Marketing for associations takes different forms. Marketing automation tools and email automation tools sometimes get confused with each other. While they do share some functionality, your marketing strategy depends on knowing the difference and knowing how to get the best from each.
Before we take a look at how to get the best from these tools, let’s define the difference between them.
Your association probably sends huge volumes of emails each year. These fall into roughly three categories:
An email automation platform will integrate with other systems, such as your Association Management Software (AMS), and send these emails to the right people at the right time.
Email automation comes with functionality that allows you to do advanced email sequencing and scheduling, and can improve deliverability rates to give your emails better inbox placement.
Marketing automation platforms are omnichannel tools that connect to things like social media accounts and lead generation websites. The tool performs important marketing for association functions like:
You can capture email addresses in this way (when someone enters their details in order to unlock some gated website content, for example) and you can issue email messages via the marketing automation platform.
This is perhaps why there is some confusion between the two tools. In fact, there are some vendors who claim that their marketing automation tool can replace email automation or vice versa. But, in practice, associations will often need both running in parallel.
The easy way to sum up the difference between these two tools is this:
Email automation is for retention, marketing automation is for lead generation and recruitment.
To know exactly which tool you need, you have to start by asking which problem you’re trying to solve.
Solution: Email automation
Email automation can dramatically improve your delivery and inbox placement rates, ensuring that emails arrive in the correct folder at the user’s end. Email automation also helps manage the tracking of things like open rates and clickthroughs, so you can see how each communication is performing.
Solution: Marketing automation
Lead generation is the primary purpose of marketing automation. You can connect this platform to all of your channels for making contact with leads, such as social media and websites, and you can then leave the rest to the marketing automation platform. It will guide each lead through a pre-defined buyer’s journey, hopefully resulting in a conversion.
Solution: Email automation
You can use marketing automation to put existing members through a sales funnel, and sometimes this makes sense when you’re trying to diversify revenue streams. But, in general, the best way to engage with members is a carefully thought-out series of email communications. Segmentation tools on the email automation platforms allow you to get the right messages to the right audience.
Solution: Marketing automation
Marketing automation can be used as a research tool. Each lead tells you something about emerging market trends – demographics, locations and areas of interest. You can also learn a lot by watching where people fall out of the sales funnel. Is there a demand to which you’re not catering?
Solution: Email automation
Email sequencing is one of the most useful functions of an email automation platform. You can set up a series of emails that go out at regular intervals, or when the user activates certain triggers, such as activating their online profile. This is especially useful at the onboarding stage when you want to hold the member’s hand as they get to grips with everything, rather than bombarding them with everything on their first day.
Solution: Marketing automation
Marketing automation platforms are the best at capturing new leads – such as people who click on an ad – and nurturing those leads towards conversion. This is true even when it seems like email automation can do the job, such as when the ad encourages people to sign up for an email newsletter. Even if all you have is an email address, you can still guide that lead through a sales funnel.
In an ideal world, you would have state-of-the-art marketing automation and email automation tools in place, resulting in stunning recruitment and retention figures.
In practice, you may have to make tough decisions about where to focus your resources. As a first step, look at your pain points and look at your goals. What do you need to tackle right now: improving lead conversion or driving member engagement?
The answer to this question will tell you where you need to make an immediate investment.
If you’re still not sure, talk to HighRoad. We specialize in better marketing for associations and we can help you to build a marketing tech stack that suits your budget. With the right tools and optimal strategy, you may not have to choose between recruitment and retention.