Agile Marketing In Practice

The agile advantage: Maximising media and event marketing performance

Rewire your events and media marketing for pace, focus and impact

As a senior marketing leader in media and events, you face relentless pressure to deliver measurable results while navigating constant change, tight deadlines, and evolving audience expectations.

Traditional marketing approaches can’t keep pace with the speed of your business. This playbook equips you with the strategic framework and practical tools to transform your marketing operations through agile methodologies.

By breaking down key concepts, frameworks, and real-world applications, it will help you navigate the challenges of demonstrating marketing impact, improving efficiency, and adapting to change. Whether you’re looking to introduce agile for the first time or refine existing practices, this playbook will give you the tools to drive measurable results and transform the way your marketing team operates.

This Playbook is your practical guide to working smarter, moving faster, and delivering measurable impact – without adding more to your to-do list.

Built for modern event and media marketers under pressure to prove value, this playbook shows you:

What agile marketing is and how it helps you ditch outdated plans in favour of fast, focused execution
How to improve effectiveness by aligning campaigns to real business goals
How to build a team that collaborates better, adapts faster, and delivers more consistently
How to run high-impact experiments that drive learning, lead quality, and ROI

How to scale what works, cut what doesn’t, and stay one step ahead of changing priorities

Whether you’re optimising an existing strategy or starting fresh, this guide gives you the tips and tools to transform how your team operates and how your work gets measured.

Complete the form to download the playbook and start delivering better marketing results – faster.

July 23, 2025 Sian Heaphy Agile Marketing In Practice, Media & Events, Publishing, Publishing, Media & Events

A delicate balance: Standardisation meets agility in marketing

At first glance, process standardisation and agile methodologies might seem like opposing forces in the world of marketing. Standardisation implies consistency and repetition, while agility suggests flexibility and rapid adaptation. However, in my years of experience as a marketer, I’ve discovered that these two approaches, when thoughtfully combined, create a powerful synergy that drives success.

Process standardisation provides a stable foundation and clear guardrails, enabling teams to be truly agile. By establishing consistent workflows and focusing on continual improvement and best practice, we free up the team’s mental bandwidth and release resources, allowing for quicker decision-making and more creative problem-solving in response to changing needs or market conditions. This paradoxical blend of structure and flexibility is at the heart of modern, high-performing marketing teams.

The agile paradox: Structure in flexibility

Consider the structure of a typical agile sprint. By establishing a consistent rhythm of planning, regular stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives, teams create a predictable framework within which they can focus on aligning to the business goals and being more strategic and creative in the work to be done. This standardised approach to time management doesn’t constrain creativity, instead, it frees teams from the cognitive load of constantly reinventing their workflow.

Similarly, task templates for common marketing activities like campaign planning or content creation can be invaluable. These aren’t rigid scripts to be followed blindly, but repeatable and flexible starting points that bring together previous know-how across essential elements while allowing for customisation to meet specific client needs.

Prioritisation and efficiency gains

One of the most striking benefits I’ve observed from implementing standardised and repeatable workflow management processes is the dramatic increase in efficiency and clearer prioritisation to focus on work that contributes most towards the business goals. By eliminating the need to reinvent the wheel for every project, teams can work faster and more effectively. This doesn’t mean churning out cookie-cutter solutions or getting trapped in a rinse and repeat cycle, but shifts focus into creative energy and continually improving results.

A centralised knowledge base or hub has proven to be a game-changer for us. By documenting best practices, guidelines, and lessons learned, we’ve created a resource that allows team members to quickly access standardised approaches while continuously improving based on new insights. This not only speeds up work but also ensures a consistent level of quality across all our projects.

How to get started

Effective process standardisation in an agile marketing model is not without its challenges. I’ve seen teams fall into the trap of over-rigidity, creating processes so inflexible that they stifle creativity and prevent adaptation to meet changing business and market needs. The key is to remember that standardisation should provide a framework, not a straitjacket.

