Since 2020, 35% of people in the world have read more books, and the number of streaming service subscriptions from companies like Netflix and Hulu passed 1 billion worldwide for the first time.

What does this tell us? That, more than ever, people love reading and/or watching a great story. And, sure, it also reminds us that we were all trapped inside waiting out a pandemic. Still, I think it’s telling that in times of crisis, when comfort and certainty were in short supply, we turned to stories. 

Consumer brands long ago discovered that the desire to read a good story and connect with characters drew customers to certain initiatives and even contributed to selling more products. But does this success in the consumer world translate to nonprofit storytelling?

The challenge of nonprofit storytelling

This question has been asked by many in the nonprofit sector, and for a while, it seems like there was some skepticism. I think that it’s because, if done poorly, using storytelling to further a brand, a product or a mission can feel inauthentic. And association and nonprofit members seem to sniff out the fake and phony more than other types of audiences. 

But over the past five years or so, nonprofits have realized that they actually have some of the best stories to tell! We’ve seen a growing interest in nonprofit storytelling, and we’ve seen really helpful blogs like the one from our Wild Apricot colleagues that help associations and nonprofits know where to start telling great stories about their people and their mission. 

3 Tips for Creating Memorable Nonprofit Stories 

1. Let people tell their own stories

User-generated content provides huge benefits. It’s inspiring, it’s credible and it shows that the organization values supporters and members. User-generated content also eases the burden of creating original content from the organization itself, while at the same opening up ample opportunities for increased engagement and participation. Ensure the content you get is what you’re looking for by soliciting content around a key theme, in support of answering a specific question or to support a unique campaign.

2. Tell your story in different formats based on your audience

These days, people like to consume their stories in a variety of ways. Some audiences prefer to read a story, others like a visual guide like an infographic and increasingly more people like to watch stories via a video. Some even like a combination of mediums to enjoy the same story. I’m, personally, guilty of listening to a true crime story on a podcast, then spending the next week reading every article and watching every video that I can about it. 

The point is that the digital world has not made storytelling obsolete. Instead, it has made storytelling come to life and more accessible through visual tools. 

And even though the idea of visual storytelling can be intimidating due to a nonprofit’s lack of resources, consider these facts as you start to plan for which tools to invest in for the future:

• Cisco projects that global internet traffic from videos will make up 82% of all consumer internet traffic by 2022. (Cisco)
• 70% of YouTube viewers watch videos for “help with a problem” they’re having in their hobby, studies, or job. (Think With Google)
• Globally, YouTube is consumers’ leading source of video content, at 83% (Facebook is second, at 67%). (HubSpot)

Visual storytelling has proven to be a highly-effective storytelling tool. Visuals allow you to quickly get messages across in high-impact ways that viewers can digest quickly. When people see your story, when they hear videos you’ve put together it creates the opportunity for a more memorable experience. Thoughtful and strategic introduction of multimedia will capture your viewers’ attention and spark meaningful engagement.

3. End with a call to action

Many of us learned early on that stories have a beginning, middle and end. For nonprofits, there’s an opportunity to share an overview of the problem and how the organization’s mission works to solve the problem. That’s the end, right?

It shouldn’t be. The stories that nonprofits and their supporters tell invest heavily in building an emotional connection but sometimes miss the opportunity to capitalize on it with a powerful call to action. Ensure each story your organization tells ends with a call to action—an opportunity for someone interested to become more involved. Join us, share your story, learn how to get involved all provide great ways for people to harness the positive energy from your story and turn warm feelings into next steps.

What does nonprofit storytelling look like to you?

Every association and nonprofit has a story to tell. But what that story is and the best ways to tell are up to you. If you’re stuck wondering where to start, we recommend doing things like interviewing members and volunteers and understanding the characters of your story doing persona work. 

For nonprofits, storytelling is changing the way members and partners find, engage and build relationships — and for the better. Both member- and donor-focused organizations have a clear advantage as their missions naturally create outcomes that are worthy of a great narrative.

The post 3 Tips for Getting Started with Nonprofit Storytelling appeared first on Personify.

As I have started my virtual meet-ups, webinars and as the host of the Planet Leadership Podcast I have asked, “If you could go back to the second week of March before the COVID-19 lock-down, what would you do differently?”   

While I would have expected most event professionals to say things like “purchased the pandemic insurance cancellation rider” or “update their playbook to include such a catastrophic event” (or at least “buy more toilet paper,”) the first answer has been around cherishing those face-to-face interactions with colleagues, friends and family a little more. Having watched my daughter hug her grandmother (with masks, of course) and cry, having not seen her in person in months, it hit home even more.  

It only makes sense. We are driven professionally by those same motivators of face-to-face interactions that we naturally crave.  

Take Action

While we are all working to figure out the future of events in the online, in-person and hybrid worlds, I want to challenge us all to take the time to reimagine our events. We cannot continue to lick our wounds and hope for a better outcome. Hope is not a strategy since we will most likely be co-existing with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future. 

Let’s DO some of the things we have all talked about (myself included as an event organizer) forever. Year-long engagement is something every organizer has wanted to maximize for their events. Ironically, our in-person success has hindered moving this from the wish list to the to-do list.  

What is a Community?

