A Year in the Life of an Agile Marketer


The AgileSherpas blog welcomes guest author, Hannah Bink, the head of Partner Marketing at Scaled Agile to share her Agile marketing journey over the course of the past year.

Hannah has nearly 15 years of B2B marketing experience. Prior to Scaled Agile, Hannah spent the majority of her career in telecommunications and healthcare sectors, running global marketing divisions. It's safe to say that the Pennsylvania State University alum has spent a considerable part of her career navigating the chaotic inner workings of marketing departments in all sorts of different industries.

Until she discovered Agile marketing in 2019...

In this article, Hannah shares her top takeaways from her first year as an Agile marketer.

So, if you're wondering whether to take the plunge and dive into your own Agile marketing journey, with your team or as an individual marketeer, read Hannah's first-person take after a year of this new way of working. 

Hint: She says she's never going back!

Increasing productivity and decreasing work hours

I began my agile journey in March 2019 – nearly one year ago.  Since then, I have been exposed to a new language, a new community, and a new lease on life. 

When I think back on nearly fifteen years of shotgun, everything-is-a-priority, every-man-for-himself marketing that preceded this journey, I wonder how I ever achieved any success at all.  Since switching to Agile marketing, my average hours worked per week have gone down 20% and my productivity has gone up 20%.

How do I know that?

How else – I ran the numbers.

agile-marketer-productivity

In one year I have started and successfully completed over 100 initiatives. 

This includes (but is not limited to) events, learning new markets, advertising campaigns, lead flow management, content, training, sales enablement, and channel development.  And I’m doing it in less time!

What’s more, I’m not pulling my hair out.

I still attend meetings, I still go on my lunch break, and I still constantly forget to schedule that doctor’s appointment.  The only thing that’s changed is how I, and the people around me, work. That’s it.

Building Quality into Marketing Campaigns

And you may ask, if you’re doing that much that fast, how do you know if it worked?  Isn’t that the point of marketing after all – quality over quantity?

Well Mr. Smarty Pants, built in quality is one of the things Agile is all about

My campaigns are more successful than they have ever been before in my career.

One ad campaign increased traffic to our website by 33% year-over-year, because I didn't do all the work upfront, and instead had a plan for iteration as I went, improving my results each day. 

agile-marketer-results

My CEO went out of his way to shake my hand when he found out.

Achieving Work Life Balance

But what’s more important to me than productivity and hours at the office, is how that affects me in other parts of my life. 

Since adopting Agile for my day-to-day work and becoming an Agile marketer, my husband and I have cut our fights by well more than half. How? Because I don’t work 12 hour days and come home completely exhausted.

Because I’m home, chores are shared and the house is cared for. My being home also means we spend time together, bonding over the hobbies that connected us in the first place. And probably most importantly, when I’m home I’m present. 

agile-marketer-work-life-balance

I’m not thinking about today’s fire drill that blew up my entire week or the ever-mounting workload that I’ll never get done. I’m also not thinking about the 30 projects I managed to work on today but accomplish nothing.  All I’m thinking about is home.   

Boosting Personal Motivation

A year ago I would have told you that all of this sounds wonderful, but isn't very realistic. 

I would have told you that you don’t understand how my company operates and this fantasy land will never get you ahead in your career. 

I would have said it sounded lazy and unmotivated.

But I was wrong.

I am more motivated than I have ever been. I am more productive than I have ever been.  Overall, I am more successful than I have ever been.  

If you still don’t believe me, here’s proof that I am better off.  After one year as an Agile marketer, I actually take time out of my day to write blogs on the topic, because I have time to do things like this now. 

Trust me when I say, I can never go back.

To check out more writings from Hannah,  visit her blog, "Musings of a Marketeer" or catch her for a coffee in the streets of Denver, Colorado, where she currently lives.

 

Register now for the State of Agile Marketing Report Webinar: April 2nd at 11 am EDT