Push vs. Pull Marketing: What You Need to Know
Planning your strategy for next quarter and not sure which direction to go in? In this article, we’re analyzing push vs. pull marketing so you can make the best possible decision. Learn more about what they are, how they are used, and the main difference between push and pull marketing. We’ll also go over some push vs. pull marketing examples and provide templates you can use to create winning marketing content. What is push marketing? All advertising can be classified into two broad categories: push and pull. On the one hand, push advertising aims to push products towards specific customers, while pull advertising focuses on the right people at the right time. Push marketing, specifically, is a strategy managers use to promote their products to consumers. The goal of push marketing is to get the products seen by the consumers at the point of purchase. Exposure is the north star for this marketing plan. This can be accomplished through many different channels, including social media, standard mail, or in stores. Although many companies try to build long-term relationships with their customers alongside this strategy, push marketing focuses on acquiring an immediate sale. That’s why it’s great for increasing sales volume and improving brand loyalty. Push marketing can be applied to both B2C and professional services spaces. For example, in the B2B space, a manufacturer or wholesaler may try to convince a retail outlet to stock its product by including samples at an in-person marketing demonstration. Although push marketing seems like the best option on paper, marketing managers should be cautious about making this their only approach. If a company decides to spend a huge sum on advertising, they can easily lose money if their customers ignore their messages. Because push marketing doesn’t focus on building relationships, major drivers of sales, such as repeat business, aren’t a direct result of this campaign type. In other words, using push marketing as your only strategy could lead to missed opportunities. On the other hand, push marketing is most successful when marketing campaigns promote goods and services that are already in demand. Overall, push marketing is a great way to create immediate results and make a strong impression on potential customers. It eliminates the need for branding and promotes a new product quickly. Its temporary effects attract new customers even though it can be expensive and the results are often not long term. Before you get started on a push marketing plan, your team should first gather information on the potential customers that you’ll be pushing the advertisements out to. Afterward, marketers can use this data to choose which platform or platforms they’ll focus on. From there, they’ll be able to create a powerful message that appeals to the right demographic and is highly effective for the marketing channel they plan to use. What is pull marketing? Pull marketing is a strategy that focuses on increasing the number of consumers who want to buy a particular product. It often involves convincing a consumer to actively seek a product in order to get retailers to stock it. Brands that use pull marketing will reach out to consumers through a direct marketing campaign. The consumers then go to a retailer and purchase the product. This allows the producer to both sell the product and fill stock according to the consumer's demand. This strategy typically works best when the lead time is long enough for consumers to compare alternatives. This allows them to make a purchase without being pressured into a hasty decision. It also means companies must convince consumers that they should buy the product they see advertised. The advantage to consumers is that they won’t have to settle for whatever product is in stock elsewhere simply because it is available. Instead, they’ll see the real value of your goods or services through your pull marketing strategy and are more willing to make the effort and reinvest long term if the proposition is strong enough. There are many ways to reach customers through pull marketing, all of which aim to build excitement for a product or a company. With pull marketing, a company can promote a product before it is available for purchase. It saves them money by reducing the number of units they produce before the product launches. In the best case scenario, the demand for a product will exceed the supply when pull marketing is used. Most people are unsure of the differences between push vs. pull marketing. But they should also be asking what the differences are between pull marketing and regular marketing. A pull marketing campaign is different from a traditional advertising campaign. Instead of focusing on a specific product or service, this strategy starts with analyzing the company’s goals and market potential. While both methods may analyze market research data, a pull marketing campaign places a greater emphasis on generating new interest. Pull marketing is especially important for products that are completely unique in some way. Whether it’s a never-before-released trademark doll or a rare kitchen gadget, pull marketing is best used to reach new or underserved markets. Word-of-mouth excitement and attracting plenty of customers is the name of the game with push marketing. This excitement should last across various stages of a product's life cycle, selling out in stores or surpassing user capacity whenever possible. Key differences between push and pull marketing At first glance, push vs. pull marketing seems to be about exact opposites. But in reality, they do overlap. We’ve outlined the primary characteristics of each and how they look when applied in real life. Demand: Push marketing works well with products people are already familiar with or have an interest in. Pull marketing is effective for selling something people may have never heard of before and for creating demand where there was none or little to begin with. Length of time: Push marketing focuses on short-term sales, whereas pull marketing may take longer to establish. Product type: Pull marketing products are typically one of a kind in some way and may require telling audiences exactly what they are. Push marketing products are familiar to audiences and usually require little to no comparison shopping. Goal: Push marketing aims to make a sale immediately, whereas pull marketing builds an audience over time and often from scratch. Cost: Both types of marketing campaigns are what you make of them. They both may use similar channels but reach different audiences. It truly depends on the product and who you’re trying to reach. In a nutshell: the differences between push and pull marketing primarily revolve around the brand’s relationship to the audiences they’re targeting and the sales goals they are trying to reach. Push and pull strategy examples Amazon is a great example of a company that uses both push and pull marketing strategies to make a profit. First, its warehouses are strategically placed close to major cities and metropolitan areas. This makes Amazon a pure push company when it comes to selling its products because their service meets customers where their demand is. At the same time, they use a pull strategy to promote third-party sellers with tools such as retargeting ads that entice users to go back onto the site and complete their purchase. Both are highly effective. Without their warehouses, Amazon would have fewer sellers since space is often an obstacle for brands with physical inventory, which could deter wannabe businesses from the site. And without promoting their sellers' products, they wouldn’t see any profit from their sales. How to choose between push or pull marketing There are two things to consider as you choose between push or pull marketing. The first is demand. Is there already strong demand for what you do or offer? Do you know how and