It is essential to broaden our definition of a community to incorporate all channels – events, social networks and online communities. Much like events, communities can be social places to learn, network, conduct business and share information or education. They create a place that allows constituents to interact with two trusted sources – an organization, association, or event they have an existing relationship with and their peers.  

That trust creates a safe place for participation. And fortunately for organizers, audiences (of all types and ages) are already conditioned and accustomed to using digital tools to feel more connected and engaged. According to Statista, Facebook (a type of community) has 22% of female and 15% of male users that are over the age of 45.  

Why Now?

People want or need to solve problems. Now more than ever, it is why they seek out events, networks or online communities. For event professionals, in-person experiences were the primary moment to fulfill this need. For decades, events have successfully connected audiences with content (education), and commerce (buyers and suppliers) and their peers with little interruption or decline.   

Every activity has been driven around engagement in such a limited amount of time, typically 72 hours. The dramatic and sudden inability to meet in-person because of COVID-19 has highlighted the risks associated with placing the full weight of a successful engagement strategy on a singular activity – meeting in-person and the potential rewards of having a highly engaged community around your events.  

Delivering Value

Having conducted hundreds of focus groups with attendees and exhibitors, the biggest requests of these audiences is two-fold. One is the desire to be more involved in shaping the event and the other is extending the event beyond the few days that people are together in-person.   

Why? Because every audience invests a lot of resources, time, and effort to travel and attend an in-person event. Any way all audiences can feel more “invested” and “engaged” in your event, the more value (and satisfaction) it will drive.  

On the education side, a community allows engagement with speakers and other attendees around the topics and issues important to the audience. Post-event, and even more importantly, learners want a forum to unpack those learnings and extend the value of the educational content. 

For exhibitors and sponsors, the ability to connect and showcase products and services before the event generates greater brand awareness and creates even more meaningful in-person interactions on your show floor. 

But Wait, There’s More

While it is cliché, there are so many other positives to list here by creating an events community.  

I recently hosted a discussion on these topics:

• Education– How to leverage educational content and speakers for increased engagement, higher session satisfaction and improved attendance for webinars and virtual and hybrid events.
• Networking– How to foster genuine and meaningful networking among various affinity groups, on relevant topics as well as products and services (from your exhibitors and industry partners) before, during and after your events.
• Increase Attendance – How events communities boost attendance and drive earlier registration with less marketing resources.
• Revenue – How to monetize your community and involve key exhibitors and sponsors in the development, growth and success of your community.
• Market Intelligence – Understand the real-time information, analytics and data that event organizers can now have at their disposal with an events community.

So, let’s take this “pause” and start to think about how you can create a year-long event community. Not only will you find that it will increase engagement and satisfaction, but you will also better support all your event formats, virtual, hybrid or in-person. 

Watch Now

The post Stop Talking. Start Doing. Community Engagement for Events appeared first on Personify.

Engagement is usually defined as the kind of connection that a member feels with the association. We can gauge it by looking at stats: website visits, attendance at events, completion of education modules, and so on. But still, these figures only give us a rough guide to what’s going on in the association. Crucially, it doesn’t tell us if we’re spending money in the right places or if we need to invest our resources elsewhere, and how it accounts for how a member really feels about the value they are getting from the association.

So, is it possible to put a dollar value on engagement? Lucky for us, it is. The tricky part is measuring it accurately.

The simple way to calculate the dollar value of member engagement

First of all, we’re going to take a look at some of the tangible figures you already have access to. These will give you a strong indication of what engagement might be worth internally.

1. Look at all association income related to engagement:

Each dollar that is directly contributed by a member is, in some way, connected to engagement. So, to begin calculating the dollar value of engagement, you need to start looking through your total income. Figures to include your calculations are things like:

Membership dues: Membership is a direct function of engagement. Every time someone renews, it shows that they feel they are receiving good value from your programming and advocacy work.

Event fees: Live events are an excellent indicator of engagement. Most members will pay to attend your annual conference; highly-engaged members will purchase add-ons, like tickets for guest speakers and break-out sessions.

Education costs: If you charge for access to education modules, you might want to break that income into voluntary and non-voluntary payments. When members complete a mandatory training course or certification program, it doesn’t necessarily indicate engagement. Paying to access non-mandatory training materials, however, is a definite sign of engagement.

Voluntary contributions: Some members may choose to make a financial contribution in order to support your advocacy work or any fundraising efforts. If so, then that’s an indication of engagement and should be figured in your calculations.

Make sure not to include grants, endowments, return on investments or any other source of income that didn’t come directly from members.

2. Look at all associated costs related to member engagement

Why do members give you money? It’s because you provide them with valuable content and services. Providing this programming has a cost too, and you need to understand exactly what you’re spending on engagement. This can be things like:

Production costs: Expenditure on putting your programming together. This can include things like paying speakers and experts, conducting research, costs for shooting video or building web applications.

Hosting costs: You have to pay to host your digital services, and the more traffic you have, the more you have to pay. You also have to pay to host physical events such as conferences and seminars, so you need to look at those expenses too.

Staff costs: Full-time staff working on engagement need to be paid. This can include the marketing team, content production teams and digital teams. You may also choose to include back-office staff who deal with queries and process payments.

