How do you organize your promotions?

From the mailbag...

"We are in overhaul mode of our communication processes here and I wanted to see if you had any info related to promotion and processes that you might be able to forward. We're working through issues related to coordinating info on the web, enews and bulletin. Issues such as timelines, submission deadlines for promotion, who writes edits and approves copy, the whole deal. Thanks for any help you may have to offer."

I thought I'd share some of our process documents we've used along the way (and how we use them). Some are current and some are from the archive, but they might help provide some insight & inspiration for the change you are leading.

1. All Church Promotions Process  (big picture)
   At a glance, what happens when.
2. Speaking Schedule for the Year (tool)
   Our Executive Pastor provides this outline at the beginning of every year. It’s a working document that starts as a high level outline (major themes/date chunks) and becomes more detailed as the year goes on. This resource point drives next steps.
3. Promotions Outline (tool)
   An abbreviated snapshot of major events we’ve got planned for the year. The Communications Dept uses this document to cross reference with the speaking schedule (see #1) to coordinate major series and with events. A lot of times, it’s an at-a-glance snapshot. It’s helpful to keep in front of us as we’re promoting and packaging any events, programs, groups, etc. The more opportunities we have to communicate these things as next steps out of a series, the more clear the path becomes to our audience and the more successful these events and programs are. For example, when we’re in the middle of a money series in January, that’d be a great time to schedule the financial freedom course (not during the sex series in July). In other words, we schedule ministry events on the calendar to meet and match all-church programming, not individual ministry team plans.
4. Series Promotion (team documentation)
   This is what we use in our communications department as the how-to sheet and steps we follow for series promotions every 3-6 weeks. It’s a checklist we use for quality control, training, memory supplement, etc.
5. Communications Department Routines (team documentation)
   Keeping track of the regular routine, maintenance tasks in our department.
6. All Church Communications Values (foundational)
   The why behind the how we communicate.
7. All Church Communications Priorities (foundational)
   What gets promoted when, where and why.
8. Big Idea Worksheet  (tool)
   Probably the most comprehensive snapshot of a series. It’s an extension of the Speaking Schedule and it’s what we use to write the copy, concept creative, prioritize promotions, etc.

There's updated, modifiable versions of these tools and more in the Communications Bundle we offer on WiredChurches.com. If there's anything else that'd be helpful. Let me know. I'll see if I can add it.

Comments

[Joe Tucker]

Wow, this is great stuff. We are going thru the exact same process you described above. Very helpful info. Thanks.

[greg smith]

Very helpful. We're already looking at this as a model for our church going forward. Thanks for sharing.

[Jeremy Davidson]

Thanks for sharing this. Keep up the good work.

[Dave Ferguson]

Kem,

This is really great stuff. Thanks for sharing!

Dave

[J Parker]

Wow this helps a lot. Thanks so much!

[Charity Meinhart]

These are so helpful, thanx! Now if we could only get a Kem Meyer running our communications department, we'd be set! ;-)

[david]

this is great. thanks, Kem.