Twitter is a social media platform that allows people to send messages, also called “tweets” that the world can see via a timeline. The difference is that unlike other platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, your messages are limited to 140 characters.

It is also a great way to market yourself if you know how to maximize the tweets you make to reach the right audience.

For most twitter is like yelling at a wall and hoping someone is listening, there is however, a better way to communicate.

So instead of yelling aimlessly in hopes of finding leads and customers, you can use twitter analytics to gear your tweets to focus on the people you’re actually trying to reach.

What is the Tweet Activity Dashboard?

The Tweet Activity Dashboard is an analytics tool that shows users how many people have engaged with their tweets via clicks, profile views and link interaction. You can also see the number of retweets, likes and follows that each tweet receives.

This is especially helpful because it tells you who your audience is and then allows you to use this information to see how they trend over time. This also tells you if you have the wrong audience. If you’re posting tweets and they’re getting loads of likes and retweets, but the only people interacting are other inspectors of people completely out of your market, that is a pretty big indication that you need to change your tactics.

It’s nice to be popular, but you’re on twitter to generate leads.

Think of it like this, if there was 1 tweet you sent out that yielded a home inspection,  wouldn’t you want to capture that lightning in a bottle? With twitter analytics you get the next best thing. You can take that tweet, analyze it, see what made it work vs all the other tweets that aren’t working and potentially make lighting strike more than once.

How to Set-Up Your Tweet Activity Dashboard

The Tweet Activity Dashboard does not start working until you go and turn it on. It is a very simple process, and can be viewed on both your desktop and your device.

To Activate on Your Desktop:

Go to analytics.twitter.com
Login with your Twitter account.
Click on Tweets.
After logging in, now you can view your dashboard.

On Your Device:

Go to the Twitter App.
Tap on the tweet you want to see. This will bring up its summery.
Tap on View Tweet Activity.

Navigating the Tweet Activity Dashboard

After you log in, you will be taken to your account home page. Here you will see how many tweets you have done over a certain number of days, the total number of impressions, total number of profile visits, how many mentions, and how many followers you have gained.

You will also see your top tweet, top mention and your top media tweet. From there you can click on the “View Tweet Activity” button to see the activity for your top tweet, or you can click on “View all Tweet Activity” in order to get a list of your tweets for the range set. On your mobile device, click on the icon for Tweet activity (it looks like a graph) to see individual tweet information.

Your top tweets are very important figures to look at, know, and try to recapture, if they’re working. When looking at your top tweets, from an inspectors perspective, you should be looking less at how many people interacted with it, and more at what types of people interacted with it. At the end of the day you’re on twitter to meet new customers, and if you’re connecting to people 3000 miles away, you’re not using twitter efficiently.

Once you click on the link, you will be given a list of your tweets along with a summary of how the tweet is doing. If you would like more detail, click on the tweet to see its specific data. From there you will see the total number of impressions and engagements that the tweet has received.

This is the part that can really add value to your tweeting. Your twitter profile should already be geared towards selling. Your description should have your website, the areas you service, etc. When clicking on tweet activity you can see extra analytics that aren’t normally available, obviously you can see likes and retweets, but you can also see “details expanded” and “profile views”.

These are your most important analytics. What they show is that someone was so interested in you after that specific tweet that they wanted more information on you.

This can lead to people seeing you’re a home inspector, going to your website, and potentially reaching out.

Benefits of Using the Tweet Activity Dashboard

Knowing the type of interactions that people do with your tweets is extremely helpful, especially if you are trying to build a business or your reputation. You can use this information to interact with past and future customers, growing your word of mouth, as well as making sure that you stay fresh in someone’s mind who previously used your home inspection services. Which can be highly valuable in creating future leads.

Checking your dashboard can show you how a tweet does over time, and also lets you know the kind of topics people will click on. And more importantly what types of tweets have people interested in you enough to go to your profile. This information will also assist you in crafting future tweets that will reach the most people, and more specifically the right people.

Knowing this information will give you an edge to creating your tweets and will help you build up both your reputation as a qualified and knowledgeable home inspector, which can also lead to more leads, more word of mouth, and more inspections.

Twitter Analytics in Practice

Now that we have the basics of twitter analytics down, how can we use it? Lets say you posted 3 tweets. One linking to an article on home inspecting, one stating something along the lines of “One of the biggest mistakes new home buyers make is not checking for preexisting mold”, and one that says “Busy Friday #goodproblems”.