Marketing costs: You can’t achieve optimal engagement without investing in a little marketing. This can be anything from mass media advertising to personalized email campaigns. Include the cost of each campaign and look at costs associated with running a sophisticated martech stack.

3. Calculate Return on Engagement (ROE)

Once you have a realistic dollar amount for the cost of engagement and the benefit of engagement to your association, you can calculate ROE using a simple formula:

This gives you a result in the form of a percentage. So, say that you work out the total engagement-related income to be $25,000 and associated costs as $10,000. That would give you:

Which means that your ROE is 150 percent. To put it another way, each $1 that you spend on improving engagement results in a return of $1.50 extra.

Improving your calculations

Of course, not all the benefits of engagement show up as line items. You will need to take a closer look at your organization and try to identify some areas that you could possibly include in your measurements. For example:

Referrals: When an existing member convinces a friend or colleague to sign up, that has a significant dollar value for your association. One way to measure the value of a referral is to look at how much it costs you to acquire new members, from the marketing spend to the admin involved in the conversion process.

Retention: When someone doesn’t renew their membership, it costs you. Not only do you lose revenue from that person, you also have to invest in additional marketing to try and recruit fresh members in order to keep numbers up. You may also have to – refresh your programming in order to keep engagement high. When someone renews their subscription, however, you don’t have to invest as much in these areas, and the relevant savings can be counted as a benefit.

Content creation: Some of your content may come directly from members, whether they work on training materials, write articles or speak at events. These are all engagement-related contributions, so you can include them in your calculations.

To put a dollar value on these contributions, take a look at how much it would have cost you to hire someone to create that particular content.

Time contributions: Highly-engaged members will roll up their sleeves and get involved in the running of the organization. This can mean volunteering at events, getting involved in advocacy campaigns, or joining committees – contributing their valuable time, essentially.

There are several ways to put a value on these contributions. You can look at how much their time is worth (i.e. their salary), or you can look at the income generated by their contribution (i.e. the value of tickets sold to an event at which they spoke). The most important thing is to be consistent in how you measure contributions of this nature.

Using ROE to drive strategy

Return on Engagement is a nice metric to have available on your reports, but what can you actually do with this figure when you have it? What does a 78 percent ROE mean, or -30 percent, or whatever figure you arrive at? Here are a few benefits of calculating ROE:

Focus your member engagement strategy: When you look at all the figures that contribute to ROE, you’ll start to get a sense of where you’re getting things right and where you might be expending resources.

For example, if most of your engagement-related income comes from live events but most of your expenditure goes on digital services, then it shows that your strategy is mismatched. It may be the case that you should move resources to live events, or maybe it’s that your digital offering needs a total overhaul. Either way, the ROE analysis will point you in the right direction.

Improve the member experience: By looking at the dollar value of member interactions, you’ll find you get a new perspective on what matters to your members. After all, these are busy professionals, most of whom have excellent financial sense. If they are giving you money – either directly or indirectly in the form of time – then they must be extremely enthusiastic about what you are providing.

Looking at ROE will help you identify more of the areas that get members excited. This then feeds back into your overall strategy, allowing you to focus more resources on developing those areas and providing the best possible service.

ROE makes a very clear and powerful case for taking bold steps. If you can show a ROE of 50 percent, then you can show that a $100,000 investment will yield a return of $150,000.

No matter which sector you work in, it’s always easier to convince people when you can present hard numbers. ROE takes some of your nebulous data and turns it into something measurable.

Getting Started

Calculating ROE is a collaborative effort. You cannot measure ROE without data from every department – it’s simply impossible. Whoever is working on this calculation will need to reach out across silos, lines of business or departments, speak to everyone, share data with them, and get their perspective on the real dollar value of member engagement.

Make sure that you share your findings with everyone involved in the project. Let everyone see how their efforts directly contribute to engagement and to the success of the association.

Member engagement is always going to be a little vague because ultimately, it’s about emotion – how do your members feel about the association? Do they feel like they get value?

To truly understand engagement, you will need qualitative feedback like surveys and member interviews as supplemental data. However, looking at quantitative financial data will give you a great overview of whether you’re getting things right or whether you need to rethink your strategy.

If you’re curious to learn more on how to influence member engagement, check out our ebook.

The post Calculating ROE – Putting a Number Against the Engagement Metric appeared first on Personify.

Another channel? More places to post content, sites and logins to manage?

I get it. If you’re a nonprofit lean on time and resources, it can feel like you’ve tried everything — emails, printed magazines, Facebook events — in an attempt to break through. Yet new research from Personify’s recent Member Experience 2.0 omnichannel report suggests that Instagram could be the key, with multiple member groups citing it as the most effective social media channel.

Indeed, since its debut in 2010 Instagram has grown to over 1 billion monthly active users, 71% of whom are under the age of 35 making it one of the most powerful channels with Millennials and Gen Z – a trend we noticed and documented in our Young Members 2.0 report and shared thoughts on in this blog post.

The numbers offer additional compelling evidence of Instagram also boasts impressive engagement metrics, with over 60 percent of users logging in each day, second only to Facebook for the most engaged daily users. Users spend an average of 32 minutes on the app per day (more time than many people spend showering, eating, or doing other daily activities) and they’re not just scrolling through images. Instagram has a very high user interaction rate. According to a 2016 Forrester report, Instagram has a 2.2 percent per-follower interaction rate. That beats the other social networks – including Facebook with its 0.22 percent rate.

