digital marketplace domination for home inspectors · websites, social media, seo, video marketing,...

www.InspectMania.com

Digital Marketplace Domination for Home Inspectors

“Your step-by-step guide to dominating, outranking and

stomping out the competition in your local marketplace with WDMD (Weapons of Digital Marketplace Domination)”

By Carl Ross

Chief Marketing Maniac InspectMania, Inc.


BRIEF INTRODUCTION In this report, I’ll be sharing some strategies you can use to grow your home inspection business – no matter how competitive your local marketplace may be. The strategies I share will help you get found in your local marketplace when people come searching for you. While there are a bunch of coaches and courses out there showing you how to inspect and run the business side of things itself, I’ll be focusing 100% on the online marketing side of things – the stuff concerning websites, social media, SEO, video marketing, etc. This is NOT a guide showing you how to do home inspections. There are schools and training programs for that. I merely show you how to get the business – I’m the marketing maniac! WHO AM I My name is Carl Ross and about 20 years ago, I had just got out of the Air Force and discovered this amazing thing called the Internet. I became obsessed with it. I wanted to learn everything I could about it. It would be 3 years later before I launched my first business on the Internet (approximately 16 years ago now), a company selling religious t-shirts online. We got to a point where we were selling hundreds of thousands of t-shirts each year. This soon led to other ventures online and led to lots of consulting jobs to offline business owners like real estate professionals, general contractors, dental labs and others who needed help with using the Internet to grow their company. Because of my track record for selling millions of dollars worth of products and services for us, and for our clients, my consulting services were in great demand.


Over the years, I've had the good fortune to work with various home inspector marketing coaches and consultants. These guys worked with helping inspectors grow their 'brick and mortar' biz, but consulted with me on the Internet side of things because they didn't understand it fully. We helped these consultants' clients grow astronomically because the Internet started to take off in a BIG way. In working with these home inspector coaches and their clients over the course of 8 years, we've managed to build hundreds of websites for inspectors, drive traffic, rank websites and analyze what worked and what didn't work for inspectors. Because of all of the testing and all of the data, we were finally able to build out website systems and strategies that easily converted website visitors into qualified leads, and then turned them into paying customers for our inspectors. InspectMania is the company that grew out of all the work we did for home inspectors and home inspector coaches. We've pioneered a lot of the online strategies that many home inspectors still use today; I'll share many of these strategies within the pages of this guide. These strategies can literally turn your home inspection business around! But be warned... I’m the first to admit our practices are a little unorthodox... Many inspectors get nervous and try to convince us that our methods are over-the-top, and that we've somehow 'gone mad'... But don't let that worry you. Our methods work wonders. SO… I don't want to drag this out. I just wanted to introduce myself. Before we start, let me give you with a few stats:


• There are 3+ BILLION Google searches daily • Blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more

indexed links • Research shows 75% of users never go past the 1st page of search

listings • 50% of mobile searchers seek local results. 61% of those searches

result in a sale

Your home inspection business can benefit from these stats, but you MUST be present online to capitalize from it all.

SETTING THE FOUNDATION In order to win BIG in your local marketplace, you must have fully functional marketing systems in place. While most inspectors understand the importance of marketing, many simply don’t do it. There is no way around this – you gotta do it. You must invest in it and you must cultivate it and manage it, otherwise, your business does not grow. Another thing you must remember when it comes to online marketing and establishing an online presence – this is not an overnight strategy. It can take upwards of 8-10 months before you can really start to see traction from the strategies I’ll be sharing. Remember, you’re building a real business. If BIG results could be had within a few weeks, then everybody would be doing it. It takes time. Most inspectors will start off strong with the implementation of the strategies outlined in this guide, but the majority will typically stop within 2-4 months because they’re not seeing the results they feel they should be getting.


