A Church Marketing Agency's Successful Journey with BrightLocal

At Missional Marketing, their mission is to assist churches in reaching people online, fostering growth and community engagement.

Their diverse clientele includes Christian churches, non-profits, and ministries across North America, spanning various denominations and sizes, including prominent megachurches.

As a full-service digital marketing agency, they specialize in offering Local SEO services to approximately 400 church locations in the United States and Canada.

Missional Marketing’s primary challenge revolved around scalable and cost-effective citation management, a crucial aspect of their Local SEO product.

"When we launched our local SEO services product, and we said okay citations are going to be a big part of this. There are only four of us on the team and need somebody who can help us. We did our homework, and we briefly considered Yext but chose BrightLocal due to its ethical practices and cost-effectiveness. We connected with BrightLocal, and we've been partnered ever since. So, it has really been a foundational piece of our local SEO product from day one, literally,” explains Jason.

Missional Marketing also faced a significant challenge in articulating the impact of their Local SEO services, especially considering the limited understanding of local search within the church community. Up until the launch of BrightLocal's Local Search Grid, the team relied on traditional rank tracking, resulting in lengthy and often confusing client conversations.

Jason and his team of 4 primarily use BrightLocal to audit citations, run citation campaigns, and report on search rankings for 400 churches. 

“Our daily routine involves running Citation Tracker, Rank Checker, and Local Search Grid reports, manual cleanup of data, and launching citation campaigns when needed,” Jason says.

Jason and his team turned to BrightLocal’s Local Search Grid to visualize their clients' local search rankings. This proved to be a game changer, providing a clear and concise representation of rankings on a map. The visual aid significantly streamlined client conversations, reducing a 15-minute explanation to a concise one-minute discussion. “I’d say that Local Search Grid's visual impact has increased client comprehension from 25% to an impressive 95%,” says Jason. 

BrightLocal’s lead generation widget has also become one of their highest-value forms, helping to bring in approximately 80 inquiries each month. 

Missional Marketing has shaped its Local SEO product around BrightLocal, making it a cornerstone of its success, allowing it to efficiently manage the SEO of 400 church locations. 

The addition of the Local Search Grid transformed client communication, making it more accessible and impactful. While specific statistics are not available, the visual aid has played a pivotal role in conveying the importance of local search and showcasing the significant impact over time.

Jason says: “Unfortunately, we don't have specific statistics, as BrightLocal has been an integral part of our processes from the beginning. We wouldn't have the product if we didn't have BrightLocal period because we wouldn't have the team capacity to do the type of citation work that we need to do, or have the reporting capabilities.”

The team at Missional Marketing continues to explore BrightLocal's features, considering the addition of the GBP posting functionality, and plans to leverage BrightLocal for the long term, anticipating the introduction of new features.