Congrats on making the bold step of starting a virtual assistant business. Now, it’s time to start making the tough decisions entrepreneurs make like how to market themselves online.
Finding clients for your new business is a top priority for you right now. And there is no better place you can find these clients than in the online space. Especially the various social media platforms.
You can never go wrong on social media because the platforms provide a meeting point for clients of all sorts. But that also means that you have to also apply the right techniques to eventually find your ideal clients.
Below are some of the tips and techniques you can use to find your ideal clients.
Engage in Some Market Research
Here is a fun tip for you: currently, there are over 4.59 billion social media users across the globe. That means over half of the world’s population is on social media.
Therefore finding your ideal VA clients from such a huge lot is like literally finding a needle in a haystack. Therefore, you have to at least find a formula for how you can narrow down your search.
Developing such a formula requires you to generate data about your target customers. And you generate this data by engaging in market research about your ideal clients.
Much of this research will be informed by your choice of VA specialization and preferred niche. These two factors will help you gather the relevant data you need to create your target ideal customer.
From there it becomes easier to narrow down your search for this ideal client on social media. You will have to answer the following questions about this ideal client
What’s your client’s preferred social media platform (s)?
What do they mainly use social media for?
What are some of their notable social media habits?
How do they look for help or information on social media?
How can you best provide personalized services to solve the unique challenges the ideal clients face?
Focus on Specific Social Media Platforms
Social media is probably one of the places you can be a Jack of all trades, but a master of none. It is not unusual to get carried by all the excitement and hype of finding more clients by being present on all social media sites.
After all, it wouldn’t probably hurt to cast your net wider and reach out to more potential clients. But in reality, it will do more harm than good to your online marketing efforts.
Focusing your attention on all social media platforms will affect the quality of your interactions with potential clients. The divided attention will make it harder to develop meaningful relationships with potential clients and destroy your best chances of pushing your ideal client further down the sales funnel.
But selecting the ideal social media platform to market your VA business shouldn’t be a problem for you. The research you have conducted on your ideal customers will inform your decision on the social media platforms to focus your marketing efforts.
Create an Attention-Grabbing Bio
The best part about focusing only on a few social media sites is that you have an opportunity to perfect your craft on one platform. Begin with creating an attention-grabbing social media profile.
Having an attention-grabbing profile is the first step to creating a lasting impression with your clients. For example, your social media profiles can be a good sample to potential clients of what you can do as a social media manager VA.
A captivating profile also makes it easier to be found by your clients. That is why you have to optimize your social media profiles.
Research the keywords that would attract ideal clients to your profile. Make sure to include such keywords when providing your profile descriptions. Also, ensure you use an up-to-date picture on your profile.
Become Proactive in Reaching Out to Clients
Don’t get it all wrong. Social media is a place to interact and develop relationships with people, including potential clients.
But you have to be creative in how you approach relationships with potential clients. You don’t want a scenario where clients think you are stalking them or are too much for them on social media.
But there are clever ways you can attract clients to you. That is by developing content that addresses the specific challenges faced by your ideal targets. Again this shouldn’t be hard for you now that you have already researched your ideal clients.
Starting creating content that addresses the challenges your ideal clients face. For example, you can develop educational YouTube videos, Facebook live sessions, or podcasts that you will share on your social media pages.
“How to content” is a good place to prove your expertise to potential clients. Ahrefs could be a good place to benchmark if you plan to use this strategy to grow followers and attract potential clients to your social media platforms.
Remember to use the right hashtags when posting your content. Hashtags are also an intelligent way to attract and market your VA services to your target clients on social media.
Join Relevant Social Media Groups
Being proactive also means making good use of social media groups and chats. For example, Facebook groups are a good place to get closer to your target clients.
Start by researching the groups in your target niche. Then narrow down to those groups where your target clients are members.
Become an active group member by commenting on posts that help portray you as an expert in your field. You will be surprised how easily such opportunities come around when you are in the right groups.
Be Consistent With Your Social Media Marketing
People love consistency on social media. For example, if your potential clients identify you as their go-to guy for “how-to-content” they will be disappointed to find that you stopped posting such content.
Also, you need to develop a consistent schedule for posting your content. Of course, your schedule will be informed by your research on target customers. Be aware of when they are most active online and that would be your ideal posting schedule.
Consistency also applies to your social media marketing goals. You will have to be measuring your performance at various intervals to assess your progress in achieving your social media marketing goals.
What to Do Next
Once in a while, you may also need guidance or support regarding how to promote your VA services online. And for that, you will need the expertise of experienced VAs who have been in such a situation too, and found a way to get it done.
The Royal VA Community is a good place to start in finding the help and support you need to get it right with marketing your VA services online. Come and interact with other virtual assistants in your field and learn a few things about their ways.