Top Five Tips for Winning New Clients through Offline and WOM Marketing Strategies

Before we begin, let’s pause for a moment of self-reflection. Take a quick look at the below video and see if you can relate to this man:

An extreme example, of course, but sometimes working from home as a Virtual Assistant or online professional can become lonely and isolating, and we need to find opportunities to get out of the house. Furthermore, as virtual business owners, we need to be intentional in seeking out strategic opportunities to connect and network with like-minded professionals in our respective industries. There is a lot you can do through the Internet and Social Media, of course, but in order to be effective in marketing your business, it takes both offline and online marketing strategies to reach your potential.

So, here are some ways you can step away from the computer, get out of the house, and win new clients through offline and word-of-mouth marketing strategies:

1. Be visible in your local community and industry.

•    Join your local chamber of commerce.

•    Approach your local Rotary Club or community college.

•    Join a Meetup group in your area.

2. Ask for referrals from your current clients.

•    Thank them for the referral with lunch, flowers or a gift certificate.

•    Give both your current and potential clients more than one business card – one to keep and two to give away.

3. Attend industry events.

•    Network at events like the annual IVAA Live Summit.

•    Volunteer to help coordinate a local business organization’s event.

•    Set up a vendor booth at an event and promote your business.

4. Develop your own branded promotional materials.

•    Create brochures, fliers, special reports, and business cards to give away.

•    Make sure all materials, including presentations, are branded with your website URL, logo and contact information.

•    When marketing at a vendor’s booth, have a poster designed to promote your business and consider handing out some kind of inexpensive branded gift.

5. Find creative ways to talk about your business.

•    Practice a great 30-second elevator speech.

•    Share presentations with various networking groups.

•    Place an ad or start a column in the business section of your local newspaper.

Now, depending on where you find yourself, you may experience success either offline or online; however, we hope that the above tips can help you broaden the horizons of your marketing scope. While those of us involved in the Virtual Assistant industry may spend a lot of time in our online marketing strategies, participating in offline events has a viral word-of-mouth effect that some online strategies don’t.

The following quote from a blog post entitled “Bring Your Online Social Networking to Offline Success” provides some further food for thought:

Body language is very important, especially in business. Online networking lacks body language. You may not realize it, but people use body language a lot. It can often say more than the actually words that are being spoken. Body language can reflect attitude, emotion and true feelings. Many aspects of communication come through body language and when you are only communicating online you lose that dimension of communication.

Both of those indisputable benefits allow offline networking to deepen and reinforce relationships while adding credibility to your reputation.

So be creative, spend some time away from your computer (or cat), and let us know what strategies have or have not worked for you in your offline marketing endeavors. You can connect with us in the comment box below or on our Facebook Page.

Meetup Groups – Bringing your Virtual World into the Real World!

Here are a few telling signs that you may need more offline social interaction in your life:

•    You start talking to the computer like it’s a real person.
•    Webinars are the social highlight of your week.
•    You call your pajamas your “work clothes.”
•    You’re so starved for human contact you go to the grocery store just to have real people to talk to.

•   The only way you know what the weather is like is by watching the Weather Channel.

These are extreme examples, but can you relate to a similar experience? While working from home as a virtual assistant or online professional provides great flexibility and convenience, it can sometimes be a little lonely. That’s why it’s crucial to have social outlets and a way of connecting with people who understand your profession and can support you in what you do.

Meetup groups are a great way to have offline events where VAs can meet socially and professionally with like-minded people in their industry to give each other moral support and help each other grow, build skills, and connect with clients.

These events can be organized through Meetup.com, a website that allows you to become a host of a Meetup group and plan offline events for members. For example, Ana Lucia Novak is the organizer of the Silicon Valley Virtual Assistant “sm” Meetup group, made up of local San Francisco Bay Area/Peninsula Virtual Assistants who live and work in Silicon Valley. These members meet once a month and have the opportunity to hear local speakers share their expertise about topics like Social Media Marketing, web design, virtual assistants and small business management.

Marit Fox, a member of this Meetup group, comments on the benefits of these monthly meetings:

“We are individual business owners that work solo. Frequently, our only outside communication is with clients. Connecting with peers within the industry gives me an opportunity to talk about things I deal with in running my business or in the work I am doing. I know my peers can relate and that has a lot of value. We may work alone but we are not in business alone. ”

So the next time you find yourself feeling isolated or looking for a way to network and meet potential clients, check out Meetup.com and see if there’s a group near you. If there isn’t, consider starting one up yourself. The Meetup.com website makes it very easy to create a group with a step-by-step process. A great starting point could be to connect with fellow Virtual Assistants through a social network like our VAClassroom Social Marketing Club and find out who lives in your local area.

