Why use marketing automation? CEO Joanna Pineda met up with the President of HighRoad Solution, David Caruso, and discussed how marketing automation works and how associations can use it to better connect with prospective members as well as current members. By enabling organizations to provide users with more personalized, relevant content, marketing automation has been proven to increase open rates, engagement, and ultimately revenue. And who wouldn’t want that?

Here in the D.C. metro area, midsummer means high tourist season — and the middle of convention-planning season. Several of our association clients are ramping up for their annual conventions in August, September, or October, and that planning includes the … Continue reading → The post Creating Savvy Surveys for Better Member Feedback appeared first on snack o'clock.

Matrix Group, a digital agency in the Washington DC area specializing in web design, development, AMS, integration, mobile and e-marketing services, has won two industry awards from the 29th Annual APEX Awards for Publication Excellence.

Can you successfully work remotely while managing a team and several large projects? Absolutely! CEO Joanna Pineda met up with Matrix Group Creative Director, Alex Pineda, on a recent business trip and discussed how companies can make teleworking more effective for their company and their employees. Alex shares a great insight on the challenges and the tools that make it easier.

Matrix Group recently launched a new website for the Food Marketing Institute (FMI), a trade association that proudly advocates on behalf of the food retail industry.

What does digital transformation mean for an association or non-profit? What does this transformation look like? These were two of the questions posed by Teri Carden, Founder of ReviewMyAMS and organizer of AMS Fest 2017, held a couple of weeks ago in Chicago. AMS Fest is a conference devoted to bringing together Association Management Software […] The post What Does Digital Transformation Mean for an Association or Non-Profit? appeared first on The MatriX Files.

Matrix Group has won three awards in the 2017 Communicator Awards competition for recent website projects.

AMS Implementations are only 20% technology; the rest is governance.” Such were the provocative words by Thad Lurie, VP of Operations and CIO at EDUCAUSE, during the opening session at AMS Fest 2017 in Chicago earlier this month. He made the case that with so many terrific and feature-rich AMS and CRM systems available to … Continue reading AMS Implementations are 20% Technology and 80% Governance →

Matrix Group, a leading digital agency in the Washington DC metro area, announces the release of MatrixMaxx 17.2, the latest version of its association management system (AMS).

CFEclipse TODO tasks and custom tasks While developing applications I’m always dumping code to the screen in order to troubleshoot, and CFEclipse TODO makes this more convenient for me. The TODO feature allows you to track items on your “to-do … Continue reading → The post Tracking To Do Items In CF Comment Code using CFEclipse TODO appeared first on snack o'clock.

CEO Joanna Pineda interviews Ben Martin, Founder of Online Community Results and TheNIRD.org. TheNIRD is a blog that tracks M&A actvity and investments in the nonprofit & association technology market since 2016. Ben talks about why he thinks there's been so much activity in the association and nonprofit space, and what associations should do if their favorite AMS or technology vendor gets acquired or merges with another company. Ben has some good recommendations for all associations!

Is your association prey or predator? Moira Edwards from Ellipsis Partners, wants to know. Here's the background: Thad Lurie, VP of Operations and CIO at EDUCAUSE, opened AMSFest 2017 in Chicago with an amazing presentation on Next Generation Data Maturity with regards to associations. Interestingly, Thad compared many associations to prey - they are risk averse, they travel in packs, they are easily spooked. Thad believes associations should be more like the cheetah, a predator that attacks prey, is agile and fast moving. Moira Edwards thinks there should be a better animal representation for associations. If not cheetah, then what? ...

Matrix Group, a digital agency in the Washington DC area specializing in web design, development, AMS, integration, mobile and e-marketing services, has won three awards from this year’s Hermes Creative Awards competition. The Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies. Matrix Group received awards for projects in the following categories: Platinum Award, the highest honor, for the Food Marketing Institute’s Digital Food Shopper Microsite Gold Award for the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors® Website Redesign Gold Award for Equipment Leasing and Finance ...

Washington-Area digital agency, Matrix Group International, and the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), a trade association representing the $130 billion electrical construction industry; has launched a wearable version of the already-popular mobile app, NECA News.

