American Marketing Association Upcoming Events

I know I've said it before, but it bears repeating. The American Marketing Association has a great deal to offer your business's marketing department, whether you have a staff full of experienced marketing professionals under your thumb or have been doing your own marketing from the comfort of your kitchen table. Whichever your circumstances may be, take a minute to check out the AMA's upcoming events:

June 14-June 17: The 2009 ART (Advanced Research Techniques) Forum

Whistler, BC-This year marks the 20th anniversary of the ART Forum, a "unique conference that provides an opportunity for academics, practitioners and research clients to exchange ideas and solutions." If you're looking for ways to move your marketing research forward, take the time to attend this forum and swap ideas with some of marketing's greatest masterminds.

June 24: Online Marketing: Convergence in the Cloud

Los Angeles, CA-Discover the infrastructure shift that's building "the cloud" and the reaching implications it's going to have for the way we market online. This presentation is going to be led by social media blogger Robert Scoble, who will discuss what the Cloud means for online marketing and how we, as marketers, can successfully incorporate it into our own marketing campaigns.

July 15-July 17: The 2009 Nonprofit Marketing Conference

Chicago, IL-This year's Nonprofit Marketing Conference centers around the idea of change and how the challenge we face in the current economy and the shifting demographics of donors can work to our advantage, as well as new ways to reach and engage donors and volunteers.

"You will leave NPMC armed with the latest research insights, proven strategies and ready-to-use tools to broaden your reach, deepen your relationships and motivate your donors/volunteers to action even with the reduced resources that are a reality in the current economic environment. "

What's the American Marketing Association Doing Now? (A Guide to Upcoming Events)

Hello everyone! The American Marketing Association has published its schedule of upcoming events on its website, and while I realize everyone could just as easily log on to the site and dig up their calendar I also realize that many of you are going to be too busy to do so. With summer right around the corner your marketing team is probably far too busy to actively search for seminars and conventions that are going to make them even busier! That's why I wanted to include their upcoming events here.

If you and your team have the opportunity to take advantage of any or all of these you'll find that they're a tremendous addition to your marketing repertoire. You'll have the chance to hear from and speak with some of the best marketing professionals in the world, and the advice these marketing gurus have to pass on could prove to be indispensible to the future success of your business.

June 1 & 2, 2009 Social Media Marketing. Located in Chicago, IL, the Social Media Marketing Workshop will allow marketers to work with social media guru Dave Evans, author of "Social media Marketing: An Hour a Day"…coincidentally among the top ranking titles on Amazon. Here you'll learn how to use social media to maximize your business's marketing efforts.

June 3 & 4, 2009. Strategic Brand Development. Travel to Toronto to work with Fortune 500 consultant Robert Kincaide to discover why strategic brand development is a must for all of today's companies, and why the old methods of brand development simply won't do in today's fast paced digital economy.

June 4 & 5. Marketing Boot Camp: Los Angeles. Travel to L.A. for an intense two day seminar that delves into the depths of today's marketing environment with one of AMA's experienced marketing instructors.

I'll try to keep all of you updated weekly on what events the AMA has coming up in the near future. To check out their complete calendar, visit them on the web at MarketingPower.com.

AMA Guidelines for Trimming Your Budget

When it comes to marketing nobody does it better than the members of the AMA (American Marketing Association). Every member is an expert in their field, and in an economy where getting maximum results with minimum damage to your marketing budget is becoming increasingly important it's vital for marketing teams to learn where they can stretch their efforts and where they need to cut back. Click here to see what the American Marketing Association has to say about trimming your budget.

I know, you weren't expecting to be sent to another article. I started to trim this down to make the key points fit in this blog, then realized it was impossible. To omit any of these guidelines would leave marketing managers floundering when they tried to use the advice I passed along, because they wouldn't have all of the information. Which is the key guideline when it comes to cutting your budgets in the first place-have all the information.

Know where you can afford to cut costs and where you're going to be digging yourself an early grave. The problem many companies run into when it comes to their budget cuts is the fact that they don't take the time to gather all the information they need and weigh the consequences appropriately. They're essentially operating blind while severing the support strings of their internal framework, which is going to leave your marketing budget trembling on the edge of failure before you've even really had a chance to begin.

My best advice to marketing teams and private entrepreneurs looking for ways to cut their marketing budgets is to get all the information. Weigh the potential benefits and consequences. Then go for the one that's going to do what's best for your business, not the one that's going to step on the least amount of toes. Toes heal, but the damage poor budget cutting can do to your profits can leave your business floundering for years.