Welcome to another episode of the podcast that teaches you how to be a ridiculously good virtual assistant.
Today I want to talk about how you can stand out as a Virtual Assistant, in what can be very crowded industry.
Today’s Quote: If you want to stand out from the crowd, give people a reason not to forget you. – Richard Branson
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Connect with Tracey D’Aviero, VA Coach and Trainer
Episode Notes:
I get so many questions from Virtual Assistants about how to help our clients find us and notice us.
The idea with marketing your VA business is to get noticed – get visibility.
Yes it’s about getting clients but what we really need to do is to get ourselves and what we do to help our clients ‘out there’.
Getting clients usually comes from having a conversation with someone who has heard about us.
Marketing is the act of getting them to hear about us.
So what I want to talk about today is how to stand out – to get noticed, ahead of other VAs.
When you focus your marketing initiatives on getting seen by clients who need you, instead of trying to sell yourself to people who may not, you will see much better results.
There is a difference – and it not only works better, but it’s much easier too!
Pick a Target Market or Niche
First thing you absolutely need to do is to focus on a niche or a target market.
I can hear you roll your eyes now, but I am going to talk about it anyway because it really makes a difference in our marketing.
A niche can be one of two things – it can be your target market or industry that you want to work with. For example if you work with the legal industry or business coaches or podcasters.
These people do the same or similar work for their businesses, and so naturally they will need support in similar ways. It’s an easy way to do your networking and your client work, to work with people who need the same type of things and who may even hang out in the same places professionally.
To find these clients, you might be able to join one or two Facebook groups for their industry and find some great clients easily.
The other thing a niche can be is your service offering. For instance, if you offer services like bookkeeping or website design or social media services, you can work with a bigger variety of clients. Because they still all need the same type of services.
If you are looking for a network for a niche service offering, you might look instead for entrepreneur groups who are local to each other, or for a system or software that they use in their business. Or a local networking group. The idea is that they don’t have to do the same thing for business, but they are still gathering with their business peers to talk business.
When you focus on a niche, your messaging will become a lot more clear. You can create content that they relate to, and they will respond to.
How many VAs have you seen posting content about themselves, and being a VA, and how they like to work from home? Or posting their service packages and rates, or specials?
That content does not land with your clients. Instead, they want to see you talking about how you help your clients, and what they could potentially get help with if they were to work with you.
Your marketing content needs to work for you – that’s it’s sole job. To educate your potential clients about what you can do to help them. When they are surfing their socials, you want them to stop and go ‘hey I need help with that.’
Niche is the number one thing you need to do if you are struggling to do your marketing or get clients from it. Remember today we are talking about standing out. If you focus on THEM, you will 100% stand out from many VAs who are not posting the right thing on their social media right now.
Create a Strong Online Presence
I never tell VAs they need a website to start their VA business – because you don’t.
But I always tell them they need a solid online presence.
We are working virtually with our clients – and so they need to be able to check us out online to feel confident that we are real, and that we can help them.
Some of the complaints I hear from clients is that they don’t know how to trust that their VA knows how to do what they do, or that the will not ghost them.
And while you may not intend to do that, know that it’s a real issue for people hiring someone over the internet.
Particularly when we are asking them to pay us up front.
Having a great online presence that they can see that you are a real person is a really easy way to stand out from other VAs.
What is an online presence? It can be your Linked In profile. It can be a Facebook page.
You don’t have to use your Facebook profile for your business, I don’t. But you have to present yourself as a real person.
It helps to showcase your expertise but also to humanize you. Trust is a big thing for people, and it’s easy to show them that you actually do exist.
And because you are operating a service business, you want your clients to trust you. It’s part of your service! You can’t do your work effectively if they lack confidence in you.
I suggest at the very least, starting a Facebook page and linking it to your work experience in your Facebook profile so that when they do arrive on your profile they can see ‘oh here is where the business stuff will be’ and click right over to it.
This is another thing that SO many VAs don’t do. It’s simple! Do this one thing right now if you haven’t already, and you’ll already stand out from the VA crowd.
And the populate your Facebook page with good content. Regular, consistent content that helps them understand what you do and who you help. Because they want to see that you can help them!
Offer Exceptional Customer Service
Hand in hand with trust and confidence comes feeling appreciated.
Make your clients feel very appreciated. Have a solid follow up procedure from networking. Have a solid onboarding process for new clients. Provide excellent communication and customer service – respond to their inquiries promptly, make sure they feel like you care.
Exceeding client expectations is another thing that really isn’t that hard to do.
If you communicate well, you can do this easily.
You can set the expectation every time and then you can exceed them.
For instance, if you meet someone at a networking event and they want you to follow up with them, let them know when you will be reaching out. Then either reach out when you said you would, or sooner.
If you have had a discovery call with someone and you tell them you will send them a follow up email or a proposal, get it over to them asap.
