Virtual Assistant Inbound Marketing Blog

The question came up in the HubSpot customer forums today about choosing a blog topic. A fellow HubSpot customer wanted to know how to choose topics to write about. That's a struggle I know all too well.

The fabulous Erin Colbert suggested we look at our keywords in the HubSpot keyword grader and choose the low-hanging fruit to build a blog post around. Thanks for the great idea Erin! 

Here are 5 ways you can increase website traffic:

1. Focus your website content on keywords related to your target market. For better SEO make sure you place your keywords in the relevant places on your page.

2. Put a freebie on your site for visitors to download and give away to others if they wish. Write an ebook or have your virtual assistant help you prepare one if your time is limited.

3. Start a blog and be sure to add to it regularly. Stale blogs bring no traffic.

4. Comment on the blogs of people in your target market. If you leave an intelligent comment with a link to your website then people might follow it to find out more about you. Try to be one of the first commenters.

5.  Promote your website through your participation in social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and forums.  

Do you have a strategy method and tactics for attracting new leads? What is it?

Is it a mulit-faceted approach or singular like putting up a website and hoping the customers will find you?

Here's my strategy and these are my tactics:

Strategy: Inbound marketing methods

Tactics:

1. I have a monthly subscription to HubSpot. I use their software tool because it's the most comprehensive and all encompassing internet marketing tool available. Before HubSpot I spent a year using several SEO tools to patch together the information I get presented to me inside my HubSpot dashboard. The time and money I save NOT using those other tools is worth the cost of my HubSpot account.
2. Blogging on a consistent basis. Ideally everyday but currently once a week. This is one of the most important methods of promoting for a few reasons (albeit not always easy to do) Blogging, when done properly, creates more content for your website, more links for your website, more visitors to your website.
3. Properly structured website with lots of informative content, and optimized for SEO
4. Social networking on sites like Twitter, Facebook and Linked In. (those are my top 3 although there are many more)
5. Create compelling landing pages with killer calls to action. (In the next few weeks I will have a free download available on my site for interested prospects)

Since becoming a leading HubSpot Partner last fall my business has grown by leaps and bounds. In fact, my business has become so successful that it has morphed into a multi-VA business out of necessity.

Finding myself the owner/operator of a multi-VA business has been both rewarding and time consuming. Fortunately my business has been able to gradually evolve into its new self slowly and I have been able to adapt along with it.

When I first realized I needed a project management program I searched the virtual assistant forums for guidance. I tried ClientSpot but it didn't have the functionalities I needed. Eventually I settled on Basecamp and have not been disappointed. I have been using it since December 2008 and it does almost everything I need it to do.

Over the past several months my 2 subcontractors and I have been keeping track of our time separately. Each week they would email me their hours and I would manually input their time and tasks into my own timesheet for submitting to my clients along with the invoice. As my business grew busier this scenario was becoming less time efficient. I needed a collaborative time keeping method and , ideally, something I could integrate with Basecamp.

Hello Freshbooks! This handy tool lets your subcontractors record their time into your Freshbooks account. They must register for their own account but it lets them integrate their time into your Freshbooks account AND invoice you directly from their own Freshbooks account. From my Freshbooks account I can see at a glance how much time my subcontractors are using so that we don't go over budget.

From Freshbooks I can also invoice my clients directly and include the whole team timesheet inside the invoice. This has eliminated the need for me to send one invoice and one timesheet. I can also keep track of all my expenses right inside Freshbooks. Freshbooks fully integrates with Basecamp and there are various time tracking addons available. 

My last hurdle to overcome in my project management streamlining was how to handle the multitude of emails I get from my clients. Copying and pasting my tasks from my email into Basecamp was a lesson in futility. I spent more time than I felt was necessary but there was no other way I could do it. Or was there?

Enter MailManagr ! A google search led me to MailManagr. I found my salvation! I couldn't believe my luck. This program fully integrates with Basecamp and it solved my email dilemma. With MailManagr I can forward my emails, with attachments, directly into Basecamp and assign them and drop them directly into a To-Do, Milestone, or Message. I don't even need to login to Basecamp to do this. 

I would love to have ONE project management suite that lets me do all of the above. If anyone knows of such a thing PLEASE share the name of it. Certainly I would prefer that over having 3 separate tools. However, until I find such a thing I am delighted with my current procedures. I have saved myself time and I don't need to remember to remind my subs to submit their timesheets to me every week. It's all good. :)

I bought Camtasia Studio last November and never found the time to learn it. Such a huge waste of money on something I didn't know how to use but had the best intention to learn when I got it.