Getting connected “in person” with like-minded colleagues might just be what the doctor ordered for your virtual business!

5 Reasons Virtual Events Services are the Ideal Niche for Virtual Assistants in 2009!

My oldest daughter is a PLANNER through and through. When we go on family trips or out to run errands, she likes to know the exact plan of what are are going to do, how many stops we’re going to make, who we are going see – she wants all the details! I often tell her that she will make a fabulous Event Planner when she gets older!

As I look at the massive growth in Virtual Events and declining participation in offline events and conferences (in part due to the current economic situation), I think I will be directing her to pursue a career as a “Virtual Event Planner or Specialist” instead!

The Virtual Events field is one of those industries that has grown in leaps and bounds despite the economic slowdown we are experiencing! Here are five reasons why Virtual Events are becoming so popular (and why now is the best time for Virtual Assistants to tap into this profitable niche):

1. Virtual Events are VERY Cost Effective.

A few years ago, there was a time where webinar solutions were super expensive and really only designed for big business. Well, times have changed. Take GoToWebinar for example… you can run an unlimited number of web events and have up to 1000 participants for just $99/month. For this reason alone, businesses are naturally shifting to virtual events over the more expensive route of offline events and conferences.

2. Virtual Events Reach a Global Audience.

It is evident that only so many people can fly in to attend an offline conference, but with virtual events, there is a much greater capacity to reach a larger, worldwide audience! This can lead to increased exposure and potentially a greater return on investment for the virtual events.

3. Virtual Events Increase Exposure.

The cool thing about Virtual Events is that they enable you to increase exposure for you and/or your client’s business on a consistent basis. Virtual Events are recorded and can be re-listened to by a whole new audience who is accessing your event at a later date. I know I am still receiving feedback from webinars I did almost two years ago – gotta like the long-term exposure of virtual events!

4. Virtual Events Save Time and Maximize Productivity.

By avoiding the travel time required for offline conferences, virtual events can significantly reduce the time commitment involved and allow you to keep on top of your priority tasks. Think of Event Organizers… Can you imagine the time they would save by running events virtually? I am not suggesting there is not a good place for offline events as I certainly like attending some when I can, but the reality is that more businesses are gravitating towards using virtual events as a means to better connect with a larger target audience on a more consistent basis.

5. Virtual Events Can Be Highly Interactive.

Thanks to Social Media and interactive web technology, event participants can socialize and interact with one another in a cool web environment. You gotta love Twitter Hashtags as a great way to join the conversation during a virtual event (as well as an offline event). With the interactive nature of virtual event technology (such as UStream, BlogTalkRadio and GoToWebinar), participants still receive the offline benefit of connecting with others and sharing ideas.

It is evident that more businesses would like to set-up virtual events, but either lack the expertise or time to pull it off. This is where a great opportunity exists for those Virtual Assistants and Online Professionals who would like to position themselves as a “Virtual Event Specialist” – the timing couldn’t be better!

Check out this free upcoming event we have going on at VAClassroom with myself and Virtual Event Specialist, Michelle Schoen titled,

“Building a Profitable Niche as a Virtual Event Specialist (Even in a Down Economy).”

Also, please share your comments on this new virtual event niche? What have you heard from your clients? Do you see this as a great opportunity for Virtual Professionals?Also, what types of virtual events do you most enjoy? I would love to get feedback on this!

Six Keys to Building a Thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009

Happy New Year! I definitely took a long hiatus from my blog, but have re-charged my creative batteries and am officially ready to go!

I have had the privilege of working with a whole variety of Virtual Assistants over a number of years and have been able to assess the particular traits or characteristics that make some of them  very successful. As we head into a New Year full of much promise here are six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant Practice in 2009:

KEY #1 – Be Active in Social Networking – I continue to hear great testimonies of some of our VAClassroom students finding new ideal clients through such popular Social Networks as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. They are building their network with a target audience and are finding opportunities emerge through these connections! So, one of the keys to sustaining a Thriving Virtual Assistance practice in 2009 is to become a “Master Networker” in the key social networks, forums, groups and online communities!

KEY #2 – Build a Compelling Web Presence - I have also had the opportunity to review many different VA websites and I noticed that some of them still do not market themselves super well. The page sometimes is super text heavy, with no multimedia or compelling images. As an Internet Business Owner (who currently works with 4 VAs), I love coming to site that has a YouTube Video, compelling graphics, an optin box to a free PDF guide, Twitter & Facebook Badges and possibly a blog. This shows me that this business is cutting edge and savvy! So, here’s a test….

Go to your website right now and ask yourself: “If I was a prospective client, would I be drawn to my website?” Now is the best time of year to make changes!

