Include a newsletter sign up link in the signature of all your outgoing emails. You can include this in a PS at the bottom of your email after your name and before your contact details.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
We all need to fill our marketing funnel with the contact details of potential clients and referrers of our business services. The following series gives you some ideas about how to collect contact details, and in particular email addresses, so that you can begin to build relationships with your prospects.
Tip 1
Put an offer on the back of your business card to get people to sign up for your newsletter. For example, “Visit www.mywebsite.com/freereport to download 20 Top Tips for Outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant”. When they land on your page, ask for their email address in order to receive the free report.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
PA Life magazine, the personal assistant for PAs and EAs, are pleased to announce the launch of Four brand new training course for every PA, Secretary, EA and VA who wants to improve their prospects. Full of practical, hands on information, packed into convenient half day courses. All four courses are led by some of the UK’s top trainers, presenters and experts. Don’t miss out, book today! Only 40 places on each course available! For more information visit: http://www.palife.co.uk/pa-life-training-courses/information
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So here we are, fast approaching another year end. It’s around now that I run a bit of a review of how we’ve done over the past year. What has worked and what hasn’t, what’s up and what’s down.
So if you haven’t done it yet, why not spend a couple of hours reviewing how you have done, and decide what changes you want to make in the coming 12 months?
Being a Virtual Assistant, just like any other business, is a numbers game. How many contacts you have made over the last year? Of these, how many have you turned in to prospects? And, how many clients you have secured as a result? You should also know the average value of your clients and their average lifetime value. These figures can tell you some really interesting things.
For example, if you know that over the previous 12 months you made:
you will know that your clients have an average lifetime value of £30,000. And, to generate each client, you need to make 20 new contacts (15 clients from an original 300 contacts: 300/15). Suddenly, the prospect of attending a few networking events over the next couple of months to find 20 new contacts does not seem such a drag, as you know that, on average, you will make £30,000 for your efforts.
What you can also do is add up what you have spent on marketing, networking and other business-generating tools during the year. This will show the return on investment these have made. If you spent £2,000 on marketing your business and generated 15 new clients (with an average lifetime spend of £30,000), you know that that £2,000 has resulted in £450,000 worth of sales. That’s a return of £225 for every pound spent… Excellent! You can break that down further if you have monitored where these contacts learned of you. You can then identify exactly which marketing, networking and advertising methods have given the greatest returns.
When it comes to planning for the next year, armed with this information, you can invest more in your most effective marketing methods, and less on the less effective. So, if you spent £1,000 on a networking group, which achieved one client, but only £50 advertising in an online Virtual Assistant directory, which resulted in three new clients, it does not take a genius to work out that spending more on advertising in the directory might be a better idea than renewing the membership of the networking group.
Also, take a long hard look at your ‘sales funnel’ – the process that people go through from being contacts to becoming clients. What are your conversion rates from contact to prospect and from prospect to client? Where are you losing people? If you find that you have lots of contacts but few prospects, are your contacts fully aware of what you do? Are you tailoring your offering to appeal directly to these people? If you have lots of prospects, but they are not turning into clients, are you following up properly? Do you need to set up a better relationship-building system to develop their confidence in you? As you identify these gaps and plug them, you will need to spend less on generating contacts, as more of your existing ones will become clients… Happy days!
If you would like some 1 to 1 help from Justine with moving your business forwards, take a look at the virtual assistant mentoring calls available here
If you’re a regular reader of this blog you’ve probably already experienced the tremendous value of the VA Success Groups products. But now we are giving you the opportunity to get your hands on all three Online Courses, that’s:
Start Your Virtual Assistant Business
Marketing for Virtual Assistants
and Networking for Virtual Assistants
…all for the price of just two
You’ll learn absolutely everything you need to know to start, run and expand your virtual assistant business, all from the comfort of your own home.
You know how it is, you’ve been flat out meeting deadline after deadline for your clients and you’ve been turning away lots of new prospects as you simply can’t take on any more. You really want to expand but what’s the best way forward? Get an office and some staff? Work with associates?