If you are working with a client, set the expectations of your response times and lead times and make sure you hold to those.
Everyone loves to feel special, and our clients are no different.
If you can master communication and customer service, that will set you apart from a lot of VAs who may be very busy and get overwhelmed by their workload.
Make your clients feel confident that you are in control and you will be the talk of your clients’ business circles. That means referrals and a strong reputation.
Again, as a service provider, you want to be the one they are talking about when you aren’t around – in a good way!
Systems and Processes
Automate what you can to help you get more done, and work more efficiently.
One of the most common things that VAs come to me for help with is time management.
We are great at helping our clients get organized but then sometimes organizing ourselves is where fall short.
Managing multiple clients – their expectations, their work, and even their communication – can be a challenge.
Systems and processes can help you with all of this stuff.
Systems help you define what is supposed to happen in every situation.
What is the lead time needed for it? Lead times are a great way to get in control of your client work. The lead time is simply how much time ahead of the deadline you get what you need, or get notified that something needs doing.
Not only are solid lead times important for meeting deadlines, they are also important to help you manage multiple clients because you need to be in charge of your own calendar.
If you constantly turn non urgent items over quickly, your clients will expect fast turnaround on everything.
Because here’s the thing… not everything is urgent. Not even everything is important enough to get done fast. if your schedule allows it, sure, but remember that you are in charge of your schedule, not your clients. So tell them what your lead times are for everything.
Lead times. set them. hold them!
What is the step by step process to do it?
When we can detail the steps, we can set a billable time for that task because we know how long it should take to get it done each time.
You can see how processes can be very helpful in managing your time, and therefore the expectations of your clients.
And it definitely helps you stand out in thr VA industry because I’ll tell ta a lot of VAs do not do this.
When you an set really clear expectations, your Virtual Assistant business will thrive.
Keep Learning
There is so much new stuff happening, all the time.
One of the best things you can do to stand out from other VAs, fortunately is one of the things most of us VAs love to do – keep learning!
I am a perpetual learner – love it. I love to learn new things.
What you need to make sure of in your VA business is to learn things that you can implement now.
I’ve been there – I’ve taken every Facebook ads training out there, and I don’t provide it as a service!
Make sure that whatever you plan to learn is something that is relevant to your business now.
There will always be another training for Facebook ads – and if and when you need to learn about it, it will be up to date! Don’t waste time on things that you aren’t going to implement now.
But always be learning. Keep an eye on your own professional development stuff, like my online VA conference! – so you can keep building your own skills like your mindset and your time management and your other business stuff.
And keep an eye on things that trending or updating in your clients’ industries too. What softwares are they using to run meeting or host events? What CRMs are out there? What communication apps are the ones to use for teams or project management?
Being able to stay ahead of clients for that kind of thing helps you become really invaluable in their business. It’s a bonus if you can help your clients get ahead of their own colleagues!
We all love learning and it can be an excellent way to stand out from the VA crowd for sure.
So there you have it. It’s really not hard to stand out.
To help your marketing actually work for you.
To circle back to today’s quote, If you want to stand out from the crowd, give people a reason not to forget you.
From all of the things that we talked about in this episode, each one of those is a simple thing you can do to not be forgotten.
Pick a target client or niche – someone that you will thrive working with.
Create a strong online presence – showcase your expertise
Exceptional customer service – treat your clients well
Systems and processes – get a handle on your time management and production,
and last keep learning – stay on top of important things that can make a difference to you and your clients.
Being a Virtual Assistant – a ridiculously good one – really is about doing a series of simple things well. It’s your turn!
Do You Need Help?
If you are ready to implement some simple changes to your VA business that will make a serious change to your income, that’s where I come in. I am here for one reason – to help you become a ridiculously good VA.
I have helped hundreds of VAs who are stuck get moving through private coaching, group coaching, and live and self study trainings. If you want to talk about how we can work together, let’s connect on a Cut to the Chase call. You can book yours at YourVAMentor.com/chase
Thanks for tuning in this week! I’ll see you next time!
What You Need to Do Next:
Let’s work together privately to get you to your really big goal. It’s the fastest way to get results and we can start right away. Learn more about private coaching here.
The Virtual Circle (TVC) is a monthly mastermind group for Virtual Assistants just like you. We get together 3 times a month for group Zoom sessions to talk about what you are struggling with, working on, or celebrating. It’s a close knit community of your VA colleagues that provides the best kind of support for your VA business. Learn more about TVC here.
My self study program Getting Started as a VA can help you get your VA business started easily and quickly too. You can sign up right away and be on your way to getting clients by the end of the program, with all the right foundations in place. Check out the program here.
Click here for more tips to help you with your productivity and time management in your Virtual Assistant business.
Reach out to me if you need to talk about where you are stuck and what the right option might be to get you moving. It’s literally all I’m here to do is help you get to where you want to go. Book a complimentary Cut to the Chase call with me here.