KEY #3 – Participate in Blogging and Social Media Content Sharing - Many of you who are blogging right now know the value of being of thought leader in the VA industry and building credibility with your prospective client base – not to mention the great SEO value of regularly updating your blog! The key with your blog is to create content that would be relevant to your target client audience. For example; I saw a PDF guide that a VA was offering called “101 Reasons to Use a Virtual Assistant in 2009″ – this was great and relevant content for small busineses, which certainly could pave the way to new client opportunities!

It is imperative to build your traffic and web presence through sharing content in such sites as HubPages, Squidoo and EzineArticles. This again positions you as a thought leader and drives traffic and Search Engine results back to your website!

KEY #4 – Establish a Clear Business Niche - As you know, the Virtual Assistant role is constantly in flux and means many different things to different people. Many VAs are bloggers, web-designers, social media marketers, bookkeepers, event planners, PR specialists and so much more! The most successful VAs have been able to establish the right niche at the right time to create the best opportunities for their business. For example; businesses are screaming for VAs with Social Media Marketing expertise, which is why we recently launched our Social Media Marketing Specialist Training Program.

Also, it is important to identify the niche audience you are targeting. Is your ideal client audience, Real-Estate Agents, Business Coaches, Women Entrepreneurs, Internet Marketer, Ecommerce Sites etc..?

KEY #5 – Proactive Marketing Strategies – I always love the saying “The squeaky wheel gets the grease”! Translation: A Pro-active Virtual Assistant will create the best opportunities for their business! As you know, the clients may find you on Social Networks or via your website, which is great, but for the most part, you will need to go out there and connect with your ideal client audience in creative ways. For example; One of our VAClassroom Students mentioned that she was putting on workshops for small business associations in her local area on “The Power of Social Media Marketing”. Well, this served as an excellent avenue for her to position herself as an authority and build some new client opportunities.

KEY #6 – Highly Committed to Continual Learning – Of all the industries I have be apart of in my career, none has moved faster than the Internet Business. New technology and web trends are evolving at a rapid pace and 6 months is like 5-10 years in another industry! It is paramount that you are actively pursuing learning and training opportunities in your niche to ensure that you remain on the cutting edge and at the top of your game in 2009.

So, there you have it…. Six keys to building a thriving Virtual Assistant business in the New Year!

I am sure there are other “Keys” and would love to hear yours!

6 Reasons Your Clients Should Invest More In Internet Marketing During a Recession

I probably shouldn’t be using the “R” word in my title as it tends to get people a little jumpy, but inevitably that is the obvious direction we are going in light of the current economic crisis.

Typically during recessions or financially difficult times, businesses cut advertising and marketing dollars and wait out the storm until they can resume business as normal. But interestingly enough, it is being forecasted that businesses will be investing more time and money into Internet Marketing during a potential recession as it is more cost-effective and measurable than traditional ad channels. Typically Internet Marketing efforts require more of your time and less of your money over other types of advertising.

I have been loving the blog, HubSpot as of late and just read a great post pertaining to this issue:

Six Reasons to Invest In Internet Marketing During the Recession

In the blog post, they cite a study by emarketer that reveals the shift in spending to Internet Marketing over traditional channels.

Many of you are working with “Brick and Mortar” clients that likely do some offline advertising. This is the perfect opportunity for you to enlighten them as to the power and cost-effectiveness of Internet Marketing activities over offline ad channels. Further to that, this might also be the perfect opportunity for you to look at our Internet Marketing VA Training Course at VAClassroom in order to sharpen your Internet Marketing know-how during a time when Internet Marketing investment is only continuing to grow……Even during a “R_____N” (Didn’t want to say the word again:)

Planning For The Unplanned In Your Virtual Assistant Business

For those that follow my blog, you probably noticed that I have been “Missing in Action” for over a week! Well my life went into a temporary “tail spin” early last week as I needed to fly back to Canada to attend to an urgent matter. Needless to say, all my priorities and important business activities were shelved for the week!

Have you ever had one of those weeks, where you had a full plate of work priorities, tasks and deadlines only to have them to swept by the wayside as a result of an emergency or sickness?

Well, after this week, I realized that I have never really given a lot of thought to “Planning for the Unplanned”. As a Solopreneur, I have built my business around “me” and so when emergencies happen, work tends to not get done as I have not put in place the proper contingency plans!

So, the million dollar question…. How can you truly plan for those “unforseen events” in your life so that your virtual business stays on track?

Well, after processing this one a bit…. here are a few principles or ideas to consider when “Planning for the Unplanned”:

1. Find a “Delegation Buddy”.

For those of you that own a Virtual Assistance practice, it is good to align yourself with another virtual business owner who offers some similar services as yourself so that you can “scratch each other’s back” when those unplanned events surface in your lives. Yes, you might lose some earnings during that time, but the important thing is to continue to maintain a high quality service for your clients.