Another common pitfall is culture and mindset; resistance from team members who feel their autonomy is being limited can derail implementing a consistent approach. Addressing this requires a change communications approach and involvement in the process development and optimisation. When team members understand the ‘why’ behind standardised processes and have a hand in shaping them, buy-in becomes much easier to achieve. Don’t forget to celebrate the big and small wins along the way, as you develop processes, toolkits and templates there will be a lot of test and learn opportunities, share these moments as a team.

Client success stories

The true test of any process improvement and optimisation project, is its impact on business outcomes. I’m proud to say that our work and agile marketing methodology has yielded impressive results for our clients. For example, our agile marketing training programme helped to drive 123% increase in revenue for Informa Markets’ CPHI Europe event.

Our standardised project management framework has also been a hit with clients. Regular check-ins, progress reports, and clearly defined milestones keep projects on track and allow for timely adjustments. Clients appreciate the transparency and predictability this brings to our projects and campaigns.

Perhaps most importantly, our focus on standardised performance measurement has transformed the way we demonstrate value to clients. With established KPIs and reporting templates, we’re able to provide clear, data-driven insights that help clients understand their marketing performance and make informed decisions.

Fostering a culture of continuous improvement

The real magic happens when standardised processes become ingrained in the culture of a team or organisation. This doesn’t happen overnight, but with the right approach, it’s achievable. We’ve found success by involving team members in the development and refinement of workflows, providing comprehensive training and ongoing support, and encouraging regular feedback and suggestions for improvement.

Technology plays a crucial role in this integration. By leveraging workflow methods with project management and collaboration tools that support our standardised processes, we’ve made it easier for teams to follow established workflows without feeling burdened by them. It also allows greater opportunities to measure time– to– market, lead times, task completion and rework rates and overall pace. We can also measure the impact of greater agility through improved processes and prioritisation of tasks.

Celebrating successes has also been key to fostering adoption. When teams see tangible improvements in their work and receive recognition for effectively implementing standardised processes, it reinforces the value of these approaches and encourages continued buy-in.

The path forward

As we look to the future of B2B marketing, it’s clear that process standardisation and repeatability will continue to play a vital role. The challenge, and the opportunity, lies in striking the right balance between structure and flexibility, between efficiency and creativity.

By thoughtfully implementing standardised processes within an agile marketing framework, we’ve achieved a powerful synergy that not only optimises marketing operations but delivers tangible benefits to our clients.

As you embark on your own journey of process standardisation, remember that the goal is not to create rigid, immutable systems, but to establish a strong foundation that supports agility, creativity, and continuous improvement. With the right approach, standardised processes can become a catalyst for innovation and excellence in agile marketing.

In this ever-evolving landscape, the businesses that thrive will be those that can harness the power of standardisation without losing the spark of innovation. It’s a delicate balance, but one that, when achieved, can transform the way we work and the results we deliver.

July 15, 2025 hannah.siva@brightinnovation.co.uk Agile Marketing In Practice

Busy but not better: why your B2B marketing isn’t delivering the results it should

Marketing teams are some of the busiest teams in the business. Content calendars are packed. Campaigns are firing. Budgets are being spent. But for many B2B organisations, all that activity still isn’t translating into consistent pipeline or strong returns. It’s not for lack of effort. The problem is often something more subtle: a misalignment of effort.

The real issue isn’t volume, it’s focus

When results stall, the instinctive response is often to do more. Launch more campaigns. Publish more content. Spend more budget. But we’ve seen this play out across dozens of B2B growth-stage businesses and “more” rarely fixes the root issue.

The truth? Most teams don’t have a volume problem. They have a distribution of effort problem. Marketing activity is spread unevenly across the customer journey. Some areas are over-resourced, others overlooked. And while it all feels busy, the outcome is misaligned, underperforming GTM execution.

That’s where a simple, strategic model can help bring clarity. We use a straightforward lens to audit and realign marketing strategies: Brand. Demand. Activate.

