Tag: business growth

Millennial Home Buyers Overcoming Obstacles

November 9, 2021

By Adam Kiesel, NPI, Inc.’s Digital Marketing Assistant This past year’s housing market can be best compared to a high-octane car race. Short listing times along with people itching to go from renter to owner made for a hot seller’s market. Millennials were one of the major players, throwing their hats into the buyer’s ring and quickly snatching up homes. As the markets begin to slow down and level off, millennials are trying to keep their footing and overcome some of the hurdles they’ve faced. Don’t Look at the Label Millennials can often times be judged simply because of their age. They may be written off as too young or too inexperienced to accurately navigate the housing market. The reality is that they’re one of the more informed buyer groups. Millennials make up nearly 40 percent of the homebuying market, meaning they’re not going away, they’re only growing in number. In fact, most older millennials are repeat buyers and aren’t uninformed about the process. While it’s easy to assume, doing so could lead you down the wrong path when it comes to serving this group. What They’re Buying Like every buying group before them, millennials have their own wants and

Should You Use TikTok to Market Your Inspections?

October 12, 2021

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Communications Specialist If you’re already active on social media or know someone who is, chances are that you’ve heard of the hit social media app TikTok. The video-sharing app boasts 689 million active users worldwide, and pulls in more than one billion video views a day. While it started out with a mainly younger audience, TikTok has attracted people from all different ages and industries. TikTok Fast Facts TikTok has been around for a little over five years, but it really started taking off in 2018. Users can upload videos ranging from a few seconds to three minutes about any topic they’d like. Whether you’re sharing your favorite recipe or your classic movie collection, eye-catching material can take off and reach thousands of other users. The main base of TikTok’s users are younger, mostly in the pre-teen to early twenties demographic. Average users can spend up to an hour on the app each day scrolling through content. In their Q4 in 2019, TikTok saw over 300 percent revenue growth as the billion-dollar company continues to expand. Real Estate and TikTok Because of TikTok’s rising popularity, many businesses are using it as another marketing tool.

Allowing Clients on Inspections: A Do or Taboo?

September 28, 2021

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Technical Supervisor & Training Administrator If you ask an inspector their thoughts on allowing clients to follow along on inspections, chances are that you’ll get one of two different answers. One camp will say that it’s necessary for clients to be present, while the other will argue that it can create more headaches for you. You might have even run into this conundrum yourself trying to decide where you stand on allowing visitors on inspections. So which route should you take? Weighing the Pros First, let’s start by taking a look at the benefits of allowing clients to tag along. Home inspectors can be criticized for their work because not everyone understands it. Sometimes a customer gets confused because of how an item is described in a report or you didn’t inspect something they think you should. Allowing a buyer to come with you on the job can help clarify the scope of your inspection. They’ll see what it is you do and how you do it, giving them the knowledge to better understand your final report. This can also help prevent allegations of you damaging the home during your inspection. Weighing the Cons Now

What Your Marketing Team Offers

September 14, 2021

By Sydney Arp, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Specialist & Designer As NPI and GPI franchisees, you have access to more resources and materials than your independently-owned competitors, and one of the best assets (we may be biased) is your very own dedicated marketing team. You don’t have to worry about vetting a company and spending thousands on questionable marketing tactics. You already have the qualified professionals you need in Omaha, and we are solely dedicated to your success. So, what exactly does your marketing team do for you? Custom ContentNo request is too big or too small! From digital pieces that you can post on social media to brochures or fliers that you can have locally printed, your NPI marketing team will bring your idea to life. Maybe you want to leave your customers something to remember you by and increase your referrals. A custom ‘Homeowner’s Booklet,’ complete with repair estimates, maintenance checklists, and review links, is a great added value! (Contact our team to see a sample booklet.) If you want to raise awareness about a giveaway you’re doing, some well-written copy and eye-catching graphics will get the job done. Your options are virtually endless, so don’t hesitate to reach

2021’s Best Email Marketing Tips

August 31, 2021

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Communications Specialist The first email blast may have been sent in 1978, but it’s still as important as ever to your 2021 marketing plan. This still-groovy medium just keeps evolving! Here are the top four trends for email marketing in 2021 that will carry us well into 2022. 1. Know When to Make it PersonalFor years, statistics have proven that emails with personalized subject lines and greetings tend to perform well. In fact, they’re roughly 26 percent more likely to be opened than non-personalized emails. But this year, marketers are upping the ante—hyper-personalized emails are becoming the new norm. And the good news is that you may already be sending them! Hyper-personalization relies on list segmentation to create smaller groups of contacts that have certain specific criteria in common. This could be location, behavior (such as having opened another email), office name, or purchase history. When you hyper-personalize, you’re not just inserting their first name, you’re looking to fulfill a specific need with a message that speaks directly to their situation. 2. Text-Only Emails Are Having a MomentThis trend is surprising! Text-only emails that contain hardly any imagery at all are gaining traction recently.

That’s a Wrap! Getting Your Vehicle Ready for Marketing Success

August 10, 2021

By Sydney Arp, NPI, Inc.’s Designer and Marketing Specialist Vehicle advertising can generate between 30,000 and 80,000 impressions a day, and up to 95 percent of consumers tend to absorb vehicle messaging above other types of ads. That’s a lot of potential eyes on you! Now that you’re a traveling billboard for your business, you’ll want to make sure you get an eye-catching design that’ll resonate with potential clients long after the light turns green. So, what makes a highly effective vehicle wrap? A Clean, Uncluttered Design A clean design with cohesive elements is key to a successful truck wrap. We encourage you to get as creative as you like, but always remember that when it comes to vehicle signage, less is more. You should only include essential information, such as the NPI or GPI logo, your phone number, and your website. While not a hard and fast rule, it’s also never a bad idea to include imagery of a home so viewers understand you’re in the real estate industry with one quick glance. Since our logo clearly communicates that you’re a property inspector, it’s not necessary to include your full list of services. In fact, most inspectors keep it

Best Foot Forward: Marketing Your Strengths to Customers

July 27, 2021

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Communications Specialist Marketing is all about showcasing your best abilities to your clients. What do you do that others don’t, and why should someone ultimately choose to hire you? As a small business owner, especially when you’re just starting out, it’s crucial that you put your top skills front and center as often as you can. This helps draw in your clients and allows them to understand the quality of service they’ll receive before they even contact you. So what are some things to highlight and where can you display them? Consider these options. Figure Out What You’re Best AtStarting off at square one, sit down and determine what you’re strongest at. A way to quickly discover your advantages is to create a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis breaks down your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats so you know what you do well and what needs improvement. If you have a team that works with you, bring them in on the process as well to get input from people with different expertise. Creating a SWOTA SWOT analysis is easy to set up and complete. You can create a presentation, a shared document or simply

Is It Worth It To Offer Warranties?

July 6, 2021

By Bill Erickson, NPI, Inc.’s Executive Vice President Warranties can provide great benefits for both your clients and you. The different coverages you offer can make you stand out from your competition, leading to more business. Especially when the market is hot and things are moving fast, every bit of leverage matters. Set Yourself Apart As much of an obvious choice as warranties seem, not every inspector in the industry offers them. Some don’t want to deal with the hassle of filing and settling a claim, while others think simply sticking by their work is a good enough service. However, clients see the warranties you offer as further verification that you’ll follow through on your word. If you offer a warranty that other inspectors in your territory might not, you’re well on your way to setting yourself apart and building rapport with customers. This one part of your business can solidify your market share! Customer Satisfaction Every customer likes to know that what they’re getting is dependable. And if a problem comes up, they want to be sure they won’t be left figuring it out for themselves. A warranty says to the customer that you want them to be happy

Stop Yourself from Getting Distracted in Business

June 29, 2021

By Adam Kiesel, NPI, Inc.’s Digital Marketing Assistant One main benefit of becoming a small business owner is breaking free of the typical corporate structure. You set your own hours, make the important decisions, and continuously choose which direction you’ll head in next. However, these benefits can also quickly become challenges. When you’re overwhelmed, it’s easy to get sidetracked and feel as though you’re stagnating. Focus on what really matters with these tips: Begin by recognizing the distractions. First, you have to recognize what’s taking up your time. While you’re going about your day, try to be more aware of what you’re doing and where your thoughts tend to take you. You might be surprised about the things that tend to steal your energy and attention. From scrolling through your phone to speculating about the reason for an unreturned email, there’s always something readily available to distract us from a goal. If you need to, write these down, along with how long or how often you tend to do them. Then be sure to note which of these is something you personally have control over. For example, you can limit mindless scrolling, but you can’t control whether someone gets back

Using Community Events to Market Your Business

June 22, 2021

By Kimberly Stevens, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Coach As a franchisee, an important aspect of growing your business is marketing. You can use most any outlet, from social media to handing out flyers to get your name out there. One great way to get personal interaction with potential clients is participating in local events. Farmer’s markets, main street gatherings and small business expos are just a few options. You should always keep an eye out for these through your city’s website or social media. If it’s someone other than the city government, be sure to check with the organization putting these events on so you are following their guidelines. BannersNow that you’ve gotten all signed up and secured your spot, how do you draw attention to your booth or table? You’ll want to stand out from the sea of businesses with something to catch the gaze of passersby. Investing in a collapsible banner or renting one from the Omaha home office is always worth it to make your booth stand out! TablesThe majority of the time these events will provide you a table, but always double-check if you need to get a collapsible one yourself. Depending on what you decide you

