How to Market Your Home Inspection Business

 
InterNACHI's Member Marketing Team will:
  • help you brand your business;
  • design a new logo for your business;
  • re-design your existing logo; and
  • design and customize your business cards, flyers and brochures.

And all of the design work is free for InterNACHI members. All you do is place your order and work with our design consultant.

We'll provide one-on-one consultation to help brand your business and design your marketing materials. All consultation and design work are free for our certified inspectors. Become a certified home inspector.
 
 
So, you’ve started a great home inspection business. But no one knows about it. Who are you? What does your company do? Why would I hire you instead of any other inspector? Can you explain why you're the best inspector?
Answering those questions is part of working on your branding. Branding is all about who you are and what you do. It’s about how you want to be known. It’s about how you want your clients to remember you.
This article is excerpted from our free, online Home Inspection Business Course (online, free, open to everyone).
 
Branding vs. Marketing
Finding potential customers and reaching out to them with your message to attract them to your business is called marketing. Many inspectors are very good at the technical aspects of performing inspections but are lousy at the marketing process. They do not enjoy it. They do not think it’s important to their business. Many inspectors fail within the first year because they do not invest enough time and energy into marketing their business.
The good news is that marketing your inspection business does not have to be time-consuming and can, in fact, be one of the most enjoyable aspects of your business. Marketing does not have to be expensive. It’s fairly simple and straightforward. For example, word-of-mouth marketing is the best, most powerful type of marketing technique. It’s simple to do, and it’s not expensive.
 
Branding Is NOT Marketing 
Let’s make one thing clear:  Branding is not marketing, and marketing is not advertising. Branding is identifying your business, marketing is the larger concept, and advertising can be a small part of marketing. Paying for an advertisement in a local newspaper can be part of your marketing strategy.
Paid advertisements are an expensive way to promote your business. There are several ways to promote your business that are efficient and inexpensive, including:
  • creating a website;
  • designing custom brochures, flyers and literature;
  • networking with other business owners;
  • networking with real estate agents;
  • using InterNACHI lead-generation tools;
  • giving clients incentives to spread the word;
  • writing announcements or stories for local media;
  • doing live presentations, and participating in trade shows and seminars; and
  • listing your business in directories.
There are simple ways to advertise your business that are affordable and effective. As a consumer, you are bombarded with marketing every day. You probably know more about marketing and advertising than you think you do.  

Branding, Marketing and Advertising
Got all that straight? There’s branding, marketing and advertising. They are all important. And they are not the same. Each is different and plays different roles in building your business. So, let’s continue with learning a little more about branding. 
 
What is Branding? 
Branding is all about who you are and what you do. It’s about how you want to be known. It’s about how you want your clients to remember you.
 
Branding Exercise

The following exercise will help you decide what your brand is, what your company stands for, and what your tagline will be.

List three areas in which your company is the best, and why:

  1. _____________________
  2. _____________________
  3. _____________________

List three things about your company that everyone should know about:

  1. _________________
  2. _________________
  3. _________________

List the top five benefits for consumers who decide to hire your business:

  1. __________________
  2. __________________
  3. __________________
  4. __________________
  5. __________________

Now, ask five real estate agents what they think are the most important aspects of working with a home inspector:

  1. _____________________
  2. _____________________
  3. _____________________
  4. _____________________
  5. _____________________
 
Lining Up with the Needs of Your Clients

A key to building a successful business is offering a service that your clients need. Effectively communicating to your clients that you can deliver exactly what they need is critical. If your inspection business is the best at providing home inspections, then you want to communicate that. If your business is not known for what you do best, then there’s a problem in your marketing.

For example, if you think your business is the best at writing reports, but your clients are more interested in great customer service, then your business is not in alignment with your clients' expectations. If you think that your experience is your greatest strength, but your clients believe that same-day reporting is most important, then your business is out of alignment with your clients' needs.
 
The most successful business is the one that understands what is most important to its potential clients.
 
Your Brand Should...

Your brand should:

  • communicate to your potential clients what your business stands for; and
  • match the top five things that are most important to your clients.
You could write down your brand message as a big paragraph, or it could be boiled down to just one short sentence or tagline.
 
