A few thoughts on email length and YouTube strategy.
Happy almost-Fourth. I’m keeping this one short because you’ve got a long weekend ahead of you and so do I.
A few of you wrote back after recent emails with follow-up questions, and two of them came up enough that I figured I’d answer them here for everyone.
On email length (and the calendar problem)
Someone asked whether I had guidance on how to structure a weekly church email, because theirs runs so long it gets cut off by Gmail.
This is incredibly common. The fix I almost always recommend is the same: lead with one primary item, follow it with a few secondary items and relevant links, and close with a clear reminder that everything else lives on the website. The email’s job is to get people to the website, not to replace it.
The calendar is usually the main offender when length gets out of hand. Pulling it out of the email entirely and pointing people to a calendar page instead tends to make a dramatic difference, both in length and in how readable the whole thing feels. I’d also skip the graphics if you can. Text and photos only keeps load times faster and helps with deliverability.
I don’t have a course on this yet (never say never), but it is something I work through with clients directly. If you want to talk through your current template and what a restructure might look like, just hit reply.
On what to actually put on YouTube
Someone else asked what kinds of video actually work on YouTube beyond just streaming services, and whether I knew of any churches doing it well.
The short answer: the content that performs is searchable and has a shelf life. A full service recording mostly serves people who already know you. What brings in new viewers are short teaching clips pulled from sermons (two to four minutes built around one focused idea), videos that answer the questions newcomers have but never actually ask out loud, and reflections tied to whatever your community is walking through in a given season. That kind of content keeps surfacing in search results for years.
One church worth looking at for how they use the platform: Calvary Church in Monterey (@calvarymonterey on YouTube). I’m not weighing in on their theology, just the way they approach video.
On the course question: yes, I’m actually finishing one right now. It covers formats, discoverability, how to repurpose what you’re already recording, and how to build a rhythm that doesn’t wreck your team. It’ll be available on demand, and I’m aiming to have it ready by end of summer. I’ll let you know as soon as it’s live.
One more thing: I haven’t forgotten that I promised to talk about social media strategy for nonprofits specifically. That email is coming. Sit tight.
Go disrupt something,
Christen