And let’s assume the first tweet has the most likes and retweets, however the details expanded and profile click numbers are extremely low. The second tweet had a little interaction, but the profile click number is fairly high (compared to the total engagements) and the last tweet had little to no interaction.

At first glance without incorporating twitter analytics you may think that clearly the first tweet is what you should be doing, you had a lot of interaction with that one tweet. And if you were a Kardashian that would be true. But you’re not on twitter to become famous, you’re on there to sell your services.

The tweet that is most important to you would always be the ones that gets people on your site. If hundreds of people are liking and retweeting your link to someone else’s article, and they’re not checking out your profile there is no real benefit for your business.

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You’ve heard that you should start tracking your website’s analytics. After some confusing steps to add a tracking code to your website, you head to the dashboard only to find that it’s incredibly confusing.

There is so much data that it can be overwhelming at first. You want to track more than the chart that shows you how many visitors to your site per day. While it’s nice to see visitors, you want to know about unique visitors, how long people stay on your site and where these visitors originate.

Unique Users

When you visit the dashboard of Google Analytics for your website, you’ll see a list of menus on the left side. One of the most important things you’ll want to track if you’re trying to grow your visitors is under Audience. Under Audience, you’ll want to hit Overview to see two choices; Sessions and Users.

The visitors to your site are broken down into two categories. One is new visitors to the site, which is the Users category. Repeat visitors are listed under Sessions. New visitors to your site are considered unique users, and if you’re trying to grow your traffic, that’s the number you want to track.

Unique users is extremely important for your business. You want your unique user count to be high. This means new potential clients are looking at your website. This metric is huge when trying to determine how many new eyes you’re bringing in every week/month/year. The more unique users, the more potential leads.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a measure of visitors leaving your website after looking at a page. Much like the other metrics the information gathered here is very subjective. A low bounce rate means that people are staying on your site for a long time, whereas a high bounce rate means that someone spends a short time on a page before clicking off of the site.

Normally you could look at a high bounce rate as a bad thing. But that isn’t always the case, when looking at your bounce rate you should also take the time on site into consideration. A high time on site, with high bounce rate, could signify that all the information a visitor needed was on one page.

However a low time on site with high bounce rate could signify that the information a visitor was looking for was either hard to find, or non-existent.

To be a successful home inspector your goal should be to have a high time on site, and a high bounce rate. This will mean that you laid out all the pertinent information for the potential customer, in one convenient place.

Traffic Sources

If you’re considering whether to put your time into more social media engagement or linking to a certain site, you can analyze the source of your traffic currently through Acquisition. You can see how your keywords are working through Organic Search.

The links and sharing you are doing currently can be seen through Direct Traffic as well as the amount of traffic coming from ads. The channels page provides more detail about where the traffic originates.

Traffic sources combined with the amount of leads you get can be invaluable. If you know where all your leads are coming from, you know exactly where to focus your efforts. Work smarter, not harder.

Time on Site

The time a visitor spends on your website can be a very telling figure, you can determine whether or not your website is working. This is a very important tool to make sure what you’re doing is working.

For a home inspector low time on your site doesn’t necessarily mean there is a problem with your website. That’s when you have to start looking at not only how long someone is on your site, but where they’re spending their time.

Pages

Another metric that you should track faithfully is the viewed pages. This will give you the most popular pages on your site. This can be useful for finding the least popular pages on your site too. When you see your most popular pages, you can easily determine what is working and what isn’t.

Pages are extremely important to determine if a visitor is looking at your associations, services, certifications, report examples, etc. You can then use this information to determine what a potential lead is looking for on your website, which can be invaluable information.

Keywords

The keywords you use in your home inspector business are ones that bring visitors to your site where they will skim your content and hire you for their home inspection. The traffic should reflect the keywords that you’ve chosen, and if they don’t, you should tweak your approach to gain visitors through keywords.

Keywords can also show you what people are searching in order to find you. This can tell you whether they’re looking for you by name, zip code, price, etc. You can then use that information to tailor you website to suit the methods people are finding you.

While you might not use all of the analytics that Google has to offer, these should be your top priority since as using all the information they provide will help you gain potential leads. These metrics will help you with decisions regarding how you market your services

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The key to building a successful blog lies in your ability to deliver truly great content relevant to your audience on a consistent basis that your readers can depend on. No one would expect a daily newspaper to skip an issue or two because of a “slow news day” and neither should you.

