Do you ever feel like your home inspection website is just kinda . . . there? Most inspectors build their websites for the basic purpose of social proof. That is, establishing legitimacy by checking the box of having a website. They'll put a few reviews, a high-quality image, and maybe an online scheduler. And that's a great start.
But how do you get to the next step? Is your website a lead-generating tool for realtors and homeowners? There are some home inspection companies that don't need to network or rely on referrals because their website is a steady source of leads.
If most of your business is coming from word-of-mouth, you might have serious question marks about your customers. You know they keep coming, but you don't know much about them and how to find more. Here's why using your home inspection website as the backbone of your marketing with help you fill those knowledge gaps.
When customers find you from another service, like Home Advisor or even a realtor, you have limited information about them. You'll be lucky to get an email. When users land on your website, you can get a wide range of data on where they come from, physically and digitally. If you get enough of that data, you can use it to understand your typical customer and find more.
You want your prospects to have a guided tour of your company. When they land on your homepage, they see the ideal presentation of your business. The best pictures, the best reviews, and information that is accurate.
Prices often change, particularly in a changing economy. But if a customer is told somewhere else that your fee is $400, you might put yourself in an awkward situation if you're now charging $475. Your website allows you to run specials and flex pricing as needed. Some inspectors even give customers a discount for booking online, because it frees up their phone lines.
To get your wheels turning, let's look at some home inspector websites that use powerful tools to capture leads.
As soon as you come to the home page, you are greeted by a chat bubble powered by Facebook (Meta) Messenger. The chat bubble offers some commonly asked questions and provides options to sort visitors. If you type something into the search bar, it connects you with a human agent (probably the inspector or office admin).
Chat bubbles are a powerful tool to convert visitors to your site. It's well known that a website has just a few seconds to show a visitor exactly what they need, or they may leave the site and return to a search results page. The beauty of the chat bubble is that it allows an impatient or overwhelmed user to bypass everything and ask straightforward questions to the business. According to Intercom, website visitors are 82% more likely to convert to customers if they’ve chatted with you first.
The key, of course, is manning the chat bubble at all times. While it may seem daunting, the high likelihood of conversion makes it too good to pass up. Most chat bubbles can be added to your website fairly easily, and many of them allow you to set hours when they will be active. Spectora's web team can install chat bubbles for you as part of our managed hosting plan.
Phil Dancer takes it to another level with a video welcome message in the corner of the homepage, inviting users to leave a video or text message for him. He accomplishes a lot with this: he gives a quick tour of his navigation, he has a call to action (leaving him a message), and he gets his face in front of potential clients.
Phil uses a custom third-party service called VideoAsk, and the team at Spectora was able to encode it into his website.
RIA is one of the largest home inspection companies in the country, and their website has a solid funnel to capture your email and start marketing to you. They've simplified their top bar navigation by having only two options: Schedule an Inspection and Get a Quote. If you opt to get a quote, they will email it to you, which will kick on an email campaign to convert you to a customer if you don't respond.
Some inspectors get nervous about offering quotes online, but they are proven winners when it comes to capturing leads and giving visitors an easy first step to take on your site.
Steve Silva's site gets a lot right, but we're gonna go with his YouTube introduction mid-page as his killer draw. He talks about himself, his story, and his approach to home inspection. You also get to see him working. Video is proven at converting better than text and images. Unbounce claims that marketers convert customers 34% better with video content.
Steven obviously invested in a quality video. But if you don't have the budget for a high-quality vid, most cell phones can take 1080p resolution video now. The key isn't in production value, but in letting site visitors connect with you and your story.
TruView uses a special plugin on their site to create the feeling of reviews being left in real-time with a small notification in the bottom left-hand part of the screen. The difference between this and fixed reviews on a page is that they feel more organic and less cherry-picked. Many third-party apps offer these services. You can often set up what reviews populate, and their frequency so you don't overdo it.
Don't let your website sit online without actively getting you clients. If you have a pipeline of referrals, why not open up a second pipeline for online traffic? Spectora has a team of web designers who know what takes a website from good to exceptional. We can improve what you have, you rebuild your site from the ground up. Most of our "first drafts" can be delivered within weeks, and we can build sites for small or large companies. See some of our sample sites here.