Owning a home inspection business can be stressful. Not only do you have to go out into the world and provide the best possible service to clients, but you have to handle all of the tasks and responsibilities of running a small business. One of the most significant tasks is marketing.
The home inspection business has become increasingly competitive. Your peers in your community and service area at large are aiming to take the market share from you. Because of this, you simply can’t rest on your laurels, even if you already have a thriving home inspection business.
Luckily, there are some steps you can take to tilt the odds in your favor. One of the most important tools in your marketing toolkit is social media marketing. You can capitalize on the juggernaut that is social media by maintaining a consistent, high-quality presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
But what does this mean in practice? How can you go from a social media page with a few fans to one that has consistently high engagement?
We’re here to help.
By following some of the tips and suggestions below, you will be in a better position to use social media to generate leads and increase sales. This is true whether you are a social media novice or are well-versed in the inner-workings of our world’s largest social media platforms.
Social Media for Home Inspectors: The Content
First, let’s start by talking about what home inspectors should post on social media. Your content strategy is a key component of your overall social media strategy, as it will distinguish your page from the pages of other home inspection businesses.
The beauty of social media is that the content that you post is up to you. That said, we recommend that you focus on content that provides value to your followers (and potential followers). One of the best ways to make a name for yourself is to generate your own content on your social media pages. For example, providing tips—even a basic guide—on what homeowners can do to prepare for their home inspection can provide some significant value to prospective clients. You can create a series of posts that describe some of the common mistakes or red flags that you see when performing a home inspection. You can even share some success stories from satisfied clients (so long as you receive their consent). The possibilities are limited only by your imagination.
Generating your own proprietary content is a great way to stand out. That said, this does take time and may be too great of a burden if you’re already spread too thin in your daily routine. If this is the case, no need to worry. You have other options. One simple way to add content to your social media pages is to link to helpful articles related to home inspections. For instance, you may want to post generic homeowner articles, DIY videos, and other home inspection content. Because home inspection is your industry, you’ll likely come across articles, videos, and other literature that others may not see. As for generating your own content, you will have to rely on your best judgment here. Before posting anything, however, ask yourself some questions, including:
Is what I’m posting providing value to my fans or potential fans?
Is what I’m posting reflecting positively on my company?
Is what I’m posting different than the competition’s?
Asking yourself these questions will help bring more freshness to your posts and set you apart from your competitors.
Social Media for Home Inspectors: Other Considerations
Regardless of what you post, the content itself is just one part of the picture. You must consider other factors when pursuing a thorough social marketing strategy.
First, you will have to decide how many platforms to use to share content. There are countless social media platforms in the online world, ranging from behemoths like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to rising stars like Pinterest. Importantly, quality does not equal quantity. By spreading yourself too thin, you’ll be unable to build and sustain long-lasting, high-quality relationships with your followers. So, before starting your social media marketing strategy, sit down, contemplate the strengths of weaknesses of each platform, and decide which platforms you will want to use. Sometimes, being on just one or two platforms (like Facebook and Twitter) is much better than being on a hodgepodge of several social media websites.
It is also important to consider the medium that you’ll use when posting to your social media pages. Here, you essentially have two choices: text or video. Social media platforms like Facebook emphasize video—particularly live video—in their algorithms, meaning that posting more live video will likely lead to more engagement.
But live video isn’t for everyone. Not everyone is great on camera. You will ultimately want to choose the medium that is best for you and your business. While sharing a text link may be easier to do on a day-to-day basis, posting a video—even if it isn’t created by you—may lead to more comments and engagement from your followers.
Along with the medium, you’ll also want to consider when you are actually posting your content. Social media marketing companies like HubSpot have completed studies on this topic. Generally speaking, the best days to post on Facebook are Sundays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with the best times being 9:00 am, 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm. You can find the remaining results of the study—including the optimal time to post on other social media websites like Twitter and Pinterest—by clicking here.
These guidelines are just a start. You will want to experiment with your own pages. With enough followers, social media platforms like Facebook will provide you with some detailed data on how your posts are performing. From there, you can adjust your social media strategy, including the days and times that you post content.
Inspector Media
By following some (or all) of the tips above, you will be in a much better position to spread the word about your business. Even though social media marketing may be intimidating at first, it gets easier through practice. Ultimately, it is an extremely powerful tool that can help you find warm leads and increase your sales.
That said, we understand that you are busy with your business. It is difficult to juggle all the tasks of owning a business, especially when you spend most of your day out on inspections. Because of this, we invite you to check out Inspector Media. At Inspector Media, we work with home inspectors like you to build smart, engaging social media campaigns. We post to our clients’ Facebook pages on optimal days and times of the day. In addition, the posted content directly relates to the services of our clients, so you can be confident that your content will be relevant and engaging. If you would like to learn more about how we can help you and your business, please visit our website. We look forward to hearing from you!