Nonprofits of all kinds have taken notice, using Instagram to share behind-the-scenes content designed to make their organization more accessible, high-impact visual proof of the value they’re delivering to their constituents and community, images designed to inspire action and more.

However, sharing the right content is only half the battle. Instagram is used to post over 55 million photos and videos per day. In June 2018, the site reported 49,830 photos were posted per minute. Moreover, 53 percent of users report following their favorite brand on Instagram and it has grown into the second most commonly used social media platform for marketers.

Constituents want to hear from you but in a sea of friends, influencers and commercial brands how can you make sure your Instagram content doesn’t get lost in their feed?

Never fear! We’ve got ideas to help you make the most of Instagram. Join us for a free webinar, at 11:30 AM CT on Thursday, October 24th, as we share the hacks, tips and tricks of making your organization Insta-worthy and show you how to attract members by creating posts that get noticed. You’ll learn:

• The types of content you should be creating to get maximum response from your members.
• 5 quick and inexpensive ways you can use Instagram for to find new members, engage them and keep them.
• Expert tips for incorporating Instagram into your broader campaigns for an even greater impact.
• And more!

Save your seat today!

http://go.personifycorp.com/insta.html

The post A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words appeared first on Personify.

Matra might as well have been describing my mind after not only presenting but also attending two full days of CMX Summit, the largest conference for community professionals, held at the Fox Theater in Redwood City, CA. CMX is a beautiful, fast-paced data dump with the purpose of expanding and refining tactics and application of community building and management. Most of the summit sessions were 20 minutes long delivered in a keynote-style format, so at the end of each day attendees soaked up information at the pace of a piece of bread thrown into a lake.

CMX founder David Spinks kicked-off the conference with his overview, “The State of the Community Industry,” a summary of data compiled from a recent survey posted to CMX members, the constituency of which consists of community leaders and builders around the globe. The findings underscored an organizational trend in which community is being recognized as critical to the company’s mission. This trend was reflected in CMX summit’s highest attended summit to date with over 1,000 attendees, a 150% increase from last year.

An early conference highlight, the first of many, was a fireside chat with NYT and WSJ bestselling author Kim Scott and Ryan Smith, co-founder and CEO of Qualtrics, on the topic of Radical Candor. The heart of radical candor in community means to “care personally and challenge directly.” While radical candor is a culture shift that requires buy-in and commitment from the top down, it can have overwhelmingly positive results in the quality of communication within the team and within the organization. Imagine working in a space where people enjoy their work and colleagues, and feel a sense of trust, investment and impact in the trajectory of the company or community itself?

Nir Eyal took to the main stage to talk about his new book, “Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life” with a sneak peek into some tips and tricks on how to overcome technology’s hold, driving home that in order to manage distraction, we must first understand what discomfort we are avoiding. The irony was not lost that Eyal is also the bestselling author of “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” – and is an expert on the stickiness factor of platforms like Facebook, Slack and iPhone.

Another summit gem was the conversation on building diverse and inclusive communities with Tiffany Yu, Founder & CEO of Diversability, Olatunde Sobomehin, CEO at StreetCode Academy that provides free coding for communities of color, and Hannah Levy, Community Manager at Tech Ladies. The first and easiest step is to reframe the way we think about marginalized and vulnerable communities; instead of thinking about disabled members from an exclusion, scarcity mindset (which strips that cohort of power), change mindset to one of inclusion and abundance. There is room for everyone.

“Self-Care” was announced to be the 2020 theme for Community Manager Appreciation day by the creator of the awareness day himself, Jeremiah Owyang, Founding Partner of Kaleido Insights. Cheers erupted in the gallery in response; TLC for community professionals is an oft discussed topic but rarely executed as they are often wearing several different hats and juggling multiple roles. David Spinks reported in his overview highlight that 75% of communities have 5 members or fewer. Several sessions covered this topic including “Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: Strategies for Bringing Your Best Self to Your Community” emphasizing the airplane oxygen mask metaphor – placing the mask on yourself before helping others – in order to keep yourself fully able to support of caring for others without sacrificing your own well-being.

The conference creators added individual touches to help make the large conference feel inviting and to maximize the connection between attendees. The first task for summit registrants after registration was to personalize lanyard badges – such an easy way to warm up attendees and make them feel welcome. Another interesting concept at the conference was CMX’s “Birds-of-a-Feather” lunch where tables were set up to facilitate conversation between the attendees. Conference organizers organized around 15 tables around a topic specific to Community like “Crisis Management” and “Building Belonging: Designing Balanced Community,” and attendees could sit at different tables to share their thoughts or ask questions.

Charlene Li, founder of the Altimeter Group and author of “The Disruption Mindset: Why Some Organizations Transform While Others Fail,” closed out with the conference. She held an illuminating and captivating discussion with David Hersh, Founding CEO of Jive Software, in a fireside chat titled, “The Secrets of the Most Disruptive Organizations.” The discussion focused on how communities can contribute to the disruption strategy of successful companies, along with the courage it takes for companies to develop and implement changes based on a future-state of its customer not yet seen. To make vast changes and steer the ship towards the unknown is a disruptive movement, but these leaps also define company innovation that can change the world.

