Why HighRoad Continually Invests in Serving Membership Organizations

Each year that we publish the State of Digital Marketing in Associations research study, data points to the increasing role of online marketing in membership growth, retention, and revenue.

Leslie Schiff, Client Success Manager at HighRoad Solution and Dave Sherman, Director of Communications & Marketing at the American Optometric Association (AOA), are teaming up to speak about digital marketing transformation and real-time analytics at Personifest 2018 to be held April 9-11 in Austin, TX.

A recent report conducted by Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism shared insights from organizations aiming to grow by converting readers into members. While news organizations have long led the charge for creating waves with clickable headlines and newsworthy stories, what’s changed is their source of revenue through membership. So, now we are taking successful initiatives from journalists and applying them to associations. 

In a survey of 30,000 consumers spawning 28 global markets, according to a HubSpot webinar on social media trends conducted earlier this year, consumer trust in authority is at historical lows. Additionally, traditional media is at an all time low in 17 countries according to a 2017 Trust Barometer. But we don’t need these global statistics to tell us declining trust is a major event; as it has been going on for some time. We do want to take away is what this means for brands and specifically for global, national, and regional associations trying to get their message across the divide.

Nothing is meant to last forever. Expect maybe the term “Move them down the funnel”, which is timeless.

Occupying a rustic city block in the promising Norfolk, Virginia area is a sprawling 35,000 square foot warehouse where O’Connor Brewing Company produces the number one six-pack sold in Virginia. There we meet Kevin and Penny O’Connor, the two founders: one a visionary and the other the marketing mastermind. Next to them sit their right- and left-hand men, Hannah Serrano, and a young and talented graphic designer (whose name escapes me, but art doesn’t).