Do you think marketing automation is primarily used for lead generation?  If so you are certainly not alone, many marketers do.  The truth is marketing automation can do much more.  You can and should leverage this technology for brand marketing and customer marketing as well.  Marketing automation can be used at every stage of the customer lifecycle.  By using the power of data driven strategies derived from a marketing automation platform you can drive leads, build your brand, and deliver an outstanding customer experience.  We have found an article at Act-On, written by Cindy Collins-Taylor, that explains what benefits marketing automation has to offer, not only for lead generation strategies, but also for branding and customer marketing strategies.  This article will help you understand what marketing automation can do and how to get the most out of your marketing automation palform.

April 28th is approaching fast and Verizon customers who haven't yet migrated to AOL will have their email accounts closed.

What does this means to association marketers?

• Reach out to these constituents now using your email/marketing automation platforms and request that they log into your membership portal to supply you with an updated email address.
• Expect more Verizon email address bounces.
• Expect more Verizon email addresses to be resolved to being invalid/ineligible/undeliverable.

You can read more about this on the Return Path Blog.

In a digital world it is integral to always be in the know. But how does one find the time to scour the web for the latest and greatest while holding down a 9-5? I have two words for you, Google Alerts. Google Alerts will send you e-mail notifications about anything and everything. Want to know every time your company is talked about on the web? Simply program an alert and get informed the moment it happens! Here are three powerful ways to use Google Alerts as a tool:

Marketing automation is technology that allows you to automate and measure your marketing activities and strategies.  It enables you to attract more leads, nurture those leads, and convert them more quickly into customers.  The infographic below illustrates 9 benefits of marketing automation that will save you time and money.

The most common model of marketing in associations has inherently been multi-channel marketing. Nearly every organization and association practices multi-channel marketing, interacting with users on different digital channels and devices. Multi-channel marketing has a distributional approach of sending out information to users in a multitude of ways. Multi-channel marketing, although a traditional method of marketing, does not allow organizations to understand how the user connected, how to measure each interaction, or if the user had multiple touchpoints. Because of these shortcomings there has been a fundamental shift in mindset to focus on the user, also known as the U.

Membership is the life blood of associations.  Keeping membership levels up is imperative in order to remain successful.  Each year members leave, due to retirement, job change, or  any number of other reasons.  So associations must continue to recruit new ones. Membership recruitment tactics of the past no longer work.  It is now a digital world and so associations must employ digital recruitment tactics in order to keep membership levels high.  We have found an article at Aptify, written by Jennifer Barrell, that lists 5 tactics for growing association membership.  Using these recruitment tactics will increase membership and improve member experience.