First, defining what customer experience is will help lay the foundation for how associations can apply it to their member services. Customer experience is a culmination of product, service, and the experience before and after a sale that results in how the customer perceives your brand.

The symptom is unusually high click through rates in your email sends. We have seen it occur across multiple email service providers and even marketing automation software - and it often occurs when initially sending from a new platform. It happens because some email services have virus checking software that opens links in an email to ensure they are safe to pass through to a users mailbox. Many times the victims happen to send to entities that include schools and hospitals because these entities often have more strict spam filters enabled. If you fall into one of those categories (and sometimes even if you don’t), this could be something you are experiencing on the reporting side of your email program.

As the new year rolls into week two, you may be reflecting on the goals you have set for yourself and your organization. “Whether you’re about to embark on a massive digital transformation or looking to bring a few departments and work streams closer together, focusing on the right project management tool and leader, can help put you on a path to success in 2018," stated Tim Ebner, senior editor for Associations Now.

As 2017 comes to a close, it is important to reflect on the past year and plan ahead for the future. While you set goals for the upcoming new year, whether they are personal or professional, it is important to stay on top of industry trends!

The experts in this report in Search Engine Journal mention Artificial Intelligence as a raging trend for 2018 (almost in the same breath as Instagram stories - which boast 200 million users daily); the point is bots (and ephemeral stories) are taking over the 2018 digital marketing trends reports. With the evolving A.I. and machine learning capabilities incorporated in platforms from marketing automation to data analysis and finally customer service; associations will gain the greatest edge utilizing personalized messaging and insights generated from smarter and smarter bots. According to Jess Nelson at MediaPost, “Artificial intelligence was the top-ranking technology that marketers planned to expand the most over the next two years, with Salesforce estimating that A.I. will grow 53% faster than any other type of technology.”

With the new year quickly approaching, there's nothing better than a check list to get you prepped and ready to come back from the holidays and make 2018 your best email digital marketing year yet.