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.

Having a good lead generation strategy is essential for an organization's continued success because it is the engine that drives profits.  In order for your lead generation strategy to produce optimal results, you need to have the right components in place  The infographic below is a detailed guide to the components needed to generate high quality leads and to keep your sales pipeline moving along.

There seems to be this struggle between IT and Marketing teams; each feeling the other is a threat, which causes tension. The fact of the matter is we need each other! This trend isn’t new, it has been creeping its way from tread to reality as more and more organizations are accepting they need to be data-driven. But who controls that data? IT? Marketing?

Marketing automation is a great tool that can be used in all stages of the buyers' journey.  Email is still the preferred channel that marketers use to communicate with prospects and customers.  Marketing automation that is used for email campaigns works extremely well and generates great results.  However, marketing automation isn't just for email anymore.  While it's true that automated emails continue to be the backbone of marketing automation, you need not stop there.  If you're only using marketing automation for email, you're missing out on other communication channels it can be used for.  We have found an article at Act-On, written by Pam Neely, that lists 8 channels, in addition to email, with which to use marketing automation.  Pam explains how using marketing automation with each of these 8 other channels will benefit you.

Marketing Automation is scary powerful and can also be scary expensive but I have a few secrets that can help you add marketing automation but also keep the cost down.

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?