A “Delegation Buddy” might also come in handy during those fast-growth times in your business when your client base and projects are growing like crazy.

2. Define your Weekly Priorities.

A few weeks ago, we hosted an event with Freshbooks CEO, Mike McDerment titled, “Virtual Nirvana – How To Remain Inspired and Productive When You Work Alone“. In this webinar, Mike talked about the principle of laying out your weekly priorities on Sunday Evening before the week gets going. You want to clearly define what work activities are most important and MUST get done this week. I usually like to break my work tasks up into “Must Do” and “May Do” lists. The May Do would be great to get to, but not imperative that they get done that week.

Let’s say an emergency hits you on Monday (as it did with me last week)…By knowing those priorities that must get done, this helps you to know the minimum that you need to accomplish or possibly delegate to someone else. Of course, there will be times where this is not possible and you need to be honest with your clients that that the project deadlines just have to be pushed back temporarily.

3. Prep your “Emergency Email”.

Now, this might come across a bit “anal-retentive”, but you might want to go as far as prepping a “generic email” that basically says an “Urgent Matter” has arisen and that you will be out of the office for a specified period of time. Believe me, when a crisis or urgent matter hits you, it is hard to think and it is nice to have an email template in place to you can just copy and paste to your clients. Something to think about…

At the end of the day, emergencies and urgent matters will happen in your life, so you want to be prepared and ask yourself: “How would I keep my business moving in the right direction if I suddenly needed to step away for a week or so?”

These are things we just don’t think about until unforseen circumstances surface in our life.

Food for thought….

Is The “Virtual Assistant” Title Really That Important Anyways?

In a “reflective moment”, I was recently processing much of the dialogue spurred on by Erin Blaske’s thought provoking post last week:

The Future of the Virtual Assistance Industry – An Open Conversation

I think these kind of discussions are great for helping you to further evaluate how you want to be known in your business. Here are a few final thoughts for what it is worth….

I know there is much discussion pertaining to the “true” definition of a Virtual Assistant. But, is the Virtual Assistant title or ANY title for that matter really important to the overall success of your business – I would say NO!

I remember attending my Grad Reunion a number of years ago and fielding the common question, “What do you do?” The natural inclination for most of us might be to give your title: “I am the CEO of VAClassroom.com (Well my wife is actually:)) or I am an Internet Marketing Specialist. I think as humans, we feel the need to label ourselves as if it gives us a higher level of recognition or something. What I have come to realize on a personal level is that is does not matter what title I have in my career, but MORE importantly, what I accomplish, the integrity by which I run my business and ultimately how I positively impact others!

So, if you were to ask me what I do right now, I would not say I am the CEO of VAClassroom…. I would say that I help Virtual Assistants develop new skills to grow successful VA businesses. You see, I would rather not be known for the title or position I have held but rather for what I have done or accomplished that has helped or impacted others!

So my point here is that you may want to be known by your clients, not as a “Virtual Assistant”, but rather as:

“That person that helped them skillfully set-up and manage all their webinar and teleclasses”

“That person that coordinated all their business travel plans”

“That person that effectively managed all their outsourced projects.”

“That Person that helped them expand their business presence in the Social Networks”

The list goes on….

It is the skills that you bring to the table that will be mentioned and referred on by your clients to others. “Hey, I know a great person that can set-up and manage all your email auto-responder campaigns”. The important thing here is the excellence you bring to the services you provide and the integrity by which you do it! That is the hallmark of a successful “Virtual Assistant” or whatever you want to call yourself – it really doesn’t matter!

I also really like this “Personal Branding” expert`s commentary on the topic of a job title here:

Your Personal Brand Statement is NOT a Job Title.

Just a few random thoughts percolating in my brain today:)

Is Your Virtual Assistant Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

Now, I am not looking to start a “Fire Storm” in the VA industry, but more to stimulate some productive discussion – there is my disclaimer:)

I recently reviewed a Press Release from a Virtual Assistant Association (I will not mention names) that was promoting a 2008 survey for the Virtual Assistant Industry. Here is an excerpt from the first part of the Press Release:

“Virtual Assistants are fed up. They’ve had it with inaccurate media portrayals and reporters who don’t get the facts right. They’re sick of exploitive industry outsiders who don’t understand the Virtual Assistance business misinforming their marketplace. They’re tired of constantly having to explain the difference between an employee and an independent service provider. And they’re having their say about it all by participating in this year’s third annual Virtual Assistant Industry Survey.”