Or worse, you’ve been banging away with the same old marketing activities and getting the same old results, i.e. no new clients, and you simply haven’t got around to writing that press release you were going to send to your target markets leading magazine.
It’s so easy to get lost in the day to day running of your virtual assistant business that sometimes it takes someone else to stop you in your tracks and point you back in the right direction. Some would call it nagging, some call it setting goals and being made accountable for achieving them, some would even call it sound business advice being freely given, targets being set with deadlines, and your progress monitored to make sure YOU get what YOU want from YOUR business.
At the VA Success Group we call it Mentoring.
Whether you need nagging, coaching, cajoling, mentoring or downright bullying we can help. But more than just ‘coaching’, as we’re also real live virtual assistants ourselves, we can also mentor you as to the best routes to take to overcome the hurdles achieve your goals. You not only get a ‘buddy’ to help you set your goals and targets and make you accountable, you also get sound, quality business advice.
Does that sound interesting?
When making the transition from employee to business owner you suddenly realise how much there is to learn and the number of additional skills you need to adopt in order to become successful. The quicker you can learn all this information and the faster you put it into practice, the more likely you are to succeed. With a huge number of new businesses failing in their first year, quality information is critical to ensuring you get everything right first time.
At the very least you will need guidance about how to start your virtual assistant business. About all the basics of getting everything set up correctly, your systems and processes, registering yourself as a business or self-employed, and what that means.
At that point, when you are all set up and ready to go, you will realise that clients do not actually come knocking at your ‘virtual’ door. You need to let the world know what you are doing and why they need it. This is where marketing and networking come in. All these are skills that can be learned so make sure you dedicate some time to educating yourself. Your determination and your level of knowledge will be the deciding factors in your success.
For more information about virtual assistant training click here >>>
What vital things do you need to know when starting out as a virtual assistant, apart from how to manage a busy schedule and deliver an impeccable service?
People who consider setting themselves up as a virtual assistant often come from an administrative or PA type role. They have flawless administrative skills and know their way around the various software packages they need in order to complete those tasks for their own clients if they decide to forge ahead with their own VA business.
But what don’t they know? And do they even know what it is they need to learn before starting out?
The idea of having your own business and using your talents to be your own boss and earn a better living is a very appealing one. But how do you actually run a business? Providing the skills you have to help clients complete tasks or projects is indeed part of that. But there’s a lot more that you need to know.
For example:
How do you set your rates?
How do you make sure you get paid?
What equipment do you need – and what don’t you need?
How do you register a company – or do you need to?
Do you need insurance, and if so what kind?
What policies and procedures do you need?
Where do you find clients?
What effective and inexpensive ways are there to market my business?
How do you stand out from the crowd?
For more information about virtual assistant training click here >>>
Don’t permit your friends and extended family to put on you. Many people are under the misapprehension that if someone works from home then they are not actually working. They may believe that you are fair game for a social call during the day or that you may be able to run errands that would otherwise mean them taking time off work.
It’s really important to set the ground rules early and then stand firm. You must make certain your friends and family understand that when you are working, then you ARE working and that when your time is interrupted, you will not be earning. You are the only one who can stand up for you. Your friends and family will seldom be able to appreciate your dedication to your business, unless you make the effort to make sure that they have the same respect for your business that you do.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
When you are dealing with family in the course of your workday, it is important to schedule your activities as much as possible. With small children, you must take time when you need to, but you should also work hard to make sure you dedicate a specific number of hours to your workday.
With older children, it is much easier to tell them that you will be working between the hours of x and y. Then your children, and even your friends, must understand that certain hours of your day are devoted to the activities of your business.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Remember that owning your own business is not the same as being employed in a job. Some people go to work and coast along, playing games or enjoying online social networking (Facebook and the like), some socialise over the kettle or printer, and others, most often those who are paid in a commission or tip environment, go to work to work to make money.