In my own session “Sense of Community: Find Out What Your Members Won’t Tell You,” I talked about the challenges of trying to tie metrics to a feeling. Coupled with that, metrics are effective in telling us the potential for engagement but not necessarily the real picture. I proposed a practice of taking the SCI (Sense of Community index tool based on McMillan and Chavis’ decades of research) and turning the survey items into a checklist for community builders and managers as they walk through this house that they’ve built from the ground up.

The conference wrapped with closing remarks by David Spinks and included an announcement that CMX Summit would return to Redwood City at the Fox Theater in 2020.

If I had to summarize my experience for the 2 days spent at CMX, it would include the word ‘passion.’ Everyone I observed, from the Lyft drivers to bestselling authors, displayed a pulpable passionate about their community, whether physical or virtual.

The post My Experience at the 2019 CMX Summit appeared first on Personify.

A funny thing happened earlier this summer.

In anticipation of our research on the evolution of the member experience to be more omnichannel in nature, I traveled to Washington to observe a focus group at ASAE. A variety of association executives, who work across multiple functions and from organizations of all sizes, gathered around a conference room for a conversation about the techniques and strategies they were using to drive engagement.

That’s when it started.

“We’re using print. Our members are telling us that they can’t handle more email.”

“Really? Us too!”

Here’s the thing. I receive an email to my inbox. And I keep getting messages over the course of the day and if I haven’t read it? Then it gets pushed to page two. You’re lucky if I ever see it. But if I get a magazine? That magazine will sit on my coffee table. And I might not read it today or tomorrow, but I see it and I’ll eventually pick it up.

As someone who has long been involved in using – and tracking – digital marketing, the enthusiasm for print caught me off guard, but it probably shouldn’t have. According to Marketing General’s 2019 Membership Marketing Benchmarking report, members receive an average of 4 emails per week from their association while Personify’s recently published Member Experience 2.0 report suggests that only 12% of members want to hear from their association more than once a week.

For many organizations, email fatigue is real. While print has become a slightly niche proposition in the past few years, it hasn’t gone away. A magazine or annual report offers a unique opportunity to deliver powerful, engaging and creative content. Aside from bills, members may not receive a lot of traditional mail pieces. Those that do make it to their mailbox stand out and provide a way to potentially reach and engage members in a memorable way.

While a majority of members surveyed in our research expressed a preference for receiving digital materials from their association, 45% still reported that they prefer print, especially boomers who told us they prefer print by 22 percentage points. And although a plurality of members said that email was the best way to reach them, print wasn’t the worst way – in fact, it outperformed social media, the darling of digital media, by 15 percentage points.

How Does Print Factor into an Omnichannel Strategy?

In an omnichannel experience, which Hubspot defines as “the ability to deliver a seamless and consistent experience across channels,” print offers an interesting alternative but it must be used differently. The challenge is how to leverage the power of print with other omnichannel media.

Whether you’re sending out a quarterly magazine, a direct mail postcard or a journal with new research, here are some best practices for incorporating print into your omnichannel marketing:

1. Connect Channels with QR Codes

One of the best ways to drive action through your print assets is by leveraging quick response (QR) codes on all print collateral. In the one-click it takes your member to scan the image with their smartphone, a QR can send your member directly to a specific landing page where they can find out additional information, register for an event or share information.

2. Include social media handles in all print

Although members surveyed in our research had mixed feelings on social media, it’s still worth ensuring that its part of your omnichannel mix and integrated with print to create that seamless experience. Whether it’s a direct mail piece, newsletter or a magazine ad, you should always add your social media handles so members know how to connect and further the conversation.

3. Understand the role of print media as part of the big picture

It’s no longer enough to focus on highlighting benefits when creating a magazine or printed postcard. Consider the context when developing new content and how it connects to the larger narrative that your omnichannel efforts are trying to tell about your organization. How will your print campaigns offer relevant and valuable information to get your member more engaged or closer to a specific goal?

If you’re interested in learning more about the channels members are using to engage and how to incorporate them to maximize value, check out our Member Experience 2.0 report and on-demand webinar.

The post 3 Tips for Making the Most of Print appeared first on Personify.

It’s true. Eager to get some overgrown garden beds under control, last weekend our family became the proud owner of a Ryobi 40-volt brushless lithium-ion cordless chainsaw. Because I’m not in the habit of buying power tools, and the cost of all available options wasn’t what I could classify as insignificant, I approached the purchase as I do most others. I asked friends and family for their thoughts, went online, watched a handful of videos and read reviews on different hardware store websites before walking into the store and completing the transaction.

While I’ve spent much of my career in nonprofit technology, an equal number of years saw me working in ecommerce. As a marketer, and a product manager, I built campaigns and tools to help retailers and brands reach consumers no matter where they were – on a mobile device, online, in-store – and to ensure the experience was a seamless one. The idea of omnichannel wasn’t new to me and has been the way I’ve bought pretty much everything for the last decade (or more).

Apparently, I’m no longer alone. According to Google, 98 percent of Americans switch devices over the course of that day and IT research firm Aberdeen Group reports more than half of all companies are trying to reach us through no fewer than eight channels. It seems all of us have become accustomed to what retailers have dubbed the omnichannel experience, where a shopper engages through a series of channels to complete a transaction. Whether it’s the chainsaw you started researching online and bought in-store, or the beauty product you saw on the shelf and purchased via the web after reading reviews, the importance of a consistent experience designed to help the end user accomplish a goal has never been more important.

