An agile approach to inbound marketing (or any marketing plan) eliminates the old school method of forcing deliverables that lock marketers and their clients into premature decisions. Typically, these decisions are outlined in the very beginning of the relationship, when we knew each other the least, which just doesn't make sense. Agile lets us all move away from set-it-and-forget-it assumptions in contracts that quickly become outdated. It also lets our team of inbound experts use their honed skill set and proactively advise clients on the strategic deliverables that will get the best results every month. Agile provides a structure that drives marketers to be: Faster creators Better testers More flexible Customer-centered Focused on priorities of high-value

1. Moving to Agile

2. What is Agile?
The term "agile software development" emerged from a gathering of 17
software industry thought-leaders in Snowbird, UT in 2001. They believed
the traditional approach to managing software development projects was
failing far too often, and there had to be a better way. They invented the
agile manifesto at this meeting:

3. Benefits of Applying Agile to Marketing
Marketers no longer have the luxury to spend months
crafting large projects; they must innovate and produce on
the fly and respond immediately to happenings in their
client’s industries. To succeed, they need to work on
initiatives that drive growth, rather than always reacting.
Agile provides a structure that drives marketers to be:
• Faster creators
• Better testers
• More flexible
• Customer-centered
• Focused on priorities of high-value

4. Benefits of Applying Agile to Marketing
• Increased Business Performance: Marketers who have adopted Agile are
seeing increased business performance due to faster delivery, enhanced
focus on the things that matter, and greater productivity from their teams.
• Higher Employee Satisfaction: Perhaps the most unexpected benefit of
marketing agility is employees working in agile environments report a
greater overall sense of satisfaction and pride in their work due to feeling
more empowered, greater clarity in how their role impacts the business, and
a more collaborative work environment.
• More Adaptable: Marketers are better equipped to handle marketplace
challenges and opportunities having built flexibility into their business
operations. This is positioning marketing leaders to deliver sustainable
growth for their companies.
• Improved Creativity: By getting tasks out of people’s brains and into an
organized structure we leave our brains free for creative thinking.

5. Key Terms
Key concepts in agile project management methodology include the breaking down of large tasks into small tasks and
assigning each small task a time estimate. A reasonable number of small tasks are then allocated to a person or team
over a period of time (a ‘sprint’). The rate at which these tasks are ticked off is measured (the ‘burndown rate’) and this
allows the team to get an understanding of how quickly work is being achieved and how accurate estimates are. This
information can be extrapolated to get an understanding of how realistic larger project milestones and deadlines are.
• Scrum Master: This is generally the project manager. They traffic work through, manage the backlog and keep oversight on
efficiency. If you do scrum right, the Scrum Master’s ability to do capacity planning is off the charts.
• User Stories: A description of a single piece of functionality or content. “As a _____, I want to ______, so that I can _______.” Each
story is estimated to be worth an approximate number of points, and each also contains acceptance criteria, essentially the definition
of done. We can start doing user story workshops with clients, their customers and other stakeholders during the strategy phase.
• Story points: Our unit of measurement for effort. We eventually want to disassociate these from billable hours. For us, a blog post,
for example, could be worth 3 SP and our retainer clients know that they are buying x number of story points per month. We will still
track time internally, but clients don’t see this. We simply use it to make sure people are tasked with a reasonable amount of billable
hours (we don’t want to burn them out). We also use it to see if we’re over investing in a task. Kula Partners describes the concept
well: http://kulapartners.com/about-us/our-story-point-pricing-model/
• Sprints: A group of story points that are time-boxed up to a calendar month. Work completed in each sprint should create something
of tangible value to the client or company. Nobody decides in what order or how to do the task-level work, but team members self
organize in any manner they feel is best for achieving the sprint goal.
• Epics: Takes several sprints to complete an epic (overall large chunk of a build, campaign or plan) (Equivalent of our larger
deliverables: ebooks, websites, videos white papers, etc. Or full campaigns, i.e. the RAC campaign for Flagship.
• Stand Up Meetings/Daily Scrum – Daily morning check-ins. A very short all-hands meeting where everyone explains what they’re
currently working on, what they accomplished in the past day, and what may be blocking them. The name originated from the
practice of everyone standing up in the meeting to promote brevity.
• Backlog: Stories that are good ideas, but you just haven’t got to them yet. This could be a huge list, or it could be a few next phase
items that you just haven’t had time for yet.

6. Incorporating Agile into SPROUT
1. Everything starts with a backlog (all deliverables of a contract). As clients have new requests and needs, add them to the
backlog.
2. Create Milestones to track important client deadlines that inform Sprint priorities.
3. Shift our definition of due date to become the final day in the next Sprint cycle.
4. Make time for Sprint planning to assign tasks for the next Sprint (one hour per week). During this time, choose items from
the backlog to work on for the next iteration. Break the item into tasks, assign each task a priority, estimate and due date to
define what the upcoming sprint is supposed to achieve. Determine if all tasks will fit into the sprint.
5. The workload tab gives a snapshot of the team’s workload for the time period. Look at workload per person to see if it’s
realistic. Can you add more from the backlog? Do you need to take something away?
6. After you set a due date for the week’s tasks, use the ‘everything’ tab to view all active tasks that are due by the end of the
coming week. The “everything” tab will be our agenda for the week.

7. Incorporating Agile into SPROUT
Start Sprint Planning
• Review previous Sprint’s work for accuracy, efficiencies, etc. (Sprint
Retrospective).
• Look at backlog and plan for next Sprint.
• Use the Value Pricing points system we’ve already developed as a
guideline. Estimates will improve with time as we compare them to actual
recorded time in TeamWork.
Start Weekly Sprint Meetings:
• When should we have them?
Start Daily Stand-Ups:
• What did I do yesterday?
• What do I plan to do today?
• Is there anything I need assistance with to accomplish those goals? Is
there anything blocking me?
• Could eventually move to a weekly option (Hump Day Nooners)

8. Concepts to Remember
As an agency, we are restructuring how we deliver our client plans so that we can evolve
our services along with their needs and build valuable relationships.
• In Agile Development projects, requirements are allowed to evolve, but the timescale is
fixed. So to include a new requirement, or to change a requirement, the user or product owner
must remove/replace a comparable amount of work from the project in order to accommodate the
change.
• We will evolve to create our backlog list expressed in terms of story points and user stories
that are always something of value to the client. This will allow us to focus on value over activity to
judge completeness, quality and readiness for release.
• Content developed within an iteration (Sprint in Scrum), should be 100% complete by the
end of the Sprint. In an ideal situation, each iteration or Sprint should lead to a release of the
product. In our case, each portion of a deliverable should be itemized out per Sprint to call it
complete. Initial draft, client review, editing, client approval and publishing will be listed out as
separate tasks in separate Sprints.
• Agile will help us stay nimble and tie content themes and marketing plans to what clients and
their prospects are really looking for, allowing us to respond in real-time to trending content in our
clients’ industries, helping increase their relevance and social influence.

9. Resources
• What is Agile Marketing?
• How Does Agile Marketing Work?
• Agile Methodology for Inbound Marketing Agencies
• Run Your Marketing Team Like a Startup.
• Becoming an Agile Marketing Agency