The home inspector marketing ideas we are going to cover in this guide are based on keeping your marketing time to under an hour per day. There will be links to other blog posts & websites as this guide continues to grow. That being said, be sure to check back often so you can stay ahead of your competition.
Last Updated: July 1, 2021
Written & Updated By: CJ Hallock
Table of Contents
I am not going to go into the core basics of home inspector marketing in this post. If you need more fundamental information you can check out the InterNACHI blog post “How to Market Your Home Inspection Business“.
Home Inspector Marketing Ideas, Tips, and More
- Know Your Target Market As A Home Inspector
- Understand The Client Compass For Home Inspectors (The Homebuyer’s Roadmap)
- The Home Inspector Social Media Marketing Matrix & Party Plan
- The Content Crank & Repurposed Content Strategy
Know Your Target Market As A Home Inspector
Whether you are in the middle of studying to get certified, or you have been a home inspector for 20 years, getting new leads is always important. The biggest problem most home inspectors have, in my opinion, is they don’t fully look at their marketing from their target market’s perspective, or even worse, NOT KNOWING THEIR TARGET MARKET.
So before you can take advantage of any home inspector marketing ideas, you need to know your target market. That is because there are different small things that change in every region that you should be aware of. For example, income changes, houses are different, their needs for a home inspection will change, you get it.
You can have all of the home inspector marketing strategies in the world & it won’t help if you don’t know & understand your target market.
When you have a good understanding of your target market, the next thing is to understand the “Client Compass”.
Home Inspector Marketing Guide Recomendation
Need Help With Content Marketing?
Join other inspectors from across the globe inside of the Inspector Branding Content Club.
Understand The Client Compass For Home Inspectors (The Homebuyer’s Roadmap)
The home inspector marketing strategy, “Client Compass” is basically the journey of your clients from the moment they think “I want to be a homebuyer” until they are in their “Forever Home” and are ambassadors of your brand.
I don’t mean they tell a few people and leave a 5-Star Review… I mean they almost annoy their friends and family because each time anyone talks about anything resembling “real estate” they tell the story of how you changed their life. THAT is a true “Brand Ambassador” and that is what you should want every client you have to become.
In my opinion, one of the best home inspector marketing ideas I could share would be to break down each of the steps your clients will go through and create a blog post and a series of social media posts for each step.
Let’s be honest, this process isn’t always the same. But, I reached out to over 10 different real estate agents and asked them what the process actually was for a home buyer. I got probably 4 different answers but they didn’t even have ALL of the steps.
There are over 20 steps to go through before a homebuyer even get’s to buy a home. As home inspectors with the other core steps that you can help them with it increased to over 30 steps. Not every step requires a blog post but I’d guess that 95% of the steps would make for amazing blog posts.
The great thing about using the client compass to get content ideas is that it allows you to use that content to guide homebuyers to you.
Currently, the real estate agents are the gatekeepers to the market. If your content is truly for your target market and helps them with the process, you can get to them before they find a real estate agent.
Some Examples Of “Client Compass” Blog Posts…
“Know Your Dream Home • Define Your “MUSTS” & Save Yourself Some Time” – A blog post to walk your visitors through defining what they must have. While it may seem simple, there are things that a lot of people don’t think about. If they have young kids, they may not be thinking about the fights over the bathroom. So walking them through not just what they need now but what their needs may be in the future.
“How To Find The Best Real Estate Agent In Metropolis, ST & Which Agents You Should Know” – This is a great way to be the gatekeeper. But what I’m about to tell you, don’t tell the agents! lol It also is a way to get the real estate agents to share your website and give you leads without realizing it.
This is a base blog post that has the core info and maybe some questions they should ask before they hire an agent. The secret sauce is, you add a section to display a “real estate agent” category of blog posts where you interview real estate agents in your area.
You can put up their headshot and make it a directory of agents to trust in the area. Now, you not only have the agents you reach out to interview sharing your blog posts to their followers, but you also can get the attention of other agents because of this. Now, you can have agent’s trying to pitch you, instead of the other way around.
Home Inspector Marketing Strategies Start with a Website
You can get more in depth information about home inspector website design on our blog. Want to watch me build a professional 20+ page home inspector website in an afternoon?
Watch the videos below…
The Home Inspector Social Media Marketing Matrix & Party Plan
A lot of people have asked me what the best thing is to do to market a home inspector business. The answer is easy, tell people about it! OK, so it’s not that easy but the base of what I’m about to cove is pretty easy.
