The Washington Theological Consortium (WTC) is a Greater Washington, D.C.-based community of graduate theological schools and other organizations of diverse Christian and interfaith traditions that supports the formation of ministry and theology students in ecumenical unity and interfaith understanding.

In 2012, we worked in close collaboration with them to design and develop their new website, which included a custom-built, end-user searchable listing of courses from a dozen graduate schools of theology in the Greater Washington, D.C area and the broader Mid-Atlantic region. We continue to maintain and host their website and its related course search database software. In 2015, WTC staff approached us with a desire to improve strategic processes with respect to digital communications on their website, via social media and email marketing. They also wanted to work with us on design collateral, both print and digital, to promote certificate offerings and events for students.

In collaboration with them, we devised a multi-month plan and developed particular objectives around these goals. We designed the promotional materials in collaboration with WTC and provided appropriate digital collateral for website and social media needs. We also offered strategic guidance for website content workflows and made a number of website content and development enhancements to enable better end-user experiences.

We used these design efforts and website improvements as a partial basis for two substantial in-person “hands-on” training sessions with WTC staff. The first of these trainings focused on general processes for long-term strategic communications planning and how to avoid common pitfalls that can undermine effectiveness in promoting information, events, and activities in various online media. A second training featured more practical guidance for best website content practices, including styling, general layout of content, proper metadata entry, and creative use of visual elements within established website and social media capabilities. It also included a presentation for best practices for social media to assist the organization with an enhanced Facebook presence and fledgling Twitter effort.

The overall effort also included smaller focused activities as well, including the launch of their Twitter page and the design elements we created for their account, the establishment of a YouTube channel and production of channel art design, and the initial presentation of a repository of videos featuring educational lectures and special events. We made sure that WTC’s email marketing templates were optimized for mobile friendliness and we implemented upgrades to various website functions and provided updated documentation – including presentation materials – to WTC for future reference.

We continue to providing strategic expertise as well as content and design support to WTC as requested.