Building a loyal and engaged audience simply can’t be done by publishing mediocre content on a “hit and miss” basis. Here are a few proven blogging tips to help you get and keep your home inspector blog running on the right track.

1. Create a Written Plan.

Start by jotting down your objectives – exactly who you want to reach and what you’ll need to do to reach them. Once you have your target audience defined, create a content strategy that will deliver the type of content that your prospective readers are hungry for.

A great way to get started is by following social media conversations and other blogs that cater to your niche to see which topics are generating the most reader interest and engagement.

2. Maintain a Perpetual List of Blog Post Ideas.

You’ll never run short of ideas if you keep a running list of possible post topics and other inspirational material to help get your creative juices flowing.

Be sure to check the comments and questions posted by your readers for possible future topics.

3. Take Frequent Breaks From Writing.

Research has shown that a brief 30 second break can improve mental clarity by as much as 13 percent. Don’t wear yourself out trying to crank out a post in one sitting.

Take a brief two or three minute break every half hour or so to boost your writing productivity.

4. Resist the Temptation to Edit As You Write.

Take a tip from legendary author Ernest Hemingway – write while your temper and creativity are running hot, and edit after your temper and emotions have cooled.

If you try to edit while you write, you may find it difficult to get past the first couple of sentences.

5. Write Your Posts in Batches.

Once you have collected a few ideas for blog posts that you want to create, write them in a batch in a single session.

This technique will help you build momentum while relieving the stress from not having ready content available to meet your publishing schedule.

6. Set Aside Time for Interacting With Your Readers.

Think of your blog as another form of social media. A blog with a strong and engaged audience does not spring up out of a vacuum – it requires your active participation in the conversation.

The more you demonstrate how much you care about your readers and their opinions and ideas, the more loyal and engaged an audience you’ll build for your blog.

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Facebook is a great marketing tool and using it’s algorithm to expand your reach and increase your profitability makes it priceless. Mastering the ability to reach more and more customers on a site with over 1 billion viewers can seem daunting, but using Facebook’s tried and true formula will streamline the process.

The formula used to optimize the social marketing ability of users, is an algorithm. It looks something like this, in a basic form: What to post + who to show it to + when to post it = optimal number of interactions with viewers. Facebook studies how it’s users interact and uses the information to create and adjust the algorithm to help boost the “optimal number of interactions”.

Each piece of the formula is vital to the users success at extending their reach. Just doing one or two is not going to achieve the desired results. Add to this, there are many different ways to do each one, and figuring out what works and what doesn’t gets a lot more complicated.

Optimal Deep Interactions

Interaction is a user taking some kind of action on a post. Likes, comments, shares, are the basic forms. Deeper interactions, such as sharing the post or clicking a link to an external website, are what you are really looking for.

The ultimate goal is to get the highest number of viewer interactions possible, because more interactions leads to more money in your pocket. Knowing that every one that sees a post is not going to make a purchase, doesn’t mean they are invaluable.

Add a hook that will encourage a viewer to interact more deeply. Without begging or demanding, try offering incentives for sharing or visiting a website, such as a freebie, or a subscription to a newsletter.

Share the Right Post

Adding content to a business page can be tricky. Viewers have an expectation, that the products and services are being offered by someone that knows the product, sure, but more importantly, that they are a professional and can handle their business with integrity and care about their customers. Professionalism is the most important thing customers look for in a business page, followed closely by relevant material.

Handle your comments with care. Disputes should be handled discreetly by a business owner. Disgruntled comments should be addressed by asking the viewer to send you a private message. Never argue with a potential client publicly. Doing so will drag the expectation of integrity into the gutter.

Not making your content relevant is a quick way to lose a potential customer. Mixing business with personal is unprofessional and not what is expected from a business. Do your best to make all of your posts relevant. Want to share an adorable cat video, go for it. Just find a way to make it relevant to your business. Include a blurb explaining why it’s relevant and never leave the viewer guessing why something has been posted.

Sharing with the Right People

Nabbing customers is no easy task. Facebook understands and gives you the ability to focus on a single audience with each post. You can customize promotions and direct them toward a single gender, age bracket, even income level!

To optimize target marketing, try creating a different post for each type of audience. Use one post to share with women, another to share with men, a different one to promote to a younger age bracket than one you would send to an older age group, and so on.

