Creating content that is engaging, relevant, and informative can be challenging.  Associations need good content that will keep their current members engaged and attract new members to their organization.  Finding the inspiration to create that content is often a struggle.  An article, written by Jennifer Barrell at Aptify, lists five ways to find new inspiration for content creation.

Our Toolkit of the Month series aims to provide association professionals with methodologies, tools & templates developed by hardcore marketers at Demand Metric. 

Marketing is constantly evolving. There is always a new way to reach people and sell a product. Digital marketing changes quickly. Every year brings new and exciting trends to the digital advertising industry. Here are some trends you must use this year. 

In the past having a blog for your business was nice to have, but not required.  Today blogs are a necessity for associations.  Well written, informative blogs can have a huge impact on an association's ability to connect with it's members and attract new members.  Blogs are an essential component of any content marketing strategy. Maggie Jones, at Marketo, has written a three step guide and some helpful tips for better, more effective blogging.  

Many associations and non-profits are in crisis today.  Flat or diminishing user numbers and lower revenues are putting many at risk.  Associations and non-profits are realizing they need to evolve their marketing strategies.  They need new methods to attract users and increase revenue.  Download our new eBook "Best Practices to Attract New People to Your Brand"and learn how to grow in the digital age.  In this eBook we discuss how to effectively attract buyers using digital channels.  We explore the new mindset of today's consumers and the marketing methodologies needed to do digital right.

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.