where to reach customers at the point of sale, whether online or in person, for this specific product? If you can confidently answer those questions, then push marketing is the strategy for you. On the other hand, is word-of-mouth marketing an important part of your strategy? Do you know if your offer fulfills a need that your customers don’t realize they have or don’t yet know your solution is the best possible option? If yes, then pull marketing is your best bet. How to set up your marketing strategy with Wrike Wrike is a project management tool marketers use to plan and execute their strategies. Wrike users plan and launch hundreds of digital marketing campaigns across various platforms and languages. Planning and executing these campaigns can be challenging, even for those who already know a thing or two about push vs. pull marketing. That’s where Wrike’s template comes in. This template is built to help marketing teams organize and execute digital marketing campaigns. To begin, break down your campaign into phases. Create tasks that must be completed within each phase and assign them to your team. Each task can be assigned to a specific member of your team. These tasks can be easily categorized into various categories and can be deleted or renamed as needed. Next, track progress with our interactive Gantt chart and export reports for review. Because Wrike is secure, you can safely communicate and share data with other stakeholders and managers to get feedback on performance. Not only is this useful for keeping track of complex push and pull marketing campaigns, but it’s also helpful for managing different marketing projects at the same time. Most marketers utilize both push and pull marketing strategies but have the same team members working on both. Having your projects managed all in one place makes it easier to see progress, communicate tasks, and keep everyone on the same page despite all the different strategies in play. In addition to task assignments, Wrike also offers visual Gantt charts to help users better understand the big picture. The Gantt chart view shows the project's overall plan and all the tasks in its dynamic timeline. It can help you spot delays and maximize your chances of meeting your deadlines. To further maximize visibility, this template comes with a pre-configured dashboard that shows campaign progress, which includes unassigned tasks and overdue tasks. It also includes a variety of predefined widgets to help you keep track of all your campaign data. As you go about creating materials for your push and pull campaigns, Wrike allows you to store campaign assets and label them in files that display in chronological order so you can manage them better. In addition to managing campaigns, Wrike helps both push and pull marketers maximize the efficiency of daily operations. The role of marketing operations management is a critical one, as organizations are now more focused on collecting and managing large amounts of data. This often involves planning, implementing, and reporting on various analytical platforms. Wrike is the ideal companion for analytical marketing teams, who love the ability to manage all of their campaigns. Whether you use our premade template or a custom one, your marketing operations team can execute at new levels of efficiency. In conclusion The debate over the pros and cons of pull and push marketing has been ongoing for decades. Both strategies are often used by marketing professionals as part of their company's marketing plans. Whichever you choose, make sure you partner with a solution that offers the level of organization, visibility, and attention to detail that Wrike does through features such as Gantt charts and dashboards that make even the most complex strategies manageable. Start your two-week free trial with Wrike today.
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Award-winning Marketing Communications Agency Efficiently Manages Multiple Projects with Wrike
To improve the collaboration on multiple projects, Viva’s managers started looking for easy-to-use project management software that would help to manage the workload. Members of the distributed team at Viva Creative needed a convenient way to stay up-to-date with project schedules and a handy tool to track their own assignments. For the managers, it was hard to monitor the team’s progress and get a global overview of all the activities. With Wrike, team members at Viva Creative have found an easy and efficient solution to keep the dynamic workflow well-organized. “Wrike has become an irreplaceable tool that we rely on as we grow our business,” says Lorne Greene, CEO at Viva Creative. Read the whole interview with Lorne to discover why Wrike has become such a valuable tool for Viva Creative and how the team members benefit from using this innovative project management software.
25 Must-Read Books for Product Managers & Product Marketers
Are you new to the world of product management and product marketing? Or maybe you just want to pick up a few new reads to expand your skills? Instead of browsing the bookshelves at your favorite local bookshop and choosing one at random, take a look at our list of the best product management books and product marketing reads for tried-and-true recommendations from the PMM community. Product Managers Why read product management books? Product management is an ever-evolving field. Whether you’re a complete newbie hoping to learn the ropes or an experienced IT product manager trying to keep up with changing trends, product management books have a lot to offer. Here are five benefits you can gain from reading some of the best product management books: On the job training can teach you what to do, but books help you learn the ‘why’; They can teach you the theory and reasoning behind the practices, and research shows that we all perform better when we understand why things are a certain way. Product management involves a lot of jargon and unique technical terms. The top product management books can help you grasp the lingo, so you’re comfortable using it and understanding it at work. Reading is proven to help improve memory and focus. If you’re struggling to learn product management through other means, like podcasts or videos, then books may be a great way to take in and remember relevant information. Studies show that reading books also improves your communication skills. As a product manager or product marketer, a huge part of your job is communicating with team members, customers, and other stakeholders. Product managers must always be looking for new ways to improve their products and offer new innovations to the market. The must-read product management books on this list can help you discover new methods and better processes while also boosting your creativity. We’ve broken down our top product management books into four main categories: The best product management books for beginners The top books focused on user experience (UX) and product development strategy Must-read books on web design and usability The best books for product managers wanting to perfect the product development process Product management books for beginners 1. Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology Authors: Gayle Laakmann McDowell & Jackie Bavaro While Cracking the PM Interview isn’t exactly new (it’s from 2013), it has remained on Amazon.com’s list of bestsellers in technical project management for quite some time and is currently holding the #1 spot. This book is more than a primer on which interview questions to prep for or how to write a killer product management resume (although this book covers both). McDowell and Bavaro get to the core of what the position of a product manager really is. In it, you’ll get to examine the role from all sides to learn not only how to land a job, but master your daily responsibilities and advance your career as well. 2. Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value Author: Melissa Perri Released in 2018, Escaping the Build Trap covers essential product management principles that can be applied to any company, no matter the size. Perri, the author, is the CEO of a product management consultancy, and she brings a wealth of hands-on knowledge and actionable advice to her readers. Rated 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com, this book offers value to beginners and experienced PMs alike. Containing only 200 pages, it’s a relatively quick read, packed full of product management wisdom. 3. The Product Manager's Survival Guide: Everything You Need to Know to Succeed as a Product Manager Author: Steven Haines Just released in 2019, the second edition of The Product Manager's Survival Guide maintains all the value of the first, but now with more actionable advice, techniques, and tools for success. Follow this book's blueprint for graduating from novice to confident product manager. Start by understanding the keys to success, then learn how to become a product expert and customer advocate so that you can effectively manage your teams, increase productivity, and further your career. 4. Product Management for Dummies Authors: Brian Lawley & Pamela Schure Part of the “for Dummies” series, Product Management for Dummies is a useful and popular book for product management novices. Written by two product management experts, this easy-to-understand guide is full of essential and actionable info. This comprehensive reference offers easy-to-understand explanations of the essentials of product management, from defining the product life cycle and creating a winning product strategy to gathering customer feedback. With a 4.5 star rating, this book is clearly an essential addition to your product management toolkit — whether you're a novice or intermediate product manager. 5. The Product Book: How to Become a Great Product Manager Authors: Josh Anon & Carlos Gonzalez de Villaumbrosia. Based on Product School’s curriculum, The Product Book introduces product management students and beginners to key PM concepts and practices. It’s a helpful resource for anyone considering taking on more formal product management education but unsure whether it’s the right career path. Full of recent and relevant examples from huge well-known companies such as Facebook, Google, and more, this 294-page book will help bring product management to life. Books about user experience & product development strategy 6. Inspired: How To Create Tech Products Customers Love Author: Marty Cagan The latest version of Inspired was released in 2017 and has 4.5 stars on Amazon.com. Like the initial version, it’s a ‘masterclass’ book on how to design and develop better products. But, this release embraces new techniques and practices to ensure it’s still fresh and useful to product managers today. Unless your product is valuable, usable, and feasible, it’s not worth building. So says Marty Cagan, whose book takes you through how you should decide which products and designs to pursue, how to prove your proposed product will be successful, defining a minimum viable product, and juggling the conflicting needs of execs, customers, sales, engineering, and design. 7. User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play Authors: Cliff Kaung & Robert Fabricant Voted Amazon Best Books of 2019 Pick and Fortune Writers and Editors’ Recommended Books of 2019 pick, User Friendly is a must-read for anyone interested in product design and development. The authors map out how user experience (UX) has evolved and changed our world over time in a story-driven style that’s engaging to read. It’s an insightful piece that might make you look at UX and product development in a whole new way. 8. Beyond The Prototype: A roadmap for navigating the fuzzy area between ideas and outcomes Author: Douglas Ferguson Beyond The Prototype is all about what to do after you complete your first design sprint, and the optimistic enthusiasm starts to wear off. Author Douglas Ferguson tackles the struggles many teams face after getting to prototype and how to overcome them. Using compelling stories from popular companies such as Adobe and Google, this guide walks you through six essential steps for successful product launches. If you want a usable framework to help take you from idea to product validation, you’ll find it here. Web design & usability books for product managers 9. 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People Author: Dr. Susan Weinschenk The second edition of 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People was just released in June 2020. In it, Dr. Weinschenk uses her 30+ years as a behavioral psychologist to offer strategies for improving your site's user experience and boosting conversion. Design isn't just pretty, it's purposeful. You want people to respond to your website in a certain way, or take a specific next action? Learn why people act the way they do. What grabs their attention? Is peripheral or central vision more important? What’s the best length for a line of text? What fuels people's actions? Read this book to find out. 10. Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web & Mobile Usability, 3rd Edition Author: Steve Krug While Don't Make Me Think, Revisited hasn’t been updated since 2013, it still remains Amazon.com’s #1 Best Seller in their User Experience & Web Usability category. First published in 2000, this bestseller is still an essential guide for web designers and developers. The updated third edition includes fresh examples and a new section on mobile usability, plus tips to make navigation intuitive, user testing efficient (so you can do it more often), and your user experience seamless across all devices. 11. Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Guidelines Author: Jeff Johnson Just released in October 2020, the 3rd Edition of Designing with the Mind in Mind is a refreshed version of an essential guide on usability and user interface (UI) design. If you’re a product manager involved in digital design projects, looking for a crash course in UI principles, this is the book for you. From this book, you’ll gain a basic understanding of why user-interface design has to follow certain rules and the perceptual and cognitive psychology behind the guidelines. You’ll also have a better grasp of why your design team makes some of the choices they do. Books on perfecting the development process 12. The Toyota Product Development System: Integrating People, Process, and Technology Authors: James Morgan & Jeffrey K. Liker Just released in October 2020, The Toyota Product Development System takes a deep dive into what makes Toyota one of the most forward-thinking product development companies in the automotive industry. This book compares and contrasts the world-class product development process of Toyota with an unnamed US competitor to help emphasize process best practices and how they can impact your business success. 