Bad for them, but good for you – because if you can ride it out, you can usually come out on top and win big. I want to stress this to you again. This IS a long-term strategy. You will NOT likely see any BIG results for at least 8-10 months. Anyone else telling you otherwise is lying to you. I’m not out to earn the quick buck. I’m out to set realistic expectations so you’re not disappointed, all in an effort to keep you focused on the 10-month journey so you can ride it out and reap the rewards other inspectors will surely miss out on. MOST HOME INSPECTOR WEBSITES SUCK! I’ve had the good fortune to build and review thousands of websites over my lifetime. I’ve looked at thousands of hours worth of data, and I’ve tested and analyzed everything from having photos and videos on a website versus having straight text. The number 1 mistake I see home inspectors making on their website is talking about themselves to early in the conversation. They’ll usually list all of their certifications at the top of the page, along with the various associations they’re members of. After that, they’ll usually go into long detail about how great they are and how many inspections they’ve conducted over the years. The problem with this approach is that most of the visitors landing on the website have absolutely no idea what all those symbols and abbreviations mean. The words, symbols and abbreviations all start to look like a foreign language and people don’t have the patience to sit there to decipher it. So instead, they quickly leave the page and go on to the next website. I’m in no way saying that the certifications and association memberships aren’t important – I’m simply saying it’s too early to bring this stuff up.


Take a look at the examples I’ve screenshot below:

I mean really… What type of confidence does this homepage inspire? Not much at all. People need to know they’ve arrived at the right place. I’m not immediately confident this website belongs to a home inspector. Look at the next example below…


Nobody cares about you. People are only interested in how they benefit. They want to know ‘what’s in it for me’. That’s all they want to know. These folks are about to fork over payments on a property for the next 30 years – you need to inspire some type of confidence from the beginning that you can actually help or spare them from buying a nightmare home.


Once they’re convinced you’re the person who could actually help them, then you can back it up with all of your credentials. Today’s buyers are doing their research prior to selecting an inspector. They want to be educated about the process. They want to know how you’re different. They want to know how they’ll benefit when they choose you. Your website is a great place to show them your expertise. You should have content in the form of articles, reports and videos. Your website should become the ‘learning hub’ from which your website visitors can learn all they need to know. One of our client’s routinely updates videos across their website to showcase findings from recent home inspections in the area:

We’ve found that by including these videos on the website, visitors start to understand how serious the inspection process is and they no longer take it lightly. They start to see that these types of problems can happen to them too.


Videos also allow you to showcase your expertise. The visitor starts to feel like they ‘know’ you as they watch more and more of your videos. Including FREE reports on your website also encourages visitors to download and consume. This is another way to ‘educate’ and showcase your ‘expertise’.

Many of these visitors will download and print and read. They’ll pass along to friends and family. They’ll share it on their social media feeds… These are all assets you create once and can bring value to your home inspection firm for years to come. Look at these things as assets that help you sell your inspection services. The more assets you have, the more you get discovered.


We take an education-based approach towards selling – like what I’m doing now. I’m not trying to sell you anything. It’s my goal to provide you with all of the information you need to make an informed decision. I want you to decide which route to go. We encourage our inspectors to do the same thing on their website. No one wants to be sold anything. So keep it simple. Your website should include a nice bold headline that clearly articulates a benefit to the visitor. They should be able to read it and quickly know they’re at the right place. Here are some simple headline examples – along with some ‘in your face’ examples.

Protect Your Investment with an In-depth Home Inspection

How Would Your Life Change … If Suddenly, the House You Purchased a Year Ago Started to Slowly Breakdown?

Get Inspected Before Locking Yourself into a 30-Year Mortgage!

Dream Home or Financial Nightmare?

Bizarre Findings From Recent Home

Inspection Sends Homeowner into Shock!

Colony of Bats Uncovered During Routine Home Inspection in North Jackson

These types of headlines will certainly get most people’s attention… The National Enquirer is one of the top selling newspapers on the newsstand. They use some of the most awful and unbelievable headlines than any other paper – and they do it because people respond and pick-up the magazine and buy it.


