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Kem Meyer wrote something fantastic on her blog this week.

"Tools don’t try to tell the whole story. They are a piece of a story. When we try to tell the whole story with a micro piece (Web page, design, technology, etc.) we horde control and fall in love with our own creation. This is a communication dead end."

Too often we try to pack in too much information into one piece of communication.  I really think the root of it comes down to not taking the time to be thoughtful about selecting the best way, or best tool to use, to communicate your message.  Maybe it’s a busy schedule or simply being too lazy to think through the process.  But sending out a non-strategic piece of communication is just as bad as not sending doing anything at all. 

As Kem also wrote in her post “effective communication should move people.”  I think that will never happen if they have to sift though wordy emails or text filled postcards.

Here are a few areas where I think churches can take a look to focus on clearly communicating their key message:

Website.  How many church websites have you seen where all of the information is crammed onto the front page?  Take some time to think like an average user.  How can you keep the front page clean and make clear navigational paths to other information?

Worship Folder.  I’ve seen worship folders and church newspapers that go on and on with announcements.  Focus in on the few things that are the most important that week.  For other information, you can push them to your website.

Weekly Email.  Ditto the above point.  Everything you’re doing doesn’t have to be mentioned.  A long, seemingly endless email will in up in trash or spam folders more than actually being read.  Focus in on what’s important or use this as a way to communicate different things than what will be in the worship folder.

Direct Mail.  It can be expensive and budgets are tight which makes it temping to cram in a bunch of information.  (Old TV show reference alert!)  But think like Sgt. Joe Friday from Dragnet.  Just the facts ma’am.  That doesn’t mean the writing should be boring, but it should be focused in on the key message.

Any thoughts or good tips for using “micro” communications pieces well?