As you slide into your holiday weekend, perhaps we'll have you thinking about forms and funnels whilst gliding down a watery ride at your local water park. For that reason, I thought it would be fun to go through the thinking behind marketing automation, lead generation, and business development. Make your digital marketing efforts work harder for you, so you can play harder for the fourth of July. 

There is no doubt that in 2017 we have some pretty powerful technology at our fingertips to send out email marketing messaging. From marketing automation like HighRoad Marketing Cloud and HubSpot, to user-friendly email marketing platforms like Adestra Message Focus, we get asked often why video and email are incompatible. While the platforms may support inputting a video file, it’s not always the best practice; and here’s why.

For many associations, the summer months can mean a slower time of year - which means greater time for reevaluating marketing efforts and budgets. The number of events held go down, kids are out of school, membership renewal drives have passed. Now is the time to look more deeply into marketing efforts that lead to greater results whether they are greater numbers in members, attendance for events, or engagement with marketing materials for education credits, industry knowledge, and more. It can be a huge asset to have an understanding of what other associations are doing in the market. While I recommend reading the State of Digital Marketing Report in full, here are a few key takeaways to get you started.

You don’t need me to tell you that millennials have surpassed baby boomers as the largest living generation. You probably already have your eye on this coveted generation of 18-34 year-olds with $200 billion in annual buying power. With great big numbers of over 75 million according to the Pew Research from April 25, 2016, comes great opportunity; so how are we reaching them?