our perspectives

Year-End Marketing Trends: What Associations Should Know

by Laura Ludka

October 10, 2023

As we previously discussed in Our Perspectives, marketing continues to evolve at a frenetic pace that can be difficult for non-marketers to stay on top of — particularly, digital marketing. Below are three trends in digital marketing that should be on your association’s radar for the remainder of the year.

AI in email marketing has doubled since 2022

Recently released research indicates that 57% of marketers are using some form of artificial intelligence (AI) for email campaigns, with another 25% planning to use it in the future. It’s no secret that AI has helped cure the writer’s block of many email authors, but the research suggests that marketers are also using AI for help with personalization, retargeting emails, and optimization. With marketing technology companies constantly rolling out new AI-powered features, it is important to stay up to date on opportunities to leverage AI in your own organization’s email marketing and to know when an AI tool isn't the right solution.

It’s not too early to prepare for Black Friday or Cyber Monday

Are you leveraging popular shopping days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday for your organization or association? Consumer brands aren’t the only ones who get to enjoy the end-of-the-year shopping fun! Make sure you’re thinking ahead about how to make the most of this popular time of year for deals and savings. Consider offering a 24-hour discount for your audience to try out a webinar or offer a special promotion on membership pricing. You can learn more about how to prepare your organization for Black Friday and Cyber Monday at MarTech.org.

E-commerce isn’t just for consumer brands

Speaking of online shopping, Forrester research predicts that B2B ecommerce will grow from $1.7 trillion in 2021 to $3 trillion by 2027. Does your website support your members or other key audiences making purchases? If so, have you evaluated the e-commerce user experience lately? Ensuring that your audience may “self-serve” via your website without inconveniences like multiple clicks, redirects, and broken links is key to making sure that your organization is enabled to handle the volume of future online buying.

As association leaders, it is important to keep up with evolving marketing trends to help your association and drive growth.

Laura Ludka is in Corporate Marketing at Smithbucklin.