Brand

Are you building awareness and trust with the right audience?
This is what gets you in the conversation, builds familiarity, and primes your audience for future conversion.

Demand

Are you effectively capturing interest and converting it to pipeline?
From lead generation to nurture to sales enablement, this is where most teams invest the bulk of their time and budget.

Activate

Are you turning existing customers into a source of sustained growth? This often-overlooked area includes retention, upsell, and referral and it has a profound impact on CAC, LTV, and efficiency.

Here’s what we typically find when teams map their GTM plan across this model:

Brand work is often fragmented across silos.

Demand is stretched thin – expected to deliver ever more with ever less.

Activate is under-resourced, or worse, absent.

And that’s a big miss. Because Activate is where revenue resilience lives.

Why ‘Activate’ matters more than you think

In a world of tighter budgets, shifting buyer expectations, and longer sales cycles, growth doesn’t just come from net-new business. It comes from retaining, growing, and learning from your existing customers.

Activate isn’t just about post-sale comms. It’s about creating a systematic engine for:

Retention – Helping customers realise value quickly and stay longer

Upsell – Identifying natural expansion points based on behaviour and success

Referral – Turning happy customers into advocates and influencers

These levers don’t just improve efficiency — they help multiply your overall marketing ROI. And yet, most GTM teams still default to the front end of the funnel. Because that’s where it feels easier to show activity, if not impact.

Breaking the ‘busy work’ cycle

So why do so many marketing teams stay trapped in reactive mode? Because they’re stuck in what we call the ‘busy work’ loop:

Capacity gets maxed out chasing quarterly targets

Priorities shift weekly (or daily)

Budget gets spread too thin

Teams operate in silos

Strategy takes a back seat to delivery

And it all adds up to a huge disconnect between effort and impact. That’s where agile marketing becomes a real unlock, not just as a delivery methodology, but as a mindset.

It helps teams:

Prioritise what actually moves the needle

Collaborate across functions

Adapt quickly to data and feedback

Focus on value, not volume

In other words: aim before you fire.

Time to take a closer look?
If your team is doing all the things but still falling short on results, this might be the moment to step back. Try mapping your current marketing plan against the Brand–Demand–Activate model. Where are you over-investing? Where are the blind spots? And what might happen if you shifted just 10–15% of your time and budget into the areas that drive lasting growth?

Want to explore how this could work in your team?
We’ve helped B2B marketing leaders rebalance their strategy and unlock performance using this simple model. Let’s talk.

July 10, 2025 Zoe Merchant Agile Marketing In Practice

Agile isn’t just about moving fast – it’s about moving in the right direction

The setup

The event’s three weeks out.
You’re juggling six sponsors, four email journeys, and a keynote speaker who still hasn’t confirmed.
You’ve had the same budget sign-off doc open in three tabs.
Everyone’s “in motion” but no one knows what’s actually moving.

The diagnosis

That’s not speed.
That’s chaos disguised as hustle.

You’re reacting fast, working hard, staying busy.
It feels like agility.
But deadlines keep slipping. Approvals stall. Priorities blur.

That’s not agility, it’s survival mode.

The illusion of agility

Most teams don’t resist agile.
They just adopt fragments of it and assume that’s enough.

You might not run standups or retros.
But you’ve got project plans. A kanban board. Weekly team meetings.
You adapt to change. You move fast. You get things over the line.

It looks agile. It even feels agile, because it’s reactive.

But agility isn’t motion. It’s principled adaptation. It’s structure under pressure. It’s progress by design.

You’re not far off. But without principles, fast work is fragile work.

What Agile actually enables

When properly embedded, agile transforms how marketing teams operate:

Clarity on priorities→ Know what must move this week, and what can wait
Faster launches, fewer blockers→ Ship version one without endless sign-off loops
Real-time decision-making→ Adjust strategy based on what the data says today
Sustainable pace→ Avoid the burnout of always working at the edge of control

Agile gives your team the rhythm it needs to focus, adapt, and win under pressure.

