How Past Clients Can Boost Your Home Inspection Recovery

The current real estate slowdown has been different from anything I have experienced in my 20+ years as a home inspector. The two questions on everyone’s mind are: ‘When will the recovery start?’ and ‘How fast will business ramp up to the usual seasonal busy time?’.

The recovery has already started. We are seeing an uptick in the number of home inspections going through Tap Inspect.  If you are waiting for the phone to ring you are still not too late. Now is the time to be marketing and putting your name and yourself out there.

Reach Out to Your Past Clients

A master home inspector focuses on building and maintaining their client relationship since the inspection was first booked. There is great value in that relationship. They know an ongoing relationship with their client will limit complaints and prevent claims. It also builds their referral network providing more and more home inspections.

If you have ignored your relationship with your home inspection client since you delivered their report you have been losing out on a valuable resource. It is not too late but I do have a few words of caution.

Trying to reconnect with past clients that you have ignored can be a double edged sword. If you did a great job they will be happy to hear from you. But if you remind an unhappy client about a bad experience you could be in for a harsh response or two. Take the risk and start reaping the rewards.

Client marketing takes a lot more than sending a calendar or fridge magnet once a year. It is not about just getting your name in front of them. You need to provide some type of value. Here are three ideas to get you started.

Seasonal Maintenance Checklist

Most people are working or staying at home. They are looking for projects. Home maintenance projects are some of the easiest and simplest to do. Send them a spring maintenance checklist to give them some direction.

Not a graphic designer? Not a problem. Spend $20 by going to Fiverr or another online service to get it done for you. It does not have to be anything fancy. Just a list of tasks with your logo and contact information. 

Home Maintenance Inspection

Usually at this time of year we are busy doing retail priced inspections. That is not the case during the current slowdown.

Some of our home inspection clients may be a bit overwhelmed with spring maintenance checklist or maybe just don’t have the time. By offering a low priced maintenance inspection you can bring in a few dollars and has very little liability. 

You could even offer to connect them with contractors to do the work or to provide estimates by using a service like Repair Pricer.

Ask Your Home Inspector

Almost everyone knows how to use Facetime, Zoom, or Skype by now. Most home inspectors are already using them to Provide a Personal Touch During Social Distancing.

As our clients are spending more and more time at home they have questions. They will notice things they have never noticed before. Leverage the technology to be your home inspection clients ‘go to’ when they have a question.

Be the home inspection hero they hired and you will have a referral source for the lifetime of your business.


5 Musts to Market Your Home Inspection Business on the Internet

It’s tough as a home inspector to get your prospective clients to contact you directly. For years it has been direct referrals from agents that has help build successful home inspection companies.

To be a successful home inspection company now you need to be doing digital marketing. Some people call it internet marketing. It does not really matter. It still means that your prospecting clients find you and contact you directly.

You Need a Modern Website

If you are a new home inspector or a home inspector that has been around for 10 years it does not matter. You need a modern website that can be easily viewed on a computer, a tablet, or a phone.

At the very minimum your website needs to let people know 3 things: who are you, how you can help the visitor, and how to get in touch with you.

It is really that simple. 

Since we are all in the service business our websites are our digital storefronts. That is where our prospective customers first get to see who we are and how we handle our business. Help them see that you are the one that can help them get through the home purchase and you will get business.

Building your own website custom can take weeks and cost $5000-$6000. Don’t spend the time and money. There are plenty of companies like FullView Digital that specialize in home inspector websites.

Get an SEO Plan

SEO is not some magic, dark secret. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it comes down to the simple idea that if your website is easy for Google and Bing to search AND that you have content that people find valuable your SEO score goes up. Websites with higher SEO scores are given better treatment.

At the very minimum your modern website should be setup with all the stuff that makes it easy for Google and Bing to see what you are all about. It can get a bit technical but FullView Digital does a great a job. Make sure whoever you hire does the same.

Beyond the basics of website design, SEO also means that you are providing valuable content to your visitors. This really ups your SEO score. If people come to you for advice and to read what you provide, you are valuable. More valuable than a site that just has a Call Me button.

Building this type of content is a long game. It can can 4 to 12 months before you get noticed. It pays to stick with it but there is no point if you do it half way.

At Tap Inspect we try to provide shareable content on our blog to help. Feel free to repost any of our content your own website. You can also talk with FullView Digital they can help if you choose a higher plan.

Buy Search Ads

I hate to say it but internet marketing has become ‘pay to play’. If you do a google search on almost any home service the first 6-8 listing on the results are paid ads. Since most people will never look past the first page of results you really have no choice but to buy ads too if you want to be successful.

Paid search ads are highly competitive. The truth is that most people that buy search ads pay way too much and get very bad results. You really need to talk with an expert for this step.

Do your research before you start throwing money away. Here are two great resources about buying Google ads and also about boosting Facebook posts directed to home inspectors to get you started.

Get Active on Social Media

It is a simple idea that you need to go where your customers are if you want to market. Even if you do not Facebook or Instagram, your customers certainly do.

From my experience social media has need be a great way to generate leads for home inspections BUT it has help helped people decide to use me.

We try to keep posting valuable information for homebuyers and agents on our social medial accounts. That helps keep the people we want to work with to stay in touch with us. It may take months or even a few years. We are planting the seed. They will remember us when they see our name again.

If you don’t know what to post just share some of our Facebook content. We post things that not only interest home inspectors but also home buyers too.

Ask for Reviews

There is no other way to say it. Reviews are like gold when it comes to internet marketing.

Once you over 50 reviews with 4 stars your online ranking moves up drastically. Good reviews tell Google and Bing that you take care of their customers. That makes it in their interest to help refer even more people to you.

Send a followup email 7 days after your home inspection. Thank our client and ask them to give us review. Most are quite happy to do it. You will be amazed how well it works.

Conclusion

When you decide to do internet or digital marketing the home inspection leads will come in. It takes time, money, and patience. Marketing is a long game. Results are not instant but they keep on coming on and coming. Invest wisely.

Online Marketing By the Numbers

Think you’ve got your online marketing strategy down pat? These numbers may shock you.

* 57% of businesses (including home inspection businesses) have acquired a customer through their company blog.

* 42% of companies (including home inspection businesses) have acquired a customer through Twitter.

* 41% of business-to-consumer companies (like home inspectors and property managers) have acquired a customer through Facebook.

* Companies that blog get 55% more web traffic.

* 1 out of every 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook.

* US internet users spent 3 times as long on blogs and social media than on e-mail.

* 70% of the links clicked on through Google are not from paid advertisements.

* Inbound marketing through channels like blogs and social media costs 62% less per lead than traditional forms of outbound marketing such as print ads.

Source: Hubspot.com