Making the move to marketing automation may sound like a daunting task – not only do you have to prepare yourself and your team to commit to this framework and approach, but you probably also have to build a business case to explain how a Marketing Automation Platform is different from your current Email Marketing Platform to your executive team – a team that doesn’t quite live and breathe digital marketing practices as you do. So how do you 1) determine and assess your readiness to make that transition to marketing automation and 2) approach building the case for it?

Images are a powerful tool that you can incorporate into all forms of your content.  Images are powerful because they evoke emotion.  Those emotions can then motivate desired behaviors by your audience, such as registering, downloading, purchasing, or any other behavior you are trying to drive your audience towards.  This month's Inbound Lunch Bunch discussed how to use images in different formats and across multiple channels in the most effective ways.  So if you missed our July Inbound Lunch Bunch: Using Images To Attract Customers, and would like to learn more, it is now available On-Demand through HighRoadU.

The infographic below, created by our partner Salesforce, answers common questions about the returns companies are getting from their marketing automation investment.  Take a look at some marketing automation statistics from industry analysts and a quick overview of features and benefits of automation tools.

Marketing automation software is being utilized today by a growing number of organizations.  This is because they have come to realize that implementing marketing automation allows them to more effectively market on multiple online channels including email, website, and social media.  So if your organization is considering the move to automation we have a great article, written by Lynn F. Anderson at Act-On, that you should read.  The article suggests 6 steps to take first, to help ensure the smoothest implementation and the quickest success with your marketing automation transition.

Are you making the most use out of the contacts that are stored in your database?  If you don't yet have marketing automation software, you probably aren't.  By having automated email workflows set up, you can get more out of your current contacts. You can set up more personalized email workflows based on information you already have about your contacts.  Email automation can help convert leads into customers and continually engage existing customers, promoting growth for your company.  If you would like to increase engagement and activation with your current contacts this article, written by Pamela Vaughan at Hubspot, lists 13 email marketing automation workflows you should try.

Top challenges this summer are in membership

One of the key challenges that I've heard all summer surrounds membership. The two-fold challenge of how do we grow? and how can we do a better job of limiting year 1 to year 2 attrition seems to be the key focus area for many associations right now. We are spending a ton of time working with organizations to re-think this two-fold challenge and apply social marketing principles and digital marketing techniques to arrive at unique solutions. 

the secret challenges no one wants to admit

For most membership organizations, there are actually more than two problems. There is a very big elephant-in-the-room set of challenges that few organizations are comfortable discussing. Namely: 

1) How well do we currently know the consumption patterns and user behavior of our current membership?

2) How well do we really understand generational splits and tastes & preferences, cultural references and lifestyles of our membership?

3) How well are we spending the time we have to strategize on membership campaigns to help us overcome our challenges?