From the Chamber: The year that went fast and slow
While preparing this second part of my three-part year-end series, I came across two opposing ideas, both of which are uniquely correct: 2021 passed incredibly quickly and 2021 passed painfully slowly. On the one hand, it’s hard to believe how dripping slow some days have been as we got stuck in that social distancing / work from home / limitation of your gatherings where a few weeks walked to the grocery store to replace a truly remarkable event . On the other hand, after the onset of summer, time flew by, so many tried to cram as many experiences as possible into their days.
I suppose this speaks to the confusing effect a pandemic can have on time and how we see it. Or maybe it’s simply because I’m getting older and my own schedule seems to go by leaps and bounds depending on the project. Regardless of how you felt this year was fast or slow, comfort yourself that you are always right.
If you look at our communities and our chamber, it’s been an incredible year. I’ve put the numbers together for my year-end report, and I just wanted to share a few of them before I say a final thank you for 2021.
Let’s start with our communication and our connections. An essential aspect of a chamber is to both recruit people for the region and to keep business leaders informed about regional and national events. While it is very difficult to quantify how many tourists we brought to the area since we received literally hundreds of phone calls and email requests for information, we have some benchmarks to look at.
For example, we have an ongoing list of travel guide inquiries that we email and that we’ve sent to all 50 states and at least five different countries over the past eight years. This year we had inquiries from 16 different states, including many states with dozens of inquiries such as Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania. This year we distributed over 91% of the 15,000 Eat Play Stay guides that we printed between rest area information centers, mailings and local distribution (we have about 1,300 left to get us through spring).
In terms of communications, our chamber has become a valuable source of information as we sent 73 e-newsletters to our members in 2021 giving them the latest information on what is happening at the local, state and federal levels. Some of this information has helped companies apply for PPP, keep up to date with new guidelines, or simply remind them of a local event or networking opportunity that they can use to do more business.
The nationwide average open rate of e-newsletters is between 17% and 22%, depending on the industry, according to Mail Chimp and Constant Contact, with the overall average being between 21% and 22%. Our weekly SMMC News & Notes e-newsletter has an average open rate of 27%, and since being reformatted three months ago, our open rate has increased to 35% (50% more than the national average)! This means that on average, more people open and read our content, which means that there has to be very valid content there.
Here are a few other numbers that caught my eye:
6: Cornerstone member companies supported everything the chamber did in 2021 with an annual sponsorship. Many thanks to: Priority Real Estate Group, Mid Coast-Parkview Health, Darling’s Brunswick Ford and REMAX / Riverside, Bath Savings Institution and Sitelines, PA
31: Covid Heroes were recognized at our Awards Recognition Night, which we hosted in May, when citizens nominated the companies and people who then helped survive the pandemic
$ 1,075: the average value of a tree spot at the 2021 Midcoast Tree Festival, double the required minimum
Over 1,000 families participated in the Midcoast Tree Festival 2021 and bought over 40,000 raffle rickets
118 gift cards from 90 different companies alone accounted for more than 8,400 US dollars in gifts at the MTF 2021. Holders of these cards are likely to spend even more when they redeem them at local businesses that are making even more money in the economy through this one event
I could go on with the numbers, but I’d like to thank those who made 2021 such a success. I have to start with the chamber members who continue to see the value of membership and support our organization. Your support this year, combined with the additional revenue from the Cornerstone Membership Program and successful chamber events, enabled us to grow our staff for the first time in five years.
Claire Papell, our chamber coordinator, started with us at the end of May and she is an incredible asset to our organization. Her hard work, organizational skills, and creative problem solving have given me the time to do more activities to help our company grow. In next week’s column I’ll be highlighting some big activities for 2022, and of course I wouldn’t have the time to pursue these projects if Claire didn’t take some of the other chamber works off my plate.
Thank you to our partner organizations in the area, and while there are too many to mention individually, we know we value your friendships and collaboration. Nobody talks much about it, but one of the reasons our region of the country is so successful is because there is a real sense of community here and we are all pulling together – it’s huge.
Finally, a thank you to my board of directors, who supported me and Claire and continue to show this support by telling us, for example. Thank you for always paying attention to our needs as we continue to work for those in our community.
Cory King is the executive director of the Southern Midcoast Maine Chamber.
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