Email marketing is still a powerful tool for driving engagement and nurturing leads.  It is, however, getting more and more competitive. In addition, over time techniques evolve and best practices change.  We found an article at Hubspot, written by Sophia Bernazzani, that will bring you up to date with email marketing best practices for 2017.  The article shares some email wisdom from Hubspot Postmaster and Email Engineering Director, Tom Monaghan.  Tom spoke at Inbound last year about which email marketing strategies to keep, which to stop, and which to begin using, in order to achieve continued growth for 2017.  His set of guidelines will help you keep your email marketing efforts on track this year.

Metrics are a key component of data-driven marketing as they provide a standard and consistent way to measure, understand, and track marketing data and results. They track key performances, progress, quality, efficacy, efficiency, and more. When measuring metrics it is important to establish a baseline in order to effectively analyze the information you are gathering. In order to measure effectiveness and growth, a baseline must be in place to do so. It is also important to measure consistently. Most associations measure monthly or quarterly, looking for insights, patterns, outliers, and more. Another key part of metrics is identifying a KPI, or a key performance indicator. KPI’s demonstrate growth and opportunity, as well as success. KPI’s can reflect goals, number of views, values of data, and more.

Digital marketing contains many elements including SEO, social media, content, email, and analytics.  In order to get the best return on investment or ROI, you need a comprehensive digital strategy that can bring all these elements together in the right way.  The infographic below explains what a digital marketing strategy is, why you need one, and the 7 steps to building one.

In the digital landscape today, the shift from outbound to inbound marketing has proved incredibly successful for associations nationwide that have adopted this engaging and thoughtful methodology of marketing automation. Inbound marketing is a strategy focused on attracting consumers through online content, SEO, thoughtful interactions, landing pages, social media, and more. It uses forms of pull marketing and functions as entirely permission based, allowing users to come to a specific product or service – whereas outbound is focused on pushing and fighting for users' attention. By generating relevant content to specific personas at a specific time, inbound marketing has revenue generating capabilities, builds greater trust among consumers, all while providing content catered to their specific needs and wants.

These are my little secrets, my swiss army knife of tricks up my sleeve, my free resources that make me look like a rockstar within my team and in front of a client (and I’m sharing them with you!). Whether you are newly tasked with the membership marketing goals of your organization, fully versed in digital marketing lingo, or somewhere in between - I’ve got something here for you. I even especially highlighted these resources for associations and nonprofits.