Even though the topics are over the top, people can’t help themselves. They gotta pick it up. Take a look at the other TOP selling magazine on the newsstand… Cosmopolitan.


I oftentimes find myself flipping through the pages when I see outrageous headlines like that… I can’t help myself either, LOL.


When trying to come up with headlines to go on home inspector websites, I generally turn to my collection of Cosmopolitan magazines for inspiration… Using the headline from the magazine cover above, I’d turn it into this… HOMEBUYERS BEWARE: 13 Sneaky Tricks to Look Out for During the Home Inspection. Number 5 Could Turn Your Dream Home into a Nightmare! I know that’s a little over the top – but I’d certainly test it… People read and respond to this stuff. Our goal is to stop the visitor in their tracks and get them to read and consume. You can’t always do that with simple headlines. Headlines are designed to grab attention… If we don’t grab it, they go elsewhere. People enjoy stories – if you have some, use them. Have fun with your website – try not to be like everyone else. Otherwise, it’s hard to standout. You don’t want to be the same. You want to be different and memorable. Also, with regards to the type of content you should have on your website, I suggest the following pages: • About Us: On this page, you’re free to talk about yourself, your

experiences and your credentials (certifications/associations). This page is usually one of the most visited pages of a website. Have fun with it – show your real personality.

• Services: You should include the various services you offer. Ideally, each service should have it’s own page so that it can be optimized for search.


• Testimonials/Reviews: People really do read these pages. If you can get photographs of your clients, this will help the authenticity of the review. Video is even better – simply ask your customers for it.

• Schedule Now: While most inquiries will come by phone, many will still fill out the form on your website. Make sure to have one on your website and make it stand out so people can easily find and access it.

• Blog: You should have one and it should be updated regularly. This is going to be your secret weapon to dominating your local marketplace. I mentioned earlier that blogs give websites 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links. Content will help people bump into your website when they come searching for a variety of phrases. At a minimum, you should be blogging 3-5 times per month – the more you do, the quicker you can expect to move up the ranks.

REVIEWING ANALYTICS Not long ago, an inspector called me because he felt he needed help with his SEO (search engine optimization). After running reports on his website, I felt he didn’t have an SEO problem. He practically ranked for all of his major keywords. But yet, he wasn’t getting many phone calls and very few people ever booked an inspection from his website. When I looked at his Google Analytics, he had a 99% bounce rate. What that basically means is that as soon as a person landed on his website, they almost immediately clicked back out and left. In other words, the data was indicating his website SUCKED royally. Upon looking at his website, it was clear why he was getting the 99% bounce rate. Even with the facts, he did not want to get it redesigned. He still wanted us to work on SEO stuff – even though I explained to him that was not the case.


He was not hearing it… He did not want to start over. We later discovered that he built that website himself and poured hundreds of hours into learning and building out that website and he just couldn’t bring himself to change it – even though it was costing him lost revenue, he did not want to budge. This is why Analytics is so important. You need to know what’s happening on your website so you can make appropriate decisions. The data doesn’t lie. If you heed the data, you can win BIG. So… What is analytics? Google has free software you can install onto your website called Google Analytics. It allows you to track data on your website. For example, you can track: • How many people came to your website • How long people stay on your website • What pages they view • How long they stay on each page • Which pages are the most popular • Which pages are the least popular • What keywords people searched to find you • What path they can once they land on your website • How quickly they leave

All of this data is extremely important. When analyzed, you’ll get an understanding of what to change to make your website better. We monitor this data on behalf of our clients to make subtle changes to the website to see what type of positive or negative effect it’ll have on conversions.