What does it all mean for nonprofits? A lot, actually.

Personify first noticed this phenomenon in our landmark Young Members 2.0 research published earlier this year. Digital, social, live events and even phone calls worked together to communicate value, creating a memorable, meaningful experience and both Millennial and Gen Z members reported engaging through a variety of channels in pursuit of what they understood as a single, consistent objective: to be a member. We found ourselves asking if this was isolated behavior, unique to young members who we recognized as sophisticated in their technology use or was there more to the story?

If you want answers, you need to ask questions. In July of 2019, we launched new research into the field, to expand on some of Personify’s earlier discoveries, exploring how all members, regardless of where they are in their membership journey, perceive membership and to better understand how they engage with the various channels used by associations.

What did we learn? A lot. While we’re putting the finishing touches on the report itself, we discovered that the omnichannel behaviors members show as consumers are now influencing how they engage with membership organizations. With the ability to deliver a seamless and consistent experience across channels, omnichannel can boost both a deeper relationship between the member and association plus yield bottom-line results driving a 30% higher lifetime customer value.

Other key findings:

• Engagement via different channels isn’t a phenomenon unique to younger members. 73% of users across all generations report using multiple channels to engage with their favorite brands when provided with the option to do so.
• Membership is important…but it may not be enough long-term. Nearly three-in-four of members surveyed reported that it is important to them personally to be part of an association, with half contending it is very important. But this wasn’t the feeling across all generations and there was a sharp drop-off in value with one particular segment we surveyed.
• The top engagement channels weren’t necessarily the ones associations are telling us are their areas of focus, and there was a huge surprise in terms of what most beloved by our youngest survey respondents.
• In-person events continued to perform well as an engagement channel, but many channels associations are using to replicate these connections online aren’t just failing to meet expectations, they’re actively disliked!

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There were additional bombshells that caught us off guard and very obvious ways in which associations can leverage what was uncovered about channel effectiveness to begin crafting that retail-like omnichannel experience members crave.

Interested in learning more? Join us for a free on-demand Webinar.

The post Omnichannel Membership: 4 Ways Consumer Trends are Influencing Your Constituents’ Behavior appeared first on Personify.

Innovation

June 6, 2019 – Personify, Inc. (“Personify”), the market-leading provider of technology solutions for associations and nonprofit organizations, introduced a number of new features and capabilities to its platform at the 2019 ASAE Marketing Membership and Communications Conference. The new features and capabilities are designed to help membership and marketing professionals streamline tasks, deepen engagement and simplify the measurement, tracking and sharing of results with organization leaders.   

According to Personify’s research on young members, in-person interactions remain critical across all stages of a member’s journey with their membership organization, with two in five individuals reporting they were recruited at an event and 91 percent of existing members reporting events were a valuable part of their experience.   

While valuable, facilitating in-person interaction can prove challenging for resource-constrained membership, marketing and communication professionals. To facilitate organization and execution of events, Personify is introducing a number of enhancements across multiple products to address the needs of membership and marketing professionals around events large and small.  

Streamline Tasks

• Enhancements to Floorplan User Interface: The updated floorplan management tools within Personify’s A2Z Events solution enables show organizers to make the most of annual conferences and association events, with features to optimize layout, booth assignment, pavilions, moves, upgrades, downgrades and cancellations through a single, intuitive interface that saves valuable staff time and improves the exhibitor experience. 
• Meeting Administration: While large scale events deliver tremendous value for organizations, meetings provide another high-impact opportunity for members to interact with an organization and with one another. Membership and marketing professionals will now enjoy the full meeting set-up, including an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop session scheduler within the Personify360 SaaS solution.   

Enhance Engagement 

• Bring New Life to In-Person Events – Online: Enhancements to the Personify Community product streamline sharing of important user-generated content, including photo galleries, and make it easy for communications professionals to get the word out about upcoming events. 
• Create a Dialogue: For marketers looking to keep a pulse on what their members are thinking – before or after an event, updated questionnaire functionality available in the latest release of Personify360 makes it easy to gather feedback on what matters most from members on an ongoing basis.
• Keep the Connection Strong: Personify Community’s Content Quickviews allow users to peek at upcoming events, forum posts, and other members, giving them the ability to easily find and engage with the content that matters most.

Simplify Measurement, Tracking and Sharing of Results 

• Personalized Dashboards: Additional updates to Personify360’s browser-based client is also making it easier to understand what’s working, with events and beyond. Personify’s new personalized dashboards provide membership, marketing and communication staff with one-click access to metrics including the ability to organize the data in the way that’s most meaningful through an intuitive, drag-and-drop interface. 

“Member interactions, whether in-person or virtual, play an integral role in fostering engagement and providing member value and having the right technology in place to support is critical to an association’s success,” said Teresa Zimmerman, Vice President of Marketing at Personify. “We are consistently innovating to meet the evolving needs of members and enabling organizations to streamline, enhance and simplify member engagement through events and beyond.”  