Where Agile Slips

Even with the right tools, things stall:

Weekly priorities are set but rarely revisited
Meetings happen, but decisions don’t
Work is tracked, but progress feels stuck
Campaigns run, but lessons are skipped

Agile isn’t a label. It’s a living process.

What real agility looks like

In media and event marketing, agile shows up like this:

Clarity: Everyone knows what’s moving, what’s stuck, and why
Responsiveness: You pivot on facts, not fear
Confidence: Teams test, learn, and iterate fast
Visibility: Tools simplify, not clutter, the path to execution

From reaction to rhythm

To move from hustle to true agility:

Spot the sticking pointsWhere does work stall? What delays decisions? Clear the friction.
Shrink the cycleReplace long-range planning with tight sprints focused on one meaningful outcome.
Empower real autonomyDecentralise decisions. Don’t wait to move, equip your team to act.

Final word

You’re already moving fast. But if your speed isn’t strategic, your progress won’t stick.
Agile isn’t a checklist. It’s how modern teams build clarity in chaos, not just cope with it.
You’ve made the first shift. Now make it sustainable.

June 26, 2025 Sian Heaphy Agile Marketing In Practice, Publishing, Media & Events

Cut the fat, not the impact: how smart CMOs are squeezing more from less in 2025

Let’s not sugar-coat it: This year is a pressure cooker for B2B marketers.

Budgets are under strain. Teams are stretched. The ask? Deliver more commercial impact with fewer resources. And no, you can’t hire.

But the best CMOs aren’t flinching, they’re pivoting. They’re treating constraint as a catalyst. Getting lean. Getting sharp. And crucially, getting agile.

Here’s how high-performing marketing teams are turning challenge into competitive advantage:

Ruthless prioritisation, not polite compromises

Top marketing leaders aren’t hedging their bets across 10 campaigns, they’re backing three that actually drive results. That means trimming the fluff, shelving the vanity projects, and focusing on what aligns with commercial strategy.

Agile isn’t a theory, it’s a working style

Agile ways of working aren’t new, but they’re becoming non-negotiable. The teams leading the pack have baked in agile rhythms: sprint planning, backlog prioritisation, iterative testing, and regular retros.

They’re not just reacting faster, they’re learning faster, and delivering faster.

It’s not about doing more work. It’s about doing the right work. In the right order. With the right people in the room.

Collaboration over control

Marketing doesn’t sit in a silo anymore (and if it does in your org — fix that). Smart CMOs are forging stronger ties across sales, product and finance, aligning on outcomes, not just outputs.

It’s a team sport now. And marketers are the ones keeping the scoreboard.

Data is your proof point and your power play

Marketing has to justify its seat at the revenue table. That means mastering the numbers such as CLV, CAC, pipeline velocity, engagement-to-conversion rates, and using them to steer investment.

Gut feel isn’t good enough. Real-time insight is how you earn (and defend) your budget.

Content that cuts through (not just fills the funnel)

Paid is plateauing. Content is climbing. But the bar is higher. Mediocre messaging gets ignored, especially in a market flooded with AI-generated ‘meh’.

It’s not about more content. It’s about braver content. Useful, opinionated, and properly distributed.

Fractional, flexible, and faster to value

Permanent headcount is harder to come by, so leaders are tapping into a more elastic talent model such as outsourced experts, fractional CMOs, freelance specialists, to fill gaps fast and keep momentum high.

It’s smart. It’s scalable. And it’s how high-growth teams are staying agile without overloading their core.

This is agile leadership in practice

Constraint doesn’t kill marketing. Complacency does. The CMOs thriving in 2025 are the ones embracing agile principles, making bold decisions, and embedding experimentation deep into their team’s DNA.

Where are you doubling down this year?

How are you embedding agility into your strategy and operations?

Would love to hear what’s working…and what’s not.

