Virtual Assistant Marketing 101 - Newsletters
People rarely buy products or services when they first see them on the internet. Research studies indicate that it can take several ‘contacts’ before a prospect will get their credit card out and make a purchase. Therefore, a wonderful way of staying in touch with your clients and prospects is to produce a regular newsletter. A newsletter allows you to stay in the minds of your readers and prospects.
Here are some tips for your own newsletter:
Provide good information
The key is to provide great information in every issue of your newsletter. As a VA, perhaps you could write about productivity and timesaving tips for small business owners. Aim for 80% of the content to be helpful information and tips, and the other 20% about your own business and services. If you take the time to give quality information, people will start to trust you and be much more likely to hire you as their Virtual Assistant.
Send a newsletter regularly
Consistency is key. Make your newsletter a regular event for your readers, so that they start to expect news from you. Weekly or fortnightly is best – not too regular but not too far apart. In today’s online world, people can forget you easily, so a quarterly one isn’t going to cut it these days!
Promote your newsletter
Put a sign-up form on your website so that people can enter their name and email address in return for your newsletter. This is a very simple thing to do, and is a feature that is included with most newsletter tools. The tool I recommend for newsletters is Aweber – I’ve been using it for a couple of years and it is excellent:
Remember, you need to actively promote your newsletter. This is a key point that many people forget. Make it a prominent feature of your website and sell the benefits of your newsletter to people.
Get people to pass it to friends
Encourage everyone on your mailing list to pass the newsletter to other people if they think could benefit from it. This is a great way to get referrals and increase your newsletter list.
If you follow the above tips, you should be able to make your newsletter a great success. Your readers will consider you as a trusted advisor and friend and will be more likely to hire you as their Virtual Assistant.
The Internet has made marketing a business much easier through online networking. While online networking is very powerful, there is no doubt that face-to-face networking can also attract a valuable stream of clients. The reason for this is quite simple. Meeting someone in person is so much more effective for establishing trust and conveying information about what you do.
Of course, it is possible to build a Virtual Assistant business purely through online networking, However, you can’t beat the combination of both online and offline networking. Using both will give you a distinct competitive advantage.
There are still businesses working strictly with office-based employees who may not have previously considered using a Virtual Assistant. You can take the role of an educator by explaining exactly what you do for your clients. There are many business owners who want to cut costs and outsource more of their work, rather than take on a full time employee.
If you are able to meet such people, then you have a huge advantage over your competition. The fact is that most Virtual Assistants only ever look for clients online, via forums, message boards and their own website. If you go one step further then you can break into a new market that many people are unaware of.
You are highly recommended to attend as many local business-networking events as you can. You should introduce yourself and explain exactly what you do. Make it as clear as possible and focus on the benefits to people who are unfamiliar with the online world.
Always make sure you exchange business cards so you can follow up after the first contact. Here’s a tip: as soon as you leave the networking event, write a quick note about each person you’ve met. This will help you remember them more easily. Then look out for information that they would be interested in, and send it to them.
Look to build long-term relationships through networking, rather than going along with a ‘quick-fix’ attitude of getting business straight away. And remember, even if the person you’re talking to isn’t interested in using a VA, you never know who they might know!
You can really move ahead of your competition if you become active in offline networking.
Do you have any questions or comments about this Virtual Assistant marketing strategy? If so, please post them below!
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P.S. Here are the links to the other Virtual Assistant marketing articles in this series:
Virtual Assistant Marketing - Blogging
Virtual Assistant Marketing - Articles
Virtual Assistant Marketing - Face-To-Face Networking
Virtual Assistant Marketing - Social Networking
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Hi
I’m a real fan of face-to-face networking! I’m so new in this business that I have just one client at the moment, but every time I go to a networking meeting, I feel encouraged and optimistic that sometime very soon, the ripples in my personal pond will reach out to more and more prospective clients. Also, as I’m seeing the same people on a regular basis, we’re getting to know, like and respect each other. This makes referring on so easy to do; it’s just like talking about friends!
My company, VAPS(Virtual Assistance & Paralegal Services) is newly launched. I do not have a website yet. I would like advice on methods/ideal for attracting clients.