From Plugin Bloat to Sales Success: Transforming Kaivac’s Digital Presence

Since 1997, Kaivac has been creating sophisticated cleaning technology for the people performing America’s dirtiest jobs. What started as a small company building all-in-one restroom cleaning machines has turned into an award-winning brand. Kaivac provides fleets of smart cleaning technology to companies in many different industries nationwide. Their products don't just ease the lives of janitorial staff; they help businesses improve customer environments, upgrade building maintenance, and streamline operations.

Throughout almost three decades in business, Kaivac has turned cleaning solutions sales into a science. But it wasn’t always so seamless.

Starting the journey with Kaivac

When we first met Jim Pickrel, Kaivac’s Director of Marketing, his team was working to create a “Sales and Marketing Machine.” In order to continue closing deals, they needed a better sales process, improved marketing campaigns, and a website that was both functional and appealing to use.

Kaivac’s once-powerful WordPress website was suffering from significant plugin bloat. It was frequently unavailable for periods of time, it operated very slowly, and it attracted high volumes of unwanted traffic. Digital marketing efforts were hindered by the shortcomings of the website, and Kaivac was missing out on new business opportunities.

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Strategy
Messaging
Design
Development
Performance Marketing
Go Beyond

Kaivac's Roadmap

Jim and the marketing team needed a solution that took into account the complexity of their online presence. USDP worked with the team to develop a step-by-step roadmap toward success.

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Strategic direction: One step at a time

When we first talked to Kaivac, they wanted a website redesign as soon as possible. But an immediate, comprehensive reconstruction on a website that size would likely only magnify the marketing frustrations their team was feeling. Instead, we decided to first solve the challenges that were having the biggest impact on their revenue. After triaging the most critical repairs to the existing Kaivac website, we were able to take what we learned about their business and its goals to deliver on a full website redesign.

Messaging and Content: Reimagining Kaivac’s pitch

The heart of the sale: To refine Kaivac’s messaging, we focused on the true heroes of the story: business owners and their cleaning staff. Recognizing that many facility managers struggled with high turnover and low morale in physically demanding janitorial roles, Kaivac wanted to position its equipment as the direct solution to these pain points. By emphasizing how their easy-to-use machines and robust training programs empower the workers actually doing the job, we helped Kaivac successfully shift their messaging from machine selling to solutions selling. Being the guide: This new marketing angle established Kaivac as a true partner in facility cleaning success. Instead of dropping off complex technology and leaving clients to figure it out, Kaivac’s system of training tutorials and ongoing support allowed workers using the machines to do their best. Effective and engaging copy: To execute on this hero-centered messaging approach, we overhauled Kaivac’s website copy and developed data-gathering content like the "Big Clean Quiz." By highlighting how Kaivac supports a company’s entire cleaning ecosystem rather than just selling machines, the new messaging promoted happier staff, cleaner facilities, customer retention, and bottom-line growth.

Design: Upgrading the Visuals

Designed for the person writing the check: Kaivac's old site talked a lot about products. We redesigned the new site around outcomes: labor cost reduction, food safety compliance, and cleaning ROI. The new design allowed buyers to clearly see the business benefits, not just the machine specs. From wireframe to development-ready: Every page type—homepage, industry pages, machine pages, application pages—went through a full design process. Wireframes were used to establish structure. High-fidelity Figma prototypes allowed us to work through the visual design. Finally, we conducted multiple rounds of client review before anything touched development. Showing not just telling: We embedded short video loops into the page experience so visitors could see the machines at work. "Watch the Full Video" prompts allowed visitors to go deeper on specific product applications without losing their place on the page. screenshots from the kaivac website Demos as a lead gen tool, not an afterthought: Kaivac was already running live product webinars and offering pre-recorded videos—they just weren't capitalizing on it. We used clear, consistent "Watch a Demo" CTAs throughout the site to drive user interest and turn existing content into an active lead generation channel. Interactive elements gathered consumer data: We designed the “Big Clean Quiz” to help visitors self-identify their cleaning needs and provide data to Kaivac. Industry pages got an interactive hotspot floor plan. Users could click on the area of their facility that needed attention and they would receive applicable content. Both features were built to help the right visitor find the right product faster. Redesigning the e-commerce experience: For shop.kaivac.com, we designed new storefront, category, and product page templates while keeping the complex functionality Kaivac's customers were already relying on, such as corporate pricing codes. ADA-compliant and mobile-responsive: Yellow as a primary brand color created real contrast challenges for ADA compliance. Rather than defaulting to heavy workarounds that flattened the design, we found the right balance—meeting accessibility standards while keeping the site visually on-brand and polished. screenshots from the Kaivac website

Development: Deliberate Digital Evolution

Listening carefully: Before diving into development work, we took time to interview the Kaivac team and explore their website's issues to uncover the heart of their website problems. Fixing the infrastructure and auditing the plugins: Kaivac’s sluggish website was due in part to an insufficient hosting configuration. We transitioned their website to our AWS environment and added improved caching to increase their website speed. Kaivac also suffered from a common WordPress problem: an overabundance of plugins that throttled their website speed. Our team replaced the bad and deleted the unnecessary plugins. Splitting the traffic: Kaivac’s website served both their marketing and eCommerce audiences. We separated these functions into two sites to improve website speed and give ourselves more room to work. Kaivac’s new website on Sanity: After a few months of continuous improvement and results, we moved forward on the website redesign with a solid foundation. Using the new website messaging, fresh page designs, and interactive content, the development team put the pieces together and built the new website using the Sanity CMS. Kaivac chose Sanity for its ability to manage content across multiple platforms. Custom solutions: The Sanity CMS gave us the opportunity to implement custom functionality on the Kaivac website and integrate existing features from the eCommerce website, including ROI calculators, distributor locators, online warranty registration, and processing for tax-exempt customers. Refreshing the eCommerce website: While the marketing-focused website redesign was underway, we also refreshed the eCommerce website to remove Divi Builder and improve its performance.

Performance Marketing: Directing Traffic to Kaivac

Driving quality leads to the website: A brand-new website needed a fresh traffic approach. Once the redesign was complete, it was time to get more eyes on the new pages and video content. USDP hadn't historically run Kaivac’s ads, so our performance marketing team jumped in to launch a new strategy. Leveraging deep Google Analytics data, they combined sharp ad creative with precise targeting to funnel high-quality leads straight to Kaivac’s new pages.

Going Beyond: Fueling the Marketing Machine

While working with Kaivac, we didn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Kaivac had unique needs that required a tailored marketing strategy and a calculated order of operations. Through months of close collaboration and technical problem-solving, the Kaivac website was redesigned with a polished interface, all while business operated as usual.

Today, Kaivac is well positioned to keep their marketing machine rolling and continue growing their brand online.

But Kaivac’s story isn’t over.

Over the years, we have helped expand their marketing efforts through advertising, continued website enhancements, and an additional website for Expert Rotomolding, another Kaivac brand. In the past few months, we’ve monitored how website visitors are behaving and what’s grabbing their attention. Based on these analytics, we’ve modified certain page designs and areas of content so Kaivac can continue to serve their clients well and grow their customer base.

We’re honored to continue our partnership with Kaivac as they revolutionize the cleaning industry and improve facilities everywhere.

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