Budgets are tight for our MarComm teams, and they seemingly get tighter every year. This is challenging because the field continuously changes, and our profession requires life-long learning to stay current on the latest tools and strategies.
That tension is why I started creating a post every July at the beginning of a new budget season about some of the free professional development resources available.
Before I dive into this year’s post, I wanted to share the last four years posts with you:
Capitalizing on Memberships
One strategy to maximize our professional development dollars is using more of the free resources included with association memberships. Often, our institutions pay for membership with a variety of organizations. These memberships usually come with perks including webinars, communities, and resource banks. However, I don’t know that our teams always know about all the resources or how to take full advantage of them.
For this year’s post, I want to share some of my favorite free resources from several associations. My hope is this will give you and your teams some ideas to stretch your budget dollars, while still accessing professional development content.
CASE – Council for the Advancement and Support of Education
Membership Model – Membership is available at the institution level, meaning every employee at the institution can access membership.
Free Resources:
Circle of Excellence Awards – Every year, the winners of CASE’s awards competition are released online. It is a phenomenal source for inspiration. Viewbooks, email campaigns, and everything in between. I find myself combing through the winners to get ideas every single year. This year’s winners were released this past week, so now is a great time to check this out.
CASE Learning Center – This is a collection of dozens of live and on-demand webinars. There are webinars available by topic area and by leadership level. Additionally, it’s possible to sort webinars (often called ToGathers) that are available at no cost. I try to check it monthly, as new topics are regularly added.
CASE Library – CASE has a library of samples policies, reports, planning checklists, and other resources. I find myself looking through the library when I’m trying to craft something new. The library is regularly updated with on-trend documents, and if something doesn’t exist, there is a librarian who can help track it down. Most recently, I was researching AI policies, and I used it to assess what others were doing.
UCDA – University College Designers Association
Membership Model – Membership is available at the individual level, with a discount offered for three members.
Free Resources:
Creative Conversations – This is a monthly online conversation for members around a particular topic that is of interest to designers. Some of the recent conversations have been holiday cards, accessibility in design, and campus maps. These sessions allow designers to build community while workshopping relevant challenges in the industry.
UCDA Design Competition – UCDA design award winners are posted online each fall after their annual conference. I thoroughly enjoy looking through the winners and getting ideas for future projects. UCDA always has winners with creative folds, special inks, and beautiful paper, so if you’re looking for an over-the-top idea for something really special, this is your place.
UCDA Slack – UCDA has a members-only Slack space. It’s available for day-to-day community-building, allowing members to share ideas, ask questions and get feedback from others in the design space. Our team has used it to ask for suggestions on how institutions are navigating a challenge or crowdsourcing ideas about how we can provide a particular service.
AMA – American Marketing Association
Membership Model – Membership is available at the individual level, with a discount offered for three members.
Free Resources:
Members-Only Training – AMA offers regular complimentary trainings to members, and these are usually one-hour topics that are available in a live or on-demand format. Some of the topics I’ve attended have been on marketing metrics, AI in marketing, and hyper-personalization in marketing. I find these useful to understand bigger marketing trends in the profession.
Toolkits – One of my favorite resources AMA offers is its collection of toolkits. These are focused on marketing metrics and include things like campaign calculators, campaign pace trackers, and keyword audits. I find these kits help me take a more sophisticated approach to marketing. They are profession-agnostic, so they have to be revised a little for higher education, but I have found them helpful in getting started.
News – The world of marketing is constantly changing, and AMA’s news section is regularly updated with articles and resources about the profession. I like using it to see what trends are coming. Additionally, the news section includes access to several reports with industry trends and benchmarking. Because higher education marketing follows corporate marketing, this is a good way to understand trends before they arrive on campus.
PRSA – Public Relations Society of America
Membership Model – Membership is available at the individual level, with a discount offered for five members.
Free Resources:
Newsletters – PRSA offers several newsletter options (daily or weekly format) about industry news. I get the daily option and enjoy spending a few minutes each morning reading what’s happening in communication. Understanding how others navigate communication challenges helps me better manage communication challenges that I may face.
Discounts – PRSA has a discount program on everything from Home Depot to the AP Stylebook. This is something I didn’t expect to use, but I have ended up using the discount multiple times to help save my institution money on purchasing needed items.
Webinars – PRSA offers live webinars for members almost every week, which means there is always some sort of new programming. After the session, these are available in an on-demand format as well. Some of the topics offered in July include how to improve AI visibility with press releases and communication lessons from the world of sports.
DigiCol – Digital Collegium (formerly HighEdWeb)
Membership Model – Membership is available at the individual level or the institutional level.
Free Resources:
Past Content – Members have access to a library of past annual conference and summit content. The last five years of content is available, meaning members can access hundreds of slide decks and presentations included with membership.
Community Groups – Digital Collegium offers community groups that are for networking around a specific topic. Members of these groups have regular webinars and connect to discuss trends and challenges. Some of the groups available include email marketing, social media, and leadership. You can be as active or as passive in the groups as you like, which I like because I have access when I need help but don’t need to be regularly committed.
Slack – Digital Collegium provides a members-only Slack space that our team has used it to share ideas and ask others questions. During our most recent redesign, this was a great resource for the team as questions popped up during the project. There are topic-specific and general spaces in the channel.
Get Involved
One final thought about associations that I want to share: There are so many opportunities to get involved and volunteer in addition to the resources I’ve provided. While this sometimes has a time or cost impact, I have found that the relationships built through the community provide connections that far outweigh the investment. If you want to make the most of the higher education community, free tools are a great place to start. However, the best way is to jump in and get involved.
If you need help doing that, contact me — I am happy to connect you with those associated with any of these organizations. Higher Education truly is better together!