May 15, 2025 Zoe Merchant Agile Marketing In Practice, Marketing Effectiveness

Agile marketing playbook – A B2B marketer’s guide

Rewire your B2B marketing for pace, focus and impact

The B2B Agile Marketing Playbook is your practical guide to working smarter, moving faster, and delivering measurable impact – without adding more to your to-do list.

Built for modern B2B marketers under pressure to prove value, this playbook shows you:

What agile marketing is and how it helps you ditch outdated plans in favour of fast, focused execution
How to improve effectiveness by aligning campaigns to real business goals
How to build a team that collaborates better, adapts faster, and delivers more consistently
How to run high-impact experiments that drive learning, lead quality, and ROI

How to scale what works, cut what doesn’t, and stay one step ahead of changing priorities

Whether you’re optimising an existing strategy or starting fresh, this guide gives you the tips and tools to transform how your team operates and how your work gets measured.

Complete the form to download the playbook and start delivering better marketing results – faster.

May 7, 2025 Alaina Roberts Agile Marketing In Practice

Reframe cards: Publishing, media and events edition

Download your cards to re–frame conversations and spark fresh perspectives.

Reframe Cards are an easy-to-use tool intended to stimulate conversations within teams, encouraging them to reconsider strategies and tactics by prompting thought-provoking discussions.

This edition, created especially for marketing teams working in publishing, media and events, are designed to challenge thinking and uncover key learnings, to help refine strategies, optimise performance, and drive audience development for greater engagement and business impact.

They aim to foster transparency and collaboration by prompting team members to share their thoughts and ideas openly, and can be used in various settings such as team meetings, workshops, or planning sessions to focus on goal-oriented actions and results.

The cards can infuse creativity and agile thinking into team communication, aiming to drive discussions towards actionable solutions.

Complete the form below to download the Reframe cards

March 12, 2025 Alaina Roberts Agile Marketing In Practice, Publishing, Media & Events

The big 6: How agile marketing drives operational success

Our panel discussion with industry leaders uncovered six actionable ways marketing ops teams can deliver efficient, effective, and engaging campaigns

Driving operational efficiency while creating marketing that engages your audiences is no small feat. Marketing operations are the backbone of high-performing teams that drive efficiency, improve workflows, and boost effectiveness. Agile marketing is now crucial in transforming marketing operations, helping teams streamline processes, and enabling a culture of continuous improvement.

In our recent panel discussion hosted by Zoe Merchant, MD of Bright and agile marketing expert, Amanda Green, Marketing Operations Director at Stenn, and Lisa Sutton, CRO and marketing ops specialist, we focused on how agile marketing is transforming marketing operations. We’ve summarised the six key drivers for success here in this briefing note.

Remove operational bottlenecks: Quick wins

To tackle bottlenecks Amanda, Lisa and Zoe recommended remaining agile and adaptable by establishing consistent and repeatable workflows and templates including:

Briefing templates: Standardise templates to ensure all necessary information is available at the start of a project, helping avoid delays and miscommunication.
Approval workflows: Simplify approval processes and use workflow management tools like Monday.com, Jira or Asana to automate and track them
Kanban boards: Visual tools like Trello, Miro or Microsoft Planner can help manage and prioritise tasks, providing a clear view of tasks in progress and those needing attention.

Build a culture focused on growth and experimentation

For agile marketing to thrive, a culture that encourages experimentation is vital.

Education on experimentation: Zoe stressed the importance of educating teams on the benefits of experimentation to reduce fear of failure
Data-driven decisions: Without data and insights, experimentation is ineffective. Setting clear hypothesis, KPI and investing in reporting and tracking tools is essential to robustly test and learn from experiments, allowing your teams to iterate to drive continual improvement
Risk-managed experimentation: Zoe emphasised using experimentation frameworks to manage risk effectively and ensure experiments are valuable without exposing the organisation to unnecessary risks.