Since many of you are Professional Virtual Assistants, I would be interested to hear if you share the above sentiment as this particular industry leader. Please send me all your comments and feedback!

Let me give you my own 2 cents for what it is worth:)

While I can appreciate the frustrations that some VAs may feel at the media’s misrepresentation or misunderstanding of the VA industry, I am not sure if this kind of negative undertone is the most productive way of positively educating media reps and the business world. While the survey is very well done, I think the promotion of the survey through this Press Release presents a somewhat hostile perspective, which I don’t believe is necessary.

Yes, the media needs to be more educated on the varied roles and responsibilties of today’s Virtual Assistants, but I believe the growing publicity of the Virtual Assistant industry is a great thing! Sometimes even less than accurate publicity can bode well for an relatively new industry as it will bring further awareness and expand the dialogue and interest.

I know some VAs have felt cheapened by Tim Ferriss’ portrayal of the VA in The Four Hour Work Week, but let me tell you…. this book has been HUGE in bringing further light and attention to the VA industry. It has awakened many island enterpreneurs who now realize their business and life could be that much more successful if they were to hire VAs…

The bottom line is that the concept of a Virtual Assistant is still a new thing to a lot of people and it is our job to properly educate them on indisputable benefits of hiring specialist VAs to perform a whole variety of pertinent tasks.

On a personal level, when I decided to leave my corporate job and jump into the Internet realm many moons ago, I received a lot of “interesting looks” and misunderstanding about what I would be doing working on the Internet:) You might laugh at this now but it shows how far we have come in 6-7 years. During the early years, I constantly found myself having to explain and educate people on what I do!

Anyways, I am absolutely convinced there has never been a better time to be a Professional Virtual Assistant then right now as more businesses are outsourcing, more people are becoming familiarized with the VA industry and the Internet Biz continues to grow at a rapid pace. These are great days, so I think we need to keep a positive perspective even when misunderstandings or misrepresentations come our way!

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments – agree with me, disagree? Please share.

Recording of VAClassroom Webinar with Freshbooks CEO

Hey, I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

If you didn’t have an opportunity to listen “live” to last week’s VAClassroom Webinar event with Freshbooks CEO, Mike McDerment, I have included the 77 minute MP3 recording below. Mike provided some excellent insights into overcoming many of the obstacles and challenges we face as solopreneurs or Virual business owners who work alone.

Virtual Nivana: How To Remain Inspired and Productive When You Work Alone

Enjoy!

Obstacles Virtual Assistants Face While Working Alone

As many of you know, we are running a “much anticipated” webinar event tomorrow (Thursday, August 7th at 2pm EST) with Freshbooks CEO, Mike McDerment titled:

“Virtual Nirvana: How to remain inspired and productive when you work alone.”

Over the past week or so, we have been asking Virtual Assistants about the obstacles they are currently facing as Solopreneurs and have received some very interesting responses such as…..

- Concerns over getting new clients (a very common one).

- Learning to put plans on paper rather than “Flying by the seat of my pants”.

- Time Management issues – when I am “at home” , I am not at the office and feel like I need to be always working (Common work/life balance issue)

- Challenges getting my name out there.

- Challenges deciding where to focus my marketing efforts and sticking to it.

- Struggles in filtering the noise with all the things I need to do for the business.

- Confidence in abilities (new Virtual Assistant).

- Isolation, distractions within my home office.

- Feeling that my virtual work intrudes on my spouse, my home – hard to get away from work, spend more time working than enjoying life.

- Challenge keeping track of “To dos” and priorities.

- Worry too much about client work (Should I have done this , Are they going to be happy with this etc – mind never slows down…).

- Take on too much and then get overwhelmed.

- Keeping motivated

Can you relate to any of these obstacles? I sure can! I have been working as a Virtual Business Owner and have had to certainly overcome a few of these obstacles in the past few years.

We have taken all the feedback we have received and have incorporated it into tomorrow’s webinar to make it as relevant as possible. We also want to make the event as interactive as possible, so bring your questions!

Oh, one last thing… Freshbooks will be providing a $25 discount coupon code to all participants on the call towards one of their small business billing software packages. PLUS, we will be giving away one “Pure Digital Flip” camcorder sometime during the call.

Here is the link to our webinar page – hope to see you there!

VAClassroom Event Page

VAClassroom Teleseminar for Virtual Assistants, Solopreneurs and Small Business Owners

I just wanted to let you know of an exciting free webinar event we are hosting at VAClassroom on Thursday August 7th at 2pm (EST) of this week.

I have to say that I am unusually excited about this event! Let me tell you why…

My friends at Freshbooks have graciously loaned their CEO Mike McDerment to us for an hour so he can share some powerful insights on:

“Virtual Nirvana: How to Remain Productive and Inspired When You Work Alone.”

