Data is the cornerstone of digital marketing, allowing individuals to make informed and concise decisions based on facts not intuition. As digital marketers, you can track and analyze users through clicks, opens, site visits and interactive content. Interactive content is your secret weapon to gathering data and generate leads.

Digital marketing contains many components such as SEO, social media, content creation, PPC, email, and web analytics.  Each of these components should be brought together under one overall digital strategy in order to get the best results.  The infographic below explains why you need a digital marketing strategy and tips for how to build one.

What are the latest digital marketing trends you should be paying attention to?  There are now so many digital channels, tactics, and technologies available, that deciding what to focus on can be difficult.  The infographic below highlights the 6 digital marketing trends predicted to have the biggest impact on digital marketing this year.

April 28th is approaching fast and Verizon customers who haven't yet migrated to AOL will have their email accounts closed.

What does this means to association marketers?

• Reach out to these constituents now using your email/marketing automation platforms and request that they log into your membership portal to supply you with an updated email address.
• Expect more Verizon email address bounces.
• Expect more Verizon email addresses to be resolved to being invalid/ineligible/undeliverable.

You can read more about this on the Return Path Blog.

As mentioned in my previous blog, Why We Love Metrics (And You Should, Too!), I am back to talk more about metrics! In case you missed it, metrics can provide associations with a valuable measuring tool to gain member insight for future action and implementation. Metrics can measure progress, quality, efficiency, performances, and more. In order to group metrics and turn them into insights, a framework gives a baseline on how to do so. The framework goes as follows; awareness, participation, engagement, advocacy. This gives organizations the ability to track and nurture users and better understand how they are interacting, and therefore, how to respond in an appropriate manner.

Content is still king of the marketing world.  There is a staggering number of blog posts published every day accross the globe. Competition for audiences is fierce.  So how do you rise above the noise?  Marketers who know what types of content perform best and know the best social channels and times to promote their content are more likely to be successful.