Communication Toolkit

Design Process

1.  Overview: Why Parishes Need a Communications Plan
2. Assess: Conduct a Communications Audit
​3. Plan: Develop a Communications Plan 

1. Overview: Church Communications
Four Reasons You Need a Communications Plan for Your Church
By Jonathan Howe
 
Here are four reasons you should have a communications plan in your church.
  1. Everyone knows their role and responsibility. Unless one person is handling all of the communications of a church, everyone on the team needs to know who is responsible for each channel. With Facebook, Twitter, email newsletters, Instagram, bulletins, phone calls, and more available to churches, it’s easy to see how communication could get confusing. A plan where everyone knows what they need to distribute and when it needs to go out helps align all of your communication channels.
  2. Fewer items fall through the cracks. Even when one person is in charge of all church communications, things get missed when there is no plan. Add in three or four other people, and that creates even more opportunities for things to fall through the cracks. Having a plan—and possibly a weekly checklist—allows you to be consistent with what, when, and where information goes out.
  3. Your communication is more strategic. If you lack a communications plan, you cannot be strategic with how you communicate. When you lack strategy, members and guests are less informed and less engaged. And with attendance waning in many churches, we should be doing everything possible to increase engagement from members.
  4. Members and guests benefit from consistency. Related to the previous point, having a communications plan that is consistent in distributing information about your church allows members and guests to become more engaged with your church. Engaged and informed members are more likely to attend and, as a result, grow in their faith. As for guests, moving them to membership is much more likely when their questions are routinely being answered before they have to ask them
​Six Components of a Strategic Church Communications Plan
By Jonathan Howe

While this paradigm may not fit every church, you can use it as you develop your plans for informing your congregants and promoting events or initiatives in your church. These six components, if identified and executed well, can dramatically improve the effectiveness of your church’s communication.
  1. Identify Your Audience. Knowing who you are trying to reach with your information is critical. Before you can determine what channel to use, what words to say, or what your goal might be, you must first know to whom you are communicating. If you don’t get your audience right, you won’t have much success.
  2. Identify Your Channel. Once you determine to whom you are speaking, you need to identify how best to reach them. And with the rise of online communication, texting, and social media, this component has gotten more and more complex. Churches have more communications tools at their disposal than ever before. But so does everyone else. So competition for attention and retention is also at an all-time high.
  3. Determine Your End Goal. All communication from your church needs to have a purpose. And that purpose needs to be as specific as possible. Knowing why you are communicating helps you stay focused on the message.
  4. Craft Your Message. Now that you know the who, the how, and the why, it’s time to work on the what. It might seem strange for the message crafting to be so far down in the order, but once you have worked your way to this point, the message becomes easier to craft and fewer errors are made with the content. When you have the who, why, and how, the what almost writes itself.
  5. Execute the Plan. This might be the area in which churches struggle the most when it comes to communicating. They plan and plan, but never get around to executing the plan. It’s the communications equivalent of analysis paralysis. Whether this failure to execute is driven by fear of upsetting members or because it’s never been done that way before, it must be overcome for a church to communicate effectively. Be wise in your communications, but don’t be afraid to try new things.
  6. Analyze the Results. This is the missing piece in many communications plans. Because we often work on the urgent or the upcoming, we miss evaluating what we have done to see if it actually worked. This step also informs future communications because you can test new ideas and compare them to previous results to find what works best.
While there may be more that goes into specific planning at your church, these six elements can help shape your communications strategy.

​2. Assess: Conduct a Communications Audit
A communications audit can help answer such questions as:
  • Are current communications efforts meeting the real wants and needs of our audiences?
  • Are there communications gaps we need to bridge?
  • Are our communications being received, understood, and acted upon by the audiences we intend to reach in ways we intend for them to respond?
  • What are our strengths?
  • What are our challenges?
  • What can we do differently?
  • How do people say they would respond if we were going to try?
  • What would make an effective mission of our communications ministry?
Generally, a church communications audit looks at the overall communications practices to see how everything fits together to meet the needs of the congregation, visitors, and so forth as well as addresses specific communications vehicles, such as the newsletter, website and so forth.
​
Key elements in a communications audit include:
  • Having a stated purpose and specific outcomes for the audit
  • Good questions that get to the goals of the audit
  • Holding listening sessions to get “qualitative” information
  • Online and printed surveys to get “quantitative” information
  • An individual or group that can evaluate the information and provide recommendations.
A survey of the effectiveness of communications within the community can be more difficult – but the basic approach can be the same if you can pull together focus groups within the community. You will probably be considering the image the church has in the community; how well the community responds to or engages in things going on with ministry and so forth.  
​Resource #1. A Communications Audit
Meredith Gould (The Social Media Gospel, pages 121-123)

Purpose: Review and analyze everything created and used by a church to communicate (print, digital, broadcast) with all audiences (internal and external).

Scope:
  1. Assess consistency and continuing of message, content, and design within and among materials.
  2. Identify inconsistencies and redundancies within and among materials.
  3. Recommend ways to consolidate and/or eliminate materials to reduce c osts.
  4. Propose next steps for taking action and a timetable for their completion.

