Looking for new ideas to show your members you appreciate them? Get inspired by these latest stats and quotes.
By: Ashly Stewart, Content Marketing Manager
It’s officially November, and after another interesting year, it feels great to be entering a season of thanks and gratitude!
The interesting thing about this time of the year is that, while it’s a time where people tend to be a little more reflective, a little more kind, and a little more grateful — it’s also a time of planning, budgeting, and fundraising for associations and nonprofits with the holidays, annual events, and Giving Tuesday on the horizon.
To help strike a healthy balance of practicing gratitude while also continuing to help you plan for the rest of the year, we’re doing a special blog series throughout the month of November.
We’ll be posting about the latest trends and stats, best practices, and new ideas for showing your members some love. We hope you’ll join us as we post every week about how your association can properly thank and grow your membership!
This week, we rounded up some of the latest member appreciation stats and quotes that has the internet buzzing.
1. Appreciation makes the majority of Americans “extremely happy”.
Over 90% of American teens and adults indicated that expressing gratitude made them “extremely happy” or “somewhat happy”.
2. When it comes to appreciation, associations can look to the consumer world for inspiration.
91% of respondents said they are also more likely to do business with companies that appreciate their customers.
3. While organizations are getting better at showing appreciation to customers and members, there’s still room for improvement.
62% said that most businesses they’ve dealt with have done a good job of showing customer appreciation.
4. Younger generations value appreciation more than other demographics.
We all want to be recognized and appreciated for our hard work. But millennials, in particular, crave recognition more than any other demographic.
5. You can’t beat an ol’ fashion phone call for the ultimate “thank you” gesture…
“Personal calls are the best. For us, each institution has a different stakeholder so one-on-one communications makes the biggest difference.” – Trade Association Professional
6. …but many associations have seen a lot of success in sending member appreciation and renewal emails.
78% of associations indicate that email marketing is the most effective marketing channel for member appreciation and renewals.
7. Showing appreciation can result in a better work environment and more donations!
A study conducted by the Harvard Medical School described the positive results of an experiment showing the power of appreciation:
“Researchers randomly divided university fund-raisers into two groups. One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations in the same way they always had. The second group—assigned to work on a different day—received a pep talk from the director of annual giving, who told the fund-raisers she was grateful for their efforts. During the following week, the university employees who heard her message of gratitude made 50% more fund-raising calls than those who did not.”
Stay tuned for more member appreciation ideas and strategies all November
Come back to the blog next week where we’re breaking down some of the best practices and new ideas for saying “thank you” to your members.
And in the meantime, here’s an interactive guide to help you think about different ways to show appreciation to different types of members.
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