In any membership-based organization, membership churn is inevitable. To avoid feeling like you’re starting over every year by recruiting replacement members, make sure that your renewal strategies and tactics are optimized.

One way to increase retention rates is to diversify your communication channels. “Email is one of the most effective methods of communication when encouraging renewals, however it’s a good idea to use a range of communication channels,” writes Michael Harms in a blog post for Madgex Labs. “A drip campaign that employs email, social media, letters, and phone calls will enable you to send the same renewal message, in different ways, over a longer period of time.”

Also, be sure to make renewing as painless as possible. “Use a future-proof CMS that will make the user journey a smooth, simple process,” he says. “Enabling automatic renewals is hassle-free and will reduce lapsed membership rates.”

Harms makes additional recommendations for understanding millennials, simplifying pricing, soliciting feedback, and improving your user experience.

Infographic of the Day

With the Super Bowl just around the corner, football fans are getting ready to chow down on party treats like chicken wings, guacamole, and potato chips. As you toss back a a cold one on Sunday, spare a moment to consider that it took more than 36,000 truckloads to get beers in everyone’s hands this weekend.

“To illustrate just how big of an impact the trucking industry has on the big game, the Minnesota Trucking Association and American Trucking Associations created an infographic to show the role trucking will play in delivering perhaps one of the most important parts of the game … the snacks,” MTA says in a statement.

Other Links of Note

Spread the word by starting a national awareness day for your organization. The MemberClicks blog tells you how.

Make sure your mobile site is optimized. Starting in July, Google will consider lowering the search ranking of mobile sites with slow speeds, reports Search Engine Land.

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