When you work for yourself, what you make in terms of income is directly proportional to your productivity. Therefore, wouldn’t it make sense to stay focused on getting as much done in as short of a period as possible? Go to work to work and to make money. Leave socialising for when your workday has ended.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
As the owner of a Virtual Assistant business, you will find that hundreds of distractions that vie for your time, energy and focus. Common distractions can include children, family and friends, neighbours, pets, constant telephone calls, post and deliveries, household chores, television (Lorraine Kelly or Loose Women anyone?) and so many more.
As the owner of your own Virtual Assistant business, you must always remember your purpose in bringing your profession home. What was your reason for wanting to own your own home based business? Was your goal to work from home so that you can share more in the lives of your children? Was your goal to be out from under the rule of a dictatorial boss? Was your goal to have the freedom to work when it is convenient for you? Was your goal to reap the rewards of your efforts and make lots of money working for yourself?
Whatever your reasons for starting your VA business, here are a few tips that will help you stay focused:
Stay Focussed Tip 1
Whatever your reason for going out on your own, you must keep your reason in the forefront of your mind. If you forget your reason for starting your own Virtual Assistant business, you will not be working for yourself for long. It is far too easy to let circumstance drive you and when circumstance is in the driver’s seat, you are more likely to crash and burn.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Make sure you are prepared for the specific situation. If you are attending a networking group, make sure you have perfected your one minute presentation and are prepared to speak to prospects on a one-to-one basis and have a ready answer to the inevitable question ‘What do you do’. If meeting a prospect who knows a little more about you and your business, make sure you are clear on what you are offering and how your service works and be prepared to explain this in simple terms without jargon.
When you are meeting a prospect or attending a networking event you will understandably be focused on what you can get out of the experience. But be prepared to give a little too. It could simply be making an introduction to another of your contacts that could be useful to your prospect or offering a free piece of advice or your expert opinion. Small helpful acts like this will create a great impression and ensure you are memorable to your prospect.
It sounds obvious but make sure you follow up. If you have said you will send through a contact’s details, make sure you do it. If you have arranged to send through more information by the end of the day, make sure you do. Nothing will kill a relationship faster than not following up as and when you say you will.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
As the old saying goes, you only get one chance to create a good first impression. When you are running your own business, it’s imperative that within the first few seconds of meeting you or being introduced to your business, you create a great first impression.
In this article we’ll give you some simple tips that will have the prospects that you meet being impressed by you, liking you and, critically, wanting to do business with you.
Is your blouse ironed or are your shoes in need of a polish? It may sound immaterial but in the eyes of your potential client the care you take over your appearance symbolises the level of care and attention to detail you would take over their work. If you turn up with chipped nail polish and lipstick on your teeth they may wonder if you going to send out their letters with spelling mistakes or send emails to the wrong people. Make time to check your appearance before meeting your prospects.
Oozing Confidence?
Now you’re sure you look the part you can walk into any room with your head held high and confidence intact. Arrive in plenty of time for any appointment as you don’t want to be rushed. Stand up straight and tall and look the other person in the eye when introducing yourself, and don’t forget to shake hands firmly – no-one likes a limp lettuce handshake!
As well as having the opportunity to speak about yourself and your business, it is equally important to show interest in your prospect and their business activities. You will create a great first impression if you listen carefully and ask questions. By doing this you will be able to find common points of connection as well as identify areas where you will be able to help them professionally.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
We all hear about branding and how important it is to your business. But branding is not just about your web site or logo, it’s also about the associations your clients hold with you and your company name. The more positive that association, the more likely they may be to remain loyal to you when times get hard or competitors start knocking on their (virtual) door!
So how do you know how you are perceived by your clients and prospects and how can you set about improving or building on your brand:
What do your existing clients think of you?
The best place to start is by sending a questionnaire to your existing clients and anyone on your prospect list. It’s a good opportunity to ask for their opinion on what they like about your service and what improvements could be made. You should begin to see some similarities in the responses which will give you an idea of how your brand is perceived.
What Do They Like?
When you have identified the similarities, have a close look at what your clients and prospects love about you and your service. These are the positive aspects or your brand and are what you need to be communicating in all your marketing information.
What Weaknesses Can You See?
Some of these may be related to the industry as a whole, for example it may be that as you work remotely you can’t make the coffee ;o) However, be aware if things crop up that you can do something about. Perhaps you have missed deadlines or you are not up to speed with particular software that your clients use. Think about how you can improve on these for the future.
How Can You ‘Delight the Customer?’
Years ago I used to work for a holiday company who used the line ‘delight the customer’. The idea was that you don’t want the customer just to be satisfied with what you have produced for them. In order to get them singing your praises you really need to ‘delight’ them. So what can you do to delight your clients? Where can you add that little bit of extra value or really show some initiative? If you are seen to be going that extra mile, your clients will love you for it and that’s when they start to become your raving fans and tell everyone how great you are.
Better Than Advertising
As you can see, creating your brand or the ‘image’ for your company isn’t about expensive graphic designers or advertising experts. It’s about identifying what’s great about your business and communicating that in a clear and consistent way. If you can turn your clients into raving fans, they’ll not only stick with you through these turbulent times, they’ll also recommend others to you. Now that’s got to be better than spending a fortune on advertising!
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Put your foot on the accelerator to success with this fast track to success VIP Intensive Day. We pack in months of worth of coaching, mentoring and learning into a one day intensive strategy session that focuses solely on your business – no-one else but you!
What would it mean to you if you could have a step by step blueprint and plan you can follow to really build your business to the level you know it can be and create your perfect VA business?
That’s exactly what will happen at one of our VIP Intensive Days.
You will leave with a clear plan of what you need to do over the next 12 months so that you can start taking action immediately.
Build your newsletter or Ezine subscriber list by offering something for free in exchange for their email address, perhaps an article or report for example.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Build a blog so you can regularly and informally keep in touch with your readers. Post tips, links to related online articles and information.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Syndicate your articles online to article directories to attract new visitors to your web site and Ezine subscriber list.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Write articles useful to your target market then add them to your web site. You can also include them in your ezines. This showcases you as the expert in that particular field.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Give your website a revamp. Is all the information up to date? Does it show a good photograph of you? This is your virtual shop window and the first impression most potential clients will see.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Build your newsletter or Ezine subscriber list, put a sign up box on your web site, include a link to your sign up page in your Twitter updates, Facebook posts, blog posts, etc.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Set up a newsletter or Ezine to keep in touch with both clients, prospects and visitors to your website. Start by sending out simple tips that are useful to your target market.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Send your existing clients a questionnaire. Ask them what they like about your service and what they would like to see added. If they are happy clients, ask them for referrals to other potential clients.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Join at least one online networking site, which can be a strictly business site like LinkedIn or Ecademy, or more social site (but often equally effective) such as Facebook and Twitter. Don’t forget as a ‘virtual’ worker you can work with anyone, anywhere!
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Join a local networking group to gain local visibility and meet some like-minded small business owners. Don’t forget to follow up after events and meet up with contacts outside the events too.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
You know how it is, you’ve been in business for a few years, you’ve got a few clients on your books, but things are feeling a bit stale.
You feel that your business needs a Gok Wan style make over, but where do you start?
Virtual Assistant Business Make-Over Tip 1
If you’re not already doing it, create pre-paid packages to entice clients to pay in advance for blocks of time. They benefit from a small discount, you benefit from not having to chase overdue invoices and increased budgeting capacity.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
You are all set up and ready to go: got all the equipment, sorted out your website, printed some business cards, even done some networking. Then it happens… you get your first prospect!
Oh, no! Panic! What information do you need to give them about you and your business and how it all works? What questions should you ask them? How do you cover yourself? What terms and conditions should you have? Contracts… what contracts?
Relax; it is all here in the New Client Document Templates Pack. Simply cut and paste in your business details and you are ready to go!
Does you have sufficient insurance cover you for your business activities? It’s important to consider if your household insurance covers you for public liability, particularly if you allow clients to visit your home.
