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Associations Turning to Marketing Automation to Fuel Growth

Ashburn, VA, March 4, 2016---HighRoad Solution, the only digital agency focused exclusively on associations to offer email, automation and inbound marketing services announced that it has been elevated to a Platinum-level agency partner by HubSpot, a leading software developer of marketing automation platforms.

“Our inbound digital marketing practice has grown exponentially since its founding in 2014,” stated Chief Marketing Officer, Suzanne Carawan. “Associations of all sizes are adding marketing automation platforms to build out their digital ecosystems in order to gain greater insight into member behavior. We partnered with HubSpot to offer enterprise-level functionality that we can integrate into the technology stack of today’s associations, as well as expanded our service offerings to provide the marketing support needed to undertake digital transformation.”

Since partnering, HighRoad Solution has implemented HubSpot and integrated the platform through its +Plus product line with leading association management software and customer relationship platforms including Abila’s NetForum Enterprise, Aptify, Personify360, ACGI’s Association Anywhere and Salesforce.

In addition to integration, HighRoad Solution’s inbound practice provides services to support modern association marketing departments including persona development, content marketing strategy, lead scoring and sales enablement programs to support associations’ needs to adapt and grown in a mobile-based, digital-first business environment.

About HighRoad Solution 
HighRoad Solution is the only digital marketing agency endorsed & used by ASAE. We combine digital & database platforms to increase revenue, member insight & efficiency. Whether you need email, marketing automation or inbound marketing, we have the subject matter and technical experts to deliver the solution you need.

Please join us at the end of the month as we wrap up a great start to 2016! Our client-only calls are designed to be an interactive forum for feedback, as well as an opportunity for us to mindmeld with you. We'll share our recent work and talk about industry trends that are affecting associations (and how organizations are meeting new challenges).  Join Ron & Cookie for a great hour talking all things association MarTech! 

So I just finished recording my first ever HighRoad U Webinar yesterday on how to develop a keyword strategy. I’ll be the first to admit, developing a keyword strategy usually ends up being the last item on my to-do list – forever to be pushed off since something else is always more urgent. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are others who feel the same way – too time intensive and then no one consistently applies it in practice it once it’s ready. So imagine my delight when I discovered that my new team at HighRoad has been putting out marketing toolkits that are ready to use AND you can use them for multiple purposes! In particular, our Marketing Persona Toolkit pulls double duty (maybe triple) since Personas are the cornerstone of many related Inbound Marketing activities. You need to know your personas - their pain points and, in particular, how they search for information and what keywords they use, so that you can develop that keyword strategy. It’s not enough to have a sense or “guestimate” your target audience – these days, digital marketers can’t afford any sort of vagueness, especially in the era of hyper-personalization. So buckle down and tackle those Personas! It’s well worth the effort, and once you have an understanding of how your “person” searches for information that you have, you’ll be well on your way to getting that keyword strategy done. As I said in the webinar, the rest of the effort goes into following a consistent methodology and seeing it through to the end. If you find that you need some help along the way to talk it through (or help get it done), well, that’s actually why I’m here, so please reach out!

Email Marketing is constantly evolving.  Mobile devices are redefining design, inbox providers are redefining deliverability, and email service providers are redefining personalization.  There is one certainty, more changes are coming.  Litmus has released a new report, "Email Marketing in 2020".  In the report, they ask twenty industry experts to share their predictions concerning the future of email and they take a look at what email marketing will be like in the year 2020.  An article,  by Chad White at Litmus, lists who the panel of experts are and gives the link to download the free report.

In the association world we need to begin collecting and using more behavioral data about our members and consumers at large.  Data that will give us better infomation about the consumer and what they want.  Data that will help us figure out who are targeted population should be and how to best build relationships with them.  We need to learn what we can do to move these consumers to take the desired action that we want them to take.  Ultimately, we are attempting to get to the world of predictive analysis.  Digital educational programs give us the opportunity to not only collect more behavioral data, but to also experiment with ways of collecting that data, in order to better understand these consumers.  This week's webinar, "Measuring: Promoting Online Education & Certification", presented by Suzanne Carawan CMO of HighRoad Solution, is now available On-Demand.  Join us at HighRoadU for the third part in the series, Promoting Online Education & Certification, and learn the best practices for collecting and analyzing behavioral data.