Materials to Review:
  • printed materials including but not limited to publications, collateral materials (e.g., flyers, posters, mailings, brochures)
  • printed materials used to identify your church (e.g., stationary, business cards, name tags, decals, banners)
  • images and logos
  • broadcast media (e.g., radio and television announcements)
  • written plans for communications: mission, vision, identity, special projects, and any other initiatives
  • budgets for communication efforts
  • existing policies relative to communication
  • URLs for online materials created and used by everyone in the church including but not limited to the website and social media (e.g., blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn)
  • samples of e-enewsletters and email blasts
​Resource #2. Conduct an Audit using "33 Questions for Auditing Your Church's Social Media Effectiveness"
(https://brandonacox.com/communications/dare-audit-churchs-communication-strategy-33-questions-ask)

Use the "33 Questions" following article to develop an audit of your parish's approach. The questions are organized into the following categories:
  1. Branding
  2. Church Website 
  3. Social Media
  4. Print Design
  5. Communication Systems 
33_questions_for_auditing_your_church.pdf
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33_questions_for_auditing_your_church.docx
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​Resource #3. Communication Audit Research Tools: Survey Questions & Focus Group Questions
sample_focus_group_questions.pdf
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sample_online_survey.pdf
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​Resource #4. Communications Audit for Churches

This Communications Audit for local churches is designed to help evaluate their current communications presence and explore ideas of what more could be done to increase visibility. Whether you have a minimal budget for communications or a team of professionals, it is important these tools work together to enhance your message to current members, staff and potential new members.
communications_audit__al-west_fl_conference_.pdf
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Resource #5. Bulletin Evaluation

Download the Bulletin Bingo to evaluate the state of your church bulletin. ​
bulletin-bingo.pdf
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​3. Plan: Develop a Communications Plan 

Communication Design Process 

​Creating a Church Communications Plan
Using the process and tools in the book, Speaking Faithfully by Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson developing a communications plan for your church. 
  1. ​Develop key messages (Chapter 2)
  2. Identify target audiences (Chapter 2) 
  3. Tools of the trade: websites, social media, multimedia, newsletters, print, and advertising (Chapters 3 and 4)
  4. Working with the media (Chapter 5)
  5. Increasing visibility (Chapter 6)
See the "Completed Editorial Plan" below for a template that integrates all of the elements of a communications plan. ​

Supplement these ideas with the resources in this section, include the ideas in "Strategic Communications Plan" and the social media ideas. Review the resources listed below for additional ideas to create your communications plan. 
​Strategic Communications Plan
(https://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/communicators-network/strategic-communications-planning)
 
Creating a strategic communications plan may be one of the most overwhelming, challenging and frustrating tasks for any communicator.  However, a sound communications plan is key to conveying your church’s message to your congregation as well as local and national communities. Communications planning is an intentional process that looks at what each of your church’s audiences need to hear from you. Below is a communications plan template to help you develop a strategic communications plan to help keep the congregation and community informed and engaged with your church. 
 
Communications Plan Template
  1. Situational Analysis. As a preamble to your plan, write an introductory paragraph describing the current status of your church or ministry.  This will help make the case for the Goals, Objectives, Strategy and Tactics easier to explain. (Use the results from the Communications Audit.)
  2. Communications Goals. Goals are longer term and not necessarily tangible. They define the desired outcome – the results we strive to achieve. Goals provide direction and a purpose and express general intentions – they are broad, intangible and abstract.
  3. Objectives. Objectives are specific, tangible points leading to your goal. They are shorter term and should be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-oriented (SMART).  Objectives support the achievement of related goals.
  4. Strategies. Strategies are general approaches used to achieve complicated goals or objectives.
  5. Tactics. Tactics are action steps or tools used to help implement the strategies, achieve objectives and attain goals.
  6. Key Messages. Your key messages are simple, clear ideas that summarize the essence of your program or project. They should function as guiding principles for all kinds of communications, from brochures and videos to online information, media interviews or conversations with your stakeholders. The main point is that messages must be clear and consistent across all kinds of communications.
  7. Target Audiences. Who do you want to reach with your message?
  8. Long-Term Projects. Good ideas that you want to hold on to and consider at some point.
  9. Calendar By Month. Decide the best times to implement the activities in your plan and how you will continue implementation over the length of the plan. Be intentional. However, remember time frames are often tentative and may need to be revised during the life of your plan.
  10. Budget. Don’t let budget keep you from dreaming big for your church. Consider all opportunities. You can always pare down the plan as budgets dictate.
strategic_communications_planning.docx
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Resource: How to Create a Church Communication Plan
how_to_create_a_church_communication_plan.pdf
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Resource: Church Communication Resources 
​https://www.epc.org/churchcommunicationsresources

This website provides resources for those who publish church newsletters or Sunday bulletins, update church web sites, manage social media accounts, or work with video. There are presentations and videos. 
Additional Worksheets
cms_tips-august-communication-plan.pdf
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cms_tips-promotion-worksheet.pdf
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Social Media Ideas and Resources 

7 Keys to an Effective Church Social Media Strategy
Jonathan Howe
(www.lifeway.com/pastors/2017/01/03/keys-effective-church-social-media-strategy)

Here are the 7 keys described by Jonathan Howe. Review the entire article online.
  1. Have a clearly designated point person. 
  2. Understand the differences in the channels.
  3. Integrate social media into your current communications plan.
  4. Monitor channels for feedback and respond. 
  5. Have a clearly defined goal for each channel. 
  6. Use tools for efficiency and analytics. 
  7. Promote the social media channels through traditional means when possible.

