In his February 16 blog post, The Anatomy of a New Association Marketing Ecosystem, Dave Martin, ERA (Electronic Retailing Association) discusses how his organization has gone from what he terms as an AMS-centric "marketing ecosystem" to one that centers around their new marketing platform (Hubspot).  The impact of this change has resulted in endless opportunities to market to members and non members alike. ERA was one of HighRoad's first Hubspot clients, using our +Plus for netFORUM integration product.

My industry colleague, David Martin of ERA, introduced me to the concept of R&D--rip off and duplicate. As an association exec, he has provided great insight into how pressed for time he is and how much pressure he's under to constantly produce perfection. With a career spent in companies constantly seeking the almighty hockey stick growth curve, I can certainly understand the need to repurpose and utilize templates and tools that will help me speed my pace.

As more and more of association's marketing budgets move toward digital, the need for technical marketers is increasing. Likewise, as more of marketing moves to inbound methodologies for acquisition purposes, the reliance on technology to provide accurate data increases.  The resulting codependency requires that marketing and technology departments learn to work effectively together. MarTech to the rescue!  

The Blue Ocean Strategy contends that innovation is not an ad hoc, unpredictable occurrence; in contrast, the authors contend through their research that it can be a learned & managed process. Further, the Blue Ocean Strategy and associated framework methodologies provide us with a clear pathway as to how to learn how to be continuously innovative in our approach. When faced with the need to differentiate, the Blue Ocean Strategy mindset tells us that we need to stop commoditization and looking for ways to cut costs to maintain our current margins and instead, look outside--to the blue ocean--to realize how we can tap into new markets that yield huge potential.

BE AN ORDER MAKER NOT AN ORDER TAKER:

According to this year's Inbound Marketing conference, HubSpot stated that only 20% of today's professionals have the requisite digital marketing skills needed to be successful in their jobs. That means that 80% don't have them and are looking to the 20% to help them out.

A few notes on this:

1) HubSpot did not say "digital marketing skills" to just mean a person relegated to a communications or marketing position. They meant digital marketing skills for everyone. That means U Mr. or Ms. Executive Director, Board Member, VP Events, Professional Development, Membership & Publications!

The big takeaway is that while you may not be responsible for executing a digital campaign, you better well understand what's possible.

2) Associations lack digital capacity today. How do we know this and can state this with such certainty? Well, because we answer support calls and field support tickets all day long from hundreds of associations and we can see the areas where gaps in education exist. We're aiming to try to help organizations build capacity through our November 19th Digital Training Workshop Day.

3) If you don't get digital, you aren't going to get consumers. We seem to want to skirt the issue and not take the time to really understand what today's consumers want and more importantly, how they make buying decisions. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your blast email is actually not the reason that people decide to take action so if you're wondering why you're seeing decreased open rates and engagement is harder to come by, well, it's probably because you're taking a whole lot of action on your side, but you aren't sending meaningful messages or presenting a value proposition that the email recipient actually cares about.

4) Finding a job, getting promoted and being able to bridge into 2015 requires digital. Why do I know this firsthand? Because HighRoad is hiring across a variety of roles and we are getting hundreds of resumes. What's the first thing we do regardless of job role? Look you up on Google, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. If we can't find you, if you aren't actively involved and can prove that you're in the mix of today's online world, you're put into the digital pile on the left--meaning, you're not even a contender.

This is a hard hitting reality for many an association professional who sees any aspect of digital--email, social, mobile--as "not their job" or "what marcomm does". The problem with this is that digital isn't just a role anymore, it is a mindset. And if you don't know it, you don't get it.