Digital Marketing

How to Increase Association Members’ Value with a Strong Content Strategy

March 19, 2021 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Content strategy is vital for your trade association, not only to bring in new members, but also to provide your current members with value for their membership. Just like other aspects of your organization, having a detailed and planned content strategy allows you to develop and put out content in a way that will draw the attention of your audience; attract new members; and provide your current members with valuable resources and information. Creating and releasing content without a strategy makes it difficult to track success; and also makes it difficult for your members to follow your content schedule, or lack thereof.

Below we will discuss ways to put together a content strategy that will allow you to test methods and see results. This will help you plan, create, and track your content marketing efforts and make tweaks where needed to reach your goals.

Planning and Goal Setting

First things first, you have to work with your team to pinpoint the ultimate goals you are trying to reach with your trade association’s content marketing efforts. Whether you are trying to bring in new members, raise awareness, provide value, promote an event, or a mixture of things; having them laid out allows you to plan your content efforts with these goals in mind. This lends purpose to your content creation and distribution strategy, instead of just posting content to get it out there.

Part of this process is identifying your audience. Consider the age range, background, profession, industry, and any other contributing factors that may affect the type of content you produce. These attributes may also influence the channels you choose to use to distribute your content. Researching information such as this Pew Research Center study on social media use and demographics, can help you decide the appropriate channels to reach your specific audience.

Content Types and the Popularity of Video

When it comes to the types of content you create and distribute, you may need to experiment to
find out what works for your audience. While blogs and e-newsletters are good staples of content marketing for everyone to have, other content forms such as infographics, videos, photos, live-streams, webinars and more can help diversify and give your content strategy what it needs to cut through the noise. With so much content competing for your audience’s attention, the more you can stand out and draw members’ attention to you, the better. You may have to test multiple content types to gauge what gets the best results.

One of the most popular content forms now is video. According to Small Business Trends, 93% of marketers say video has brought new customers. With current video recording technology, it is possible to make professional looking videos straight from your cellphone. There are a number of different ways you can take advantage of video such as vlogs, behind-the-scenes, interviews, Q&A sessions, how-to videos, and many more. No matter the content path you choose to take, video is a good choice to have on your list.

Content Schedules, Calendars, and Consistency

As you create content, it is important to create a schedule for releases and posts. A good tip is to create and implement a content calendar that keeps track of what content is being posted, on what channel, and on what day. This helps you further strategize by allowing you to plan in advance what content you’d like to share. For example, if you have an upcoming virtual event, you will want to plan content regarding that event strategically leading up to it in order to recruit attendees.

Content buckets are a helpful strategy for organizing your content. Content buckets (remove link) refer to sharing certain subject matter on specific days of the week and can also be planned and tracked through your content calendar. For example, you can decide to always share association news on Monday’s, employee stories on Tuesday’s, industry how-to videos on Wednesday’s and so on. This way your audience will know when to look for the content that is most important to them. Your content buckets can also be tested and changed depending on performance. Always try to have a reason behind your strategic decisions to get the most ROI for your content efforts.

Consistency is key to a successful content strategy. As a trade association, you want your members to get as much value for their membership as possible. You also want potential new members to see that you are the leading authority for your association’s industry. In order for this to be possible, you have to consistently provide new and quality content on a regular basis. If you have an active blog that you post to once a week, try to find what day and time gets the highest traffic, and consistently post your new blog every week on that day and at that time. Again, this allows your members and the rest of your audience to know when to check back for new content.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All

When it comes to content strategy for your trade association, there is not a one size fits all strategy that works for everyone. If you need help creating and implementing a content strategy that works for your association and would like to learn about our content marketing services, contact us here.

How to Write a Successful Call to Action for Your Association

October 29, 2020 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

When it comes to getting members to engage with your content, whether your blog, e-mail newsletter, event sign-up, or donations, your call to action (CTA) goes a long way. According to Associations Now, getting members to engage starts with compelling them to act. It also helps with member recruitment when trying to get people to become members with your association. The call to action is a powerful tool for you to utilize and there are several tips that can help you build ones that are effective and successful in your mission.

