Association Marketing

We're one day closer to 2018 and as a way to wrap up the year, we're proud to sponsor the Top 40 Association CEOs of 2017 event which happens tonight in Crystal City. You can see the full list of association CEO winners.

Winning recognition as an association CEO is no easy feat in today's changing political and economic landscape. One of the areas that we see our clients' most struggle is in digital transformation and trying to figure out how to effectively compete in markets where for-profit companies are edging in for their share of wallet traditionally taken up by the association.

In 2017, we've seen multiple associations ask us for help in putting together a growth strategy based largely in digital to combat for-profit corporations. Associations have long understood the power and value of their brand, but have not had strong lead generation capabilities. The for-profit companies, on the other hand, typically are building a brand and are close to unknown, but have strong lead generation capabilities and agile market response times that allow for rapid growth.

There’s still time to get your promotional email messaging out for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. According to Forbes, there was a 15.2% bump in online sales in 2016 versus 2015 and that trend is expected to continue. To go even further, 40% of sales occurred on a mobile device. What does this mean for associations? Associations should be looking closely at how each touchpoint on a mobile device and online overall is experienced across all digital properties during the buyer’s journey. Here are a few key trends to watch out for and how associations should respond so they don’t miss out on big opportunities.