I read a lot of RFPs and I attend a lot of website redesign kickoff meetings. The most important questions I ask are, “Why redesign? Why now?” I usually get answers like: Our website needs to mobile-friendly The website needs a faceted search Our site search sucks The website isn’t user-friendly While these are all […] The post When Redesigning Your Website, Don’t Confuse Goals with Requirements appeared first on The MatriX Files.

During pitch and kickoff meetings, clients and prospects often ask me, “Who should be in charge of my Association Management Software (AMS)?” Should it be the IT department? Membership? Finance? Meetings? GR? In my mind, there’s no question that the Membership Department should ultimately be in charge. Why? Because at its core, any association management software … Continue reading Who Should Be in Charge of Your Association Management Software (AMS)? →

I was in the car a few weeks ago when I heard a story on NPR about Mx, a gender-neutral honorific that is being adopted by many organizations because not everyone wants to identify their gender in the traditionally binary ways (e.g., Mr. or Ms.). In 2015, the New York Times wondered if Mx has … Continue reading Is It Time to Add a Gender-Neutral Honorific to Your Forms and Directories? →

A few years ago, Matrix Group Creative Director Alex Pineda suggested that we ditch PowerPoint and move to Google Slides. The reason? Collaborating on a PPT file is really hard. We used to pass around huge files via email or rely on the network share. Alex came up with a beautiful template and the rest […] The post How Google Docs and Google Slides Changed Biz Dev at Matrix Group appeared first on The MatriX Files.

Google wouldn’t be Google if it wasn’t shaking things up with its products and offerings. The latest shake up? Sunsetting the Google Site Search. As you may have heard, over the course of the next year, Google Site Search will … Continue reading → The post Farewell Google Site Search, Hello Google Custom Search Engine appeared first on snack o'clock.

Matrix Group International Inc. recently launched a new WordPress-powered website integrated with the MatrixMaxx AMS implementation for the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN).

I attend a lot of kickoff meetings. For  redesigns, mobile apps, custom databases, you name it.   The best kickoff meetings are the ones where the CEO, Executive Director, the EVP or President attend, participate actively and provide insight. Why? When the top person in the organization attends a meeting, staff know that meeting is […] The post Why Your CEO Needs to Attend Your Redesign Meeting appeared first on The MatriX Files.

Why is it important for companies to go through the SOC compliance process? CEO Joanna Pineda had a chance to catch up with Jeff Young, Principal at Young LLP, to discuss what SOC reports are, why they're important, and the different types of requirements for SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliance. Jeff shares expert insight on how important it is to know how to approach the SOC process and how to get SOC certified.

Last month, some of the largest AMS (association management software) companies (YourMembership, Abila, Aptify and NimbleAMS) joined forces to create Community Brands, which they describe as “a powerful and unified family of brands and a connected eco-system of software and services to better serve associations, nonprofits and government entities.” One can quibble over whether or not […] The post Why There is Still Room for a Small, Local Player in the AMS Space appeared first on The MatriX Files.

Website design and usage is getting more challenging for a lot of us. In addition to more older Americans accessing the internet via smartphones only, more young people than before are living with diagnosed cognitive disabilities like autism spectrum disorder (ASD), … Continue reading → The post Designing for Users with Autism appeared first on snack o'clock.

It's no secret that SearchBlox is one of our most trusted and preferred search platforms. Why? CEO Joanna Pineda recently spoke with Dave Hoernig, Director of Software Engineering at Matrix Group, who discussed the features and functions that make SearchBlox one of the best search solutions on the market for our clients. Dave also shared a few great on tips and tricks to get the most out of a SearchBlox implementation.

Search drives almost everything online. While lots of us bookmark pages or click on links that take us from one website to another, typing keywords into a search engine and hitting ‘Return’ is how most web users, most of the … Continue reading → The post Site Search Best Practice: Make the Search Box Bigger appeared first on snack o'clock.

As the Marketing Coordinator at Matrix Group, I’ve started to use social media on a daily basis not just to connect with my friends, but to see what is going on in the world and to see what is trending from … Continue reading → The post How to Use Social Media for Your Business appeared first on snack o'clock.

Web writing is a whole different ball game, and it's evolving every day. Matrix Group CEO Joanna Pineda recently spoke with Carrie Hane, Principal of Tanzen Consulting, who shared how writing for digital is different, and how it needs to be all about the users. Carrie shares great insight on how to identify your user's needs and how to more effectively create and manage content to meet those needs.