to launch. Here’s our conversation with Laurent Maillard, pioneer of Agile marketing, founder and manager of Adoraweb.
Photo: / Credits © Adoraweb
Agile is a philosophy
Today, marketing is in a similar situation as the software development world was in the 2000s. In short, developing monumental communication plans years in advance based solely on opinions no longer works.
It’s about considering that the customer has taken control of their buying process. We need to value feedback from the field more and opinions less. The company must show humility and detach itself from its certainties to listen more to its customers and offer them an experience that meets their expectations.
Agile methods such as Scrum, Lean, Kanban or Design Thinking offer solutions and tools to achieve this. Accepting to be wrong has almost become a necessity. This pushes the company to understand and adjust itself as closely as possible to the behaviors of its customers, even if it means going down a path that has not been explored until now… This way, we reduce the risks, especially financial, while delivering added value to our audiences on a regular basis.
“I have made peace with myself and now accept that the first version is never perfect and that my role is to allow each version to be better than the last with the goal of continuous improvement.”
Taking it slow
Over the past decade, consumer buying behavior has changed significantly. They compare, consult reviews, and get information before making a purchase. 80% of this process happens outside the company’s control… Remember how you chose your hotel during your last vacation?
It is essential for a company that wants to communicate effectively on the web to start by knowing the profile of the customers it wants to reach (the personas) and to observe their behavior on the web. Often companies jump on the latest trend without realizing that it will not be effective if their actions are not integrated into a real marketing and sales platform, built on the expectations of the targets and not on the latest trend on Insta.
Agility allows our clients to develop their website step by step by integrating it with all their actions rather than taking months (and a lot of money) before realizing that they have gone in the wrong direction.
I always recommend starting with a simple version, then adding new features and content as results are obtained. Think scientifically: it proves itself every time! Observation-Hypothesis-Infirmation or Confirmation based on the analysis of the impact of each action (analytics).
The beginning of a project is always the time when we know the least and yet it is at this moment that traditional methods push us to make the most important decisions. Taking the time to test different approaches will allow you to avoid risks (especially financial ones) and go faster in the right direction.
This article was first published in Silicon Luxembourg magazine. Read our full Digital Entrepreneurship edition.