What is a Call to Action?

Your call to action is your chance to persuade your current and potential members to do what you want them to do. Think of it as your “Buy Now” statement. You will include this on everything from blogs, to social media posts, to newsletters. As an association, you should also include CTAs on your website copy to recruit new members or get renewals. A well-crafted call to action will have majority of the people who view your content engaging with and completing the tasks you want them to.

Short and Simple, Yet Informative

A good call to action is short, simple, and to the point. You want to make sure that you give enough information to inform the reader and guide them towards the desired action. You want to make sure the benefits are clear, for example:

“Sign up for our newsletter to receive all the latest association news, useful resources, and event invitations.”

Be sure to include easy to follow instructions to complete the action such as a link, a phone number, email address or a form to fill out. This will make it quick and easy for people to complete the action and increase the likelihood they will go through the necessary steps required.

Use Action Verbs

Wording is everything when it comes to the success rate of your call to action. Action verbs go a long way towards leading people to converting. Phrases such as “Sign up,” “Visit us at,” and “Learn more” can prompt people to take the actions you would like them to. Also, using words that show enthusiasm or spark emotion in your members and potential members will help drive action. You should always be willing to be creative with wording and try different methods to find CTA’s that work for your association. The only way to truly know what works is to test your ideas and see which ones are the most successful.

Frequency is Key

Make sure you are consistent with your CTA. This means including it on anything that your members and potential members will be viewing. Social media posts, newsletters, blog posts, and web copy are a few ideal places to include your CTA. The more your message is put in front of your audience, the better the chances are that your members will take action. Feel free to try different tactics and approaches to find what works best for your goals. Keep track of your results with each campaign so you can decide what is successful and what might not be. Every piece you put out should have a form of a CTA present.

Having successful calls to action for your association involves knowing your members and potential members and being able to craft a message that will drive them to act. Whether it’s signing up for the association’s email newsletter, registering to attend the annual conference, or becoming a new member; each call to action should be creative, specific, and intentional. The more you can provoke emotion or enthusiasm, the more likely your audience will be to take the desired action. Every campaign is unique, so try different tactics to find the ones that works best for your association and start getting results, now.

For more help with your association’s needs sign up for our newsletter, follow us on social media, or contact us here.

The 2 Most Popular Article Types for Association Content Marketers

May 30, 2019 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

In a digital age, content marketing is one of the best marketing strategies that can be used by associations’ large and small. There is a wide variety of options in the world of content marketing and choosing the best types of content for your association can be challenging. Of course, you do not have to use just one type of content, in fact using a variety of different content formats is good for keeping your membership and stakeholder audiences interested. These different types of content can be tailored to fit your association and reach your target audiences. This guide will identify two of the most popular forms of content out there right now and explain what each of these can accomplish for your association.

Listicle Articles

We have all read listicle articles in magazines or on social media, even if we didn’t know that is what they were called. In fact, the article you are reading right now is a listicle. Listicles are highly popular due to their ability to be very informative while being easy-to-read and aesthetically pleasing. Arranging information in a list format and including numbers in the title and body of the article has been proven to be psychologically attractive and draws in readers. People like having their information in list form; and with a catchy title, this form of content can greatly increase page views, shares and likes. Listicles will usually have a numerically based title, for example: “Top 10,” “6 Ways to,” “5 best,” etc. These numbers can either be a ranking system or simply organize information into the list. Unlike How-To articles (which we will discuss next) listicles do not necessarily have to show someone how to do something or teach a skill; it can simply be used for informing readers or for entertainment purposes. The items in a listicle will usually be related to an overall theme such as “10 Things to Consider When Writing Captivating Content for Members”. This theme will be something related to your association that will attract your membership and stakeholders. Listicles are immensely popular and can be tailored to any policy or content bucket.