Effective metrics for high-performing marketing ops

Data-driven decisions hinge on choosing the right metrics. Amanda and Lisa suggested focusing on:

Efficiency gains: Measure productivity improvements in marketing workflows and campaign delivery
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Understanding CLV in B2B marketing is key and tracking CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) can help marketing operations teams make informed decisions that drive long-term value
Data quality: Accurate and reliable data is the backbone of successful marketing operations, as it ensures other metrics are dependable.

Fostering collaboration and breaking down silos

Clear, open communication and cross-functional collaboration is essential in breaking down silos that hinder marketing effectiveness.

Regular cross-functional meetings: Amanda recommended clinics, forums, and collaborative meetings to facilitate better communication and understanding between teams
Knowledge hubs: Lisa suggested creating accessible knowledge hubs with key information, enabling teams to self-serve and access essential data without formal meetings. Bright frequently help clients establish centres of excellence to facilitate knowledge sharing to underpin marketing effectiveness.
Reward and recognition: Celebrating cross-functional successes can build trust and foster teamwork, breaking down organisational silos.

AI and automation in marketing operations

The role of AI in marketing is growing, but it’s essential to approach it with clarity, including:

Targeted use cases: Rather than viewing AI as a catch-all solution, focus on specific use cases, such as data insights, campaign personalisation, and process automation and set out small scale tests to understand the value, before scaling
AI as an enabler: Lisa emphasised the importance of understanding the value AI can add rather than introducing it as just another tool and expecting marketers to figure out how to make best use of it
The AI sandwich approach: Zoe introduced the concept of the “AI Sandwich,” where the process begins and ends with human input (the bread!), ensuring that the AI outputs (the filling!) are curated, relevant and accurate.

Preparing for future technologies in marketing operations

To make the most of new technologies, Lisa and Amanda advised:

Starting small: Implement small, low-risk pilot programs, using a tool such as the Bright AI activation framework to allow teams to familiarise themselves with new technology without disrupting operations
Stealth AI adoption: Both leaders acknowledged the need to manage “stealth AI” (AI tools adopted by individuals without formal approval) by setting guardrails, creating guidelines and offering training to maximise adoption benefits.

Ready to transform your marketing operations?

Agile marketing isn’t just a process—it’s a mindset that drives efficiency, collaboration, and customer-focused results. Start by fostering a growth mindset, tackling one workflow bottleneck, and piloting a small agile initiative.

With data-driven insights, collaboration, and smart use of AI, your marketing ops can thrive in today’s fast-changing environment.

Ready to secure greater marketing agility? Explore our Agile Marketing training and pilot campaigns. Get in touch to transform your operations.

November 21, 2024 Zoe Merchant Agile Marketing In Practice, Marketing Effectiveness

5 common barriers to adopting agile marketing … and how to overcome them

Adopting agile marketing can revolutionise your team’s efficiency and creativity, but the road to getting there isn’t always smooth. Many companies face hurdles that hinder the full potential of agile practices. In this article, we’ll break down five common barriers that could stand in your way when embracing agile—and how to successfully navigate them.

Cultural resistance to change

Agile marketing requires a shift in mindset. For teams used to traditional marketing methods, this shift can be intimidating. Employees might resist breaking free from the hierarchical decision-making and long-term planning that they’re accustomed to. Without fostering an open, collaborative environment that embraces learning, agile can feel like an alien system.

How to overcome:  Build a strong agile marketing team by starting small, introducing agile concepts gradually. Emphasise the benefits—like faster delivery times and more flexibility—and create a culture of experimentation where failures are seen as learning opportunities.

2. Lack of leadership buy-in

Even if a marketing team is eager to adopt agile, without leadership support, the initiative can fall flat. Leaders may be skeptical, concerned about the potential disruption to established workflows, or unclear on how agile aligns with the broader business strategy.

How to overcome:  Ensure leaders understand the value of agile. Communicate clear benefits, such as greater adaptability in competitive markets. Offer pilot programs or workshops to demonstrate how agile can fit within the organisation’s goals.