This allows us to make continuous tweaks so that we can ultimately build a website that converts and keeps your inspection schedule full. Over time, you’ll be able to go and see the terms and keyword phrases people typed into the various search engines to find you. Once you know what the phrases are, you can create new content around those phrases, which increases the likelihood your pages show up when other people conduct related searches. If you don’t have any type of analytics software on your website, stop whatever it is you’re doing right now and install it – it’s FREE. If your Webmaster hasn’t installed this on your website, he or she should be fired immediately. Go here to get yours setup: www.Google.com/analytics If you’re unwilling to at least get this onto your website, you might as well stop and quit now while you’re ahead, lol. This is as basic as it gets – you’re going to need this data to expand your reach online. IS YOUR WEBSITE MOBILE FRIENDLY?

With over 67% of Google searches happening from mobile devices,

you better make sure your website is mobile friendly (or responsive) before

you get the 'Google Spank'.

If your website is mobile friendly, Google will reward you. But since April

21, 2015, many non-mobile friendly websites have already started getting

penalized.


Inspectors that were once on the front page of Google, have already

started to lose their rankings and get thrown to the back. Google wants to

deliver the best possible experiences for it’s users and they’re essentially

saying that your non-friendly mobile website is a nuisance, and they don’t

want it listed.

Google has setup a page where you can test to see if your website is mobile

friendly by their set of criteria (not yours). It’s not enough to be mobile

friendly. You want Google to see your site as mobile friendly.

Go to the link below to test yours — if it’s not mobile friendly, contact

InspectMania today so we can get you compliant:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly

Here are a few things you can do to make sure you’re on the right

side of this algorithm update.

1. If you’re using a WordPress, simply updating to the latest theme version

may be enough to make your website mobile friendly. Many theme

developers are making their themes mobile responsive.

2. The recommended option for your website is a “mobile responsive” sites

or theme… This is where your website automatically resizes to fit within

the parameters of the device being used — in other words, your website

will automatically adjust/adapt to whatever device you’re using.


I’d suggest staying away from the junk that redirects to a crappy mobile site

with a bunch of buttons — it’s tacky and not content friendly for your

users.

3. Contact us for help in fixing this. If you have great rankings, don’t run the

risk of getting thrown to the back and losing your positioning. DIRECTORY SUBMISSIONS

No more yellow pages – people now turn to the Internet to find local

service providers. One way to get found is via online directories.

There are a bunch of them out there and the mistake most people make is

submitting only to a handful. Every directory you submit to is a chance to

ensure you get discovered online.

Some directories are more important than others. And while we have some

private ones we submit our clients to, the following directories are great to

start off with for all local home inspectors:

• Google My Business: https://www.google.com/business/

• Bing Places: https://www.bingplaces.com/

• Yahoo Local: https://www.aabacosmallbusiness.com/

• Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/

• Facebook Pages: https://www.facebook.com/pages/create

• BBB: http://www.bbb.org/

• Angie’s List: https://www.angieslist.com/


• Merchant Circle: https://www.merchantcircle.com/signup

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/add/show

• Yellow Pages: http://www.yellowpages.com/?re=yp

• White Pages: http://www.whitepages.com/

• Super Pages: http://my.dexmedia.com//spportal/quickbpflow.do

• Yellow Book: http://www.yellowbook.com/

• Local.com: https://advertise.local.com/

Also, make sure to get your listing included with any memberships or

associations you’re a part of. Links pointing to your website from

organizations related to your profession helps a lot (ASHI, NACHI,

NAHI, or any accredited schools you’re affiliated with).

When submitting to these directories, the #1 thing you must make certain

is that the name, address and phone number appear on each listing

EXACTLY the same way EVERYTIME.

If you use Suite 300, it must be Suite 300 every time – not Ste. 300. The

best thing to do is write out the name, address and phone number down

onto a word doc and copy and paste into each directory to ensure it’s 100%

identical.

If you’re not sure your previous/existing listings are identical, go back and

correct them. This will hurt you if they’re not.

SOCIAL MEDIA PROFILES


While there are a gazillion social media sites, there are only a handful you

should concern yourself with. Each of these will allow you to customize a

portion of the page to make it look similar to your website – which I’d

suggest you do.

