HighRoad folks are back from sunny Orlando, Florida where they attended the 2014 Aptify Users Conference!  Congratulations to HighRoad clients, Rachael Bell and the rest of the staff of the New Jersey Society of CPAs who were the 2014 Innovation Award winners! The Innovation Awards showcase Aptify users who have created innovative solutions to meet the needs of their associations and members. NJSCPA implemented HighRoad's Newsletter Xpress+ and they are now living the dream--benefitting from email marketing vs. being tortured by it! We're proud to partner with them to create innovative digital marketing solutions for associations!

IS DIGITAL MARKETING SCARY TO U?

What did we read this week that we wanted to share?

• HighRoad's CMO Suzanne Carawan was featured in our partner Aptify's blog discussing 5 Ways to Solve Today’s Top Business Challenges. We are looking forward to seeing everyone in Orlando, FL at the Aptify Users Conference in just 3 days! >More

• Because you can never had too many sources for free stock pics….>More

• 9 Must-Know Best Practices for Distributing Your Nonprofit’s Content on Social Networks >More

• Growing pains? We all get them, here is a primer for managing digital growing pains and being successful at creating digital fluency within your organization.>More

• Proving that no one has a crystal ball when it comes to who/what will succeed, an article about Mark Zuckerberg and how he was once branded a has-been.  Side note: Same article listed Netflix as a "fad" failing to predict that there are those of us (guilty) who will binge watch an entire season of Breaking Bad on a random Saturday afternoon. >More  

• This week's uber-technical explanation of how things work: That pesky predictive keyboard on your smartphone--sometimes makes life easier by allowing you to send a text in a snap, but sometimes causes you to repeatedly text a person embarrasing/nonsensical words.  And we all know there is no undo on texting.  And you know you have spent valuable time surfing the site dedicated to all manner of embarrasing texts. I won't mention it here but it rhymes with "bam-poo snotto-collect" >More

So we know U want to know: Are U Normal?

Ever wonder how your organization's digital marketing compares to that of other not-for-profits? While statistics have been available on websites and email, a comprehensive digital marketing landscape report does not exist. HighRoad has commissioned the 2014 State of Digital Marketing in Associations Research Report, a global benchmarking research project aimed at establishing a statistically relevant set of metrics that will allow associations and non-profits to understand how they compare across the following areas:

• departmental ownership vs. execution for digital marketing
• digital marketing budgets
• digital marketing skill assessments
• digital marketing channels

The report will allow organizations to break down the data by type of organization and size so that accurate comparisons can be made. 

We invite you to please contribute to the report so that the not-for-profit market can have accurate data on which to make decisions and our global capacity for understanding how digital marketing fits into our overall marketing portfolios can expand. 

As a thank you, each participant receives a $5 Starbucks card and is automatically entered into win a $1000 gift certificate to xperiencedays.com which you can use to purchase an unforgettable day of hot air ballooning, boat rides, cooking classes, race car driving and more. But, probably not a cooking class in a hot air balloon, because that would be weird.  

Finally, do you like what you have been reading here these past few weeks? Drop us a comment, let us know what U like and what U don't.  We would love to hear from U!

Can't get enough talk about digital? >More

I was the content leader on ASAE Business Services' Lunch Learning webinar this week when someone asked the question "I hear this term 'digital ecosystem' all the time, but I don't really know what it means. Would you please define it?" 

Certainly! Here are some average & obvious options for seeking a definition: 

• Wikipedia's Definition of "Digital Ecosystem" that leaves you saying "what the..."
• Read PWC's eBook on Nine Trends in Digital Ecosystems to Get the Skinny on Trends
• Check Out What the ADMA is Saying on Digital Ecosystems

Can you believe that one year ago was our first client conference to talk about best practices in email marketing? It's true and we agree, where did the time go??? In looking back, we took a moment to review some of the first user group conference videos and marvel at how far we've come in one year in both innovation & focus. We've moved from just focusing on email to now embracing all of digital marketing and providing products & services to help associations thrive.