Working around my yard gathering wagon load after wagon load of fallen maple leaves makes me wonder if there’s an end in sight. Whenever I hear virtual assistants ask where to find clients I want to shout they are as plentiful as these leaves! They truly are everywhere…and yet seem to be no where to those asking.
So, let’s push the leaves aside to reveal what the fruits of the search can reveal.
Searching High & Low
If you find yourself searching high and low for clients the problem isn’t that they are hiding, the problem is that you aren’t clear on one or both of these things: who your client is and/or what solution your particular product or service solves for them …and you’re probably marketing outside of where your client will see it. That’s it…end of blog post. Oh, you want more…
Previously on this blog I talked about operating your business to serve an industry niche or a services niche group. With your niche in mind, who are your clients? Where would you typically meet them (in-person or virtually)? What types of marketing would this client anticipate from you to get you and your message in front of their eyes? There are 525,600 minutes in a single year. Your first priority is knowing without a doubt where to spend your time advertising. Marketing in the wrong place is frustrating and a huge time waster. Don’t worry where other VAs market. This isn’t the time to play follow the leader. Put in the research time to know who your client is. Make it easy for them to find you.
For the purposes of this writing I’ll focus on a services niche of newsletters and ask who uses newsletters? A short list would include: small businesses who host events and seminars, those who run monthly or seasonal promotions, those who want to introduce a new service or product, and those wishing to position themselves as the authority or go-to person for the solution their business provides.
That’s a wide variety of industries – all prospective clients who crave virtual assistance with their newsletter design, content writing, schedule and distribution, and the entire list building campaign. Anyone from another VA to an attorney, to a speaker or coach to a consultant, to a medical office to an automotive service or dry cleaner can be a potential newsletter client. Newsletters are a common and widely used marketing medium. The second part of knowing your client market is understanding where you need to advertise. When you began honing in with laser focus it becomes crystal clear where your efforts need to be. Will that speaker be someone who uses social media? Most likely. Will that medical office be on Twitter? Less likely.
Connecting Your Solution to Their Problem
Your solution, providing a newsletter service [insert your service/product here], needs to be advertised in places that these business owners will see it. Online it’s determining which type of marketing will reach your potential customers. Locally, it’s also coupled with shaking hands with business owners and asking them to share the word that you do fabulous newsletters at affordable rates. Get involved in your community and connect with organizations that interlock many business leaders together so you can maximize your networking circle and exposure.
Everything you write about our message must be customer focus driven. The solution is all about their needs. Their success. Their ease. Their end goals.
With this new success formula in mind, think you can find those clients now? Tell me about your progress. Tell me what makes you stumble or seems impossible to figure out.