13. Product Lifecycle Management (Volume 1): 21st Century Paradigm for Product Realisation Author: John Stark The 4th edition of Product Lifecycle Management, released in October 2020, offers an expanded version of this cornerstone text. It’s been updated to reflect important technological advances and how they’ve impacted the product life cycle. This must-read guide covers everything you need to know about product life cycle management (PLM), from the main components of PLM initiatives to best practices and environmental considerations you need to keep in mind. 14. Building For Everyone: Expand Your Market With Design Practices From Google's Product Inclusion Team Author: Annie Jean-Baptiste Building For Everyone is about how you can build better products by focusing on promoting diversity and inclusion in your workforce. This practical guide will walk you through how to follow Google’s footsteps of building a Product Inclusion Team to improve your design process. After reading this book, you’ll know essential strategies and processes for executing more inclusive product designs that will help increase your company’s profitability. Plus, it includes real-life recent case studies on what does and doesn’t work so you can avoid the mistakes of those who came before you. 15. Inside Your Customer's Imagination: 5 Secrets for Creating Breakthrough Products, Services, and Solutions Author: Chip R. Bell With 5 out of 5 stars on Amazon.com, Inside Your Customer's Imagination is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their product development processes. Author Chip Bell walks you through proven processes for designing and developing breakthrough products your customers don’t even know they want yet. With the use of examples from big-name companies like McDonald’s, Lockheed Martin, and Marriott, Bell illustrates how partnering with your customers can help you discover a treasure trove of innovations and process improvements. 16. Build What Matters: Delivering Key Outcomes with Vision-Led Product Management Authors: Ben Foster & Rajesh Nerlikar In Build What Matters, authors Ben Foster and Rajesh Nerlikar walk you through their methodology for building products that will meet current and future customer needs. This guide emphasizes the importance of the customer in product development and introduces ways to always keep that fact top-of-mind. This book will introduce you to 10 dysfunctions common to product development processes and then walk you through tactical ways to avoid these traps. Whether you’re a start-up founder, a product leader, or a high-level executive, you’ll find actionable advice in this book that can help improve your business processes. Top books for product marketers We’ve divided our top product marketer books into two main categories: The best books for helping you fuel customer adoption Must-read books about product marketing strategy and best practices Books on fueling customer adoption 17. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products Authors: Nir Eyal & Ryan Hoover Hooked is a guide for product marketers, managers, and designers about building products that people want to use. It includes insights into creating user habits and understanding behavioral techniques. Plus, you’ll walk away with actionable advice on how to build and market products that people will love. In this book, you’ll learn a four-step model for building customer habits so that users willingly come back for more, over and over. This guide brings technology, psychology, and business together in a way that will improve your product marketing outcomes and boost your customer adoption and retention rates. 18. The Four Steps to the Epiphany Author: Steve Blank The Four Steps to the Epiphany is commonly thought to be one of the most influential business books of all time. In this updated version, released March 2020, author Steve Blank brings even more insights and relevant examples to the table. Too often, development teams build a product, and when customers don’t bite, they scrap it and try again. Instead, Steve Blank focuses on Customer Development — a concept that’s since become one of the three pillars of the Lean startup. Learn how to pinpoint the right product for your specific market, using techniques that have helped launch over 10,000 startups and corporate ventures. 19. The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to Go from $0 to $100 Million Author: Mark Roberge The author of The Sales Acceleration Formula, Mark Roberge, is an MIT alum with an engineering background that he has applied to sales and marketing. In this book, Roberge promotes the replacement of conventional sales methods with a more metric-driven, process-oriented approach. From this book, you'll learn the techniques Roberge used as SVP of Worldwide Sales and Services at HubSpot to help the company grow from a small, three-person startup to a giant success with a billion-dollar valuation and over 15,000 customers. 20. The Unicorn Project: A Novel about Developers, Digital Disruption, and Thriving in the Age of Data Author: Gene Kim The Unicorn Project, a highly anticipated follow-up to the bestselling title The Phoenix Project, is written as an engaging novel, but that doesn’t make its messaging any less true or relevant to real-world product marketers, developers, and managers. Gene Kim is a multi-award winning CTO and the founder of Tripwire. In this novel, he introduces five ideals required for product success and discusses internal structures every technology company needs. Books about product marketing strategy & best practices 21. Product Marketing, Simplified: A Customer-Centric Approach to Take a Product to Market Author: Srini Sekaran Product Marketing, Simplified is a comprehensive guide on the world of product marketing. Whether you want to learn more about improving product launches or delivering greater value to the right customers, this book is packed full of valuable info. This guide walks you through the entire product marketing process, including how to understand the customer journey, build a go-to-market strategy, determine pricing and packaging, and influence the product roadmap. 22. Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations (3rd Edition) Authors: Stanley J. Slater, Jakki J. Mohr, & Sanjit Sengupta Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations provides a comprehensive introduction to the world of tech marketing. This book explains all the variables you'll need to consider when launching a product, as well as the logistics for managing the process. From migration paths and types of innovations to managing customer relationships, you'll find a good balance of theory and real-world examples to get the knowledge you need in the world of tech marketing. 23. Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen Author: Donald Miller Building a StoryBrand will introduce you to seven essential elements of powerful stories. By using these elements in your product marketing, you’ll be able to improve customer engagement and boost your success rates. This guide breaks down seven story points that resonate with every human, the reasoning behind why customers make the buying decisions they do, and how to create the most effective branding and marketing messages for your product and business. 24. Swipe to Unlock: The Primer on Technology and Business Strategy Authors: Neel Mehta, Aditya Agashe & Parth Detroja Swipe to Unlock was written by three product managers at Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, and it’s one of Amazon.com’s #1 Best Sellers. This is a must-read book for any product marketer, product manager, or consultant in the tech industry. The latest edition was released in 2019 and includes over 40 pages of new content. It includes a wealth of case studies on huge companies and covers essential product marketing topics such as current and future trends, emerging markets, and more. 25. To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others Author: Daniel Pink Whether you’re pitching a colleague on a new idea, convincing your manager to support a passion project, or trying to sway a customer to switch from freemium to paid, we all spend our days trying to move others to act. In To Sell is Human, bestselling author Daniel Pink teaches you how to truly understand another person’s perspective and craft clear, persuasive marketing messages. What’s next? Are you interested in learning what is a product owner, product management, and product marketing? Maybe you’re looking for a special niche topic you didn’t see mentioned in any of these books? Check out our blog to keep up-to-date on all the emerging trends and latest technology in the product management space. You can also test out our product management software free for 14-days to discover how it can improve your product management and marketing teams.