The Golden Rule To Home Inspector Marketing Strategies
The ONLY strategy that will be successful for you is the one that you execute.
There are hundreds of different things that you can do as a home inspector to market, and brand your business. While there may be a huge list of things that you want to do, you need to be honest with yourself.
HOW MUCH TIME & MONEY CAN YOU DEDICATE TO YOUR MARKETING/BRANDING?
This question will help you understand what you should do.
I can’t say how long it takes you to write a blog post or record a podcast, but I will move based on averages. You can make adjustments to any of the strategies you come across. In the end, it’s your business and you should run it and make everything your own.
Before we get into the home inspector marketing strategies & suggestions, let’s look at your time. (I’m not going to get deep into money and buying stuff, I try to keep everything as affordable as possible for you all)
When it comes to home inspector marketing online, whether it’s your blog, a Facebook page, or an Instagram account, consistency really helps. You need consistency in the quality of what you post, and how frequent you post. In order to do that, you need to have a consistency in the time you dedicate to it.
First thing’s first, you need to dedicate time EVERY DAY to marketing your business. You know what your normal day looks like, so I can’t tell you how much time you HAVE TO dedicate. But, if I had to make a suggestion, I would strongly recommend trying to block off an hour a day. If you are really busy, I would do NO LESS THAN 15 MINUTES DAILY.
Social Media Marketing Matrix
The core of my home inspector marketing plan is based on the “Social Media Marketing Matrix.”
This is the map of how you handle your content and marketing.
At the base of everything you do is your home, or your website. Then everything else builds off of your website to build the matrix.
From your Instagram to your Facebook Page & LinkedIn Profile, they all have their own purpose and understanding how to use them within the matrix properly is just as important.
Everyone who uses social media has their “favorite” platform that they “get” the most. While for years, for me, Twitter was my staple platform that I started the matrix with years ago. But after research into the “Home Inspection” industry, I realized the staple platform needs to be something with “Open” message capabilities.
A home inspector marketing strategy can’t succeed if your clients can’t reach you.
You need to have an easy way for your followers online to message you if they have questions or want to discuss hiring you. Yes, you can use your phone, but it is always best to have a “gateway” into your “connection” with social media. That is why when I refocused the concept behind social media marketing for home inspectors, I decided to use Instagram as the staple platform.
What I mean by that is, you direct everyone for the fastest response and the core of your content, they should follow you on Instagram. Keep Instagram on your home screen and stay active, keeping an eye on the direct messages like you do your texts.
The use of each element inside of the “Social Media Marketing Matrix” is your “Party Plan”.
The Home Inspector Marketing Party Plan
This is where most people need to make a mind shift in how they look at marketing their home inspection business.
Everyone has seen technology evolve almost everything around us. Marketing isn’t any different.
Since the introduction of social media, or Web2.0, the ways customers connect with brands has changed almost every 6 months.
Marketing use to be having the radio station personality reading your ad in between news stories & music. Then it evolved into commercials & product placement on TV.
Along the line, cold calls on the phone became a thing, direct mail marketing pieces were semi-effective considering the cost of a stamp, envelope & some paper or a post card & a cheap purchase for a mailing list.
Over the last few years, social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube have been at the forefront of changing marketing forever.
Because people are not on Facebook or Instagram looking for your business, you have to build a brand that stays in front of their mind for when they do need to hire you.
This is done with “content marketing” which we’ll cover in a bit, but before we do I want to breakdown how looking at Social Media as a “Party” will simplify how home inspector marketing strategies can be executed.
At the core, let’s think about each platform as it’s own “Party”.
For this example, let’s say that you are at a networking event, maybe even a Chamber of Commerce “After Hours” event. If you’ve never been to one, I want to let you know about the two different people who attend them.
The first is a person that is only there because they’re desperate and need to sell their products TODAY. They try to get a perfect pitch into every conversation and if nobody is interested, they move to the next conversation. It becomes a pitch fest and when he leaves conversations he likely becomes the topic of the conversation and NOT IN A GOOD WAY.
DO NOT BE THAT PERSON!!!
The same thing happens with social media. If you are posting on your Facebook every day and complaining that you’re not getting anything from it, it is likely because you’re content isn’t worth holding a conversation about.
If the only thing you post is “Hire Me”, “I Do Home Inspections” and other self serving content, you will not be remembered and ultimately you are likely to not get any leads.
Instead, you want to join the conversation by giving value. Now, you don’t have to be prolific or a stand up comedian in order to memorable.