How-To Articles

How-to articles are another extremely popular form of content. The how-to article is written in a sequence of steps and shows the reader how to perform a skill or complete a task. In the past it was enough to use a title like “How to do…” but now, with social media and endless online articles for your members and stakeholders to choose from, you have to be creative with your titles and content in order to catch the attention of readers. How-to articles are much more specific than listicles, usually explaining a specific task or skill. Often, listicles and how-to articles can cross paths with steps and guides written in a numbered list format like “10 Easy Steps to Building a Remarkably Popular Website.” This translates roughly to “How to Build a Website” but uses much more exciting and interesting language. Like listicle articles, how-to articles increase traffic, shares, and likes and can benefit your SEO and keyword placement. Writing how-to articles that take a unique approach to a topic and take a new angle on what might be a well-known subject to your members is the key to leveraging this content format.

In the End, Quality Content Works

Ultimately, the most important thing about creating content is making sure that it is of high quality. You can pump out countless content pieces, fast and furious; and have them all fall flat because there is no value to them. Quality over quantity is the golden rule when it comes to creating new content for your marketing campaigns. Well-crafted content will boost the visibility of your website and ultimately increase your audience numbers. Interesting and readable content will go far in engaging your membership and keep them coming back for more. Strong content is also more likely to be shared on social media, thus acting as free advertising and driving traffic to your website and generating membership leads for your association. While the two content types discussed in this article are the most popular and effective, they certainly are in no way the only types you can use to be effective. In the end, if you create quality content, your membership and stakeholder audiences will rely on you time and again as a trusted and valuable resource.

For more information or help with your association’s content marketing visit us at www.arc3communications.com or contact Patrick Burns at pburns@arc3communications.com. We look forward to working with you to achieve your goals and develop successful content marketing strategies to help your association grow.

Welcome New Account Executive Paul McNally!

November 28, 2018 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Arc 3 Communications welcomes Paul McNally as Account Executive. McNally is a recent graduate of Kennesaw State University with a bachelor’s degree in Communication & Media Studies. With a strong passion and skill for writing, research, content creation, marketing and media, he is the perfect addition to Arc 3 Communications.

During his career, McNally has worked on many impressive projects. His proudest work was teaming up with the non-profit Sober Living America in creating a media kit and campus event at Kennesaw State University which raised awareness of addiction among young adults and students. He wrote multiple articles that were published in the 2018 edition of KSU’s communication magazine, Pipeline including alumni stories; coverage of the dedication ceremony of the new radio lab named for the late Rhubarb Jones, a beloved Atlanta country music radio host; and a story on a new study abroad program in Milan, Italy. Prior to attending Kennesaw State University, Paul attended the Art Institute of Atlanta where he studied graphic design and animation. While a senior at KSU, he interned for an entire year at Arc 3 Communications with company president Patrick L. Burns.

In his free time, he likes to read, write, draw, and spend time with his wife, Cobb County school teacher Trish McNally and their lovely black Labrador, Malcolm. Together the couple loves traveling, hiking, and enjoying nature. They just recently returned from traveling abroad with the Workaway program, a service program that allows people to work a variety of jobs in return for food and board, in which they volunteered all around Europe. During their three-and-a-half-month trip they worked on farms in Sweden, art festivals and foster animal care in Wales, a tango event in Germany, gardening in London, as well as visiting Amsterdam and Denmark.

“I am really excited to work with Arc 3 Communications to bring clients quality content and account service,” McNally said, “It is an innovative company doing amazing work with the top associations and companies from across the country right in the heart of downtown Marietta.”

Overview Video Development Case Study: Telesis

March 8, 2018 By Patrick L. Burns 19 Comments

Telesis is the global leader in product ID technology. They sell permanent marking equipment including laser marking, dot peen marking, and software that works with the equipment to produce permanent marking on product. Everything from automotive parts to important medical devices, to plastic bottles; they supply industries with the appropriate marking equipment.

The leaders at Telesis were looking to have an overview video made that would highlight their company and products while showing that they were the leaders in their industry. They wanted the video to automatically play on their homepage when someone came to the site and act as a montage of the capabilities of their equipment. Arc 3 Communications worked with Telesis to form a plan and to learn of Telesis’ goals and objectives that they had for the overview video.

Arc 3 Communications worked to create shot lists, storyboards, and prepare a shooting schedule. Filming was carried out at Telesis Technologies Inc. Corporate Headquarters in Pickaway County, Ohio where they were able to showcase the various machines and equipment allowing for successful footage to be taken of the marking process. They also conducted interviews with the company’s executives in the areas of global sales, operations and engineering.

With this new overview video, Telesis was able to present their brand to their customers and potential customers in a way that helped them better understand Telesis and the complex and comprehensive services they offer. The video has since gained thousands of views on the company’s social media channels and has led to increased traffic to the company’s website and increased new business leads for the company. Video is quickly becoming the most effective way to reach audiences, and many companies and trade associations are jumping on board with creating video to help their brands.

Need help with your content strategies, messaging and content development for your company or association? Contact us at https://arc3communications.com/contact-us/.

Happy Anniversary Arc 3 Communications!

October 30, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Arc 3 Communications Celebrates Its Sixth Year in Business!

Happy Anniversary Arc 3 Communications! As we celebrate the 6th year of our agency, I wanted to stop and reflect on those things that I’m grateful for as its founder. My entrepreneurial journey has been an amazing ride of ups and downs, but I have so many things to be grateful for. Here are some of those things that I’m most thankful for:

1. I am grateful for our clients in the public affairs space that have entrusted us over the years to help with their content, digital and analytics needs. We have worked with clients ranging from government agencies to trade associations to political campaigns at the local, state and national levels. We have developed new websites, social media campaigns and all types of amazing content to help them accomplish their legislative, policy, electoral and civic engagement goals.

2. I am grateful for the talented team of designers, developers, social media, technical and public affairs experts at Arc 3. I am also thankful for our interns that breathe life into our agency with their new ideas and energy. Our current interns from Kennesaw State University, Paul McNally and Kirbe Bostick are doing an awesome job for us.

3. I am grateful to our trusted partners in helping us to carry out our mission. These knowledgeable experts in accounting, law, finance, human resources and technology are invaluable.

4. I am grateful to the great team at Ignite HQ who provide us with an affordable and innovative office space to work in that is filled with other startups. The shared learning from other entrepreneurs has been immeasurable. I’m especially grateful that its located off of historic Marietta Square and close to home.

5. I am grateful to the many innovators in digital, social media and technology that have transformed media and marketing to a world driven by content and sharing. This includes not only the creators of well-known platforms such as WordPress, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn; but the countless other innovators who developed lesser known platforms that have helped to create a competitive marketplace that produces amazing channels for communication and sharing. Most noteworthy of late are those who have made website hosting extraordinarily better such as Flywheel.

6. I am grateful to our agency competitors, who by their efforts in the marketplace, push us to do better and strive to be our best.

7. I am grateful for the digital, social media, creative and tech start-up community of Atlanta in which we are constantly learning new tools and tactics through shared knowledge and learning. I am most grateful to the WordPress community.

8. As Founder of an agency focused on the civic space, I am grateful for the many long-standing institutions in government, politics and civic life and the people and ideas that sustain them. While its been under siege by a time of technological transformation, the great civic life of our country depends upon engaged citizens, media, candidates, elected officials, association executives and government public servants at all levels.

9. I am grateful for mentors, friends and colleagues throughout my career in government, politics, academia and the agency world who have offered sound advice and encouragement. Many have also referred business our way and I’m thankful.

10. I am most grateful to my family for their constant love, patience, prayers and support throughout my entrepreneurial journey. My wife Mary and our four children have shared this experience with me every step of the way. Mary has been a sounding board, critic, and cheerleader. Her kindness, patience and love has been the rock upon which my successful agency has been built.

Most of all, I am grateful to God for these last six years and the opportunity to embark on my entrepreneurial journey. Without his love and my faith in him, nothing is possible.

Website Development Case Study: Georgia Secretary of State

October 6, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Project Goals

For several years, the Georgia Secretary of State conducted the Peanut Poll, a straw poll held every year at the Georgia National Fair in Perry. Each year, the straw poll focused on participant’s choices for federal elected office such as President and U.S. Senate. One of the most successful straw polls in the country, the poll was a part of the Georgia Secretary of State’s mission to raise awareness about elections and encourage voter registration.

However, in 2017 with no major election pending, the Secretary of State’s office sought to re-brand the Peanut Poll to be a contest to have Georgians pick the best high school football team in the state. In addition to a re-branding to reflect the change in direction of the poll, the Secretary of State sought to develop a new website and online polling system that would allow Georgians to vote for one of the 460 high school football teams online and on tablets at the Georgia Grown booth at the fair. After voting, participants would be directed to the Secretary of State’s online voter registration page to check their registration status and register to vote if they had not already. The new “Gridiron Showdown” Peanut Poll sought to engage high school students who were now eligible to register to vote, but had not yet done so.

Our Solution

With the Georgia National Fair coming up quickly, the Arc 3 Communications team worked expeditiously with the Secretary of State’s Outreach Staff to create a new and unique brand for the Gridiron Showdown Peanut Poll. A new mobile first website was developed that incorporated a polling system that allowed for visitors to quickly vote for one of Georgia’s 460 high school football teams. Upon voting, Georgians were directed to the Secretary of State’s online voter registration page. At the Georgia National Fair’s Georgia Grown Booth visitors were presented with i-pads upon which they could visit the website and vote for their favorite team while voters from across the state also submitted their ballots on the website. The website polling system calculated and displayed the results in real-time as they happened. Each day at 5 p.m, a special guest would announce the results at the Georgia Grown Booth at the Fair. Voting results announced on the website were easily able to be shared on social networks.

Results

The new Peanut Poll brand incorporating a football referee raised awareness about the new nature of the poll and athletic directors from across the Georgia High School Association were excited about the poll and encouraged students, athletes and parents to participate. The Georgia National Fair also publicized the straw poll and the opportunity to vote at the Georgia Grown booth.

By the time of kickoff and voting began, media outlets around the state had already started talking about the Gridiron Showdown Peanut Poll and social media was buzzing. After ten days, over hundreds of thousands of votes had been cast making the Peanut Poll one of the most successful straw polls and voter registration efforts in the country. The Peanut Poll was embraced not only by high school communities in and around the Georgia National Fair in middle Georgia, but by 460 school communities from across the entire state. Participants from all walks of life participated in the Peanut Poll, including some celebrity voters such as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue who visited the Georgia Grown Booth and cast his vote for his favorite team. Special guests who announced the daily results included Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black who also cast the first vote at the fair online.

In the end, the new Peanut Poll was a success in its ultimate goal of encouraging folks to register to vote. The Georgia Secretary of State’s online voter registration page saw not only a surge in visitors, but also an increase in voter registrations. Because of the 2017 Gridiron Showdown Peanut Poll, new voters will cast their ballots in the 2018 Elections for the first time. These new voters will cast their ballots for something more important than their favorite football team; they will have the opportunity to vote for who will serve them in public office at the local, state and federal levels.

Useful Parenting Tips on How to Help Your Kids with Social Media

August 19, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Social media has created a brave new virtual world over the last decade with platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Snapchat creating communities with hundreds of millions and in some cases, billions of users. Facebook with well over 2 billion users is larger than the world’s most populous countries. These virtual communities created by the social networks have become a powerful way to stay connected with friends, family and thought leaders around the world. According to the Pew Research Center for Information and Technology over 69% of adults use social media networks with the majority of usage occurring on smart phones. As children seek to emulate their parents and acquire smart phones and join social media networks, what can parents do to make sure children are safe, secure and using social media responsibly? As parenting shouldn’t stop as children enter digital communities, here are a few tips and parameters for parents when confronting the issue of social media usage with their kids.

1. Decide a good age for your kids to begin

As a parent you decide when it is appropriate and best for your child to have a smart phone and its no different with social media. Only you know when your child is capable of handling and managing social media accounts. Do not succumb to the pressure of your child’s peer group. Its your decision. Do some research on the platforms and see what may be best for your child. Many platforms have age requirements before you can open an account. For example Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat have an age requirement of 13 to set up an account. It is strongly advised to follow the age requirements for each platform.

2. Talk to your kids about the positives and negatives of social media

Social media has many amazing and wonderful uses for people of all ages, but it also comes with risks and negatives. Make sure to research and learn the negatives and then explain them to your kids in a way they can understand and know what they are getting into. For example, according to the Pew Research Center for Information and Technology, social media is the most common venue for online harassment, with over 41% of adults being harassed online. Over half of young women in the U.S. according to Pew have received explicit images that they did not ask for. In addition there have been multiple studies that have shown that social media use can result in heightened levels of anxiety, jealousy and anti-social behavior among frequent users.

3. Learn and teach your kids about online privacy

One of the biggest risks about all online use, especially social media, is privacy. From reputation to personal information there are many aspects that need to be discussed with your children to protect them. Children should be advised not to interact with people that they do not know online and be aware that there are adults who pose as children online through the use of fake account profiles. They also should never meet in public alone someone that they first met online via social media. Also use social media platform privacy settings and your browser settings to help control and protect your child’s online activity. Also it is highly recommended that you use parental control software to monitor you child’s online usage on all relative devices in your family household such as desktop, mobile and tablet.

4. Monitor and regulate usage

It is important to make sure your child isn’t spending too much time or engaging in inappropriate activity on social media. Limiting usage to a home computer that is central in the home so usage can be observed is a good idea. Also limiting time spent browsing social media is an important measure, as over usage can quickly become addictive. Setting time parameters with you children is critical. With online monitoring software, you can see what content your child is viewing and set as off-limits certain types of sites. You can also monitor how much time they are spending online. Many internet providers, are now allowing you to have the easy capability of turning off the internet for certain users in your home as well as placing time limits for usage.

5. Keep up with the latest trends in social media

As a parent it is always important to stay up to date with the latest trends in social media and learn about the new platforms that are experiencing fast adoption rates among children and teens. It is important to “know what the kids are dancing to these days” online. That means keeping up with changes and updates to the social media platforms that you know your kids are using, and learn about ones that they may soon ask to sign up for. Make sure you know all the ins and outs of these platforms and how they are being used by young people. If your kids are on a platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat – you should be too. Know how to use the many technologies that they have access to.

These are some basic tips to help parents with the seemingly overwhelming world of social media. If regulated, monitored, and used properly social media can be a great and fun tool for the whole family. Who doesn’t enjoy sharing funny, moving, timely or informative content with family members – such as breaking news events announced on Facebook or Twitter or a funny video from YouTube? So when it comes to social media, just make sure you and your children are on the same page. Your love, guidance and support for your kids doesn’t stop at the shore once they enter the digital ocean of social media.

Interested in learning more about this topic? Contact us here for information on our social media parenting seminars for schools, PTAs, churches and neighborhood groups.

WordPress Maintenance Is Important for A Secure Campaign Website

July 22, 2017 By Patrick L. Burns Leave a Comment

Reliable WordPress Maintenance Keeps Your Site Safe

Since even before the movie War Games in 1983 with Matthew Broderick, cyber security has long been a concern for governments, corporations and small businesses. However, in the last election cycle of 2016, the issue of cyber security and political campaigns came to the forefront. With hacking of the Democratic National Committee in the 2016 election, the hacking of the Marcon campaign and release of emails days before the French Presidential Election, and the breach of millions of voters’ data by a contractor for the National GOP, cyber security has become a critical, timely and urgent issue for campaigns, parties and candidates at all levels. While education and training for staff regarding two-step authentication of third-party systems and avoiding phishing attacks are all important for a campaign’s cyber security, a WordPress Maintenance program is a vitally important way to keep local campaigns and county political parties from being hacked and is often overlooked usually to the peril of those organizations involved.

