TOPIC: Marketing your business

I posted a reply to another inspector* and had some things to say about marketing.  How do you all market your businesses?  I would be interested not only in seeing what you do, but in getting new ideas that might boost my business.  Thank you in advance for replies and ideas that you think might help us all.

*  It follows below:

In business development, there are lots of keys, all under the heading of organization and marketing.

Here is what you market:
1.  Yourself - consistent contact with clients - agents, brokers, loan officers - personal contact, monthly emails like newsletters, ads dropped off into agent's mailboxes, mailings.  The key word is consistent.  Personal grooming and how you dress should NOT be underrated.  How you speak generally and with clients is certainly NOT to be underrated.  If your vocabulary lacks, work on it.  If you use the words "like" or "um" or "you know" or "I mean" a lot, alter your phraseology.
2.  Your company - diversify your services.  Make it known to your client agents or brokers everything you do and demonstrate that you do them well.  Home inspections offers a wide array of service possibilities.
3.  Your abilities - if you aren't learning and growing, you aren't learning and growing, and constantly falling behind those who are.  This should be obvious.  One of my favorite quotes, hanging in my office, is from Michelangelo, written when he was 87 (he died at 93), "I am still learning."  If you aren't familiar with his bio you should be.  And HE wanted to grow more.  The home inspection business is a GREAT way to develop abilities.  A general education is important too.  Education is useless if not shared.  If you don't know how to do something, find someone who is good at it, learn from them, and work at it.
4.  Your product and presentation - my opinion is that only about 30% of the home inspection business is construction knowledge.  Another 30% would be your ability to communicate, educate and inform your clients during an inspection.  If you don't do that well, believe me, the agents will notice and it will get around their office tomorrow.  Another 30% would be the quality of your reporting - easy to understand yet comprehensive, complete yet not overwhelming - very, very important not only to the client but to YOU.  The last 10% would be people skills, which are hard to teach.
5.  Anything else that sets you aside from the pack.  A slight edge is everything.  Tiger Woods has an average score that is less than 1 stroke ahead of #50 on the PGA Tour.  Can you name #50?  You may not have ever heard of him.  ANYTHING slightly different about you can work to your favor and impress.

If you don't think marketing is important, there are 20 mountains in North America higher than Pike's Peak.  How many can you name?

As to organization, there are as many kinds of organizations as there are people.  You have to organize in a way that complements you and who you are.

I am very busy, 2 or 3 inspections every day, 6 days a week - in English and in Spanish.  I am booked days in advance, and my agent clients put extra time on their contracts to try to schedule me.  I get LOTS of referrals from people who know someone I did an inspection for.  No brag, just fact.  It has taken years to get there.  But I have been busy, even recently, where other inspectors (and realtors) in my area (Northern Virginia just outside DC) have gone way out of business.  Contrary to Dominic's Southern CA friends, I have no bling, preferring investments.  Bling you pay for, investments pay you.

If you desire to get rich, go get rich...  you may have to work for it however.

I love ya, my brutha...  keep on keeping on.  You can get there.

Postcards from Vistaprint.com  has great ideas for our business. I pass them out to Realtors, and I drop them in there mail box to give to their clients, with discount offers. It works.

Join a Realtor members list with your local Realtor Board. They add you to there site which all affiliates and Real Estate Industry looks at, and also add that to your site, that your on there affiliate members list. It also gives you a chance to go to their education courses, you do pay the members price but remember Realtors are there for the course, so your chance in meeting Realtors are great, this is what I do twice a month, and you meet new people every time. If the Realtors see you and start get comfortable seeing you there, you find another realtor to work with.

Take care and good luck...Autm

Thanks Aram!  I thought to pose this question to the general forum after replying to a post under Inspection Questions today by Dominic.  I hope a marketing question is useful for everyone.  You have some great ideas.  Jay

Marketing questions are always great for everyone. Once traffic here picks up some more I'll start a separate marketing section.

Good plan Dominic

How does everyone here feel about post cards do they get peoples attention, do people actually tell you that a friend gave me your Post card to do an inspection..

As cheap as I been paying for them at vistaprint with great design and simple english wording, Realtors are pleased the way they look, and professional looking.

Any comments on how you guys market your business, and to who.

The day of or after a home inspection, I send a little thank you postcard to whoever referred me.  It basically says that referring me is the sincerest form of flattery, and that I hope to see them over and over again.  It has my phone number and logo.  I have been on inspections with a "new" realtor I have never met, and he/she has a postcard I sent to someone else.  I have also seen my cards in realtor's offices thumbtacked onto a bulletin board.  That way they don't have to look up my number. It's another form of regular, personal contact...