3. Unclear roles and responsibilities

Agile marketing thrives on cross-functional collaboration, but without clear roles, things can quickly get messy. Teams might not know who is responsible for what, leading to confusion, missed deadlines, or overlapping tasks.

How to overcome: Define roles clearly at the outset of adopting agile practices. For example, appoint a Product Owner or Marketing Lead to oversee priorities while ensuring that every team member understands their function within the agile framework. Clear communication is key to keeping everyone aligned. At Bright we always develop a RASCI. This framework identifies those who are Responsible, Accountable, Supporting, Consulted and Informed, this helps the whole team know who needs, and who delivers, relevant information.

4. Overloaded teams

One of the greatest risks to agile marketing is overwhelming your team with too many projects. When there is constant pressure to deliver quickly, teams can burn out. This can create a vicious cycle of decreased productivity, ultimately derailing the very agility the process aims to improve.

How to overcome:  Set realistic expectations for your sprints and ensure that workloads are manageable. Focus on prioritising tasks that drive the most value. It’s also essential to encourage a work-life balance to prevent burnout and maintain the team’s enthusiasm for agile.

5. Inconsistent feedback loops

Agile thrives on feedback, whether it’s from customers, stakeholders, or internal team members. Without consistent feedback, teams can end up iterating on the wrong ideas or moving too far away from customer needs.

How to overcome: Set up regular review sessions with key stakeholders and use tools like surveys or customer feedback platforms to gather insights. Make feedback a central part of your sprint reviews and planning, ensuring the team has a clear direction for improvement.

Adopting agile marketing can offer tremendous rewards, but it’s important to acknowledge the potential challenges along the way. By addressing these common barriers head-on, your team can unlock the full potential of agility and move towards more efficient, creative, and customer-centric ways of working.

If you need some support to get your agile marketing back on track, our team of agile experts can help you review and re-establish your ways of working, and even help create the vital leadership buy-in to need to ensure your agile aspirations are fully realised. Contact us.

October 8, 2024 Jen Gudka Agile Marketing In Practice, Marketing Effectiveness

A/B testing: An agile marketing approach to B2B marketing optimisation

Let’s face it, the B2B world is a rollercoaster. One minute, you’re riding high on a new tech trend; the next, you’re bracing for an economic downturn. It’s like trying to hit a moving target in a fog, and to make things even more interesting, there’s the constant noise of new competitors and a sea of content that’s drowning out your message. Cutting through the noise and being able to relate directly to your prospects and customers is not just a ‘nice-to-have’ but a necessity.

At Bright, we believe the key to success lies in continuous improvement and data-driven decision-making. That’s where A/B testing comes in – the best unkept secret for optimising your B2B marketing efforts in this dynamic environment. It isn’t just about why you apply A/B testing but also how you apply the methodology to make it work.

To test or not to test? That really is the question.

A/B testing, also called split testing, pits two variations of a marketing element against each other to see which one performs better. This could be anything from a landing page headline to a call-to-action button in an email. By statistically analysing the results, you gain valuable insights into what resonates with your target audience.

Here’s why A/B testing is a perfect fit for agile B2B marketing:

Fast iteration: The agile methodology thrives on quick cycles of experimentation and learning. A/B testing allows you to test hypotheses, gather data quickly, and refine your approach based on real-world results.
Data-driven decisions: Forget gut feelings. A/B testing removes guesswork from the equation. You’ll see concrete evidence of what works and what doesn’t, empowering you to make data-backed decisions for better ROI.
Continuous improvement: A/B testing is an ongoing process. As you learn what resonates with your audience, you can keep iterating and optimising your marketing tactics for maximum impact.