Scrum in marketing: making enterprises adaptive
Every year and even every month, new technologies, markets and competitors spring up, and today’s businesses have to be agile to be able to face the impending challenges. In such an unstable environment, traditional principles of managing product development may lead companies to failure. If the product requirements change drastically from the time the product is designed to the moment when it is released, it can result in the delivery of outdated products. Otherwise, ineffective change management processes may destroy product development, and the product will never be delivered.New methods in project management Nowadays to be successful, a company has to be fast to adapt. Driven by business priorities, managers use progressive methods of product development aimed to cure the mistakes of traditional approaches. Some of these methods acquired the name of agile project management. These methods originated in R&D departments and now are introduced in marketing as well. Markets change quickly, forcing you to reposition your product. When you introduce an innovative product, it’s not clear how you should promote it and what the customers really need. Very often when innovative products are born, manufacturers and customers may not know how or why the products will be used, so it’s not evident what specific features of a product will or will not be valued. Playing in such markets entails a process of mutual discovery by customers and vendors – and this just takes time. According Clayton M. Christensen’s book “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” research has shown that the vast majority of successful new companies abandoned their original business strategies after trying to implement their initial plans and learning what would and would not work in the market. This shows how important it is for a company to quickly evolve its strategy and tactics.What is Scrum? Scrum as a marketing project management methodology Marketing is often executed in project-based manner. That is why a lot of generic project management principles perfectly apply to marketing and why marketing should also be optimized, similar to project management techniques. Agile cycle approaches to marketing may help to overcome problems experienced by marketing executives. One of these approaches is the Scrum methodology, which has originally been developed as an agile software development method for project management. Now Scrum is successfully employed in Agile business transformation by hundreds of different companies, such as Yahoo.com, Wildcard Systems, H&M, and John Deere, in many different fields, with outstanding results. Scrum adopts an empirical approach, accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or successfully defined in a predictable and planned manner. The focus of Scrum is on maximizing the team's ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements. This method is praised for making the team more productive, reducing risks and maximizing the business value of a developed product and minimizing the period of the development time. Scrum is based on defining sprints - time periods (usually 2 to 4 weeks) during which the prioritized work (sprint backlog) should be done. During a sprint, the team gets together for daily meetings where team members discuss what they have already done, what they are going to do till the next meeting and what prevents them of doing something that they planned to do. In other words, Scrum meetings are supposed to keep teams on track and help members get their work done. At the end of each sprint, there is a brief sprint retrospective at which all team members reflect about the past sprint. According to Ken Schwaber, co-creator of the Scrum meeting method (along with Jeff Sutherland), the purpose of a daily Scrum is to keep teams focused "on their objectives and to help them avoid being thrown off track by less important concerns." Now Scrum is often viewed as an iterative, incremental process for developing any product or managing any work. Indeed, short and regular meetings can be as important for small marketing teams as they are for production teams. Members of a marketing group may be working on a variety of projects, but they're all working toward the same goal – marketing the company and its products or services. Therefore, every member of a team has to know what the others are working on and what direction the whole team is moving in. Collaborative project management software for Scrum in marketing The Scrum approach to marketing becomes even more efficient when empowered by Enterprise 2.0 technologies. New- generation software, especially tools meant for project management, bring collaboration to marketing and can make it more productive. These applications (I will call them Project Management 2.0 software) let team members easily share information on the projects and tasks they are involved in and help every team member see the whole picture of the company’s marketing strategy. Project management 2.0 software makes collaboration and management more transparent, letting everyone know who is accountable for what and by when. Scrum in marketing makes the possible problems visible at early stages and allows coping with them quicker and with minimal losses. One of the major Scrum principles is “no problems are swept under the carpet.” Every team member is encouraged to describe the difficulties he is experiencing, as this might influence the work of the whole group. Discussing problems early also helps to reduce financial risk. With the beginning of every sprint period, the business owner can change any of the marketing project parameters without penalty, including increasing investments to enlarge consumers’ quantity, reducing investments until unknowns are mitigated, or financing other initiatives. A new approach to marketing requires flexible planning, which is possible with the help of collaboration software. In the ever-changing business environment, short-term marketing plans based on sprints can be much more effective. Marketing managers get an opportunity to switch from one promotion method to another, if the first one proved to be unsuccessful during the sprint period. It also becomes easier to clarify due dates of every small, but important task, to each member of a team. For example if a team is getting ready for a fair, it should be clear about who is responsible for preparing handouts, who will make a presentation about a product and who will design the company showcase. With Project Management 2.0 software, like Wrike for example, it becomes possible for everyone on the team to contribute to the plans, edit and update them. New-generation software brings stakeholders and partners into the collaboration process. Their input and feedback will help shape the marketing agenda along the way. The clients can be involved, too. In fact, the principal aim of every marketing team is understanding customers’ needs and helping clients achieve their goals. In today’s enterprises, achieving the heightened customer loyalty – what brand marketers refer to as “emotional lock-in” – is especially challenging when an organization is dealing with tens of thousands or even millions of customers. Empowered by the new-generation software, Scrum lets you involve your clients in the marketing process and take advantage of the wisdom of the crowds. Collective intelligence helps to improve the quality of products and services and make them fully satisfy the consumer’s needs. Scrum lets you promote your product not for a client, but together with your client. Customers can be involved in various ways. For example, they can literally participate in the development process by sending their feedback and contributing to the plans. So, as we can see, innovative management methods brought to marketing make a company more agile and let it respond quicker to the needs of the emerging markets. It makes a company even more successful when empowered with Enterprise 2.0 tools that bring collaboration into organizations. They help improve communication and turn it from one-way (from a company to its customers) to two-way (from a company to its customers and back), helping to improve products and services. Now you know the Scrum basics, you can see how helps a company make its marketing policy nimble and lets it promote its products with lower costs, avoiding unnecessary money and resource spending and helping to reveal possible mistakes in the initial planning. The result is maximization a company’s benefit.
Marketing Trends Leaders Should Know for the Future of Work – Insights from Wrike’s Reuters Workshop
The following year will prove to be a critical time for marketing teams as they look to re-engage with their core customers in a post-pandemic world. To do so successfully, however, teams will have to choose whether to go fully remote, stay in-office, or develop a hybrid work environment. Furthermore, teams will have to do more with less and leverage key technologies to keep up with the ongoing digital transformation of business. To address these issues, Wrike recently held a Reuters Workshop roundtable to discuss how marketing leaders from organizations like Hallmark, Carmax, and others are preparing for the future of work. We’ve collected some valuable insights on the problems they’ve encountered so far and the solutions they’re exploring to address upcoming marketing trends. Hallmark Hallmark is seeing exponential growth at the moment due to moving towards an omnichannel brand from a primarily retail brand. However, a spokesperson noted that the key to navigating this growth comes down to staying organized – something new technology like work management solutions can facilitate. They also supported the continuation of remote work, as the removal of time-wasting commutes and other in-person obligations opens the door to better creativity and uninterrupted workflow. Carmax A spokesperson from Carmax had been a proponent of remote work for years but hasn’t been able to support that aspiration fully until now. They are prioritizing building out a design team and work platform this year. To achieve their ambitious goals, they are looking to integrate an enterprise-level design system capable of maintaining consistency with their visual brand communications and promoting efficiency across their distributed product design and engineering teams. Prepare to hit the ground running In our Reuters Workshop, we sat down and talked with some of the best and well-prepared leaders about the marketing trends of the future. However, over a third of them expressed doubts that they'd achieve their 2021 growth goals, and stated that their martech stacks failed to meet the needs of their team. Taking advantage of and leveraging the right technologies will become key to succeeding in the new age of digital collaboration. If you’re looking to uplevel your own teams and processes in preparation for a post-COVID era, start a free Wrike trial today.
7 MarTech Blogs to Follow
As the world of marketing continues to expand and the user experience becomes an increasingly critical focus for businesses everywhere, marketing operations and marketing technology (a.k.a., MarTech) become crucial areas to focus on. What better way to stay on top of this subject than by reading the thought leadership of the bloggers in the space? Here is our list of 7 MarTech blogs you should be reading: 1. Marketing Land's Martech Today: http://marketingland.com/library/channel/martechRun by Matt McGee and the same team that produces Search Engine Land, Marketing Land reports on everything marketing-related. But it is Marketing Land's MarTech Today channel that falls within the scope of this post. The channel is well-stocked and updated daily with the latest in the marketing technology space. Sample content: Mobile Marketer FollowAnalytics Follows The Trend Toward Messaging “Moments” Marketer’s Guide: B2B Marketing Automation Platforms 2. Brian Solis: http://www.briansolis.com Brian Solis, futurist and digital analyst at Altimeter Group, studies the effects of disruptive technology on business and even society in general. His posts may tackle marketing and disruptors in the MarTech space, but will also touch on the customer experience, and Silicon Valley behind-the-scenes. Sample content: How To Unify Your Sales, Service and Marketing Departments Around Customer Experience Wolfpack App is a Mobile Social Nichework for Guys to be Guys – Is this the Dawn of Social Nicheworks? 3. Marketing TechBlog: www.marketingtechblog.comThe Marketing TechBlog run by the team at DK New Media and founded by Douglas Karr, is another news source that covers a wide range of topics — from advertising and analytics to automation, mobile, ecommerce, and much more. Sample content: Including Instagram Photos Increased Email Engagement 7x 10 Essentials Elements for Efficient Content Production 4. Chief Marketing Technologist Blog: http://chiefmartec.com/blog Written and edited by Scott Brinker, this blog was started in 2008 back before MarTech was a common term. Check out the breadth of coverage in the blog's archives and you'll see how much the space has grown, and how Brinkner has consistently been at the forefront of discussions involving data software and marketing/sales. Sample content: The 5 digital dynamics that are transforming marketing Marketing isn’t alone — HR software landscape with 547 products 5. Inspire MarTech: http://inspiremartech.com This is the blog of digital evangelist Mayur Gupta, who was one of the first high-profile marketing technologists at major brand Kimberly Clark. Aside from being at the forefront of discussions related to marketing technology for the past decade or so, he's also passionate about the usage of Agile methods within marketing organizations. Sample content: Consumer – The Missing Seat in the C-Suite Data Convergence – The Marketing Glue For The Omni-Channel Reality 6. The Hub: The Marketing Technology Resource: http://www.thehubcomms.com/ While the other blogs have categories for everything MarTech-related, The Hub limits its "channels" to six: customer experience, marketing cloud, social media, analytics, mobile, and content marketing. But that's not to say they cover less. At least twice a month, they release podcasts as well. They also have a long-running feature called "Five Minutes With..." where they interview other marketing thought leaders. They do a good job of profiling companies in their space as well. Sample content: Five Minutes With: Julie Ginches, CMO at Kahuna Celebrity-Generated Content is Priceless 7. MarTech Advisor: www.martechadvisor.comThe blog touts itself as the world's leading source for marketing technology news, research, product comparisons, and expert views. And they don't kid around. This is the go-to source for news on technology and tools for sales and marketing professionals. Their blog post categories are exhaustive and cover everything from AdTech to social media, content marketing, event marketing, and email marketing. Sample content: Ensure These Measures to Avoid Failure of Your Content Marketing Plan Why Remarketing is Highly Effective A final tip: Subscribe to the email newsletters of the blogs you like so you get updates directly to your inbox. And if you're concerned about inbox bloat, use Unroll.me to compile all your marketing-related newsletters into one. Turn Your Marketing Team Agile If you want in-depth strategies for making your marketing team Agile, download the free eBook: 7 Steps to Developing an Agile Marketing Team.
How Hootsuite Powers Their Productivity With Wrike
We're excited to announce our latest Customer Success Story with our friendly owls over at Hootsuite. Hootsuite is a leading social media and brand management solution with more than 10 million users around the world. We visited their HQ in Vancouver, Canada to ask their Marketing Operations team how they use Wrike. Before Wrike, Hootsuite's marketing ops team was overwhelmed by endless tasks with no way to organize or prioritize them. After implementing Wrike, the team saw immense improvement in the handling of tasks, as well as improved visibility into quarterly productivity levels. Check out the short interview video below to hear why they love using Wrike. Read the Hootsuite Case Study To read more about how Hootsuite uses Wrike to power their productivity, check out the Hootsuite customer success story. The full case study covers: What problems drove them to search for a collaboration tool How they initially implemented Wrike across their team Their favorite Wrike features and how they use them Do you have a favorite Wrike feature that helps power your productivity? Let us know in the comments!
Is Agile Viable for Marketing Teams?
When the Agile software development methodology came into prominence in the early 2000s with its own Agile Manifesto, it changed how software companies managed their work mindsets and production processes. To put it mildly, it electrified the industry and started spawning unbelievable success stories. Eventually other industries realized Agile could be adapted to their own workflows. Marketing teams especially found it essential due to these Agile methodology advantages: 1. Customers' needs and tastes constantly change. Success means delivering products that customers need and want to pay for. But if customer needs are always in flux, marketing teams need a way to adapt quickly otherwise they doom their campaigns to failure or irrelevance. 2. Company priorities are perennially shifting. With marketing teams bombarded by requests for collaterals, or social media viral hits, or email marketing tactics, there is a real need to stay flexible enough to serve EVERYONE in the organization while still maintaining its own metrics for success. 3. Marketing technologies are always new. Shifting to new technologies often means changing the way work is processed. While it's never a good thing to try every shiny new gizmo that comes along, without testing new technologies marketers might miss out on the tech that truly makes their work more efficient. Agile marketing answers all the above needs, providing marketing with the framework to be customer-centric and also entirely flexible enough to handle sudden changes in strategy, direction, or even tools. How does Agile do this? • By promoting adaptive planning • By working in iterations • By promoting communication and transparency• By allowing rapid response to change These four benefits are tackled in more detail in the Slideshare below: 4 Reasons Why Marketing Needs to be Agile. Follow us on Slideshare! If you want truly in-depth strategies for making your marketing team Agile, download the free eBook, 7 Steps to Developing an Agile Marketing Team.
How to Build Your Next Year's Marketing Plan
Looking ahead of schedule and devoting ample time to planning out your campaigns and marketing milestones is not only essential for success, but also for allocating resources and finding where gaps exist. Waiting too long to plan can result in unrealistic expectations, team goals that don't align with company objectives, and a marketing team scrambling to throw something together as quickly as possible instead of focusing on top quality output.
Creative Leaders: Balance Business Strategy and the Latest Technologies
An interview with Alex Calicchia, Founder & President of Hive Partners.(This is part 1 of a series on managing and creating world-class internal creative teams.) With the increasing speed and digitalization of business, creative teams are under a lot of pressure to deliver projects - faster, better and in higher volumes. With this interview series, we learn how creative leaders can succeed even under these circumstances and we share their advice with others in the field. In this interview, we converse with Alexander Calicchia, Founder & President of Hive Partners, who has 25 years executive experience in the financial services sector as both strategic planner and project manager. Prior to this, he held senior leadership positions at Capital One and regional banks such as Amegy Bank and MidSouth Bank. In those positions he's built internal creative agencies from scratch, grown creative teams, and driven marketing and MarTech strategy — all while working past internal challenges. His creative agencies became strategic partners for their larger organizations. Here's his outlook on what it takes to lead an internal creative team to success. Alex also contributed to our free eBook, The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. On the challenges of marketing What are the biggest changes you see in marketing happening right now and over the next few years? First, I think the pace of change is in constant flux. The technology with which we can communicate with our target audiences is always changing. This requires assimilating information and changes at breakneck speed. If you stop to reflect for too long, your competitors outflank you. But without reflection we might miss the next big Idea. Second, because the pace of change is so fast, there is a void in experienced talent that can use the newest solutions. This puts more pressure on leadership to be aware of the next big thing so they can be hiring ahead of the curve. Third, because of this rapid pace of change, institutions of higher learning need to focus on the foundational aspects of strategy and not just how to navigate the latest tech. In fact, creative leaders need to demand this change from institutions. I often see lots of great tacticians who can navigate the latest high-tech innovations in the digital and social media space but who lack a core understanding of business strategy. "I often see lots of great tacticians who can navigate the latest high-tech innovations in the digital and social media space but who lack a core understanding of business strategy." —Alex Calicchia, Founder & President, Hive Partners On being a creative leader What's one piece of advice you'd give to a new leader now heading an internal creative team? Trust your instinct AND trust your team. You are not in it alone and if you set a clear vision and hold your team accountable to the goals you set forth. You will gain their respect and also get the greatest output from them. What's the difference between leading an internal creative team vs. leading an agency? I don't think they're all that different. At its core, the client leads the strategy and the creative team. Without strong leadership on the strategy, the internal or external creative team is likely to miss the mark. It's critical that the client drive the strategy and define what is expected from the creative message. Who is a creative leader you admire and why? This one is easy. Stan Richards. I was lucky enough to work for The Richards Group early on in my career. Stan and his team have demonstrated time and time again that they can keep up with the changing information consumption preferences of customers while creating strategically-driven messaging that resonates with them. What are some blogs, podcasts, websites or other great design resources that you regularly follow? I find myself going through Flipboard at lunch, when taking a break, or before going to bed. I set my preferences so I receive a regular stream of information on topics such as business, film, design, emerging technologies, branding, business intelligence, street style, culture, personal development, and ethics. I believe that in order to develop great strategies and ultimately great messaging, you have to look in areas that are not always your core discipline. [inlinetweet prefix=" " tweeter="" suffix="via @Wrike"]"Trust your instinct AND trust your team." —Alex Calicchia[/inlinetweet], Founder & President, Hive Partners On creating value for your company/clients How did you get your first big career "break?" How would you advise people looking to start a career in the creative space? My big career break actually came through an internal layoff due to a RIF (reduction in force) at the organization I was working for. Initially, I was a casualty of the RIF. But rather then accept the layout without a fight, I chose to challenge my layoff as a missed opportunity to keep a strategic thinker on staff during what was going to be a difficult economic period for the company. I laid out a scenario that illustrated that I could focus on both strategy and the day-to-day tasks thus ensuring a smooth transition through the layoffs. You recently launched Hive Partners. Tell us about what Hive does and your inspiration for starting it. Hive Partners helps organizations harness the individual and collective intelligence of teams. We design custom solutions tailored to our clients needs; whether it be around strategic planning, leadership development, or problem solving. The inspiration for HIVE really came from years of working with internal teams who often struggled with growth. Just as in a beehive, each individual — each bee —has a role. But when the hive is under threat from the outside, the collective intelligence of the hive kicks in and everyone works together to defeat that threat. At HIVE, we look for ways to amplify the individual intelligence of teams while ensuring that, should the organization come under threat, individuals are prepared to work collectively as a team to ensure long-term sustainability. Now, Go Build Your Creative Team We hope you learned a lot from the discussion with Alex. For a comprehensive guide to building your creative agency, download our free eBook: The Definitive Guide to Building a World-Class Internal Creative Agency. Author Bio:Kate Thome is a writer and consultant. In over 15 years in banking and payments in various marketing, analytics and risk-related roles, Kate developed a keen understanding of the internal workings of marketing and creative organizations. She's worked for Visa, HSBC, and Capital One, leading marketing teams to success. Her writing appears on LinkedIn, Mutha Magazine and Talking Soup. She blogs about her memoir in process at http://irememberthatnight.blogspot.com. Follow Kate on Twitter @kthome219.
