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.  

Marketing strategies of today are completely different from what they were just a decade ago. Before the term inbound marketing was first introduced by Hubspot, the efforts that businesses put into the marketing process were rather different. Ads were placed on television and billboards, fliers were sent out in the mail and people would receive multiple email offers from businesses eliciting their business.

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.

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!

The Toolkit of the Month program provides association professionals with templates, workbooks and outlines for common planning needs in digital marketing. We curate the tools from the massive marketing library of our partner, Demand Metric. Each month we focus on a specific topic and put together a collection of tools to allow association professionals frameworks & formats to take the guesswork out of strategic & tactical planning. This month's toolkit focuses on your website--the ultimate destination for your email, banner ads and social media. This toolkit focuses on giving you an interactive planning worksheet to better assess and evaluate your current website and get going on your spring cleaning for your site.

Associations offer online education and certification programs.  Your members know this.  So why is it important to promote these programs?  There is a great deal of competition in this area, from both the non-profit and for-profit world.  People have a multitude of options when choosing where they go for online education.  In order to keep the members you have and to bring new members into your association, you need to step up your game.  In today's world that means using digital strategies.  Join us at HighroadU as Suzanne Carawan presents "Best Practices: Promoting Online Education & Certification".  This webinar is the second in the series Promoting Online Education & Certification.  Suzanne explains exactly why promotion is needed and lists the best digital marketing tools available to grow your membership.