You see, Mike is a serial Entrepreneur who has already led two successful Internet start-ups before his roaring success with Freshbooks.com. When he first started out he was not as fortunate to have the talented staff he now has with Freshbooks – he was a “Lone Ranger.” Mike has experienced firsthand the “Good, Bad, and Ugly” of working as a Virtual Solopreneur, like many of you!

Our intent with this webinar is to help re-charge your Virtual Business batteries and keep you engaged and passionate about the work you do!

Now, Mike and his Team at Freshbooks.com have graciously offered a $25 discount coupon on their small business billing packages for every participant on the call, which is awesome.

Also, our team at VAClassroom will be giving away a “Pure Digital Flip Camcorder” to one of the webinar participants on the call, so be sure to stick around until the end! I own The Flip and have used it for all my videos on YouTube – excellent tool!

To claim one of the 300 spots for this webinar event, just sign-up at the below link:

http://www.vaclassroom.com/teleseminar.aspx

Also, you will be able to access this event via the web at:

http://www.vaclassroom.com/instantteleseminar.com

This is going to be a great event and we look forward to seeing you there!

Where do I find Virtual Assistant Clients?

A couple days ago, I ran a seminar at VANetworking on how Virtual Assistants can create a powerful new niche as a Social Marketing VA. One of the questions that was posed by a participant was “How do I find the businesses that will be interested in these Social Marketing Services?” Good Question….

Well, one of my comments was that you need to go to where your most ideal clients hang out on the web – that is a good starting point. The follow-up question is: “Where do they hangout?” Well, I am going to get into all this in a post series I am starting this week, but I found a great place to start….

BMighty came out with the “Best Blogs for Smaller Businesses” – they list 10 popular, high volume blogs that cover topics for SMBs (small/medium businesses) such as business tools, productivity, business management, technology etc…

Let me tell you…. The small biz audience that are reading these blogs are EXACTLY the type of clients hiring Virtual Assistants like crazy right now. I would highly recommend adding these blogs to your RSS reader and join the conversation on topics that matter to your prospective clients. This is a great opportunity to share relevant information and potentially talk about Virtual Assistance in a natural way. These blogs have covered Virtual Assistant-related topics and given the VA buzz we are seeing right now, they will likely continue to discuss the value of outsourcing and delegating small biz tasks to VAs like yourself.

Look for more on the all important topic of finding ideal Virtual Assistant clients this week!

TweetBeep Your Way to New Client Prospects For Your Virtual Assistant Business!

Now, I am fairly certainly that many of you are becoming avid “Twitterers“, but are you also a “TweetBeeper”? Okay Craig, speak English!

I have started to use TweetBeep over the last little while and have been quite impressed with the potential for Virtual Assistants to connect with clients interested in hiring Virtual Staff – Your marketing strategies couldn’t possibly get more targeted:)!

TweetBeep functions similar to Google Alerts in the sense that you can receive daily or current alerts based on specific keywords listed in Twitter conversations.

So, check out a segment of a TweetBeep email alert from yesterday for the keyword, “Virtual Assistant”: (mind the less than stellar quality of the below image:)

As you scan this list, you will see the first two are ideal “twitterers” to follow and connect with as they are both serious about hiring VIrtual Assistants. The 4th post demonstrates a very smart way of doing “Twitter Marketing” – Sharing a blog post relevant to prospective VA clients. The second to last post (Hi Frances!) also has a heads-up Twitter post by attempting to engage those that are seeking a Virtual Assistant – nice!

There are no shortage of creative ways to connect with prospective clients in Twitter. We covered a number of these ideas in a recent teleseminar we did at VAClassroom, Marketing your VA Business in a Web 2.0 World.”

So, if you are not yet using this tool, it is time to start “Tweetbeeping” your way to a wave of new clients for your Virtual Assistant business.

The Power of Video Marketing for Virtual Assistants

Happy Canada Day! Yes, “I AM CANADIAN” (Molson Beer Commerical Reference) and singing the “True, North, Strong and Free” from beautiful and ridiculously hot Phoenix!

Yesterday, I ran a teleseminar event to my VAClassroom Members titled: “Marketing your VA Business in a Web 2.0 World“. We spent some time discussing the power of Video Marketing and the sheer potential it has for rapidly increasing website traffic and improving search listings.

I had mentioned to the group that I had recently noticed that very few Virtual Assistants actually include Video on their websites nor have posted to YouTube. Now, I am sure some of you do, but I still think you would make up a small percentage.

