Case Study: Holy Wisdom Monastery
Sector: Faith Communities
Project: Google Ad Grant Management, Messaging Consulting, Semantic Search Engine Optimization and Content Creation, Collateral Development (Brochure, Lead Generation Magnet)
With the goal of attracting young women interested in joining a vibrant, ecumenical, Benedictine monastic community, our work on behalf of Holy Wisdom Monastery yielded over 550 visits to their "Becoming a Sister" page and 25 tracked leads in the first nine months of our partnership. In the same time period, we launched a Google Ad Grants program that received 3,606 clicks, 42,758 impressions, and 1,152 conversions, with an average click-through rate of 8.43% and a 11.71% conversion rate (compared with a site average of 6.24%).
The Challenge
Holy Wisdom Monastery is home to an ecumenical community of Benedictine sisters. Located just outside of Madison, Wisconsin on 130 acres of carefully restored and preserved land, Holy Wisdom Monastery is also home to six communities — the heart of which is the sisters’ community. The monastery offers a myriad of opportunities for visitors to engage with Benedictine values through prayer, hospitality, justice, and care for the earth. Popular programs include Liturgy of the Hours, centering prayer, Sunday Assembly, personal and group retreats, retreats for mid- and early-career pastors, the Oblates community, hiking trails that are open to the public, and conservation work.
The sisters at Holy Wisdom Monastery were interested in reaching more young women who might be interested in joining their Benedictine community. Because the sisters are charged with multiple responsibilities daily, they were looking for collaborators who could help them create and execute a multifaceted marketing plan that would promote Holy Wisdom Monastery and its offerings to young women seeking to establish a stronger spiritual connection to themselves and experience life in the community.
Primary goals for our work together included:
- Creating and executing a marketing and communications plan to reach young women interested in joining the Monastic Community.
- Developing compelling new messaging that marries the wisdom and experience of the sisters with the needs, desires, and challenges relevant to the young women they are hoping to reach.
- Communicating what makes the Monastic community at Holy Wisdom unique and different from other religious communities.
- Creating and promoting online and collateral content to support and inspire young women who are seeking to live in a religious community, or who are seeking a different path in life, creating opportunities to reflect, and learn about the unique rhythms of monastic life through our content.
- Creating opportunities to reach young women through Google search strategy.
- Effectively promoting the monastery's events and programs specifically targeted to young women learning more about becoming a sister; and
- Automating some follow up with young women to reduce communications busywork for the Monastics so that they can focus on what matters most to them.
The Idea
Marketing and Communications Planning Session
We collaborated with the Sisters on a marketing and communications plan that prioritized activities for the year, and created a clear path forward on what we hoped to accomplish together by the end of the year. That investment in a plan gave clarity to the work that followed, and created a foundation on which to build their next marketing plan.
Persona Creation and Messaging for Target Audiences
One of our first goals was to refresh key messaging so that the messages we used in all subsequent online and printed pieces really resonated with the young women we reached.
We led a Messaging workshop with the Holy Wisdom Monastery, creating audience personas, and key messaging that speaks directly to the needs, wants, and challenges of their desired audience, while also integrating the sisters’ perspective and wisdom.
We led a Messaging workshop with the Holy Wisdom Monastery, creating audience personas, and key messaging that speaks directly to the needs, wants, and challenges of their desired audience, while also integrating the sisters’ perspective and wisdom.
Outreach Brochure on Becoming a Sister
Sarah Best Strategy refreshed and redesigned a trifold brochure to better support outreach efforts to young women. The brochure can be given to retreatants or program attendees; included in annual mailings; and shared with pastors who can distribute it to interested young women in their communities.
Google Ad Grant management
One hypothesis that we wanted to test was whether we could meet seekers when they are searching for religious communities, seeking spiritual guidance, and more. This also enabled us to be resourceful, taking advantage of Google’s $120,000 annual in-kind donation through their Google Ad Grants program for nonprofits.
Goals for our ad campaign were to track inquiries through the Becoming a Sisters page, meeting seekers around terms that they were interested in and which represented needs that the Monastic community could speak to, promoting revenue-driving wedding venue rentals, and more broadly increasing the profile and awareness of Holy Wisdom Monastery and its communities, events and programs, including their hiking trails.
Goals for our ad campaign were to track inquiries through the Becoming a Sisters page, meeting seekers around terms that they were interested in and which represented needs that the Monastic community could speak to, promoting revenue-driving wedding venue rentals, and more broadly increasing the profile and awareness of Holy Wisdom Monastery and its communities, events and programs, including their hiking trails.