Your Brand Tagline 

Now that you’ve put time into understanding what your clients need and what you should do to match your services to those needs, it's time to have some fun. Think about a tagline. A tagline is one sentence that represents what you want your company to be known for. This is not critical, but it sure is nice when you’ve created one. It helps you communicate your brand in one short sentence.

For example, “Have it your way” is a tagline from Burger King. “M’m! M’m! Good!” is a tagline from Campbell Soup. FedEx has “When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.”

Write down five ideas for your tagline:

  1. _________________
  2. __________________
  3. __________________
  4. __________________
  5. __________________
Not easy, huh? You could ask your family and friends for help. You might be amazed by what they come up with for your tagline. Once you have a list of potential taglines, choose one that fits best. Go for it. You can change it later.
 
 
Branded Logos 

Logos convey the look of your business name. They are important to your brand. 

We all recognize McDonald’s logo, the Disney logo, and the Apple logo. But those are national brands. And you’re probably not creating a national brand. So, no pressure. It’s a great idea to hire a professional designer to create a business logo for you.

 
Don’t simply steal someone else’s work from the Internet. Don’t download an image from Google either. Those images are likely copyrighted.
 
Start from Scratch

It’s best to start from scratch and create a new business logo.

InterNACHI's Member Marketing Team can help you create a logo that communicates who you are to help make your business look professional. InterNACHI's Marketing Team will design a new logo for your inspection business or re-design your existing logo, and design and customize your business cards, flyers and brochures. It's all free.

You’ll get to work closely with InterNACHI's Design Team to create a custom logo and a design for your company that fits just right. Contact the Inspector Marketing Department today by visiting nachi.org/marketing.


 

To see the design work InterNACHI has done for its membership for free, please visit marketing.nachi.org/portfolio.

 
Same Look, Feel and Message

Successful branding is when everything has the same look, feel and message.

The key is to have everything that originates from your office, including your website, business cards, flyers, etc., to have the same look, the same feel, and the same information and message. Your business logo, tagline, and marketing pieces should be the same, and never differ from each other.

You want your potential clients to receive the same message no matter what they’re looking at. If they are visiting your business website, your Facebook page, your blog, your email, your business card, your newsletter, your inspection report, your home maintenance book, your flyers, brochures, or rack cards, your envelopes and letterhead, your inspection vehicle, your shirt and hat, your invoices, and so on--all of them should look and feel the same and have the same message. Commit to this image of yours--your brand and your look--and stick to it.
 
Design Examples

Here are a couple examples of how everything should look and feel the same. InterNACHI did the design work for free for the following members' inspection companies (a free benefit for all members):

K-Town Home Inspections logo: 


 

K-Town Home Inspections flyer:


 
K-Town Home Inspections business card:
 
 

K-Town Home Inspections business card sticker:

 

K-Town Home Inspections vehicle magnet:

 

Here's another example of the design work that makes everything look and feel the same. All the design work was done for this member by InterNACHI's Marketing Team for free.

Magpie Property Inspections logo:


Magpie Property Inspections business card:


 

Magpie Property Inspections brochure:


Magpie Property Inspections website:


 

Branding Summary 
Now you should have a good idea about what your brand is, what your company is, and what you do. You should have at least three sentences that summarize your company. These are developed by matching what you’re the best at with what is most important to your clients. You should have a tagline, which is a single sentence or phrase that summarizes who you are. Your logo should be professionally designed and work well with your tagline. And remember to keep your branding the same.
 
InterNACHI's Free, Online Home Inspection Business Course
The previous information is excerpted from the Home Inspection Business Course, a free, online course for home inspectors provided by InterNACHI. It's open to everyone.
 
Use the free business development tool for home inspectors at www.nachi.org/bizvelop 
 
 
 
  

Download your free copy of SLEEP WELL: A Home Inspector’s Guide to Managing Risk.

Download your free copy of STACKS: A Home Inspector's Guide to Increasing Gross Revenue.

BizVelop: Free Business Development Tool for Home Inspectors 

 
 

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