I posed the question to yesterday’s group “Why are most Virtual Assistants not including Video in their marketing efforts?” Does it have to do with simply not having the right equipment to produce the videos or is there a “fear factor” involved here? Is there a hesitation to jump in front of the camera for fear of looking silly or not presenting yourself very well? Would you fall into this category?

I have produced many YouTube Videos in my home office, back yard, park, coffee shop, hotel room and I have to say that I always feel a little wierd initially when doing the videos, but thanks to the editing power of Sony Vegas Movie Studio, I am able to clear my stutters, stammers and “duh” moments and actually produce a quality video. Creating videos is kind of like “public speaking” – the more you do it, the more natural you become. The first couple you might feel like a deer caught in headlights, but it gets easier!!

The bottom line though is that Video marketing is way too powerful and effective to not include in your overall marketing strategies. Over the last few months, I have produced a number of YouTube Videos and continue to see targeted traffic and improved search listings for VAClassroom as a result. Let me show you….

If you go to YouTube and search for “Virtual Assistant”, you will see that VAClassroom has the number 8 spot on that list. If you type in Virtual Assistant Training, I have videos holding down the #3,5 and 6 spots, which again bring traffic to our site. Finally, if you type in “Virtual Assistant Certification”, you will see that we have spots 1 & 2. Again, these videos are sending targeted traffic back to VAClassroom.

To elaborate further, if you go to Google and type in “Virtual Assistant Certification”, we are not on the first page, but our YouTube video holds the 18th & 19th spot on the 2nd page of search results out of a total of 3.8 million search listings for this keyword.

Now, these videos have had strong link building implications for VAClassroom.com. If you do a Google search for “Virtual Assistant Training”, VAClassroom currently holds the 13th spot out of 387,000 listings.

Now, it is very important to note that we only launched VAClassroom less than 2 months ago and we are already seeing some good natural search traffic which is great. Now, I must say that Video Marketing has certainly played a key role in some of our early success and can have the same impact for your VA websites!

The other comment is that I have not seen too many VA websites that include a “Welcome Video” on their homepage. Again, this is an ideal opportunity to provide a personalized introduction to every prospective client hitting your page. People like to look at people, so it is just smart marketing to include a creative introduction video right on your home page that will further compliment your existing web copy. I would recommend using easyflv to add your videos to your website – very userfriendly!

Again, you probably can tell that I am super pumped about Video marketing primarily due to the profound impact it has had on my traffic and search listings. There is no better time to incorporate Video into your overall marketing strategy then right now!

A Social Media Widget to add to your Virtual Assistant Toolbox.

As I have discussed in previous posts, Social Media Marketing is a rapidly growing niche for Virtual Assistants to tap into. Some Virtual Assistants are positioning themselves as Social Network Specialists for busy clients who want to leverage the power of Social Media, but simply do not have the time.

I came across this cool social media widget on Internet Girl Fridays’ Virtual Assistant website. This particular Social Media Widget enables you to present all your social network profiles in own location on your website or blog.

While this widget is great for showcasing your many Social Network Profiles, I do think it would be ideal for those of you who are seeking to add Social Network Profile Set-Up and Management services to your VA portfolio. It could serve as a nice marketing tool to prospective clients interested in expanding their exposure and business presence through the Social Networks. You would be able to showcase the quality profiles you have set-up for your own business and in turn give them a taste of what they could expect if they were to hire you to set-up and manage their online Social Profiles.

Again, most businesses simply do not have the time to effectively manage and update their Social Network Profiles, so a most excellent “in-demand” service for a Virtual Assistant!

Summize.com – A great tool for Finding New Virtual Assistant Clients!

I don’t know about you, but I love Web 2.0 and Social Media! There is never a shortage of cool social media applications and tools to simplify your life as a Virtual Assistant!

In the VAClassroom Forum, one of our members mentioned Summize, a cool new tool for searching the conversations in Twitter. I have to confess…. Initially it took me some time to warm up to Twitter – I initially thought it was a total time drag and would take time away from my pertinent business actvities. I thought, “Do people actually really care what I am doing right now?” It seemed kind of trivial, but as I have closely observed a number of Twitterers over the last while, I now see how Twitter can be used to share and view relevant content and connect the Twitter audience to your blog and website.

Summize has peaked my interest in Twitter even further as this social search engine allows you to search the Twitter conversations by specific keywords. My keyword specific searches in Summize pointed out a whole bunch of interesting Twitterers that would be worthwhile following.

Not only that, Summize can help you track new prospective VA Clients! For example; check out the below results from the search term “Virtual Assistant” :

Take a look at the 2nd, 5th and 6th twitter post – they are all related to hiring a Virtual Assistant. The last guy specifically says “Looking for a Virtual Assistant. Any suggestions are welcome”. I don’t know about you, but I would classify that as a HOT CLIENT LEAD!!

So, not only does Summize enhance your Internet research efforts, but also serves as a great resource for connecting with new VA Clients – how cool is that?

Are You Managing Your Client’s Online Reputation?

A few weeks ago, during the pre-launch of VAClassroom.com, I received a Google Alert regarding a forum post pertaining to our new training center. I followed the forum thread closely and while the comments were not negative or critical, they were based on assumptions and misinformation. Fortunately, one of the Virtual Assistants I work with was apart of the forum and was able to provide some accurate information about VAClassroom.

This is a good example of Online Reputation Management. The beauty of the Internet and Social Networking is that we can easily find out what users are saying are about our products and services. Prior to the Internet and the information age, companies were more “in the darK” on consumer feedback. Now, I can set-up my Google Alerts to track any web posts pertaining to my domains or related topics and can quickly respond and dialogue with users talking about our products and services.

Online Reputation Management is an “in-demand” tasks for Virtual Assistants today. I have a industry friend who runs a high-volume ecommerce site and recently contacted me to see if I had a Virtual Assistant that could handle their Online Reputation Management tasks (20 hours per week) – I actually just posted that position in our VAClassroom Members Site. This particular client does 1000s of sales on a monthly basis and needs to regularly dialogue with prospective consumers to ensure that they have accurate information about their products and services. The last thing any web company wants is a false rumor or misinformation being spread about that adversely affects consumer perception.

So, this might be an “in-demand” task to consider adding to your VA service offerings. The tasks basically involve tracking online reputation via Google Alerts as well as through applicable Social Shopping and Ecommerce sites and providing accurate information about your client’s products and services.

Facebook Payday – A Great Resource for Facebook Marketing Virtual Assistants

As many of you know, we did a teleseminar last week titled, “How Virtual Assistants Can Profit from the Social Media Explosion in 2008″. This teleseminar event was very well attended and we are still receiving great feedback and questions which is cool! You can access a recording of the event through our VAClassroom Membership Site.

One of the topics I discussed in this teleseminar was the rapidly growing opportunities for Web Savvy Virtual Assistants to position themselves as Facebook Marketing VAs. We discussed the different services you might offer clients seeking to leverage this channel such as:

• Setting up and managing Facebook profiles.
• Coordinating Facebook Events.
• Moderating and participating in targeted Facebook groups.
• Inviting and adding new business friends for your clients.
• Creating and managing Facebook business pages for your clients.

The list goes on…..

One of the advanced services we discussed involved implementing and managing Facebook Pay Per Click Ad campaigns which are becoming increasingly popular. A handful of Internet business owners are generating some excellent profits through this channel.

A Business Collegue of mine, Peter Koning, has just launched an ebook and membership site called Facebook Payday. I have had a chance to review some of this resource and it is very impressive. The ebook will provide you with some of the skills and knowledge required to set-up and manage successful PPC ad campaign through Facebook.

If you are seeking to grow a Facebook Marketing niche for your business then Facebook Payday is definitely worth checking out!

Winner Announced for VAClassroom Contest

We have a winner! As many of know, we ran a “Win a VA Business PowerPack” contest that included a Web/Blog Site Redesign, Marketing Makeover and some cool VA business web tools. Well, we are pleased to announce the winner of our contest…….

Mary Howard from Virtual Office Professionals (US)

Mary is very excited about the package and is just trying to decide between a blogsite and website design. We are naturally a little biased toward Word Press Blog sites, but look forward to providing an excellent re-design for her. We will actually be featuring the “before” and “after” post in the near future, so you can see the key elements we included to further enhance her client appeal!

One other noteworthy item….. Our VAClassroom Special Membership Offer for our Blog readers and subscribers has been extended to May 26th at Midnight, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

VAClassroom.com is opening the doors early!

As many of know, we have been talking about the VAClassroom niche training center we will be launching shortly….Well, the talking is over!

At 10pm (EST) (May 19th), we opened the doors a little early so our VAClassroom subscribers and teleseminar participants could take advantage of a special offer that will save them $100 per year! The response has been good and we look forward to building a vibrant, interactive training center that will help VAs like yourself take their businesses to new heights in 2008.

The other day, I was thinking about the amount of hours we had invested in the VACLassroom project and I think it would be close to about 1000 – phew!! Anyways, we are glad that we can now bring our comprehensive VA Training Center to you today.

Since our special offer is only running until 11:59 pm (PST) on Wednesday (May 21st), I wanted to give our blog readers an opportunity to check out VAClassroom and lock in at the lower discounted rate as well.

Here is our special offer page:

http://www.vaclassroom.com/special

Until next time….