SERVPRO

Overview

Throughout 2020, SERVPRO’s brand recognition increased significantly due to their newsworthy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Leveraging that awareness into growth for the business, 10x digital was able to execute a modern, data-driven strategy for building organic backlinks. This white-glove approach contributed to a significant increase in website traffic and search engine optimization for SERVPRO.

10x digital was able to help SERVPRO achieve the following results:

• More than 150 organic backlinks in media outlets, blogs and online publications in eight months;
• An increase in web traffic to servpro.com and resulting improved ranking on search engines;
• More than 50,000 organizations adopted the Certified: SERVPRO Cleaned program;
• Sales grew nationally for SERVPRO’s additional cleaning services.

A New Role and a Global Challenge

Michael Stahl joined the SERVPRO team as their Chief Marketing Officer in March 2020. His goal was simple: he wanted to implement a strategic, tactical marketing and public relations plan to increase awareness of SERVPRO as America’s highest quality residential and commercial cleaning franchise.

SERVPRO specializes in 24/7 disaster response clean up for homes and businesses. With more than 1,700 franchises nationwide, they are well known for their ability to expertly handle water damage, fire damage, mold remediation, and storm damage so effectively that it’s “Like it never even happened.”

Just as Stahl joined the SERVPRO executive team, however, the world was taken captive by the COVID-19 global pandemic. In early March, Kirkland, Wash. became the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. when the Life Care Center retirement community reported dozens of the country’s first cases. The local SERVPRO franchise in Kirkland was called into action to help sanitize and deep clean the retirement community, garnering national attention with a photo of their team members entering the facility in haz-mat suits.

An Opportunity to Do More Good

Like millions around the globe, Stahl and the SERVPRO team were learning new information every day about the nature of the virus: how it spread, what surfaces it lived on, and how best to limit the risk of human contact.

With mentions in the New York Times, CBS News, and many others, SERVPRO gained national attention for their quick, thorough response in Kirkland. But as the coronavirus rapidly spread to other communities around the country, Stahl knew that the media attention would have a much greater impact if it meant SERVPRO could help as many people as possible be safe in their homes and businesses.

The SERVPRO team developed a new defensive cleaning program, called Certified: SERVPRO Cleaned (CSC). According to SERVPRO’s website, the CSC program is “a proactive viral pathogen cleaning that helps ensure the cleanliness of the restaurants, businesses and public spaces in the communities we all call home. With over 50 years of expertise, SERVPRO professionals are trained and experienced in biohazard decontamination and chemical spills – always adhering to the cleaning and decontamination standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local authorities.”

But how would home and business owners find out about the new COVID-defense cleaning program? And how could news mentions around the country be leveraged to grow SERVPRO’s overall customer base?

To help turn positive national media attention into measurable impact, Stahl knew exactly who to call: 10x digital.

Organic Backlinking Delivers Real ROI for Public Relations

“Traditional public relations was and is hard to track in terms of ROI or its impact on sales and revenue,” says Holly Rollins, CEO of 10x digital. “That’s why we’ve developed a modern, data-driven approach that gets real, measurable results.”

With a personalized approach for each client, 10x has a team of expert writers who create excellent content that includes organic backlinks to their client’s website. 10x’s outreach specialists then pitch the content to be published on relevant websites with high domain authority (media outlets, established blogs, niche industry websites, etc.).

These backlinks drive new visitors to their client’s website, and send a strong signal to search engines such as Google that their client’s website is an established authority on a given topic or category. This signal improves the website’s rank on search engine results pages for relevant phrases and keywords, increasing organic website traffic even more.

PR mixed with a solid backlinking strategy increases website visitors who turn into qualified sales leads and, ultimately, delighted clients.

The 10x Approach Contributes to Business Growth

By the second month, the backlink work 10x digital was doing for SERVPRO started to show really positive results. After working closely with Stahl and the SERVPRO team to understand their brand, voice and style, 10x was able to repeatedly secure content placements on websites with high domain authority.

“The team at 10x takes the time to understand who you are so they can represent you and your brand in the work they do – and they do it very well,” Stahl said. “It’s different from what I’ve seen and experienced with other marketing agencies. It starts to feel like an extension of your own team, which just makes it so much easier to trust them and their process.”

With a steadily growing list of backlinks, combined with a full PR and ad campaign executed by the SERVPRO marketing team, web traffic began to grow significantly, helping with the adoption of the Certified: SERVPRO Clean program. By the end of 2020, over 50,000 organizations were able to display their CSC stickers to demonstrate that their spaces had been certifiably cleaned to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Not only that, but throughout 2020 the increased web traffic brought additional awareness to SERVPRO’s other types of remediation and restoration services that the company has been best known for.

“Our teams are prepared to respond to any disaster so not only have we had people on the front lines to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but those same teams are also responding to housefires, damage from hurricanes and other storms and everything else that might happen to a home or business,” Stahl added.

What’s in Store for 2021?

SERVPRO will continue to help Americans around the country prepare their homes and businesses to fight the spread of the coronavirus. In fact, in January 2021, Stahl even joined an ABC News segment to comment on the task of deep cleaning the nation’s most famous home, the White House, for the incoming Biden administration.

SERVPRO is known nationwide for handling whatever types of messes might occur. In 2021, more and more organizations will be heading back to work, and as they have been since 1967, SERVPRO will be ready to help.