In addition to the product updates, Personify will share best practices for member engagement with two presentations during the conference. Amanda Myers, Director of Product Growth, will present “Character Study: Bringing Member Personas to Life – Hollywood Style!” on Thursday, June 6 from 3:30 – 4:15 PM in room 151 AB of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. Teresa Zimmerman, Vice President of Marketing, will present “How to Capture the Attention of the Generation Z Constituent,” on Friday, June 7 from 2:45 – 3:30 PM in room 145 AB in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. 

Membership and marketing professionals can explore Personify’s new capabilities from June 6 – 7 at Personify’s booth #121 during the 2019 ASAE Marketing Membership and Communications Conference.  

To learn more about ASAE’s MM&C Conference visit, https://mmcc.asaecenter.org/. To learn more about Personify’s solutions for associations, charities, health and wellness organizations and emerging nonprofits visit, www.personifycorp.com. 

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Our Young Members 2.0 report, published in February, laid out what’s proven a surprising statistic for many readers. Millennials will represent half of the global workforce by 2020 and Gen Z will make up an additional 20 percent by 2021. That’s right, young members will make up 70 percent of the global workforce in less than two years.

Yet according to Marketing General’s recently released 2018 Membership Marketing Benchmarking report, despite being a growing majority of the workforce, Gen Z and Millennials together still only represent only a quarter of association membership.

We apparently still have a lot to learn.

Thus far we’ve been lucky enough to host a number of webinars and conversations on the topic of young members. We’ve done a walk-through of the report and last month spent some dedicated time doing a deep dive on topic of young members and affordability.

But we’ve continued to receive interesting questions from association professionals like you around different pieces of our research and were recently asked about connection. How can we position the relationship and in-person connections that have always served as the cornerstone of membership with this emerging demographic?

What is Connection?

Connection, per social science, generally refers to the feeling that you belong to a group and feel close to other people.

I like to think of it as both the driving need behind and the outcome of engagement. The interactions young members have with you – whether in person or online – are done out of a need for, and a want to, connection. At the same time, the culmination of these interactions – their level of engagement – creates connection.

This connection is what will position organizations for long-term success with young members, ensuring they have a fulfilling experience and that you keep your retention numbers high.

IRL and the Value of In-Person Interactions

Think connecting with young members is all about digital? Think again.

Our Young Members study found one-on-one conversations with real people matter and remain essential in demonstrating value and creating a meaningful experience.  When asked how important it was that an association facilitates connections with authentic people who understand their unique needs within the initial part of their journey, 94 percent of young members identified this as important, with almost two thirds suggesting it’s very important.

81 percent report attending an in-person event in the last 24 months. Top events from our respondents include:

• Workshop
• Networking
• Community Service
• A gala/party

Young members are significantly less likely to attend an annual conference. There are a number of reasons why – early career young members may not be in a position to request travel budget and Millennials with small children may have to balance demands of work and a young family. But this is concerning for those of you looking for young members to not only support growth in your dues revenue but also your non-dues revenue.

The Telephone…Friend or Foe?

In 1979 Philadelphia ad agency NW Ayer & Son came up with a new ad campaign for AT&T. The jingle encouraged consumers to reach out and touch someone. The full line was actually To communicate is the beginning of understanding. Reach out and touch someone.

40 years later the telephone – whatever its shape or form – continues to be an invaluable tool in building a connection with young members. Not just texting either, be real conversations between actual people.

According to our study:

• Only one third of young members report receiving phone calls from their association yet a larger percentage of young members report phone calls work, with 78 percent of all members saying phone calls are either somewhat or very effective in engaging them.
• Almost half of Generation Z found these phone calls very effective.

When was the last time your organization called a young member to check in and talk about something other than a dues renewal?

Driving Digital Results

According to Forbes, Gen Z uses an average of 5 different screens – smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop and tablet – to peruse information media, compared to millennials who typically switch back and forth between 3 screens.

With all the interconnectivity and information available you would think it would be easy to engage young members, right? Or does the seemingly endless collection of platforms and channels make engagement harder?

I’d argue it provides more opportunity to connect with young members, but in different ways. Email is a critical components of your communications strategy. It is the way members stay informed about your organization and about the various opportunities you provide to help them build those connections.

According to Adobe’s fourth annual Consumer Email Survey, workers between ages 25 and 34 spend 6.4 hours a day checking their email and our report found almost three-quarters of young members report receiving email from their association often, either in the form of a newsletter (72%) or a more personalized message (73%).

But when it comes to young members, email seems quaint, old-fashioned especially in an environment where social media seems to reign supreme. According to Marketing General’s benchmarking report, 70 percent of associations report an increase in member engagement and participation on their public social network within the last 12 months

Which channels are associations using in their social media outreach?

• Facebook used by 93% of associations
• Twitter used by 89% of associations
• LinkedIn used by 69%
• YouTube used by 60%
• Instagram used by 40%

We know that young members are engaging via social medi

a and that associations have picked up on it – using a number of channels to engage members there. But which channels are young members using to create connections? And what’s working? Facebook tops the list at 80 percent, followed by Twitter (74%), Instagram (76%) and Snapchat (68%).

Personify has a number of tools designed to help you understand young members and optimize your efforts to help them form a connection to your organization, and with one another.