Semantic SEO: Optimizing the Sisters' Web Presence for Google's Current Algorithms
Another way to attract seekers to the Holy Wisdom Monastery website is through optimizing website content to reflect Google’s current priorities. To do this we used a tactic called Semantic SEO, which optimizes a website for topics instead of individual keywords. Executing this strategy meant refreshing the Monastery’s Becoming a Sisters page, optimizing that page in a specific way, then creating subtopic pages (or blog posts) that support the overall optimization strategy of the main page, also known as a pillar page.
This strategy has the added benefit of generating content that can be used for marketing in other contexts, such as in social media and in emails. Creating these content marketing pieces has poised the sisters for further success in engaging young seekers of spiritual contemplation and community as once a pillar page is optimized, it will continue to attract traffic for relevant keywords on an ongoing basis.
This strategy has the added benefit of generating content that can be used for marketing in other contexts, such as in social media and in emails. Creating these content marketing pieces has poised the sisters for further success in engaging young seekers of spiritual contemplation and community as once a pillar page is optimized, it will continue to attract traffic for relevant keywords on an ongoing basis.
Lead Generation Magnet and Automated Lead Nurturing
After a seeker reaches the pillar page, we wanted to give them opportunities to keep in touch.
We first created what is known in marketing as a lead generation magnet—a piece of useful content that centers the needs of the audience, that a person can download in exchange for their email address. Because these types of pieces attract new audiences, they are known as magnets. The worksheet we created is entitled “Embrace Your Authenticity: A Benedictine Worksheet to Hear the Still, Small Voice Within” guides the reader through reflection practices, while also teaching them about Benedictine values and the life of the Monastic community.
When someone fills out a form to download our worksheet, this triggers an automated lead nurture email sequence. Joining a religious community is a big step! It may take time for some people to feel comfortable enough to reach out to talk directly with a Sister. Lead nurturing is so-called because they are designed to deepen engagement and motivation over a series of three emails spaced out over a certain period of time.
Our sequence of three emails welcomes the seeker, introducing the sisters’ community and Holy Wisdom Monastery and offers the recipient multiple ways of deepening their engagement so that they can make a choice that feels right for them. Those options include contacting a sister, attending a service, or signing up for the monastery’s Summer Stewards program, which is designed for young women.
After a seeker reaches the pillar page, we wanted to give them opportunities to keep in touch.
We first created what is known in marketing as a lead generation magnet—a piece of useful content that centers the needs of the audience, that a person can download in exchange for their email address. Because these types of pieces attract new audiences, they are known as magnets. The worksheet we created is entitled “Embrace Your Authenticity: A Benedictine Worksheet to Hear the Still, Small Voice Within” guides the reader through reflection practices, while also teaching them about Benedictine values and the life of the Monastic community.
When someone fills out a form to download our worksheet, this triggers an automated lead nurture email sequence. Joining a religious community is a big step! It may take time for some people to feel comfortable enough to reach out to talk directly with a Sister. Lead nurturing is so-called because they are designed to deepen engagement and motivation over a series of three emails spaced out over a certain period of time.
Our sequence of three emails welcomes the seeker, introducing the sisters’ community and Holy Wisdom Monastery and offers the recipient multiple ways of deepening their engagement so that they can make a choice that feels right for them. Those options include contacting a sister, attending a service, or signing up for the monastery’s Summer Stewards program, which is designed for young women.
The Results
- Google Ad Grant success: Since launching in August 2022, our Google Ad Grants have received 3,606 clicks and 42,758 impressions.
- Increased awareness and website traffic: During that same time period, the campaign focused on young women interested in joining the monastery has resulted in:
- 1,152 clicks/interactions with the monastery's "Becoming a Sister" page;
- An average click-through rate of 8.43% and a 11.71% conversion rate (compared with a site average of 6.24%); and
- 25 inquiries from people who wish to contact a sister or learn more about the Monastic community.
- 1,152 clicks/interactions with the monastery's "Becoming a Sister" page;
- Promotional materials that can be used in person and online: Several pieces, such as the reflection guide and brochure, were created so that the sisters could share them both as an electronic or printed version. This enables them to:
- Share materials with other partners who can get the word out in person by handing a potential candidate a brochure;
- Benefit from website traffic that is brought in by the integration of SEO (search engine optimized) keywords; and
- Enable their target audience of young women to engage with the materials via their phones, tablets, computers, or printed copy.
- Share materials with other partners who can get the word out in person by handing a potential candidate a brochure;
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"Working with the Sarah Best Strategy team has been a very positive experience. Their attention to detail, creative mindset, and unassuming nature exceeded our expectations. Branding and key messaging can feel overwhelming at the onset, especially with a dynamic organization like ours. It was comforting to have Sarah's leadership and talented writers to complement our team's organizational knowledge, passion and vision. We're already seeing the impact of our work together as new inquiries come in."
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Lynne Smith, OSBDirector of Monastic Ritual & Formation Team Coordinator
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