Resources
Check out the resources listed below for social media ideas and strategies: Transforming Parish Communications, Rewired, Parish Guide to Social Media, and The Social Media Gospel. There is also list of website and email services. 

Planning Worksheet 
Use the strategy worksheet below to design your social medial strategy. 
social-media-strategy-worksheet.pdf
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4. Resources

Books & Articles
Transforming Parish Communications: Growing the Church Through New Media. Scot Landry. OSV, 2014. 

In this book you will discover:
  • How to embrace the Church's vision of evangelization in new media
  • How entire parishes can become hubs of digital evangelization 
  • Specific strategies for implementation
  • How to create a consistent digital identity online
  • Best practices for parish websites
  • The nuts and bolts of Facebook, Twitter, email, blogging and more

Speaking Faithfully: Communications as Evangelism in a Noisy World. Jim Naughton and Rebecca Wilson. Morehouse, 2012.

Today Sunday morning worship competes with youth soccer, Starbucks, Facebook, and the allure of being “spiritual but not religious.” To share the gospel in a world like this, Christians need to reach beyond the boundaries of concrete and virtual communities to become evangelists. That takes faith. It also requires skill with public relations, social media, traditional print materials and other techniques to increase church visibility. The authors walk readers through the theology of church communications and introduce steps to help us deliver clutter-busting messages to reach our technologically sophisticated and faith-challenged world

Rewired: How Using Today's Technology Can Bring You Back to Deeper Relationships, Real Conversations, and the Age-Old Methods of Sharing God's Love. Brandon Cox Passio, 2014. 

In Rewired Brandon Cox demonstrates the real, connecting power in online social networks, showing you how to connect and tell God’s story relationally and creatively in our social, digital age. Because the thing is, social media isn’t an escape from the real world. It is the real world, whether we are ready for it or not. And this shift we are seeing toward a more mobile, social environment is actually a return to the form we were created for: to be in relationships, to have conversations, and to share our stories - and God’s - with each other.

The Parish Guide to Social Media: How social networking can recharge your ministry.  Clarissa Valbuena Aljentera. Twenty-Third Publications, 2013. 

This practical guide shows how your parish can easily optimize social media to build community, promote evangelization, recharge ministries, and work smarter. You'll learn to: 
  • Promote and coordinate outreach using Facebook and YouTube.
  • Build collaboration among ministries using Google+ 
  • Help catechists communicate using Pinterest 
  • Engage youth with Twitter 
  • Get active supporters for your social media initiatives 

The Social Media Gospel: Sharing the Good News in New Ways. Meredith Gould. Liturgical Press, 2013. 

If you are responsible for managing digital communications in your parish, staying current with trends in the rapidly changing world of social media can seem like an overwhelming task. Which social medium platforms make sense for your church community? How can you make them an effective tool for ministry? Meredith Gould provides an easy-to-understand, step-by-step guide to digital ministry for those wishing to embrace new technologies to build community and deepen faith. She focuses on key topics for effective church communication, including:
  • Building and ministering to online communities
  • Privacy and self-disclosure in the digital age
  • Integrating communications across digital platforms
  • Managing and monitoring social media
  • Faith storytelling with visual social media
  • Hashtag development and live-tweeting​​​

Articles

Websites

Website Development Platforms

​Website Builders Catholic Services
Church Website Examples
  1. On the Liturgical Publications (LPI) website: http://www.4lpi.com/catholic-church-websites. 
  2. On the eCatholic website: http://www.ecatholicwebsites.com/designs.
  3. On the Catholic Web Company website: http://www.thecatholicwebcompany.com/catholic-website-design-portfolio
  4. On the Upper Room Media website: http://upperroommedia.com.
  5. On the Transfigured website: www.transfigured.com/designs.
  6. On the Connected Members website: www.catholicchurchwebsites.com/Designs.
​

E-Mail and Text Services

E-Newsletters, Email Marketing, Campaigns, Event Registration, and More
Multi-Platform Tools for Group E-Mail and Texting
Apps for Group Texting

Additional Resource: The Church Marketing Plan
The Church Marketing Plan
(http://www.umcom.org/learn/market-your-church)

United Methodist Church Communications has a website with an interactive planning process with five steps (www.umcom.org/learn/market-your-church-structure) that provides several templates and step-by-step instructions to help you create a custom communications plan. Click on the title for each step to go to the website for instructions. The video for each step provides a "how-to" introduction.  

Step 1: Values & Vision Step 2: Perception & Needs​ Step 3: Strategy Step 4: Implementation Step 5: Evaluation