How To Implement Kanban In Your Marketing

What is Kanban?

Kanban is an inventory control system well known for its application in lean production and Just In Time manufacturing. It is a visual story board and has been applied to areas beyond manufacturing.

Kanban is a visual way to manage tasks and workflows, which utilizes a kanban board with columns and cards. The cards represent tasks, and the columns organize those tasks by their progress or current stage in development.

Kanban—which is the Japanese word for “billboard”—was developed by Toyota in the 1940s. It was originally a scheduling system to execute just-in-time manufacturing. It was designed to improve efficiency by limiting supplies and resources to what was needed for the immediate task. Today, kanban has expanded to all industries, most notably software development.

Teams enjoy using this system due to its ease of use, visual interface, and ability to instantly see what everyone is working on. It also provides visibility into task progress and whether a specific task holds up the project.

Source: https://www.projectmanager.com/kanban

Can you implement Kanban in your marketing?

The reality is this has already been done.

Inbound Marketing with platforms like HubSpot allows you to implement Kanban in your marketing.

The visual above from HubSpot shows the flow of the customer buying journey.

To more accurately reflect the modern buyers journey a flywheel is used.

The core principles of Kanban are:

• Visualize Work
• Work In Progress
• Flow
• Continuous Improvement

A Deals Dashboard allows you to visualize work, work in progress, flow, and focus on wins and losses to implement continuous improvement in your sales and marketing efforts.

Predictive Lead Scoring addresses Work In Progress by focusing on leads further along in the buyer's journey. This allows resources to be focused on leads that are likely to close and avoid chasing after leads that are not ready to buy.

Continuous Improvement can be achieved by looking at page performance and aligning with overall business goals for lead generation.

Implementing Kanban in your marketing allows you to more effectively manage resources, get more leads, and close them.

Every good plan starts with a SWOT analysis.

SWOT analysis is a business analysis process that ensures that objectives for a project are clearly defined and that all factors related to the project are properly identified.

The SWOT analysis process involves four areas: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Both internal and external components are considered when conducting a SWOT Analysis, as they both have the potential to impact the success of a project or venture.

What is a SWOT Analysis?

The following is a summary of SWOT Analysis components:

1. Strengths
   Strengths in SWOT analysis are the attributes within an organization that are considered necessary for a project's ultimate success. Strengths are resources and capabilities that can be used for competitive advantage. Examples of strengths that are often cited include:

    

   • Strong brand names
   • Good Reputation
   • Cost advantages of proprietary know-how
2. Weaknesses
   The factors within the SWOT analysis formula that could prevent successful results within a project are Weaknesses. Weaknesses include an abundance of rivalry between departments, a weak internal communication system, a lack of funding, and inadequate materials. Weaknesses can derail a project before it even begins. Other Weaknesses include:

    

   • Weak brand name
   • Poor reputation
   • Ineffective and high-cost structure
3. Opportunities
   Opportunities are classified as external elements that might help achieve the goals set for the project. These factors could involve vendors who wish to work with the company to help achieve success, the general public's positive perception of the company, and market conditions that could make the project desirable to the market segment. Additional Opportunities include:

    

   • Arrival of new technology
   • Unfulfilled customer needs
   • Taking business courses (training)
4. Threats
   These external factors could gravely affect the success of the project or business venture. The possible threats that are critical to any SWOT analysis include a negative public image, no ready-made market for the final product, and the lack of vendors who can supply raw materials for the project. Some other threats include:

    

   • Trend changes
   • New regulations
   • New substitute products

Source: https://www.notredameonline.com/resources/business-administration/what-is-swot-analysis/

Once you have identified your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, developing an effective marketing plan becomes much easier. Here is a FREE SWOT PowerPoint Template. If you need more help with your content marketing strategy, check out this article from HubSpot. 

A Content Audit will allow you to determine what existing content you can use as part of your plan and what new content needs to be developed. 

Source: HubSpot

SEMrush defines essential steps for a content audit.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through 5 essential steps on how to audit your content: