So, just a little question to see if any of you have used Inspectormedia(Operated by Internachi) for any digital marketing?
If so, thoughts and feedback appreciated!
I have done virtually no marketing for the last 3-4 years, and fortunately have build up enough business to keep me busy in general. However -
I know that in the holiday seasons, things slow down as less people are wanting to move and/or buy over the holidays. I am considering using them for a month or two to see if there is any added gain from marketing a bit on some of the social media channels. Two or three months would not be that costly and one or two gained jobs would pay for it.
If any of you out there have had any good or bad feedback from this, please chime in.
Never heard of them. Is this actual proven fact, or just what they told you?
BEWARE! This is the time of year that Scammers go all out!!
Usually any new marketing would take more then 2 - 3 months to kick in.
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I used them a year or two ago and stopped, then gave them another shot this year. After months of no real activity (no new follows) I asked to stop. I was told the metrics were great and there was a lot of activity. This was clearly a pitch they tell everyone to keep them hooked on because when I asked why I have less than 100 likes or followers he agreed that they don’t bring new people in. When I joined, that was my goal. There is no point advertising to my family and friends…I want to advertise to new people and bring them in. I said I’d give them another 6 months. The next several months I didn’t have a single post, but continued to be charged. I called them on this and was told they thought I cancelled and it was a billing error. I believe they refunded the months I didn’t receive any posts. They just didn’t seem organized. If you want posts but don’t care about anything other than that I think they are great. If you want “marketing” I didn’t find it a good fit. I will say that they have different plans available that will put you in front of more people. I was on a lower plan.
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Bland, generic, canned posts on Facebook will not get the job done in my opinion. Many of these SEO companies recycle these posts among hundreds of inspectors and other clients. Facebook, Google, Instagram, etc, all have algorithms that detect redundant material and filter it out for their viewers. If you want to stand out, you have to create genuinely unique material, in my opinion.
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I’m no SEO wizard but have done a fair amount of research and paid a couple for periods of time and learned a lot. What you say is 1000% true from what I’ve gathered. It’s funny, 25 (??) years ago when online marketing got going I kept hearing the phrase “content is king” and it’s still true today. Good, original, relevant, helpful content is what Google is after and they have some REALLY smart people designing their system to find it. MUCH smarter than the people trying to fool Google and get a couple bucks from us.
I keep seeing all these posts about how to market an HI business because it’s slow. I hate to say it but now is not the best time to market. The time to market and build market-share was when it was busy. During a busy market, all of the top HIs fill their schedules early and agents are left to search out a new (to them) inspector. I’ve gained (essentially stolen away) a bunch of really good agents over the years this way. Any successful inspector has done they wouldn’t have succeeded. During slow times? Even the best inspectors aren’t filling their schedules the way they have been so there isn’t the “spillover”.
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I head up Inspector Media for InterNACHI, so let me tell you the bad things about it first:
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It doesn’t convert traffic into inspections. That’s kind of a myth that I try to correct. That’s not its purpose. It’s purpose is to get consumers who are about to need a home inspector (we’re really good at finding them in your local market) to click on your site by clicking through social media posts that we custom create (we’re kind of OK at that part of the process) and very strategically place (we’re excellent at that part of the process). Your website and whomever answers your phone has to do the converting, not us.
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It’s a bit on the pricey side. We had a very inexpensive plan but I decided to stop offering it and I’ll explain why: Inspector Media is about the only service like it that actually generates a monthly report proving all the consumer traffic it generated for your website. That proof is not overwhelmingly conclusive if you are only willing to spend $99. However, it is super clear if you spend a bit more. I mostly cancelled the cheap plan so that no one could ever say we didn’t do our job for the money we charged. So I admit, I cancelled it for personal reasons. I like members to be assured that if I take any money from them, they are going to get value back.
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I am unwilling to reveal some of the ways we generate consumer traffic from consumers who are actually about to hire a home inspector. They are brilliant. I didn’t come up with them though. My son (who passed away this year) and my partner in the operation came up with them. They are sort of like “KFCs 11 secret herbs and spices.” Trade secrets. He was so cautious about keeping them proprietary that his employees each only understood parts of the process and he intentionally hired them from different states. I’m not that obsessed about them but I’m not revealing them.
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You have to let it run for a couple months at least, to see results. And you are paying us during that time. We need to charge during that time because that’s when we are doing a lot of work that has to be financially covered. You should see great results by month three. We lose money till month five. Hence we have to charge in the beginning even though it might not produce much value immediately.
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Now I’ll tell you some of the good things about it:
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It works.
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We prove to you that it is working, every month.
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One of our secret systems is so complex that it took us nearly two years to build. We created a database of every text phrase a consumer who is about to need a home inspector (our target consumer) might type on their social media page. Stuff like “I just bought a house” and “They accepted our offer” etc. We created thousands of these. We then use this enormous database to find target consumers for our customers (InterNACHI members) by scanning millions of posts (we hire an outside firm that specializes in this). For example: If you are a home inspector in Bangladesh, we can find target consumers who are about to need a home inspection in Bangladesh by digitally eavesdropping (essentially) and comparing their words to our database which uses an algorithm I authored to rank the likelihood that they are about to hire a home inspector. Then Inspector Media drops our inspector’s ad (really not a traditional ad) where the consumer can see it and click on it. Stuff like this is not easy to do for an individual inspector for the price we charge and is only financially feasible because we have a lot of inspector clients at Inspector Media. An analogy would be a water heater. Many of you know more about water heaters than I’ll ever know. But you didn’t build your own water heater for your home. You paid a company that makes water heaters. We’re a company that makes inspector traffic. No, you can’t buy our database.
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I control it. So if you ever have any issue or complaint, you have my personal mobile phone: 720 272 8578.
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I hope that helps.
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Morning, Jordon.
Hope this post finds you well.
Nick Gromicko and his loving son Eric Gromicko created Inspector Media for InterNACHI members. I followed the fledgling marketing company from the start giving likes to great ideas Eric would come up with.
From what I have seen, Inspector Media does a solid job for what you retain them for. Let us not forget, digital marketing is not cheep and takes time to turn loaded information into usable klicks.
Inspector Media is a great and novel idea. Use it and grow your business.
Best regards.
Robert Young
Robert Young’s Montreal Home Inspection Services Inc.
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