Get started with our on-demand webinar and eBook. When you’re ready, check out our other young member-related resources!

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A denim jacket. A perfect white t-shirt. A little black dress. Or maybe an Eames lounge chair, “The Godfather,” or a 1966 Shelby 427 Cobra. While style is subjective, there are classics that seem timeless, appropriate no matter the season, occasion or date. Such is the case with the classic association email newsletter.

In our Personify Young Members 2.0 research, almost three-quarters of young members report receiving email from their membership organization often, either in the form of a newsletter (72%) or a more personalized message (73%) and both are effective in keeping young members informed and up-to-date.

When asked which marketing tactics young members wish associations used more frequently, email was near the top of the list, with more than one-third of survey respondents (36%) eager for the one-stop-shop convenience of a newsletter.

That’s right, the humble email newsletter.

Tried and true, popular with marketing staff and readers alike.  According to Content Marketing Institute, 83% of B2B marketers use email newsletters in their content marketing strategy. And email newsletters are getting read. Nielsen Norman Group reports that when asked which medium consumers would like to receive updates from, 90% preferred an email newsletter.

Why do newsletters perform so well? Convenience tops the list. Email newsletters offer a convenient, one-stop-shop for all the important updates and information during the week or month. Yet most organizations fail to take full advantage of this useful communication tool, leaving it in the back of their closet forgotten or relegated to being a catch all for a seemingly random pieces of information.

The good news is with a couple of updates, your email newsletter can take center stage once again.

Curating content for your email newsletter

Creating quality content can be difficult and creating a lot of quality content is even harder. But there’s good news, according to Jakob Neilson Research, “…the average time allocated to a newsletter after opening it was only 51 seconds. “Reading” is not even the right word, since participants fully read only 19% of newsletters. The predominant user behavior was scanning. Often, users didn’t even scan the entire newsletter: 35% of the time, participants only skimmed a small part of the newsletter or glanced at the content.”

When it comes to email newsletters, think quality over quantity. It’s OK to minimize the amount of content as long as it is:

• Germane– Directly related to the reader’s interest and topics they care about. When you’re developing, collecting and publishing content for your email newsletter put yourself in your constituent’s shoes. What would you want to see?
• Compelling– Your email newsletter shouldn’t be a duplicate of your association’s website. Think of it more as a flyer designed to get members excited. Think of your copy as teasers, short sound bites that direct the reader to a post on your blog or event information on your website. This ensures your content is scannable but also encourages your members to take action. Use your content as a way to get them to engage with your association!
• Beneficial– Does your content leave your reader knowing more about a topic than before they engaged with your email newsletter? What are their interests and how can you use your email newsletter to reinforce the value you’re delivering to each constituent?

In addition to standard news, updates, blog posts and podcasts there are a multitude of ways to introduce new content into your email newsletters. Share an update from your organization’s CEO or President to make readers feel like they’re in the know. Include relevant statistics and data points in your newsletters as a surefire way to reassure you customers and prove your success. Learn more about your constituents by including a poll or survey (and publish results in the next newsletter). Include a fun Top 10 list for entertaining content your constituents will love. Inspire readers with stories that show impact and how your organization is making a positive change.

The burden for content creation doesn’t have to be carried by your staff alone. Recruit members and donors to share their stories for powerful user-generated material. Highlight the best photos shared on social media. Ask constituents to share their stories, or have experts answer questions submitted to a “Dear Abby”-style advice column. The possibilities are endless!

Creating (additional) connection

Whether in a footer, a header or some other strategic place within your email newsletter, your organization should always include links to social profile pages. Think of your email newsletter as a hub, with the spokes being your other marketing channels. Leverage your email newsletter to direct readers to other areas digital engagement channels like your website, blog or social media sites.

Remember, your email newsletter is not the place for long, thorough content.

Instead, provide a quick summary and then link to your blog for the full-read. Or, include brief summaries and then send readers to your website for more details. This introduces constituents to more of your channels and supports driving deeper engagement with your organization.

Capturing clicks for your email newsletter

You never get a second chance to make a first impression so don’t skimp on your subject line. Why are subject lines so important for email newsletters? Without an effective subject line, the content within your organization’s email newsletter has little chance of being consumed. Here are some tips and tricks for highly effective subject lines:

• Introduce a numerical list of tips and tricks, e.g. 3 Ways to Boost Email Newsletter Performance!
• Use the power of your database to personalize subject lines, such as The latest APA news for Amanda. People are up to 50% more likely to open an email when the subject line is personalized with one of their individualized attributes.
• Pose a question to pique a reader’s interests. Some examples: How many young members are opening your email? Or Do you know where PersoniFest is going in 2020?

Ensure you’re hitting send the right day of the week and the right time of day. Every organization is different – look at what’s working best for you! – but many industries follow the rule that Tuesdays and Thursdays tend to be optimal send days, followed by Mondays and Wednesdays.

Email send time is also a critical engagement determiner, with the top four send times being 10 am, 8 pm, 2 pm and 6 am. Confirming that – for better or worse – people go to bed as well as wake up with their inboxes!

A little updating, some accessorizing and your email newsletter will be poised to conquer a whole new audience. Remember to focus on your content, using your email newsletter to drive additional connection and using the right subject line and send time to capture their attention and it will continue to serve you for years to come!

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