Mix and match your post content so it doesn’t exclude anyone not in your target campaign. Keep in mind that men have wives and mothers that they could share your post with, even if they aren’t really interested. Include an incentive for doing it to increase deeper interaction.

The Right Time

Viewers have to see your posts to interact with them. If you are posting when they are not checking Facebook, you are missing valuable customer reach because they just aren’t getting the message.

Timing your posts to coincide with when your viewers are looking can be hit or miss, but not impossible. Try different times to get a feel for when your posts are viewed the most and schedule your posts to publish at those times.

Facebook has a scheduler that will let you schedule posts at certain times. Use it to your advantage to publish your posts at certain times every day, like during the lunch hour and early evening, when viewers check Facebook the most. Watch your stats, and adjust your scheduled posts from time to time, to ensure you are getting the optimal reach.

Don’t let being overwhelmed by social media marketing hold you back. Mastering the individual parts that make up the Facebook algorithm will greatly expand your customer base, improve profitability, and streamline the process.

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Much more than a community requirement or another hoop to jump through so you can close on your house, your home inspection is an insight into the hidden parts of your potential home. Don’t fall in love with a house until the result of the home inspection is in and you know much more about the condition of the house. Your home inspection is an opportunity for you to take a crash course from an expert in your home; don’t take it lightly.

1. Water Damage

Often, the sellers are not trying to cover up or hide water damage issue. Unless they have completed a recent inspection, they may not know that they have water damage.

Your inspector will crawl all over the house, looking into every closet, knee wall and storage space for evidence of water damage. As you will accompany him on this inspection, use your eyes to assist him. You do not have his experience, but your savings are on the line. Look everywhere he looks and if you see something curious, ask about it. You are paying him for this inspection, not for the inspection report, so get your money’s worth out of the experience by asking as many questions as you can.

2. Drainage/Runoff Damage

Drainage and runoff are water issues outside the house that adversely affect it. Your inspector will walk the footprint of the house scrutinizing where the house meets the ground. He’s looking for cracks, evidence of standing water such as accumulated mud and debris. He’s looking for a level intersection of walls and earth; any shifting or leaning is indicative of a problem, the severity of which he may attempt to estimate or say that he can’t tell without a longer inspection.

He will also look up to see how the water drains from the roof. Poorly directed rain water from the roof can cause substantial damage over time.

These two points are often listed as the most frequently uncovered problems in home inspections. Water is a necessity for life, but it has strong destruction power when improperly managed.

3. Roof Problems

If your inspector says he does not walk roofs, find another inspector. The only way to do a complete roof review and assessment is to get out on the roof and walk all over it. Though you should accompany your inspector for the entire inspection, not many homeowners are comfortable walking on their roofs. For this part of the inspection, you may have to trust your inspector or take a chance on the roof, with appropriate safety equipment, of course.

If your inspector finds roofing issues, there is an excellent chance that he will be able to point them out to you from the ground. You may be able to see them with binoculars.

Ask enough follow-up questions to know if you will need a complete new roof soon, some patching, or nothing for now. See if your inspector can give you a benchmark price for the damage as a basis of collecting estimates if needed.

4. Electrical Issues

You should be able to see all the inspector sees in the electrical system. As you walk the house, he should be able to estimate the age of various parts of the system such as the switch box. As you do this review, ask him if the system is balanced and if not how much of a job it would be to correct. Does it have the standard number of outlets and can more be added. Has there been recent work to the electrical and how old are the oldest and news sections.

His main focus is on safety. He would like to be able to assure you that he sees no danger of an electrical fire, no evidence of shoddy work or dangerous shortcuts and nothing so old that it presents a danger.

5. Heating and Cooling

You really want these to have an A+ rating from your inspector because they cost top dollar to repair. Again, get as much information from him as you can about age, longevity, possible repairs and replacements as you can.

6.Plumbing

Of course he’s looking for leaky pipes here, but he’s also looking for recent repairs, poorly designed lines and evidence of leaking. As with the electrical system, he can’t see every inch of it, but he should be able to see enough to develop an understanding of the system and its problems.

7. Structural Problems

When house hunting, we can sometimes see the flooring more clearly than the roof line. Your inspector will focus his discerning eye on anything that hints of structural problems such as sagging joists, leaning walls, shifting foundation.

In this process, he also calls on his local expertise. He may look at a California neighborhood for evidence of earthquake damage, but for Vermont houses, concentrate on freezing damage.

