Covert Marketing

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a managing partner at a pizza company. We are a pizza shop in Lynchburg specializing in pizza using sourdough bread recipe as the base. My main responsibilities range from order fulfillment and customer experience, to social media and digital marketing.

For what projects/services did your company hire Covert Marketing, and what were your goals?

We hired Covert to create a local SEO plan to help us get noticed when people were searching for pizza in our surrounding areas.

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We vetted a few SEO companies and Covert won by a landslide. Most of the other agencies we met refused to create a plan unless they were executing it themselves every month. Covert was the only SEO company we came across that offered a money-back guarantee if we were unsatisfied, and would also help us bring the SEO work in-house to execute ourselves.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Over the 3-month engagement, Covert was responsible for:

• Conducting thorough keyword research and competitive intelligence
• Assessing our business' current website, messaging, and target audience
• Identifying technical website adjustments for improved performance, speed, and page experience
• Creating a weekly content schedule for our Google Business profile
• Identifying topic clusters with primary Pillar page and 4-5 supporting Cluster pages
• Outlining content sections, content length, seed keywords, synonymous/alternative keywords, and overall page structure
• And educating our team on how to successfully execute the plan on a consistent basis.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Covert had a core team conducting keyword research and other technical tasks, but Greg was our primary point of contact throughout the project.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We're still in the process of creating and posting all of the required content since Covert provided us with so much! But the results for our local SEO from their Google Business guidance have been amazing. When we first started, our Google Business profile was viewed about 5000 times per month, and our photos were viewed roughly 15000 times per month (~43% lower than our competitors).

After following Covert's SEO plan and content schedule, our Business profile is viewed 12500 times per month (up 150%), our photos are viewed 28,000 times per month (up 80%), and our visibility is now higher than our competitors. All of these increases have had a direct impact on our monthly sales volume, which we project has yielded an overall ROI of 275% from Covert's efforts.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We used email, text and then ad hoc software (adobe illustrator) to create digital assets.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

I especially appreciated their ability to break down the more complex aspects of SEO in a way that actually made sense. They didn't talk over my head or over-complicate things, but actually took the time to help me understand my SEO plan and overall strategy.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None that come to mind immediately at least.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm one of the Founding Attorneys at TF Law, a Criminal Defense firm located in Greenville, SC. We specialize in DUI and Criminal Defense for our clients across South Carolina.

For what projects/services did your company hire Covert Marketing, and what were your goals?

We understood how competitive the criminal defense space is--especially in Greenville--and that we needed to stand out, but didn't know where to start. We engaged Covert Marketing to help analyze the local competition and create a detailed SEO plan that we could handle ourselves each month.

Like most law firms, our primary goal is to generate new clients for the firm. Additionally, we wanted to highlight how our firm was modernizing the entire defense process and client experience compared to the old-schoolers (who use things like physical forms, faxing agreements, and all of the other antiquated methods for getting things done).

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

After speaking with a number of different SEO agencies, Covert was the only one focused on actually learning about our business and overall goals before prescribing a solution. It felt like everything was being customized for us instead of just being forced into a box or "one size fits all" solution. We also especially appreciated the fact that they were willing to train us on how to execute the SEO plan ourselves each month.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and campaigns.

Generally speaking, Covert Marketing helped us with: Collecting competitive intelligence; Identifying primary keywords to target, and keyword gaps that our competitors were missing; Creating and optimizing our Google Business profile; Drafting a content plan and posting schedule for consistency; And recommending supporting tech platforms to quantify our monthly progress with generating new clients.

How many people from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Greg was our main point of contact, but worked with his team of 4-5 SEO experts in creating and finalizing the official SEO plan.

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

Within just three weeks of implementing Covert's strategy, we'd already seen a significant improvement in local traffic and monthly call volume from potential new clients. Our Google Business views were up exponentially, and monthly calls from new potential clients were up at least 60%. We're still seeing continued growth based on Covert's plan almost a year later, but estimate that our total return on investment for this project is somewhere between 15-16x.

Describe their project management style, including communication tools and timeliness.

We primarily used email and phone to communicate. Greg is a super organized and professional person, who still has the enthusiasm and eye for opportunity you want to see in a marketing pro. We never found ourselves lacking for answers to our many questions during the project.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

They were just so professional across the board: Organization was impeccable, communication was consistently proactive, and their attention to detail really showed every time they sent something for our review.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

None.

Please describe your company and your position there.

I am the Director of Operations at Valderrama A/C & Refrigeration, a Houston-based A/C and refrigeration company. We repair and install air conditioning units and related products for both residential and commercial clients.

For what projects/services did your company hire Covert Marketing, and what were your goals?

Our company was growing quickly through word of mouth and local events, even though we didn’t have a website. Most of our business came through Google My Business and referrals since we had so many positive reviews from existing customers. After a year of explosive growth we decided that it was time to increase our lead generation by building our first website, running Google Ads, and improving SEO

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

We spoke to a few different companies and Covert Marketing was the only one focused on calculating our target return on investment upfront. They also identified clear metrics for success at the very beginning of the project so it was easier for us to quantifiably track their progress. Covert didn’t bog us down with unnecessary detail or talk over our heads. Instead they created a detailed plan and explained it in a way that we could actually understand, without requiring extensive knowledge of how SEO works.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

At a high level, every month Covert would: Optimize our Google Ad campaigns, manage our Google My Business profile, draft 3-4 blogs and pillar pages and submit for our review/approval, post and optimize the previous month’s approved content, draft and distribute press releases when appropriate, and perform keyword research to identify any new industry trends or competitor movement.

Then at the beginning of each month they’d provide us with a monthly report showcasing a 30-day snapshot of the previous month’s marketing activity–Google Ads results, organic website traffic stats, total leads generated, new/improved keyword rankings, and anything else that happened during the previous month.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We were assigned 1 dedicated Customer Success Manager as our primary point of contact. Aside from that we had 2 SEO strategists, 1 Google Ads manager, 1 graphic designer, and a team of copywriters to draft our monthly content, but we mainly communicated with our CSM Tori

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

When we first started with Covert, our A/C company didn’t even have a website. With their help, we went from being virtually invisible to now ranking in the 1st position of Google throughout Houston, the air conditioning capital of the country. More specifically, we now rank in the 1st position for over 250+ keywords.

Over the last 12 months our site ranked in the 2nd position on average in Google SERP. Our Google Ads cost per click is 67% lower than our competitors’ on average, so we’re able to afford significantly more clicks without increasing our ad budget. Over the past year Covert has generated 47 new leads per month on average–more than 1 qualified lead every day. The return on investment has been amazing to say the least.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

The fact that they deliver the same deliverables on a consistent schedule every month made the workflow between our teams really easy. New content was delivered and posted on the same days every month. I knew that I’d have a monthly report in my inbox by the 7th day of each month, with plenty of time to review and identify followup questions before our standing monthly meeting.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

The true mark of a quality company isn’t how they react when everything is going right, but how they react when things go wrong. On the rare occasion when something went sideways with our monthly work, they never once fed us excuses or tried placing blame elsewhere. They’d simply own it, identify the source of the problem, communicate their solution to fix the immediate concern, and put structures in place to prevent it from ever happening again. Aside from that, I just loved that they were available whenever I had questions or needed to talk.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

There’s always room for improvement in any organization. They’re definitely adamant about soliciting our feedback and constantly asking if there’s anything they can do to better support us. I’m sure that there’s something they could improve on, but nothing comes to mind immediately.