How to Communicate More Effectively with Clients

June 20, 2023

By Kimberly Stevens, Marketing & Business Coach Running a successful service-based business requires a significant amount of technical skill and knowledge. As such, the sorts of people that tend to be drawn to these industries tend to have a highly analytical disposition and a preference for structure and detail. In the property inspection industry, these traits are particularly beneficial since missing little details can lead to big problems down the road (and part of why we’ve found veterans are such great home inspectors). While these traits are beneficial on the technical side of inspecting, they can sometimes come at the cost of being a good, empathetic communicator. Property inspectors have to communicate with a lot of people, so owners who might struggle in conversations with clients would be wise to invest in some introspection. To get started with upgrading your interpersonal skills, let’s take a look at the basic pillars of client communication in business. Prioritize Clarity EarlyWhen coordinating a home inspection, it is crucial to establish an open line of communication early between the inspector and client. A significant amount of negative reviews or otherwise dissatisfied client experiences can be traced back to misunderstandings, assumptions, and a lack of

Surefire Strategies To Increase Your Market Share

June 13, 2023

By David Stamper, NPI, Inc.’s President & CFO Running a small business is a lot of responsibility to take on. Owners need to not only become experts in their field and in their industry, but they also need to stay up to date on key market research if they want their business to succeed. When it comes to building your small business and tracking market research, there are few concerns that outrank your business’ market share. Market share is, simply put, a percentage of your business’ earnings compared to the total business done within your market over a particular period of time. While a business owner’s goal should always be to build their business’ percentage of market share, there are many benefits to tracking direct competitors’ market share as well. To learn more about how to build your market share, let’s review some strategies on how to get started. Perform a Competitive AnalysisThe first step to increase your market share should be to gain an awareness of your business’ position in your market compared to your competitors. Although it may be difficult to find hard numbers that break down your competitors’ exact market share, you should be able to check

Essential Steps For Setting Your Home Inspection Business Up For Success

June 6, 2023

By Celeste Black-Harr, NPI, Inc.’s Recruitment Coordinator Becoming a home inspector is a great profession that allows for incredible flexibility and the potential for impressive profits, but many enter into the industry unprepared and uninformed. Starting a home inspection business requires an investment of both time and money, and too many start up while missing key details that cause their businesses to stagnate or even fold prematurely. Don’t let a lack of research end your entrepreneurship dreams before you’ve started! Avoid these pitfalls, and your home inspection business has the opportunity to meet its potential. Understand the ProfessionAlthough this may sound surprising, one of the most common mistakes that new home inspection business owners make when setting up their business is that they do not fully understand what the job entails. Business owners who start out inspecting homes themselves need to be aware of the physical nature of home inspections, for example. To examine roofs, home inspectors should expect to carry and maneuver ladders, as well as climb up and down them on a regular basis. Additionally, inspectors should feel comfortable with navigating attics and crawl spaces. Some newer technologies such as drones and crawl bots enable those who might

5 Strategies to Get More Reviews for Your Small Business

May 30, 2023

By Zach Vesper, Senior SEO & Marketing Strategist Let’s say you’re heading out to eat in an unfamiliar city. You want to try something unique and high-quality, but searching online leaves you with an endless list of options. Mood and taste will certainly come into the picture, but how do you make your final choice? Check the reviews. Across all industries that rely on pulling in new clients and customers consistently, online reviews are crucial for instilling confidence in service quality. Adding positive reviews on websites like Google, Facebook, and Yelp improves where small businesses rank on Google and increases overall visibility through SEO. According to marketing analysts at Entrepreneur.com, 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. To start improving upon your online advocacy channels, here are some great strategies for getting more reviews online. For more help building your online marketing strategy, reach out to your Omaha marketing team. today! If you’re interested in learning more about franchising with NPI, get your free info packet.

Expanding Your Online Following with YouTube

May 23, 2023

By Sydney Bailey, Director of Marketing Successful small business owners know the incredible value that a fully optimized online presence brings to their business. Facebook, Google Business, and LinkedIn all work alongside a professional business website to direct and convert visitors into clients. Depending on the industry, business owners might prioritize some of these platforms over others, but it’s clear that each plays an important role for small businesses. One platform that might get overlooked more often than it should is YouTube. Receiving billions of new views and videos every single day, YouTube’s international footprint is astounding. Present in over 100 countries around the world, the video-hosting website is also localized in 80 different languages. But with that said, small businesses usually aren’t interested in reaching an international, or even a national audience. Small business owners are rightly more concerned with reaching clients in their own cities. So this begs the question: How can YouTube be a benefit to small businesses? How Can YouTube Benefit Businesses at a Local Level? Out of all social media platforms on the market today, YouTube is perhaps best known for its intensely competitive nature. Vastly popular creators tend to dominate attention, and often leaving

From Rookie to Asset: Tips for Training New Employees

May 16, 2023

By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior Communications Strategist In the home inspection industry, it should be every business owner’s goal to expand their team. New employees can expand marketing efforts, allow for more property inspections to be completed in a shorter amount of time, and improve on client satisfaction due to increased efficiency. Both in the case of adding a very first employee and when adding to an already large team, owners cannot overlook their training processes. To build your home inspection team the right way, let’s discuss the importance of training, and review a few tips on how to help transition your new employee into an invaluable contributor to your team. Highlighting the Importance of TrainingAll business owners understand to a certain extent the value of a solid training process. New employees are an investment, and the quicker that these team members can get up to speed with the rest of the business the better. Business owners are incentivized to make their training processes as quick and efficient as possible in order to get their new partners contributing. Though these goals are understandable, business owners who are only focused on the speed of their training schedules are missing out

Level Up Your Digital Marketing with LinkedIn

May 9, 2023

By Zach Vesper, Senior SEO and Marketing Strategist We’ve previously discussed best practices for getting set up on LinkedIn as a small business, but as new features and opportunities become available, it can be difficult to know how to navigate through LinkedIn’s tools effectively. LinkedIn stands out from the crowd due to its focus as a business-oriented digital networking platform. As such, LinkedIn should not always be treated the same as platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok. If you are looking to expand the use of your LinkedIn Business Page, it’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of LinkedIn as a platform. To optimize our efforts, let’s take a minute to explore LinkedIn’s unique features and how you can use them to strengthen your business’ presence online. Reviewing the Strengths of LinkedInIn many ways, LinkedIn is set up similarly to other social media platforms. LinkedIn allows users to post content and build an audience over time, it promotes engagement, and it invites users to interact with relevant content based on what their interests are as determined by LinkedIn’s own algorithm. The main distinguisher of LinkedIn is its intended function as a social platform for businesses and business owners

Diversification In Small Business: Why It’s Important To Try New Things

May 2, 2023

By Chris Bates, Vice President of Sales & Development When entering into a new industry or starting a small business, sometimes it can take time to find your footing. It’s important to learn the business, establish relationships in your area, and refine your service quality, but sometimes breaking through can still be difficult. With that said, one of the most frequent mistakes business owners make when they’re slow is avoiding trying new things. Opportunities frequently come knocking at the door, but a fear of losing what little market share they have, or concerns related to their ability to recoup from an unsuccessful investment too often lead to inaction. One of the biggest benefits of owning a franchise is access to a network of industry professionals who are plugged into the latest trends, technology, and business strategies that can help you pull ahead of your competition. Additional add-on services and opportunities to access new leads come up every day. The only way to guarantee that things stay slow in your business is to refuse these new opportunities. If you find yourself stagnating in your business, then the time is right to take action. Whether you’re busy and looking to expand or

Technologies That Are Innovating Home Inspections

April 25, 2023

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Training Director The home inspection industry is a far different animal than it was just a decade ago. With new toys and tools designed to provide more thorough and precise services, home inspectors have the potential to elevate their product to higher levels than ever before. While adopting new technology can be viewed as intimidating or overly expensive compared to the value added to a single inspection, home inspectors should consider how much these tools can separate themselves from their competition. Many trending home inspection tools not only add increased accuracy to their inspection reports, but they can cut down on the time it takes to perform an inspection considerably. As any small business owner knows, additional time means more opportunity to market or book additional jobs, leading to more revenue. Read on to learn more about some of the advanced, industry-changing tools that every home inspector should consider adding to their toolset. Drones, Robots, and ScopesThe first major category of tools that can elevate a home inspector’s value are those that offer increased access and mobility. Tools like aerial drones and crawling robots give home inspectors the ability to view areas that were previously

Watching For Wildlife: How To Add Value By Inspecting For Animals

April 18, 2023

By Jon McCreath, NPI, Inc.’s Training Director Good entrepreneurs are always looking for ways to pull ahead of their competition. In the property inspection industry, business owners often will achieve a larger market share by expanding their add-on services, or through emphasizing their own unique strenghts that separate themselves from the crowd. These strategies are great things to build upon! However, the best thing an inspector can do to establish themselves is to deliver the best primary product possible. This can mean writing an unmatched inspection report, or consistently catching things that the other guy misses. A great way to add value to a property inspection that other inspectors might skip out on is to inspect for animals. What To Do When Inspecting For AnimalsSome property inspectors may feel the instinct to shy away quickly from anything related to wildlife during a property inspection, and this is understandable! Property inspectors are trained to evaluate key home systems and aren’t experts on animal species or the best wildlife defense strategies. According to InterNACHI’s Home Inspection Standards of Practice, a property inspector is not required to determine “…the presence of evidence of rodents, birds, bats, animals, insects, or other pests.” Property inspectors