In addition you should look at profession indemnity insurance to protect yourself and your business in the event that a client should have cause to take you to court.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Are you a morning person? Some people work better in the mornings and some are more effective later in the day. What’s your best time?
Also consider your household. What’s the normal routine? Does the postman always knock the door around 10am or do the kids come home mid afternoon?
Working for yourself means that you can be flexible enough to schedule your day around your most effective times. If your concentration is better in the mornings, use that time to work on projects that require concentration. If you know you will be interrupted at certain times, use those times to complete low concentration or quick tasks.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
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When you work from home make sure you don’t get drawn in to doing all the household chores when you should be working. Now I’m not saying leave a pile of dirty dishes in the sink, or damp washing in the machine but fit it in around your working day.
Going to put the kettle on for a cup of tea? While it’s boiling do the dishes. Stopping for lunch? While it’s on the cooker or in the microwave, hand out the laundry.
If you start each working day running through the chores before you start work, it’s very easy to become sidetracked and not get any work done before lunchtime!
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Although one of the joys of working from home in your own business is that you can work whenever you choose, unless you set specific work times, one of two things will happen. You’ll either spend all day dipping in and out of work and end up achieving very little, or, you’ll find yourself working all the time.
Set specific hours of work and concentrate on work only during that time. Make sure your family and friends know you’re working during those times so that you are not disturbed. Also make sure that your clients know your hours of work so that they contact you when appropriate. If you have different working hours to the standard 9-5 that’s fine, just make sure your clients are aware so you are not constantly interrupted outside of your work time, or they are frustrated if they can’t get hold of you.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Consider an all in one printer, scanner and copier as it saves space. You can also get one with an integral fax machine, although you can also use an online fax services from your 0844 number provider or Efax if required.
You will also need a shredder for confidential documents and you may need a transcription pedal if you offer the service and are asked for it and potentially a binder, laminator and guillotine again only if you need them for a specific job or your own use for marketing materials.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
When deciding which type of computer to buy, consider how you will be working and which option would be best for you. If you are going to be working away from the office from time to time, you might choose a laptop. Make sure when you are using if for extended periods at your desk that it is on a stand with the screen at eye level and use a proper keyboard and mouse.
Consider a large external hard drive for making mirror back-ups and storing large files and make sure you also have an online back system such as Carbonite.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Who will answer your telephone if you are on a call or out of the office? There is nothing more likely to lose you a potential client than an unanswered enquiry call. You can’t be at your desk every minute of the working day so set up a real live person call handling service.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Firstly you need to consider if you will use your home telephone number, set up a new line just for business use, perhaps use Skype (providing you have excellent broadband) or register a non-geographic or 0844 number that will divert to your home number during office hours.
There are benefits to all options so consider each one carefully before making your choice. Don’t use more than one or they WILL all ring together!
Just a note about using a mobile telephone number, don’t use one for your main business number as it will destroy your credibility. It screams ‘one-man-band’. If you want to use a mobile, divert your landline to it using BT Call Divert.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
When choosing a desk make sure it is large enough area to accommodate the work you will be completing. It is tempting, particularly when using a small space, to go for a small desk or one of those cupboard work stations. Just make sure you have enough room to spread out.
Make sure the chair you choose is fully adjustable and comfortable. You will be spending a lot of time at your desk so ensuring a healthy sitting posture is essential.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
One of the fun parts of setting up your home business is setting up your home office. Here are some hot tips to make sure you invest wisely in everything you will need.
Tip 1 – Create a dedicated space that is your ‘office’.
Ideally this should be a dedicated space, an entire room if possible or at least a sizable portion of one. You will need a clear space to work that has sufficient power sockets and a phone line connection nearby. Make sure your work space is clear from noise and distractions like a t.v. or washing machine.
Also think about the additional room you will need for other furniture you will need including a filing cabinet, stationery storage etc.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
As a virtual assistant, we deal with many different customers, using varying systems and programmes to complete all sorts of tasks. If you offer book keeping services you will have come across everything from basic spreadsheets, to complex systems such as Sage, we’ve seen it all. My personal favourite has become Kashflow. It’s incredibly simple and designed specifically for small businesses.
Kashflow is an online system which has several overriding benefits, firstly your accounts are held online so you can access them from any computer with a browser (after entering your secure login details). This means several things; if your computer should crash you haven’t lost everything, you can give live access to your client and you can give access to your clients accountant to compile their required information. As there is one live copy of the accounts, the changes are available instantly to everyone given access so you don’t have multiple out of date copies everywhere.
Secondly, as you pay a monthly subscription for Kashflow, rather than a large upfront software cost, it is easier to budget as a small monthly fee. Critically within this fee the software upgrades are included. Anyone who has purchased accountancy software in the past will know that purchasing upgrades is necessary when you have several people updating your accounts at different locations. Generally the software is not backwardly compatible so as soon as one person upgrades, you all have to and upgrades can be very costly.
What is more, you get to try before you buy. You don’t even have to give a credit card number that you might later forget to cancel should you decide to use an alternative program.
LinkedIn is more of a business networking tool than strictly a social one. It is structured in such a way that your occupation and education are featured more than hobbies and interests for example. However, it works in much the same way as Facebook in that you can invite people to connect with you and join common interest groups. It also has a feature where you can recommend people so it’s great for asking for testimonials.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Many of us have used Facebook for personal networking for many years. But did you know you can also use if for business? Again it’s a great way to connect with people with similar interests and it’s easy to build relationships by interacting with other people in your network.
You can also create fan pages for your business and post events to advertise particular product launches.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
Twitter has become increasing popular over the past year or so with everyone who’s anyone Tweeting their little hearts out. Twitter is a micro-blogging site which limits the length of the comments you can post to 140 characters. It’s no go for posting large chunks of content but ideal for posting links to interesting information.
Twitter is highly interactive and users re-post other peoples comments (Tweets) if they are useful and also respond. You choose who you ‘follow’, i.e.: whose Tweets you read, so it is a great platform for making contacts and establishing relationships.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
With a blog you can post content in the form of text and pictures and it is possible to have a two way dialogue by way of people commenting on your posts. You can have control over what comments actually appear on your pages if you manage your comments using your preferred blogging software so you can approve, delete or mark them as spam.
Blogs can be written in many styles from the very informal personal right through to a professional corporate blog. It’s important as a small business to inject some personality into your blog as your followers are trying to get to know you as well as read your material.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
If you’re familiar with the VA Sucess Group, you’ve probably already experienced the tremendous value of their products. But now they are giving you the opportunity to get your hands on all three Online Courses, that’s:
Start Your Virtual Assistant Business
Marketing for Virtual Assistants
and Networking for Virtual Assistants
…all for the price of just two
You’ll learn absolutely everything you need to know to start, run and expand your virtual assistant business, all from the comfort of your own home.
There are various social media platforms you can use to deliver messages to your readers and followers which we’ll look at through the remainder of this series. But before embarking on any marketing activity, it’s important to know why it’s useful.
Social media is instant so your messages can be delivered as they happen, and most importantly, it’s interactive – you are actually inviting comment and suggestion. Of course the most important point to remember is that the search engines love social media is its content is current and fresh. Your comments will be picked up by the search engines – how exciting is that?
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
We’ve all heard the phrase social media, but what actually is social media and how can you use it to help your virtual assistant business?
In short, social media is a term that encapsulates a number of online communication platforms which make it easy for people to not only publish their own news and views but also comment on that posted by others.
Why Is Social Media Important?
Social Media has provided everyone with a platform to air their opinions, views and grievances with anyone around the world. People who use Social Media often become highly influential and are seen as experts in their own sphere and can develop large audiences around their area of interest.
Communities of like-minded people are forming around common interests over the Web regardless of where they are based in the world because the regular restrictions of geographical locations do not apply.