A/B testing for B2B marketers

While A/B testing offers a powerful tool for any marketing campaign, the B2B landscape presents unique opportunities and challenges. To truly optimise your B2B marketing efforts, you need to tailor your A/B testing strategy to address the specific needs of complex customers. Here are some A/B testing ideas specifically for B2B marketing:

Landing page optimisation:Test different headlines, CTAs, images, and layouts to see which ones drive higher conversion rates e.g. eBook downloads, demo requests.
Email marketing:A/B test subject lines, email copy, sender names, and send times to improve open rates and click-through rates.
Website Calls to Action:Experiment with different CTA button text, colour, and placement to see which ones get the most clicks.
Social media ads:Test different ad creatives, headline variations, and targeting parameters to optimise your ad spend and reach the right audience.

Test. Process. Learn. Repeat

So, how can you take this one step further and implement the A/B Testing Process into your own marketing efforts? By using the principles and practices of agile marketing, you can take a structured approach to your experimentation, ensuring continuous improvement and positively impact your effectiveness.

Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of the A/B testing process, designed to operate within an agile framework:

Identify a goal: Start with a specific goal you want to achieve,like increasing leads from a particular campaign.
Formulate a hypothesis: What element do you think will impact that goal?(e.g., a stronger headline will increase website sign-ups)
Create variations: Develop two versions of the element you’re testing (e.g.,Headline A vs. Headline B)
Run the test: Split your target audience and expose them to each variation.
Analyse results: After a statistically significant amount of data is collected,analyse the results to see which variation performed better.
Iterate & improve: Based on your findings,refine your marketing strategy and implement the winning variation.

The Bright way

At Bright, we’re passionate about leveraging data-driven insights to optimise marketing strategies. By conducting controlled experiments, we can identify which elements of a campaign are most effective and make data-backed decisions to improve performance.

A recent case study: Social media ad formats

Recently, we had the opportunity to work with a client to determine the optimal ad format for their social media campaign. The client’s goal was to increase engagement and drive conversions.

Hypothesis: Video adverts vs. static image ads

Our hypothesis was that video adverts would outperform static image ads in terms of engagement. We reasoned that the dynamic nature of video would capture attention more effectively and lead to higher click-through rates (CTRs) and conversions.

The experiment

To test our hypothesis, we created two versions of the ad: one with a static image and the other with a short video. Both ads featured the same messaging and call to action. We then split the target audience into two groups and randomly assigned each group to see one of the ad variations.

Outcome: Video adverts triumph

The results were conclusive. The video ads significantly outperformed the static image ads in terms of engagement and CTR. Users were more likely to click on the video ads, watch them, and take the desired action.

Key Insights

Video is a powerful tool: Video content can capture attention, tell a story, and evoke emotions in a way that static images cannot.
Engagement matters: Higher engagement rates can lead to increased brand awareness, trust, and conversions.
A/B testing is essential: By conducting controlled experiments, we can identify the most effective elements of a campaign and make data-driven decisions to improve performance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, this case study underscores the value of A/B testing as a strategic tool for optimising social media campaigns. By carefully experimenting with different ad formats, we were able to identify the most effective approach for our client and deliver tangible results.

The data-driven insights gleaned from this experiment not only inform future campaigns but also provide valuable benchmarks for industry standards. As social media platforms continue to evolve, A/B testing remains a cornerstone of successful marketing strategies. By pioneering innovative approaches and harnessing the potential of data, businesses can redefine their industry and achieve remarkable marketing success.

So, what are you waiting for?

Being a B2B marketer today demands constant adaptation and improvement. By embracing A/B testing as an ongoing process, you can transform your marketing efforts from a guessing game into a data-driven science. This iterative approach empowers you to refine your messaging, optimise your creative assets, and ultimately achieve superior marketing effectiveness. So, don’t be afraid to experiment, embrace the learnings from each A/B test, and watch your B2B marketing efforts soar to new heights.

Ready to take your B2B marketing to the next level? Contact us today and let’s unlock the full potential of your marketing efforts through the power of agile marketing!

September 25, 2024 Alaina Roberts Agile Marketing In Practice, Marketing Effectiveness