Agile content creation: The secret to faster campaigns and better collaboration

Agile principles are usually associated with software development, but marketing teams can also benefit from an agile approach. Many marketing teams are bogged down by lengthy processes and outdated technology.

A simple change, like updating the price on a webpage, might require multiple approvals and developer support. By the time the update goes live, you’ve already lost business to the competition. Frustration with missed opportunities and the need for faster time to market is leading teams to agile content creation practices that help them produce content more efficiently.

Agile content creation focuses on simplifying workflows, giving marketers more control and flexibility to act, and integrating technology so you can move faster. In this post, I’ll explain more about agile content creation and how marketing teams like yours are using agile content development to stay ahead of the competition.

What is agile content creation?

Agile content creation applies agile principles to content creation and publication. Based loosely on the principles used by software development teams, it helps marketing teams create and publish content faster by streamlining content operations, giving editors more autonomy and control, and using technology to automate workflows and routine tasks.

Agile content creation removes unnecessary friction and empowers marketers to publish and update content without arduous approval cycles and unnecessary dependencies on developers. It’s a key component of agile content marketing, which extends agile methodologies to marketing campaigns and other activities. Agile content marketing encourages teams to launch campaigns and experiences more frequently, take an iterative approach, set up feedback loops, and focus on continuous improvement to drive optimal results.

Why are marketing teams adopting agile principles?

Marketing teams are under enormous pressure to do more faster. They need to create content for multiple channels, quickly adapt to competitor threats and market conditions, and tailor everything to customers who expect every experience to be on brand and relevant to them. That means translating, localizing, and personalizing content fast enough to get it live before it feels outdated.

Traditional content workflows — marked by delays, manual approvals, and rigid systems — are too slow to keep up with today’s competitive environment. Teams are frustrated by missed opportunities and the inability to respond quickly to user feedback and current events.

Outdated technology and processes slow content teams down with:

• Rigid systems: Legacy CMS platforms are hard to scale, harder to customize, and slow to change.

• Developer dependency: Marketers rely on dev teams to make even small content changes, which delays launches.

• Inefficient workflows: Translation cycles, fragmented approvals, and disconnected tools all contribute to delays.

• Lack of feedback mechanisms: Content teams don’t have an easy way to learn from what’s working (and what’s not), hindering their ability to produce data-driven experiences.

• Siloed teams: Designers, developers, marketers, and translators all work in separate tools with limited visibility.

• Too many handoffs: Traditional linear approaches move work through a series of handoffs. Modern processes support collaboration and parallel workflows. 

Agile content marketing helps teams break free of outdated processes so you can consistently deliver fresh content to fuel new experiences. 

How does agile apply to marketing teams?

Customer-first mentality

One of the core principles of agile is to satisfy the customer. Marketers need a relentless customer focus to meet increasing demands for seamless omnichannel experiences that are personalized and relevant. This requires a customer-first mindset, access to customer data, and the ability to turn that data into experiences through personalization and customization. 

Faster time to market

Shifting to an agile approach means releasing content, campaigns, and experiences more frequently. Contentful helps marketers increase speed by working smarter, not harder, with reusable content and components and intelligent AI features. See how Contentful Studio lets marketers create and personalize experiences without dev support. And check out AI Actions, a new feature that makes tasks like translation, search engine optimization, and rewrites a breeze.

Iterative approach

An iterative approach helps content marketing teams increase speed and improve satisfaction by encouraging them to push content live, learn, and improve with each iteration. Teams can use traditional feedback loops or AI tools that automate A/B testing, optimization, and personalization, helping them identify and apply winning strategies, content, and trends quickly. 

Cross-functional collaboration

Marketing teams can improve collaboration by connecting silos and replacing dependencies with transparent workflows. Contentful connects everything marketers need into a single source of truth and provides granular governance. This gives everyone the right mix of autonomy and guardrails to be innovative and stay on-brand as they work towards shared goals.