For lots of advice and free tips, check out the FREEBIES page at the VA Success Group
As much as is possible, you should always test your advertising and marketing efforts. You might want to jump in and try a range of different ideas and formats and that’s great, but try and keep tabs on where each enquiry comes from, and which enquiries go on to convert into paying customers.
With this data to hand you can then look at has been cost effective and what has not. For example if you paid £500 to join a networking group and attended 50 breakfast meetings costing £10 each over the course of a year, and as a result you got one new client, that client would have cost you £1000 to source. If you put an advert in the UKAVA Directory for £49.95 and over a year that advert resulted in 5 new clients, each client has cost you less than £10 to source. In this scenario you may decide to drop the networking group and advertise more widely in the Directory.
The important point is that you can’t improve on what you don’t measure so if you don’t know what is working for you, and what is not, how can you expect to improve your results next time around?
Sometimes you may find that the lower cost advertising and marketing strategies are the ones that bring you the most business.
For a listing in the UKAVA Directory visit: https://www.ukava.co.uk/html/join_the_uk_association_of_vir.html
It goes without saying that as a virtual assistant you need a website. But have you really thought about the best way to use it? Some visitors will arrive at your website as result of you telling them about it or seeing the URL on your business card or marketing material.
What you really want though is visitors who have arrived at your website because they are actually searching for a virtual pa. These are not just visitors these are prospects. They have actually gone to the trouble of going to a search engine and entering a relevant term into the search bar and are busy looking through the results to find someone they want to work with. So how do you make sure your website ends up in front of them?
Search engine optimisation (SEO) companies charge a small fortune for ‘optimising’ your website in an attempt to make is appear at the top of that search engines results. And with good reason. The search engines constantly change their indexing criteria to keep out the spammers so the SEO companies have to consistently keep one step ahead. If you don’t have the budget to compete with the big players the best thing you can do is get listed on their websites. Visitors to their websites will then see your information and click through to your website.
There are several directories advertising virtual assistants and their services in the UK. Ours consistently appears on the first page of Google and can be found at https://www.ukava.co.uk
Press Releases are useful for generating a buzz about your virtual assistant business. The business editor at your local newspaper will always be on the lookout for a good business story to fill the business news section of the newspaper.
Of course, the business editor understands the economics of running a paper and is more inclined to run your story if you buy advertising in his/her publication, but will still print stories for special events and openings. Think of an angle, could you offer a competition prize, could you help a local charity.
The important thing to remember about Press Releases is that it must be constructed in the form of a news story. Even if you are a sole proprietorship, quotes from you should be written in a third person format: John Doe said, “Your quote here.”
A Press Release should pack the most important information at the beginning of the copy, and leave extra details towards the end.
You should always provide the reporter who gets the task a simple and easy way for him/her to contact you directly. Often the reporter will want to contact you to get details that will enhance their take on your story.
For more information about how to market your virtual assistant business, take a look at the VA Success Groups Marketing for Virtual Assistants Online Course
If up until now you’ve been an employee, you might never have been to a networking event before. The whole idea is that everyone who goes along is a business owner or key decision maker in their business and is there, like everyone else, to promote their product or service. The beauty of networking is that if you attend groups regularly, people get to know and trust you and are happy to work with you if they need a virtual assistant or refer business your way.
Now I could write a whole series on the subject of networking alone but these are the basics. If it is your first time networking I would initially go to an informal group as this will help you get your confidence and see how they work. Do an Internet search on networking and you town and you should find a whole range of groups in your area. Have a look for one that takes your fancy and book on. Most groups will let you attend one or two meetings before asking you to take out a membership so make full use of all the free trails until you find a group that you like. Some groups are free but you will find that those that charge a membership fee are often more formal business networking groups and produce more clients and referrals.
Again don’t forget that anyone you speak to may know someone who needs a virtual assistant so don’t dismiss anyone on first impressions and also remember that networking is two-way so if you can put those you meet in touch with anyone they would be interested in, do it. You will be remembered for it and that’s the first step in getting referrals.
For more information about how to market your virtual assistant business, take a look at the VA Success Groups Marketing for Virtual Assistants Online Course