For those interested in diversifying their marketing strategy, let’s chat about a few ways to get started with direct-to-consumer marketing!
Volunteering is a great habit for everyone to build into their routine whenever possible, whether it’s supporting a local organization or devoting time to a cause that’s close to our hearts.
How can inspectors can utilize short-form video content creation on social media to boost their presence? We’ll discuss realistic ways that won’t overwhelm their busy schedules.
Being responsive is a valuable quality in any professional industry, but we’ve found that property inspectors who prioritize this trait separate themselves from their competition and set themselves up to leave a lasting first impression.
By Zach Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior SEO and Marketing Strategist As a multi-national property inspection franchisor, our marketing team gets a lot of questions about how to increase ranking on Google. Of course every small business’ marketing efforts should be multi-faceted, with a mixture of in-person relationship-building efforts and digital campaigns. With that said, there is no question that Google is king for digital marketing, and that all starts with optimizing your Google Business Profile. There are many features on a Google Business page that can be utilized to improve visibility and ranking, but we commonly see people turn to their service areas for answers. Many business owners seem to think that slight changes to the service area field could create the presence bump they need in certain areas. But we’re here to say that this probably won’t be the solution to any Google ranking frustrations. To better understand why this is the case, let’s discuss what service areas actually are, how they should be properly set up, and which strategies are the real secret for ranking up on Google. Defining Service Area BusinessesGoogle Business Profiles can be created for free and are broadly set up in one of two
By Michael Trimble, NPI, Inc.’s Content Marketing Coordinator You probably haven’t noticed, but 2024 is an election year! Okay, so maybe you have noticed. In the midst of heavy polarization, heated disagreements, and the general anxiety that comes with national elections, it’s understandable if you want to distance yourself from the political dialogue sometimes. Navigating political discussions in your personal life can be tough, but small business veterans understand how much trickier it can be in the professional sector. Despite this, many feel compelled to jump on social media and add their two cents, either on their personal profiles or through their business pages. The temptation is clear. As a small business owner, you’ve worked hard to build your social media following. Now that you have a platform with people interested in what you have to say, it can seem natural to use it for everything. Some business owners may feel it’s their social responsibility to speak about a particular topic, while others argue they’re exercising their rights. Some may even argue that staying silent is a statement in itself. Before you hit send on your next political post using your small business as a platform, here are a few
By Stepha Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior Communications Strategist When it comes to building a small business and developing productive, mutually beneficial relationships is key. But for people who are new to an industry, working in a crowded market, or are looking to scale, it can sometimes seem difficult to get in front of the noise. In situations like these, a healthy social media presence can really shine! Although in-person marketing is still the backbone of most small business marketing strategies (ie. the partnerships that are born at conferences, office visits, or networking events) it’s no secret that we live in an increasingly digital world and your team can’t make it to every office, meeting, or connection opportunity. Thankfully, social media can act as an extension of “in-person” marketing, providing more opportunities to connect and interact with clients, customers, and business partners far more immediately than in the past. For small business owners or marketers who are looking to get the most return from their efforts on social media, it is important to familiarize yourself with one factor that can be the key to success or stagnation online. It influences engagement on your posts, and can even determine whether your audience
By Sydney Bailey, NPI, Inc.’s Marketing Director As small businesses grow, marketing often becomes a more complex endeavor with leads flowing in from many different campaigns and platforms. To find out whether a marketing campaign is cost effective, it’s crucial to track the cost for each lead and each conversion—but how is this tracking accomplished? For digital marketing, tracking a lead is fairly straightforward. Thanks to cookies and analytics, businesses can know which marketing campaign a lead interacted with to land on their website. But other lead generation avenues aren’t so simple. Many customers still prefer to call service-based businesses to gather more information before making their final decision. Learning how to convert a lead over the phone is an art in itself, but it can be difficult to quantify a lead’s analytics from a phone call. For entrepreneurs that receive a lot of their business through inbound phone calls, capturing valuable information about which marketing campaigns are pulling their weight—and which ones aren’t—can be tough, but it’s essential when it comes to optimizing an advertising budget. Today, let’s discuss the best solution to this issue: call tracking. What is Call Tracking, and How Does It Work?Call tracking helps determine
By Zach Vesper, NPI, Inc.’s Senior SEO & Marketing Strategist Beyond developing a great product or service, the biggest challenge small businesses face is gaining their audience’s buy-in to their message. Eye-catching graphics and memorable slogans can help your business stand out to potential clients, but people are naturally skeptical. You claim your service is the perfect solution, but how can they be sure? They might wonder if you’re exaggerating or, as a business owner, simply trying to present yourself in the best light. The key to overcoming this hurdle is building trust. While there are various ways to achieve this, testimonials offer a powerful tool. However, not all testimonials are equally effective. By leveraging strong testimonials and applying the right strategies, business owners and marketers can effectively build that essential trust. What is a Testimonial?For those unfamiliar with the term, testimonials are statements about a person, business, product, or service made by someone independent of the subject. In the small business world, these are most easily recognized as reviews. Reviews are crucial for growing businesses, not only for their impact on SEO and online visibility, but also for their persuasive power. As mentioned earlier, any information your business marketing
By Celeste Black-Harr, NPI, Inc.’s Recruitment Coordinator The glass ceiling is a concept that describes an invisible barrier that limits advancement in the workplace for certain groups. For women who look to find a foothold in male-dominated industries, working to overcome stereotypes can make glass ceilings feel very real. The great thing about the glass ceiling metaphor, though, is that glass begs to be shattered. Breaking into a male-dominated industry as a female entrepreneur can feel daunting, but underrepresented voices who build a platform in their industry have an opportunity. They will not only benefit those that follow in their footsteps, creating a more accessible pathway in the future, their unique background and perspectives will also benefit the entire industry. Of course, if finding success in a male-dominated industry was easy then everyone would do it. While every industry has their own unique quirks and obstacles, there are a few considerations that are particularly worth taking into account for female entrepreneurs getting ready to break through. Find A Functional Support SystemReliable contacts are important to establish for anyone entering into any industry, but identifying these people are even more important for women who are looking to establish themselves in a
Whether you’ve just started or you’ve already been sending out campaigns for years, chances are you’re making these email marketing mistakes.
Nailing that first addition to the team is an important step for growth, so let’s discuss who to look for, and specifically what will make that first hire great.
What does it mean to have a “growth mindset,” and (crucially) how do you know if you have it? Let’s discuss!
For those interested in diversifying their marketing strategy, let’s chat about a few ways to get started with direct-to-consumer marketing!
Coaches can be great resources for business owners who are just starting out, or for those who are looking to break through to the next level.
To recap our conference and our year as a whole, let’s take a look at what our franchisees had to say about their takeaways from this year’s InVision conference:
Volunteering is a great habit for everyone to build into their routine whenever possible, whether it’s supporting a local organization or devoting time to a cause that’s close to our hearts.
When it comes to funneling online customers to your website, there are many companies that promise to boost your SEO for fast and easy results, but real organic growth on Google’s rankings takes time and patience.
When business owners enter into a brand new field, it simply takes time to develop a knowledge base. Undoubtedly, questions will come up with answers that are a bit too elusive, but clients still want to see confidence for them to feel reassured.
With the right training, inspectors can use their infrared cameras to add valuable insights to their reports, and avoid the common misinterpretations and misdiagnoses that untrained home inspectors make all the time.