Adaptability

For content marketers, this means having the flexibility to adapt content to each customer. Think personalization, streamlined translation processes, localization, adapting content to new channels, and optimizing content based on audience feedback. It can also mean choosing the tools you use. One of the things content marketers like about Contentful is that they can integrate the tools they want and bring that functionality into the platform.

An agile mindset supported by the right tools and technology helps marketing teams:

• Be more creative and innovative by giving teams the tools and flexibility they need to craft dynamic, exciting customer experiences.

• Ship content-driven experiences faster by streamlining workflows and approvals, reusing content across channels, and using automation tools.

• Respond quickly by reducing developer dependency and allowing marketers to update and publish content. Imagine making an update in less than an hour.

• Extend their reach globally by integrating translation and localization into their workflows — no more copying and pasting from Excel sheets. 

• Test, learn, and optimize with integrated A/B testing and AI-powered optimization.

• Work smarter by reusing content across multiple platforms and channels and using AI tools to create variants for testing, localization, and personalization.

Contentful supports agile content marketing with features marketers love

When I talk to marketers, they’re looking for more speed, flexibility, and control. Agile content development can give you that, but first, you need the tools to support it. This is where Contentful comes in. People who use legacy software are so used to rigid limitations that they are resigned to the belief that this is what they have to work with. But Contentful is different. It’s an API-first platform purpose-built to help teams meet today’s marketing challenges. These are a few of the features that marketers are most excited about:

Visual content creation with drag and drop editing

Contentful Platform gives editors the freedom to rearrange content without developer support, so you can quickly move a section up or change where a sidebar appears on the page — no code needed. Contentful Studio takes this ability even further, letting teams drag and drop reusable content and components to build campaign pages, test layouts, or create entirely new websites. Predefined content models ensure experiences stay on brand while giving marketing teams the freedom to get creative.

Built-in localization and translation tools

Translation is a common pain point for teams that don’t have translators in-house. It's a slow process of copying and pasting text to send an agent, getting it back, and working through reviews and approvals. With Contentful, you can give translators restricted access so they can log in and edit just the content that needs to be translated. This role-based access streamlines global workflows and allows for real-time progress tracking for translation workflows. And when you’re ready, you can experiment with AI-generated drafts that further reduce translation time.

Learn how SumUp streamlined and automated translation to support more than 20 languages.

Custom workflows built for speed and collaboration

Say goodbye to rigid approval processes with manual handoffs. With Contentful, you can draft, edit, approve, and publish in one place. Inline commenting and simultaneous editing support real-time teamwork. Team-specific workflows let you customize approval processes to fit your needs. Integration with tools like Slack, Jira, and Asana lets you keep content operations centralized while providing visibility on your preferred channels. See how Mailchimp creates content 10 times faster with Contentful.

Intelligent AI features

Contentful’s AI features allow you to use AI your way to enhance marketing efforts. With Contentful AI Actions, you can embed generative AI into your workflows to streamline content management, ensure brand compliance, and maximize ROI. Contentful’s AI features can help you tap into valuable insights, optimize copy for search, and create tailor-made content for personalization. Our native AI creates content that sounds like you, enabling teams to draft, adapt, and personalize content faster without sacrificing quality. 

Integration with the tools you want to use

Contentful is API-first, which means it’s built to integrate easily with the tools teams already use. You can keep the tools you love and easily replace the ones you don’t. This is a huge relief for teams stuck with outdated tools. You can choose the tools you use now and evolve your tech stack as your needs change.

Getting started is easier than you think

Marketing teams can’t afford to wait weeks to launch campaigns or update content. They also can’t afford to pause production while doing a big rip and replace. With Contentful, you don’t have to choose. Start with a single campaign or use case, experiment to see what’s possible with a platform that supports agile marketing, and then expand to support other use cases, teams, and brands. Ready to see how agile content creation could work for your team?

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