• Facebook

• Google+

• Twitter

• LinkedIn

• YouTube

Posting regularly to these sites can play a big role in how well you rank.

There are programs/plugins you can purchase that will automatically

submit content from your website directly to Facebook, Google+, Twitter

and LinkedIn.

Onlywire.com makes it easy to auto-submit, but you’ll need to upgrade to

their premium service to have the content posts to your business pages (for

example, the free version does not post to your Google+, nor your

Facebook business page). HOME INSPECTOR BLOGGING The number one benefit to blogging is that it helps drive traffic to your website. This is something you simply must do if you want to rank well in the search engines. Think about some of the ways people find your website:


1. They could easily type out your name in their search browser – but if they’re doing that, they already know you and that’s not really getting you a bunch of new traffic.

2 . You could buy traffic from pay per click search engines like Google AdWords or Bing’s AdCenter, but that could get costly.

3 . You could be for links from local real estate agents right? But that’ll only get you a few extra clicks.

So, how can you get more traffic? You can get it from a 3-combo pack: 1) blogging, 2) social media and 3) search. Here’s how. If you’re like most inspectors, you probably don’t have a ton of pages on your website. And it’s highly unlikely you update those webpages either. Blogging helps solve those problems. Each time you create a new blog post, it’s one more page from your website that gets indexed into the search engines. It’s one more opportunity for you to show up in the search results and route traffic to your website. It’s also another cue to Google that your content is fresh and current and that your website is active – most of your competitors won’t be doing this. When you blog consistently, it also helps your website to get discovered via social media. Each new post is an opportunity for people to share your content on social networks likes Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This social sharing helps your inspection business get exposure to a new audience not familiar with you. And don’t forget OnlyWire – the software that automatically posts content from your blogging efforts directly to your social media networks. This is how your content gets ‘distributed’ on auto-pilot without you having to go and post to each network.


So, as you can see, blogging is a real benefit that can help you bring traffic to your website and it works with search engines to get you indexed and it works with social media to get you more exposure to a larger and local audience. Another benefit to blogging is that it helps establishes you as the authority. The best bloggers will answer common questions their customers, leads and visitors have. If you’re regularly posting content that’s helpful to the end user, it will boost your credibility. Take a look at a page on one of my own websites – it has over 100+ comments. We answered every last question asked by a visitor to that page – imagine how much this helped my credibility? Think about other visitors who just scroll through and read those questions and answers – many might not have ever thought to ask those questions, but as they read the comments, they learn from what others asked… My credibility goes up – make sure to scroll down when you get to the page: http://www.tshirtriches.com/where-to-get-custom-t-shirt-transfers/ Another benefit to blogging is that it can continue to drive results for years to come. For example, that post you saw on my website… I wrote that back in 2013. That post still pulls in traffic nearly 3 years later – and I get business from that page each week (people click that buy button and order), but yet, I wrote that 3-years ago. When you take the time to create quality content that matters to your audience, new prospects will continue to bump into it years later. It doesn’t go away – it gets indexed and ranked, and it stays there. This is why it’s important you blog consistently – you just don’t know which piece of content will be the money maker for you. You need to look at these blog posts as ‘assets’. The more assets you have working for you, the bigger your


pocket book gets (the more rankings you get, more indexed pages, more eyeballs, more credibility and authority, more business). These assets will continue to work for you – whether you’re out inspecting, or enjoying time with the family. The time and energy you put into blogging yesterday could easily turn into thousands of home inspections in the future. 80% of the traffic that come to my website each month comes from blog posts not published in the last few months – but from older blog posts. As I mentioned previously, getting ranked and building assets that’ll be working for you many years from now takes time. This is a long-term strategy, not a 30-day ROI.

We Can Help You Win BIG! If you need help with getting home inspections from the Internet, e-mail me at: [email protected] Give us about 10-months and we’ll build you a solid foundation from which your home inspection business can compete with the big boys!

digital marketplace domination for home inspectors · websites, social media, seo, video marketing,...

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