Many associations today are beginning to make the move to marketing automation.  We thought it might be helpful to review exactly what marketing automation is, what it's not, and whether your association is ready for it.  Our ASAE Lunch Learning Webinar "Are You Ready For Marketing Automation?" provides an overview of what marketing automation is and showcases associations who have already successfully implemented it to market their certification, education, event, and content programs.

When considering different marketing automation systems, it can be tempting to allow platform cost to outweigh the features and functionality needed to ensure success now and in the future for your organization.  After all, there are limits to an organization's resources.  However, if you only focus on the short term requirements for potential systems, you may find that down the road your marketing automation system is unable to grow with your organization's needs.  An article, written by Patrick Groover at Marketo, lists 9 questions to consider when deciding which system will be right for you.  These questions will help ensure that the investment you make today will continue to sustain and support your marketing strategies tomorrow.

We have recently released our 2016 State Of Digital Marketing In Associations report.  For the third year in a row, we have surveyed associations in order to benchmark and compare their marketing efforts year to year.  The infographic below reveals some interesting stats from the report and a 5-step action plan to increase your association's marketing success.

If you're a non-profit organization, you are in the business of not making profits.  So how do you do more with less and still innovate to attract and retain donors?  And what lessons can be learned from the non-profit world by everyone else?  Our partner Adestra has produced a webinar, What Can NOT Making A Profit Teach Us?-Lessons for us all from the non-profit industry, that is now available for download.  Ryan Phelan and Tristam Jones talk about non-profits and what the rest of us can learn from them. They examine case studies and give examples from non-profits.  We wanted to share the webinar with you because it delivers great data points on email benchmarking and some really good tips on how to get people to feel more emotionally attatched via email. 

Marketing automation is still a relatively new technology for many organizations.  It is because of this relative newness that a great deal of confusion exists about exactly what a marketing automation system can do for an organization, and how to properly implement it as part of existing marketing strategies.  If your organization is thinking about marketing automation, how do you prepare for it's implementation?  Are you ready?  What does marketing automation readiness look like?  We have found a great article at Act-On, written by Janet Johnson, that lists 10 steps you should take to prepare for marketing automation success.

Once upon a time social media was primarily used as a way to connect with friends and family.  While it is certainly still used for that purpose, it has also evolved into a platform that organizations now use as a business tool.  The number of networks that one can engage on is constantly increasing.  With all the choices now available, it can be overwhelming having to decide which social channels would be the best fit for your organization.  It probably would nor be an effective allocation of time or money to attempt to be active on all the social channels now available.  So how do you know which ones to choose?  Knowing your membership is key.  Chandra Chakravarthi at Aptify has written an article explaining the 3 questions to ask before deciding which social networks are right for your organization.