Association Marketing

The modern workplace is more diverse than ever, serving up an alphabet soup in the workforce. From Baby Boomers to Gen Z, each generation brings unique values, skills, and perspectives to the mix. Navigating these dynamics requires understanding and empathy at all levels.

When it comes to any sector, industry, or business type, leaders should recognize the blended experiences and expectations of their team members, fostering an inclusive environment that values each individual's contributions. 

But where large enterprises and for-profit conglomerates are working with swaths of generational employee segments, associations and nonprofits are built on volunteer board and committee structures with often leaner professional staff. This changes the scenery when it comes to team dynamics.

Segmentation has long been a foundational concept in marketing, but the landscape has dramatically evolved. Traditional segmentation has relied on static demographic or firmographic categories, such as age, membership type, or organization size - criteria that rarely change and are easy to manage.

While these basics were effective in a world dominated by single-channel communications (typically email), they fall short in today’s complex, multi-touch member journeys.

In the world of digital marketing, speed of execution and making the move at the right time, is just as important as the quality of the effort. So it make sense that associations and nonprofit teams - who are already short on hands - would get caught up in the allure of vanity metrics. Open rates, clicks, and page views can provide a quick adrenaline rush, but they often fail to tell the complete story. For many associations, these surface-level metrics can create a false sense of success, leading to misguided strategies and wasted resources.

In a recent presentation at the Marketing Membership and Communications Convention (MMCC) hosted by the ASAE Center for Association Leadership, two of HighRoad's very own senior digital advisors, Nicole Crilley and Emily Nash, spoke on the topic of optimizing marketing campaigns for results. 

They presented to a captive audience of association marketers, program managers, and other professionals, looking to modernize the way they connect with their members and search for new ones. Here's a summary of their presentation. 

Ashburn, VA - February 1, 2022: HighRoad Solutions is pleased to announce the promotion of Adam Higgins to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Maneesha Manges to Chief Experience Officer (CXO), effective January 1, 2022.

It's been more than two decades since the New York Times Best Seller, Who Moved My Cheese, was published. And while alot has happened since the proverbial self-help book was released, the sentiment has stayed the same...

Change is hard. 

While change is inevitable and necessary, personally and professionally, it’s uncomfortable and anxiety-inducing for most.

The reality is that most people just don’t like leaving their comfort zones. And that creates challenges for marketers, who are typically organizational innovators and change agents. While you, as the association professional knows there's a need for change, broaching the topic with your internal and external stakeholders can be a painstaking effort.