On a site like “Instagram” the reason why I like to say it’s the “STAPLE” of everything is “YOU CAN JOIN ANY CONVERSATION & CONNECT WITH ALMOST ANYONE”.
You can use the search feature to find people who are posting in your area. Real estate agents, plumbers, electricians, teachers, and just about anyone.
You can follow the agents and engage with their posts daily. As they put up posts talking about an open house, share the post to your story, comment on the post with something valuable.
Not just an emoji! “It looks like an amazing house! I love that kitchen!! & you can say that’s a den but that’s a man cave! lol”
Joining in on these “conversations” or “posts” it starts to build the brand & get your name seen by others.
Of course, I’m not saying don’t sell at all on social. But, let the opportunities to do so open up to you, don’t force it.
So now that I’ve covered that rambling let’s get back on track.
At the “party” you don’t want to walk in with the purpose of selling. Everything is about building relationships & if selling is what you lead with, you won’t build the relationships needed for the foundation of your brand.
So you’re at the party talking about just about everything with everyone and you meet some people who you like, you may invite them to your home for a cook out.
This is inviting them to get more information about you and your brand on your website. Hopefully, you have a blog so they can get updated information from you. This is where you can get deeper into the conversations of “What do you do for a living” while you’re having a drink at the grill.
This helps build the relationship with a strong foundation.
So What is the Social Media Party Plan?
Here it is broken down.
Use social media the way you engage with people at parties/events. Just have conversations, compliment them, encourage them, inspire them, help them, and then invite them to your “house” or “website” to get more information.
Remember that trust is earned. It’s never given instantly, so use these steps to grow with your clients.
Home inspector marketing trends will change, but if you remember to always treat them like a friend before a client, you’ll be GOLDEN!
The Biggest SEO Secret
As a home inspector marketing is important, and SEO is a major part of it
While you need to cover the basics of SEO, there is one secret to search engine optimization that is almost NEVER taught.
What is the home inspector marketing secret to SEO?
Your “Brand” is what ranks.
Your website is normally the last thing that will rank. The main thing to understand is that your biggest growth in the search engines for your main keywords (Home Inspection In Metropolis,ST) will likely only come after you’ve built a successful brand. Especially if you are a new inspector in a large market with a lot of home inspectors.
Don’t get your hopes down, because that doesn’t mean you have to wait 7 years. But what you need to do is build a brand that is talked about to the point where people start looking for your “BRAND”.
So if they are searching “Deal Killers Home Inspection Company” there are two major things happening.
- You are getting direct search engine traffic with a keyword you almost are guaranteed to rank for with minor SEO work.
- Google starts taking the searches into consideration. The more your “Brand” is searched, the more Google realizes people look at you as the best in the area.
Using content in your home inspector marketing strategy, like status updates, images, YouTube videos, blogs & everything else you can, will help speed this process up.
The Other SEO SECRET to the Home Inspector Marketing Strategy
As you are building out your content for the home inspector marketing strategy there’s something to keep in mind.
Each post on social media (as long as your profile/pages are public) are indexed on Google.
So each time that you post, you have another piece of content with that keyword in it that points to your “brand”.
As far as thinking about “Ranking On Google” you need to understand one key piece of information.
99% OF THE TIME, ONE WEBSITE CAN ONLY HAVE 2 ORGANIC RESULTS PER SEARCH PAGE
So it doesn’t matter how awesome your website is, or how many pages you have, you can only have 2 spots on the front page when you’re searched.
But, as you build out your content and post it across your different platforms, you’re also putting up different pieces of real estate that can potentially rank for that keyword.
While your content will help people (It should!) it also is just another way to get your brand in front of people and is the only way to give Google what it wants.
If someone goes to Google, the only way Google can show them ads is if they search & get relevant results. So the more content you put out, the more content that Google has to show to their customers.
So looking at the first page for your keywords, if you want to own it, you have to put out content on at least 5 different platforms.
- Website/Blog
- YouTube
Of course, the dream is to own the entire page. But if you are starting out, this is one of the fastest ways to building out a brand that Google shows on the front page.
Home Inspector Marketing Guide Recomendation
Need Help With Content Marketing?
Join other inspectors from across the globe inside of the Inspector Branding Content Club.
Home Inspector Marketing Ideas & Updates
This post “Home Inspector Marketing Guide” is an evolving post. There will be updates from time to time and additional posts to help support content on this page as well.
Be sure to come back to the home inspector marketing guide for home inspector marketing tips, ideas, updates and more.
Check the top of the blog post for the last update.