8. Pattern of Deferred Maintenance

Your inspector may not find any large problems but may find damaged sheet rock that should have been patched, cantilevered flooring, old windows showing damage, doors that don’t close properly, ripped screens, leaky faucets and the like.

None of them very expensive to repair, but together they can require a considerable investment to correct. Ask about any irregularity you see. What about those rust spots in the sink? The tile in the bathroom has some cracks. Make sure every issue is recorded.

Your Home Inspection

Take ownership of your home inspection. Be an active participant. You are paying substantial money for the inspection so get value for your investment. When you have the report, feel free to call and ask follow-up questions. Take your own notes and review the inspection to make sure all the issue you have on your list are on that report.

You may not be able to get the homeowner to pay for the repairs uncovered by the inspection. However, it is best to know the good and the less than good about your future home.

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As home inspectors, we operate on a local platform. While you may do business in a number of cities across the state, region, or even the nation, you want your company name to be associated in the area in which you work. To get your company name to appear in a “home inspectors near me” search, you’re going to need to ensure you’re utilizing a local SEO strategy.

While a local SEO strategy is much like a standard SEO strategy in many ways, there are still a few key differences that can take your company name from the bottom of search results straight to the top. Do be sure you’re doing all you can when it comes to a local SEO strategy, check out this ultimate SEO checklist for home inspectors:

1. You Have Accurate Contact Information

One of the easiest ways for a search engine to identify your company as a local business is to include your contact information. This information should include a physical address, phone number, and the complete company name. If you operate more than one location, you’ll want to include the address and phone number for each location individually.

2. Your Contact Information is Located in the Footer of Your Website

Unless you operate over 10 physical locations, you should include your location addresses and phone numbers in the footer details on every one of your website pages. This will reiterate to the search engine that your company is associated with those particular cities and areas.

3. Your Information is Consistent

While a human may be able to tell that “Suite 103” and “#103” usually means the same thing, a search engine will just see this as a discrepancy in your information. Searches want to provide accurate information, so if it believes there is incorrect information on your webpage, it might push it further down in the results. You can avoid this by ensuring your addresses, phone numbers, and business names are consistent throughout your website and social media accounts.

4. You Have an Active Google Plus and Google MyBusiness Page

When it comes to which results Google will push first on their list, they’re going to prioritize their own pages in the hopes that they can meet your needs. Because of this, when a person does a local search, Google will first display the best Google MyBusiness pages that meet the recommendations.

This means that you not only need to claim your MyBusiness page, but you also need to ensure it is full of accurate and useful information.

5. You Have Happy Customers Leaving Great Reviews

Search engines want to give reviews that push searchers in the direction of great service, so the more favorable reviews you have, the better your opportunity for appearing at the top of the results list is. While some websites have restrictions on the ways you can go about getting reviews, the best way to do so is to ask your customers to leave a review once your service has been complete.

6. You Don’t Have Many Bad Reviews

Going off the same idea as before, Google doesn’t want to give searchers a bad experience. If you are consistently delivering a poor service to your clients, you probably won’t appear in the top of your search results. Give your clients exactly what they are looking for so you can have happy customers that leave great reviews and help you get more business.

7. You Have Testimonials On Your Website

Although review boards are important and should be monitored consistently, you’ll also want to display some of your best reviews on your website. Most potential customers will visit your page before deciding if they should do business with you, while not everyone will check out your reviews.

More than that, shining reviews may get lost in the middle of average reviews and might be over looked. Put those great testimonials right on your website and make sure it is in a easy to see location.

8. You’re Using Social Media

Your social media pages can also play into how well you’re doing with your local SEO strategy. Because both have a place to put in a physical address, this can create another digital connection between your company name, your industry, and the city you are delivering a service to.

If you haven’t already, create at least a Twitter and a Facebook page for your company and ensure you include an accurate address and phone number that is consistent with the contact information on your website. If you have multiple locations, you can even create unique pages for each location.

9. Your Website is Mobile Responsive

When someone does a search on a mobile device, the search engine is more likely to give results that are mobile friendly. Because so many “near me” searches are done on the go and on a mobile device, your website needs to be able to adapt to the various mobile screens. Take the time to ensure your website is mobile friendly so you can appear in those mobile searches.

10. You Have an Active Blog

Blogging is a huge component to having a strong SEO strategy, even when you’re operating on a local level. Using your blog for a local business can consistently put new information on your website and further associate your business name, the service you are providing, and the city you work in together.

Keep up an active blog with posts relevant to your area and your industry and your page should move towards the top of the search results.

Strong SEO strategies are important for all businesses, but particularly for those competing for customers and clients on a local level. If you’re not doing everything you can to get your home inspection business at the top of your local search results, you may be missing out on a lot of potential business. This checklist can help you see where you might need improvement.

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When it comes to using social media increase your visibility and personal brand as a home inspector, you should be aware that there are many more avenues to choose from besides Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Case in point: Instagram.

Instagram has recently become a major networking site, not only for teens who are obsessed with posting their latest selfies, but for serious businessmen and entrepreneurs who are harnessing the power of social media to enhance their own activities.

Why Should I Join Instagram?

If you’re a home inspector looking for a quick and inexpensive way to increase your presence online, you might be shocked or even amused to learn that Instagram is an excellent platform to do it.

In fact, you can build your brand into a powerhouse with thousands of followers in a very short period of time. With so much potential for growth, it’s no wonder that entrepreneurs are using social media to further their careers.

And think about the platform’s demographic: Instagram skews younger than Facebook and LinkedIn, which means it might be the perfect place to reach 20- and 30-somethings who are navigating the daunting process of buying their first home. Bingo!

Use It To Advertise Your Knowledge And Availability

For example, you might use Instagram as a place to post pictures of common house maintenance issues that you encounter on the job. Come up with a few tips on how to deal with these issues and post them in your photo’s caption.

Also, include your business email or company phone number so those who see the post call can you immediately to book their inspection.

To get your photos seen and discovered, it’s all about using the right hashtags. So, on this type of post, you might use hashtags like #realestate, #construction, #homebuyers, etc.

Home Inspector Tom Munro does a great job using Instagram for his brand.

Use Instagram To Post Short Explanatory Videos Related To Your Work

You can also use Instagram as a venue to post up a series of short explanatory videos that show various aspects of your work, such as the parts of a house that encounter the most common maintenance issues.

For example, you could do a series on common bathroom issues, like leaky pipes, cracked tile, and mold growth. You could make this a weekly series on Instagram and attract a great many followers in a short period of time.

Again, use hashtags that your target audience would be likely to search, like #DIY, #homerepair #remodeling, etc.

Showcase Homes You’ve Inspected

You can use your Instagram account to showcase all of the homes that you have inspected in the past. Posting up a host of carefully chosen images of the houses you have been to, along with a few pertinent comments on each, will give viewers a better impression of the length and breadth of your career.

The more experienced you can prove yourself to be, the more confidence a potential client will have in selecting you as the person they contract to inspect their home.

Advertise Your Official Website

Finally, you can use your account on Instagram to drive traffic back to your actual website.

Your bio should have a clear description of your business, with a link to your home page (or better yet—a landing page designed specifically for visitors who came from Instagram).

By posting regularly and making use of basic SEO techniques, such as including the appropriate keywords and hashtags in each post, you can easily build up an audience of thousands of people–and for no economic outlay whatsoever.

Language is a funny thing.

You can say the same exact thing two different ways, but one way will persuade a customer to buy your product or service, while the other will have them wandering away.

Case in point:

Set up a phone appointment with us and we won’t charge you for the consultation.

Use our instant scheduler to set up a no-obligation consultation with one of our experts now.

See how the urgent, pointed language of the second statement makes it so much stronger?

So what words should you be using to drive more conversions into customers? Here are 19 of the strongest words in sales as well as examples of how you might use them.

1. You

They say it’s the most powerful word in sales, because everything is all about the customer.

“You need a home inspector to avoid paying for costly repairs on your home later on.”

2. Act Now

It implies urgency, something that won’t last long.

“Act now to take advantage of our limited-time sale!”

3. Value

Everyone wants to get the most for their money.

“As a client, you’ll get the added value of a handwritten report after our inspection.”

4. And–Not But

Show customers the benefit of taking action.

“With your inspection, you’ll be able to find out what’s wrong with the home before purchasing and save yourself the headache of repairs to your new home.”

5. Should we?

An easy, low-pressure way to move a lead forward.

“Should we schedule an appointment at your earliest convenience?”

6. Discover

Allow customers to feel like they’re playing an active role in the process.

“Discover the potential problems with that home before you agree to make a purchase.”

7. Everything Included

Nobody likes surprise expenses! Ease customer fears up front by assuring them there’s one flat price.

“Our report will have everything included like roof, basement and electrical inspection data.”

8. Never

A powerful word to convey the benefit of your services.

“Never worry about purchasing a home and ending up with thousands of dollars in repairs.”

9. Proven

It’s one of those words people like to hear. It implies guaranteed quality.

“Our inspections are proven to be detailed and reliable, so you won’t end up with surprises.”

10. How To

Add value by teaching potential customers how to do something.

“Learn how to get a quality inspection before purchasing a home.”

11. Instant

We live in the age where customers demand instant gratification.

“With an inspection report, you’ll have instant knowledge of whether you should buy a home or not.”

12. Powerful

Implies importance.

“An inspection by our company is a powerful tool in the home buying process.”

13. Effective

“The inspection report is an effective method of negotiation with a seller over the price of the home you’re trying to buy.”

14. Safe

Many home inspection clients are thinking about money—remind them that their family’s safety is just as important.

“We’ll make sure you’re safe in your new home by providing you with peace of mind.”

15. Save

Saving money is one of the biggest motives for most consumers.

“In the long run, you’ll save money by getting a thorough inspection.”

16. Bargain

A great way to compare the cost of an inspection to the potential cost of not having one.

“The inspection is a bargain compared to buying a home in need of huge repairs.”

17. More

Shows how you stand out above the rest.

“A more detailed report than any inspector in Jefferson County.”

18. Premium

It’s one of those words with an ambiguous meaning, but sounds shiny and great to customers.

“Our premium services mean you’ll get a thorough inspection on the home you’re thinking about buying.”

19. No Obligation

Gives customers peace of mind knowing their money won’t be wasted.

“There’s no obligation when you consult with us on the phone about your inspection.”

Pepper these words into your sales copy for stronger, more effective writing that compels people to act.

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Great marketers know that a quality email list is one of the cheapest ways to bring in business. It costs little to send emails to your list, especially when compared to tactics like direct mailings through the post office.

You can easily send out emails to let people know about a special home inspection deals, home maintenance tips or anything else you’re up to at the moment. Of course, simply sending out emails doesn’t necessarily mean more sales. Use these techniques to turn your subscribers into buyers.

Build a Relationship with Your Readers

Having an email list isn’t just about letting customers know about current promotions. It’s about developing a relationship with them.

When people think about home inspections, you want your name to pop into their head. Do this by sending out regular, useful information. Home maintenance tips are almost always big hits, as are articles about preparing your home for different seasons.

Plan to send emails once a week or every other week so that your company is always fresh in subscribers’ minds. Keep it fairly short, though. Most people don’t want to read a 1,000+ word article in their email.

If you’ve got something longer, post it on your blog and offer a teaser telling people to head to your blog to read the rest.

Offer Discounts

People love to feel like they’re getting a great deal. When you send out special discounts to your subscribers, they feel special and they’ll be more apt to purchase from you.

This is especially true when your rates are competitive for the area. Even a small discount can put your company at an advantage and prompt someone to schedule an appointment.

Set Up a Referral Program

Word-of-mouth advertising is some of the best kind of advertising, and you can encourage this by offering a referral program. Offer current customers a discount or cash reward when they refer someone who purchases your services.

Many businesses also offer the person being referred some type of discount. In each email you send, include a little “Did You Know?” snippet to remind people of your referral program.

While people don’t need the services of an inspector that often, there’s always a chance that they know someone who does need those services.

Discuss the Importance of Independent Inspections

Use your content to drive sales. Most people think about getting a home inspection only when they’re thinking about buying or selling a home, but there are many more times that an independent inspection could be useful.

As you know, it’s helpful to have an inspection done after a major storm to see if there’s damage that could be covered by insurance. But do your customers know this? Use your emails to remind them.

People also might feel better having in independent inspector look at the roof before calling a roofing company so that they know the roofer isn’t exaggerating problems. While general tips are useful content for your newsletter, don’t forget that you’re trying to sell your services as well.

Make It Easy to Share

Any article you send to your subscribers might also apply to someone they know. For instance, if you write some tips about dealing with icicles, a reader might remember how bad the icicles on his mom’s house were last year and want her to read the article.

While the person can easily share it by hitting the “forward” button in their email program, it’s helpful to include a link for sharing it as well. Social media outlets like Twitter or Facebook also make it really easy to share content that you place on a blog. Once click of a button and you could have thousands more people checking out your article.

