From simply saying “thank you” to hosting a celebratory awards program, acts of appreciation are fundamental to member retention. Big or small, these displays of gratitude show your members that they are valued and that their continued support will be rewarded.
On the other hand, failing to show gratitude to your members may lead them to feel neglected by or disconnected from your association.
Over the course of this guide, you will learn how to tackle the issue of member retention head-on with a robust member appreciation program. Consider these expert strategies to stimulate member engagement, retention, and satisfaction:
Email, social media, traditional mail, and your membership platform are critical mediums for member communication. They’re not only the main pipelines for general association updates and newsletters, but they can also be used to personalize the membership experience!
Consider sending handwritten thank you letters, digital congratulations for membership anniversaries, and customized email newsletters with event opportunities that members would find personally interesting.
The right association management system should help you to organize and automate these personalized messaging campaigns. This allows you to send out thousands of customized communications without having to spend hours thumbing through members’ records.
Association members are looking for opportunities to further their growth in their chosen field or industry. By nurturing that development, you give them yet another incentive to stick with your organization.
Reward members with access to new e-learning content. This could include downloadable resources or webinars on your website. Alternatively, you could centralize your content on a learning experience platform (LXP). This Web Courseworks article on learning experience platforms sheds some light on ways to effectively leverage your LXP, hyper-personalizing the learning process by allowing your members to curate their own educational journeys.
However you organize your e-learning tools, just be sure to properly promote these resources so members can get the most value out of their membership experience.
There’s no replacement for being able to network with other professionals in your field. Show members that you recognize their professional aspirations and desires by fostering plenty of opportunities for member-to-member networking. For example, you could:
Creating a tight-knit, robust community for your members to explore not only allows them to feel seen and heard—it also gives them access to an invaluable professional network.
Providing critical resources like community networking and e-learning resources are great ways to address your members’ needs. However, if you’re looking for a bolder way to say “thank you” to members, take to social media and your website for a public shoutout. You could:
Of course, remember to reach out to members in advance to secure their consent before posting about them.
Additionally, be sure to practice good data hygiene as you organize these programs, maintaining accurate records of members’ contact information, professional and personal details, and engagement history. With such a public display of appreciation, the last thing you want to do is share outdated or incorrect information about your members.
An awards ceremony is one of the most sophisticated, public strategies for showcasing member appreciation. These elaborate events are a grand celebration of everything your members have accomplished, both for themselves and in the larger context of their professional spheres.
There’s a good deal of leeway when it comes to organizing your own awards program and ceremony. However, keep in mind a few of these best practices for a successful, engaging awards program:
If managed correctly, your awards program will serve as an exciting highlight to your association events calendar, bringing your members together for a night of community and celebration.
From the day a new member first joins your association to their tenth anniversary with your program, you should aim to make them feel recognized, engaged, and appreciated by your organization. Of course, this is no easy task, and there is a limit to the level of engagement that can be accomplished for each member.
However, with these mindful appreciation strategies and the right association software solutions, you should be able to streamline the tough task of member retention.