When marketers first try agile marketing and are asked to prioritize a marketing backlog, they’re often faced with a big problem – they don’t know how to prioritize one work request over another. They find themselves caught in the middle of power struggles between stakeholders fighting for their initiatives.

To combat this problem – and to effectively say no to work that is lower value – the company needs to align at a higher level and really understand what the key objectives are for the organization.

If your company doesn’t have clear business objectives, or if they aren’t rolling down to the marketers on the ground, this piece of the puzzle needs to get resolved. Once the teams have a clear idea of what the business values the most, they have a leg to stand on when saying no to work requests that are not aligned to the company’s larger priorities.

There are numerous studies out there that show when people are focused, they’re a lot more productive. With agile marketing, if teams can cut out the noise and distractions of work that is low value, they can spend more time, effort and energy creating really kick-butt campaigns that help drive the kind of business results the company is trying to accomplish.

– Stacey Ackerman is the founder of Agilify Coaching & Training

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Pinterest to verify merchants. Pinterest is in the process of launching a Verified Merchant Program that will allow retailers on the platform to be verified, making their products eligible for distribution within Pinterest shopping experiences, including Shop the Look Pins and related product carousels. The program will roll out over the coming months. Brands can sign up to be put on a waitlist so that they’re notified when applications are open. 

IGTV working on monetization feature. Instagram confirmed to TechCrunch it is prototyping a feature that would give creators on IGTV, Instagram’s long-form video platform, a way to monetize their content. The “Instagram Partner Program” would make it possible for creators to earn revenue by showing ads alongside their videos — something that’s been absent from the platform since its inception in 2018. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri tweeted, “It’s no secret that we’ve been exploring this. We focused first on making sure the product had legs — else there would be little to monetize in the first place.” 

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Conversational Marketing: How to Go Beyond Chatbots – CMS Wire

Alphabet’s YouTube revenue disclosure could pressure Instagram to share some money with creators, publishers – Digiday

A Call To CMOs To Be Responsible – Forbes

56% of marketers think AI will negatively impact branding in 2020, study says – Marketing Dive

Can direct-to-consumer brands compete with Amazon? – Quartz

5 Ways Customer Engagement Can Boost Your Ecommerce Site – Multichannel Merchant

56% of marketers think AI will negatively impact branding in 2020, study says – Marketing Dive