One thing that I like about applying an agile methodology to marketing is the output you can produce with a small team. We have a team of three including myself and we’re able to produce any and all materials for our external (prospect) market and internal (client) market. I’ve outlined how we work before; we plan and complete our projects a month ahead of time and work in short bursts in order adjust on-the-fly. On the writing side I find using a collaborative tool like Google Docs helps develop ideas and make adjustments in real time.
Another area that is sadly missed in alot of marketing departments is analyzing performance. It should be the foundation for your campaigns and help you make decisions. There is no point in gathering the data if you’re not going to do anything with it. Performance based decisions need to be baked into your campaigns otherwise you’re pissing in the wind in my opinion. Try to put a system of measure for your campaigns to tell if they were successful or not. Don’t fall into the trap of ‘we need to spend $Xk on Adwords this month because we budgeted for it’. If Adwords isn’t performing for you, find something else and allocate a portion of those funds somewhere else.
In-house marketing leaders should initiate the agile charge and shed historic, waterfall methods. I can only speak from my experience, but sticking to our agile method has helped us be better as a team and produce better work. Less turnaround time and better decision making made the second half of 2010 and early 2011 our best period ever and I don’t expect the momentum to slow.