Marketers must become more agile to keep up with the speed of communication. Creating an Agile Marketing Framework is a methodology for brands to operate more like media companies – to pursue stories of value to their audiences like journalists. While foundational elements of marketing solutions—like brand goals, audience understanding and measurement—will remain, the mediums, channels, contributors and pace must be constantly adjusted and optimized to reach audiences with valuable content. Learn more: http://www.centerline.net

1. Creating Valuable Content With the
Agile Marketing Framework
Version 1: March 2016

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The Agile Marketing Framework was developed
by Centerline to help the world’s most
progressive enterprises better connect with
their target audiences.

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Brand Goals
Open-EndedPersonas
StorylinesChannels
Contributors
Feedback Loops
The Ability
To Rapidly Act
With Valuable Content
Agile Marketing
Framework
The marketplace for marketing services (as
meta as that sounds) changes faster than any
other. Communication trends and channels
come and go in a weeks time, yet thought
leaders and “known” marketing innovators
must constantly be in front of how those trends
will affect awareness, engagement, lead
generation and sales.
Journalistic Process

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244
Brand Goals
Open-EndedPersonas
StorylinesChannels
Contributors
Feedback Loops
The Ability
To Rapidly Act
With Valuable Content
Agile Marketing
Framework
So while foundational elements of marketing
solutions—like brand goals, audience
understanding and measurement—will remain,
the mediums, channels, contributors and pace
must be constantly adjusted and optimized to
reach audiences with valuable content.
Journalistic Process

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Brand Goals
The starting point of nearly any business endeavor is clearly
articulating the goals for the company, the brand, the product
and the communication. That statement becomes the guiding
principle for the business and all who communicate the
mission of the business.
The starting point for an Agile Marketing Framework should
be no different. The brand goal becomes the ultimate touch
stone for content creators.
Through research and workshops, we’ll become as steeped in
those goals as you are, so that we are partners with you in
publicly articulating and achieving those goals.
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Open-Ended Personas
Personas (profiles, etc.) are a necessary starting point in
understanding your audience. The problem, though, is that once
personas look nice on a PowerPoint slide, organizations tend to
think they’re done. Not to be disturbed.
We believe those personas must constantly be revisited,
questioned, added to, subtracted from or outright changed based
on information gained through action and measurement. Every
engagement around a piece of content created or placed should
be seen as both marketing and market research.
If you’re going to be agile (and more successful) with your
content, you must be agile in your audience understanding.
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Storylines
Most marketing plans detail things to be made (like a whitepaper or
infographic) and activities to do (like what to show and say at an
event). But only thinking about things to make and do is shortsighted
when you consider the amount and rate of change in people’s needs
and mindsets, and in the context around their conversations.
Focusing on storylines that are of interest to our audience—rather
than specific campaigns, taglines or content types—allows us to be
more agile with marketing, to go where the story takes us.
Storylines allow us to create content and contribute to conversations
over time, rather than in singular instances of “big reveals.” It puts
us in the mindset of answering questions your audience is asking
right now, rather than trying to own keywords that may (or may not)
lead to selling your product.
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With Valuable
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Channels
The channels through which you connect with your audience and
tell stories of relevance are defined by the audience’s preferences.
You have to meet them where they are, not where we wish they were.
And the channels define the mediums. That may sound obvious, but
time and again, it proves to be overlooked. Companies create
whitepapers, when their audience is getting their deep information
from specific LinkedIn groups. Businesses invest in three-minute
customer testimonial videos, when their audience is primarily
connecting on Instagram.
By thinking about audience propensities (and storylines) before
channels, you'll be more successful in connecting with your
audience. And the responses within those channels will continue to
feed your need for new angles of the story to chase.
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Contributors
Brand communication is important. But people want to talk
to other people, not to faceless brands. And the people
your audience is most interested in accessing are the
experts within your organization, or, more so, the experts in
your industry that are outside your organization.
The job of marketing is to empower and support those
expert representatives – in content creation and ad hoc
conversation. Identifying those internal and external experts
(influencers!) that you’re going to ask to regularly
contribute, and detailing how you’ll give them continually
updated information to do so, is imperative.
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Feedback Loops
Measurement (and monitoring) has been alluded to many times
within the other tenets of this framework, but it’s important enough
to stand on its own. As a feedback loop—a defined process and
means to collect data around content and engagements—it’s critical
for agile marketing. A capability to immediately put that data to use
in improving content and engagements is just as critical.
The data should be both quantitative (how many people engaged
with this story versus that one) and qualitative (what additional
questions were people asking after engaging). The first is essential
in testing channels, mediums and storylines; the second is
instrumental in sparking new facets to storylines.
It’s becoming possible to track and connect nearly everything.
Having a plan for what you’re tracking, why, and what you’ll do with
it, will make your content marketing more agile.
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Journalistic Process
Content marketing is a long-term investment. So it’s imperative to
define the process by which you’ll consistently produce great
stories of value and constantly be filling the queue with new story
ideas and revised storylines.
Traditional “marketing plan” driven editorial calendars tend to be
overly programed and rigid. They don’t provide for understanding
the context of “right now” and adding in new actions and content
on the fly. A journalistic mindset to content creation allows for
such contextual relevance.
An editorial calendar that supports an agile, journalistic process is
one that defines premier content at specific intervals that take
longer to create, and constantly add ideas for related ad-hoc
content that can be rapidly made and placed.
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Want to learn more?
Centerline Digital
509 W. North St. Raleigh, NC 27603
919.821.2921
digitalmarketing@centerline.net
Twitter: @Centerline
LinkedIn: company/center-line-productions
John Lane
Chief Strategy Officer
john@centerline.net
Twitter: @johnvlane
LinkedIn: in/JohnVLane

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About Centerline

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We approach marketing challenges from a
holistic perspective…
…With the knowledge that strategy, process, people, content and
technology needs are all intertwined.
…With the perspective that unique challenges require unique
approaches and that one-size-fits-all solutions don't work.
…With the understanding that valuable information—not catchy
taglines—is what people crave.

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We help our clients connect with their audiences through value-
driven marketing. That includes:
Digital Strategy, at the intersection of business goals and audience
understanding, content planning and measurement frameworks.
Creative Storytelling, through video, animation, interactive
experiences, event content and long-form written content.
Content Activation, through owned channels, social media
integration and community management, PR and paid media.
Centerline is built to continually evolve, to always have the talent,
understanding, and capabilities to solve the most complex
marketing challenges of “today.”
Our clients include: