[Editor's Note: To help cope with this new reality as we navigate our way through uncertainty, we're releasing a few articles over the next several days focused on insights, tips and advice our team has collected on the way in their journey to working remotely.]

If you’re like me, then you may have found yourself at a loss trying to navigate our current health crisis while still conducting “business as usual”. However, I think that we can all agree that there is nothing “usual” about our situation. We’ve been thrown into our new normal without much prep time or warning. The way that I see it is that we have really one option, thrive and adapt. Adopting new daily routines, personally and professionally, will help us reach that light at the end of the tunnel. Remember that we’re in this together. Human connection is still necessary and can still be achieved while working remotely. At HighRoad, we’ve always been 100% virtual, so this is one area that we can help to shed some light with some realistic tricks of the trade

[Editor's Note: In these unprecedented times there's a lot of uncertainty out there - not knowing when places will re-open, conferences will be held, and when teams will be able to meet in person is stressful. While we don't claim to have the answers, and aren't medical experts who can state with authority when things will return to "normal", we know that we are resilient and we will get through it. What we can offer is some advice and tips in working remotely and managing remote teams as it is the very thing HighRoad has done since its inception many years ago. This post starts a series of articles where we hope to share insights, advice, tips and quite frankly, just some empathy as everyone struggles to find their "new normal" over the next several weeks.]

One year ago, I committed to supporting my parents as we navigated both a tragic disease and our nation’s complex healthcare system, while my mother stared death in the face. I struggled while also trying to balance a busy family life (with three boys in three different schools, a husband who traveled often for his job, and a dog) with the responsibility of working full time.

We’ve all been there as consumers. We go to a website, place an item in our shopping cart, and then decide “Eh, maybe not. At least not yet.” We leave the page, we think on it for a few days, and maybe we come back or maybe we don’t. Maybe you’ve been on both sides of that situation, both as a marketer and a consumer.

As a marketer, you’re keen to get those people back, to reel them in, and to encourage them to complete their transaction. In the association world, this concept of “shopping cart abandonment” can become quite a bit more complex. Not only do members and customers place items in their shopping cart to purchase or abandon, they also may start taking an online course but neglect to complete it, or maybe they’ve taken the first step in an certification application but left it without finishing.  Conversion Capture, an Adestra add-on feature, is a solution that enables you to capture these individuals and market to them in a very specific way. 

There are many layers to our goals as email marketers. We want to craft well-written, high-impact messages. We want to send those messages to the right people at the right time. We want those people to actually read and engage with our messages. Thanks to standard reporting on most email systems, we have a pretty good handle on how well we’re doing with these goals. These four main KPIs (total sent, total received, total opens, and total clicks) have long been the standard for measuring the success of our email campaigns. However, these metrics don’t capture the overarching goal behind most email campaigns.

Oh, the dreaded "Unsubscribe" button. If you’re in charge of your association’s email marketing efforts, it’s the one link that you’re praying your members and prospects don’t click. After all, your emails contain valuable information about upcoming programming, industry insights, and ways to become more involved in your association. So, when they do click on that button to opt out, their connection to you can start to fizzle. Since the 3 Cs―content, community, and communication―is the intangible "product" that is membership, this disconnect can negatively impact your retention numbers. 

When associations start planning to adopt a new marketing platform, they focus on the technical issues involved. Will the new platform work? Will it integrate with the other systems? Will we be able to run reports? 

But these technical issues are usually the easiest part of the upgrade process.

There are lots of other issues you’ll face when trying to adopt a new platform. Most of these roadblocks are related to people and processes – not the technology itself. 

None of these problems are insurmountable. You just need to be prepared and plan ahead.