Grow Your List

The more people you have on your list, the more chances you have to make sales. Work to grow your email list whenever possible.

Put an email signup form on your website and make it easy to see, and give people a reason to sign up for your list. One of the best ways to do this is to offer a small e-book filled with useful tips to those who sign up. Some may be more likely to sign up with promises of discounts.

Close with a Strong Call-to-Action

When you send out an email that offers useful information, it can be easy to forget how the main purpose of sending out emails is to get sales. Even when your email seems unrelated, it’s important to include a call-to-action at the end.

Try to use something that relates to the tips you gave, but would give the subscriber a good reason to call and hire you. For instance, you might say, “If you noticed something amiss when you followed our tips, give us a call. We’ll tell you if there’s something really wrong and what it will take to fix it.”

Write Interesting Subjects Lines

It’s not enough to send emails to people. They need to actually open them!

Write subject headings that are enticing. If your subject is something like, “March 2016 Home Inspection Newsletter”, people won’t feel like they have to open it.

On the other hand, if it’s something like, “5 Little Problems that Will Cost You Big Money Later On” people will want to open it and read on. Try to use words that strike an emotional chord with your readers.

Track and Tweak Your Efforts

You don’t always know what techniques will work with your readers. Even time-tested methods can flop with certain demographics. That’s why it’s so important to track what happens when people get your email.

Do they open it? Do they click through to your blog or website? Do they call you to set up an inspection? A free email program like MailChimp can help you measure all of these stats.

Once you see which types of techniques work best with your subscribers, repeat those techniques to build a list that’s super-responsive.

Developing a mailing list is an ongoing process. You need to send out regular mailings to your customers to build up that relationship. When you do this, you set yourself up as an expert in your field, and people are more likely to think of you when they need an inspection.

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If you spend time on Facebook, you might have seen a new kind of paid promotion option: the local offer.

There are actually a few different kinds of offers, which are useful and easy to set up. In this post, we’ll explain how to create an offer on Facebook and what makes them so good for local businesses like home inspectors.

How To Create An Offer

The process of setting up an offer is simple.

When you’re logged in as your business page, look at the status box. You’ll see tabs marked “Update, Offer, +” next to the Photo/Video tab. Click on that and choose Offer.

You’ll be shown three options: online, in store, and online/store hybrid. Choose an option you’d like to try out; the online only option is probably easiest for first-timers.

First, if you chose an option with the online component, enter your website. This should be the page you want people to visit once they click on your offer, so if you have a special scheduling or contact page on your site you might want to use that direct URL.

You can also add a coupon code if you want. This is helpful in tracking people who are coming to your site via Facebook. Next, add an image to go with the post and a description of the offer. The description cannot be more than 90 characters and should use obvious keywords like ‘home inspection’ and your city.

The next step is to set up the offer using the available options. For example, you can set an expiration date for the offer and run a sale that only lasts a few weeks, creating urgency.

Although it’s optional, you should add some terms and conditions. This should clearly what you’re offering and how it works, listing any exceptions or unusual features and covering all possible circumstances. For example, maybe your discount doesn’t apply to homes over 2,500 square feet, etc.

After you’ve set up your offer, Facebook will email the offer to you so you can see how it’ll look when it’s actually online. Examine it and make sure that it looks good.

Pay particular attention to the description and the image. Make sure the image doesn’t look blurry or distorted, and that there are no typos or incorrect information in the description.

If everything looks good, then there’s one step left. You have to set a budget for the offer. The more money you put up, the more people your ad will reach, because Facebook will place it in front of more viewers.

The budget screen has an estimate of how many people will see the offer based on each possible budget you enter, so play around with the numbers and decide where you are comfortable. You might begin by testing a small amount like $20 to see what kind of results you get.

When you’re ready to go, make it live.

Using Offers

There are several good ways to use offers as a home inspector. For example, you can direct viewers to your most popular services, like general home inspections, or to niche services you’re trying to ramp up, like mold inspection.

You can also use offers that are not actually offers, but more like announcements. Create an offer, but link to a service that doesn’t have a discount attached to it and don’t add any kind of coupon code or bar code to the offer.

For example, when the snow starts to melt in your area, you might run an offer for springtime roof inspections. Instead of mentioning a discount, the offer can talk about how spring is a great time to inspect for damage to your roof.

The offer feature is a huge boon for businesses. Try tapping into it to reach new home inspection clients in your area!

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