The majority of local campaign and party websites are built on the WordPress platform. In fact, over 28% of the world’s websites are built on WordPress. This includes big brands like Disney, Sony, and The New York Times just to name a few. There’s a reason for this – WordPress is simply the best content management system out there. Its ease of use, functionality and affordability make it of one of the best CMS systems for the fast paced world of campaigns and elections. There are so many themes and plugins for WordPress that enable folks to create awesome websites with little or no hard coding involved. The open source community of WordPress, which includes the developers of the many themes and plugins for WordPress websites, is a treasure trove of resourceful information and can serve as a guide for web designers through any questions and problems that they may encounter in creating a WordPress website.

However, new versions of WordPress and the plugins and themes integrated with the platform are constantly being issued. For busy political operatives, state legislators, and county party officers, finding the time to do routine WordPress website maintenance is not easy. In a preliminary analysis of local campaign and county party sites across the country, it was found that many have outdated WordPress versions and are vulnerable.

Outdated versions of WordPress core, themes, and plugins can result in potential hacking. According to quarterly reports from the security company, Sucuri, three out of four websites hacked in 2016 ran the WordPress platform with 25% of these sites having the plugins TimThumb, GravityForms, and RevSlider. According to Sucuri, a majority of these hacked sites were running outdated versions of WordPress and the popular plugins. The majority of Word Press core, theme and plugin updates have to do with patching security vulnerabilities. WordPress and theme and plugin developers are always striving to make their products better and improve their features with new versions, but security is a paramount issue and dominates new releases.

Political hacking is on the upswing and WordPress sites are the most vulnerable when not updated. A WordPress maintenance program that provides updates to your site on a routine basis is affordable and the best way to avoid hacking. A WordPress maintenance program is proactive, smart and provides peace of mind.

A safe, secure, and fast performing campaign website is vital to being able to raise awareness about your campaign’s message to voters, donors, and potential volunteers and grassroots supporters. It is crucial in achieving your subscriber, volunteer, fundraising and electoral goals. In today’s new paradigm of electoral hacking, a WordPress maintenance program is an easy way to keep your site intact, free from danger and a quick read for viewers.

What should a WordPress maintenance program entail? A couple of key things should be provided by your vendor. First and foremost your agency should be accessible by phone and email and provide customer service that answers technical questions, provides prompt bug fixes and enhancements, and is willing to communicate with your website’s hosting provider when there is an issue. The agency should also do daily backups of your website files and database that are independent of the back ups that are done by your hosting provider. WordPress core and your site’s plugins and themes should be regularly updated to the latest version. Real time up-time monitoring and security scanning should also be provided along with regular site speed and performance testing. Your vendor should also do regular site optimization through the cleaning of your database and any post revisions. Finally, a monthly analytics and performance report that includes minor design and content update recommendations to help you achieve your subscriber, volunteer, fundraising and electoral goals should be provided.

Interesting in learning about our WordPress website maintenance program for campaign websites? We have experts who have been tested in the crucible of political campaigns, public service, technology and digital. Our passion and experience in WordPress website development and maintenance makes us the right choice for any political campaign. Contact us here or via Facebook Messenger now.

The 2 Most Popular Article Types for Association Content Marketers

Overview Video Development Case Study: Telesis

Website Development Case Study: Georgia Secretary of State

WordPress Maintenance Is Important for A Secure Campaign Website

Reliable WordPress Maintenance Keeps Your Site Safe

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Arc 3 Communications Celebrates Its Sixth Year in Business!

Reliable WordPress Maintenance Keeps Your Site Safe

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