The Guide to MarTech Today (Infographic)
What is MarTech? What is there to know about the industry? And why should you care? MarTech (short for marketing technology) refers to marketing initiatives that use new technologies to power their campaigns and efforts. It is a fast-growing industry, expected to hit a worldwide spend of $22.6 BILLION in 2015, with upward growth projected over the coming years. Marketers not paying attention to MarTech will soon find themselves behind the times. Because every new tool that arrives on the scene changes and influences the way marketers work with, and speak to, our customers. Learn more and explore the wild world of MarTech with us in the infographic below. It's full of the most recent stats and figures that are relevant for marketers across the globe discovering what is MarTech for the first time: Learned something new today? Share this infographic on social media, or repost it on your blog using this embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike What You Can Learn About MarTech Doesn't End Here If you're ready to dive further into the expanding world of MarTech, check out the list of upcoming MarTech conferences in 2015 and 2016. Share your knowledge about MarTech with our readers in the comments below, or drop links to more interesting MarTech stats you've read.
The Beginner's Guide to Online Marketing (Free eBook)
In the past decade, the number of people connected to the internet has exploded. Now, almost 3 billion people are online, sending over 100 billion emails, posting 500 million Tweets, and watching 3 billion YouTube videos every day — and the numbers keep growing! As more customers flock to the internet to socialize, conduct daily business, and make purchases, marketing departments are also evolving to incorporate new online marketing approaches and teams. With so many new marketing roles, strategies, and tools popping up, it can be tricky to keep track of them all — or understand exactly how they all relate to each other. Click through the Slideshare presentation below to learn the essentials of 5 popular online marketing approaches, then download the full eBook for a complete guide to digital marketing. Beginner's Guide to Online Marketing Download the free online marketing eBook to read tips on creating or improving your strategies, gather new tool suggestions, and get a better understanding of the online marketing world.
10 Free and Paid Online Resources for Learning Creative Skills
Whether you’re working as an advertising/marketing professional, freelancing in graphic design, or a hobbyist photographer, there's always something new you can learn in order to enhance your creative skill set. So instead of wasting time on social media or cat videos (my favorite), why not check out these recommended online resources that can help you learn new, creative skills? And sometimes, flexing your muscles in unfamiliar territory may be just the spark you need to give a little 'Oomph!' to your daily problem solving and creativity. Online Resources for Learning New Creative Skills Free resources 1. edX: It was tough deciding which of the three to include on this list: edX, Coursera, or Khan Academy. edX won out because of its wider range of courses on Design, Art & Culture, and even Music Production. Courses are totally free, however they are not on-demand. Like a brick-and-mortar school, they have start and end dates and must be accomplished within the allotted time. 2. FutureLearn: Owned by The Open University, FutureLearn offers free courses in everything from business and law to literature, history, health, science, language, and of course, a lot of creative arts & media (e.g. storytelling, songwriting, fiction writing). Again, courses are not on-demand; they have set start and end dates. 3. Tuts+ Free Tutorials: In a sub-section of the larger Tuts+ website, they offers free (and short) tutorials on specific creative tasks under categories, such as coding, web design, photo/video, music/audio, motion graphics, and business. 4. Instructables: Ever wanted to make your own geeky Halloween costume or build a security camera from a 3-D printed body and a Raspberry Pi CPU? Instructables is where you'll find the detailed, photographed instructions to accomplish your unique do-it-yourself projects. Comes with a built-in quirky creative community to support your every project! 5. Smashing Magazine: A well-known online magazine for web developers and designers focusing on coding, design, mobile, graphics, UX, and Wordpress. Aside from niche articles tackling everything from web standards to gorgeous wallpapers, there is also an abundance of tutorials to help you accomplish step-by-step tasks. Paid resources 6. Udemy: Despite this being more of a general online learning resource, don't discount Udemy's huge bank of design, photography, and music courses. Every so often they even have site-wide promos that discount all courses to around $10. A good starting point for any education. 7. Lynda.com: A true holdover from before Web 2.0, Lynda is possibly the most well-known online tutorial website. Partly because it covers such a wide breadth of topics, from web development to design, from animation and video, to music and audio. They even have courses in business and education. You'll need to be a member to gain access, and membership starts at about $20/month. 8. CreativeLive: Dozens of creative classes segmented by interest: audio, crafts, art/design, photo/video, money/life. The beautiful thing about this site is that on-air classes can be enjoyed for FREE. But on-demand access to it will cost you anywhere from $20-$99, depending on course length and complexity. 9. Curious: Their name explains a lot. This is a site created so you can indulge your curiosity and learn a thing or two on a wide variety of topics. Under their free plan you can take a new free lesson everyday — choose from hundreds of courses broadcast over 10 channels that include crafts, music, photos, and more. But with a monthly or annual subscription, you get the whole shebang, including mobile access and an ad-free experience. 10. Treehouse: This resource is specifically for those who want to learn web design and web development, with courses centered around programming languages like PHP, Ruby, HTML, CSS, Wordpress, and even mobile app platforms. Basic plans begin at $29/month. What will you learn this month? Keep learning new skills and encourage the rest of your teammates to join you on the journey. It's a great way to add to your skill set as well as bring more expertise to your organization. For actionable strategies on growing your internal creative team into a world-class agency, please download our free eBook, available now. Photo Credit: iVincent by JD Hancock on Flickr. Some rights reserved, changes made.
The History of Marketing Operations (Infographic)
Marketing Operations is on the rise, with many companies turning to marketing ops teams to make their marketing efforts more efficient and effective. While Marketing Ops is still a relatively new field, its beginnings stretch back to the 1920s, and its evolution through different marketing disciplines provides insights into its importance, benefits, and increasing popularity. Keep reading to learn all about the hot new field that’s been identified as one of the fastest-growing professions in marketing. Share this infographic with fellow marketers on social media, or use this embed code to post it on your own site: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Current Marketing Ops Trends Learn more about marketing ops with this overview of popular strategies and common practices: State of Marketing Operations and MarTech in 2015