Learning Camtasia is something that will definitely help my virtual assistant business since it's a service I often get asked to provide. I dislike having to say No to clients who ask me to help them with a marketing video.

Well, my days of saying No are OVER! I'm in the middle of my Learn Camtasia Fast training classes with Lon Naylor and Michelle Schoen.

Let me just say that these 2 really know their stuff. They are both extremely knowledgeable and helpful. There's no way I would've found the time to learn Camtasia on my own. That's the truth. There are too many intricacies. But Lon and Michelle simplify it and make learning it easy and fast.

I'm excited to be learning Camtasia and more excited that I will be making my first marketing video for one of my clients as soon as my course is over. I can hardly wait! 

Watch my blog sometime in June where I will post the new videos I produce. I'm creating some tutorial videos for my own business first, but in September I will finally offer Camtasia productions as a service for my clients. :)

I got an email the other day from a fellow virtual assistant asking me "how do I get clients? Where can I find them?" My answer was - don't waste your valuable time looking for clients. Use your valuable time creating a trail for clients to find YOU!

Huh? Are you shaking your head wondering what I'm on about...well don't. It's simple really. You see, "clients" are people just like you. They know what they want and they seek it out. Think about it - when you want to find something online what's the first thing you do? You Google it - right? (or Yahoo it, or Live it, or whatever search engine you use) The point is, you're looking for an answer to your question. 

A really smart and savvy virtual assistant will make sure her website gets shown high up in that Google search. But how? Well, the first and best strategy is to properly optimize your site for search engines using keyword phrases. The second strategy is to create quality content for your clients via content rich web pages and by blogging. The third strategy is to get involved in social networking like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and forums. The fourth strategy is link building.

Remember the movie "Field of Dreams" and the line "if you build it, they will come"? (or something like that) That's true on the internet, if done properly. Build a well structured, optimized website with lots of quality content, participate in social networking and the clients will come. It won't happen overnight because nothing decent ever happens overnight. But if you build it and nurture it, eventually, they will come.

Every so often I get emails from new VAs asking me to help them market their VA businesses. Here are my answers to the most common questions:

Q: "I want to market my VA business but I don't know where to start."

A:  If you haven't already, you need to join the VA forums. http://www.virtualassistantforums.com and http://www.vanetworking.com   These are the best 2 to join. These forums are a great source of information and it's all free.

 You must have a website with a blog. A hosted website, not a free one, and it must be on your own domain. If you want to market a virtual assistant business then you must have a website. Please, no Google Ads and no affiliate links to products unrelated to your niche should be placed on your business website. (You could possibly place these things on your blog but that is a judgement call and a slippery slope at best)

Once you have a professional looking website then you can market it.

You need to get involved in networking. Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the VA forums are great places to be seen and heard. Blogging is a great thing to do as well. It showcases your expertise and helps create links to your site.

Set up your google alerts for your target market keywords and then read the blog posts of people in your niche.

Make a point of commenting on those blogs. Make useful comments so that other readers will read your words and be compelled to visit your site just to find out more about you. This is a great way to drive traffic to your site, increase your links, and get yourself known.

Q: "Can you recommend where I should purchase my domain?"

There are many places you can purchase a domain. Many VAs buy from GoDaddy.com

GoDaddy also has a Website Tonight template you can use to put up a website. It's not perfect by any means but it does the job for limited budgets. I purchased my domain from Netfirms. They have excellent customer support. Just make sure you read the terms and conditions of any place you buy domains from.

You should also know about copyscape.com  It is a free site that VAs use to see if anyone is copying their websites. As tempting as it is to copy and paste from one website to another it is definitely not advised. Rewrite it to sound like your own otherwise you may find yourself on the receiving end of a nasty email from a VA who won't be happy that her website content has been "stolen". (just a word to the wise)

Q: "Are there any legal forms that I will need to have my clients sign and are there any legal forms that go along with a virtual assistant company online?"

A: In the beginning I think it's a good idea to require a signed agreement. It ensures the expectations are met and agreed to. There should be no surprises. 

You can buy forms here http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/virtual-assistant-business-forms.htm

Or you can find some good free forms in the document library at the Virtual Assistant Forums. (note: you must be an active member with 50 posts to access these forms)

Q: "How can I market my site to prospective clients? What do you think is the best way to get traffic to my site?"

A: You need to know who your target market is and where they hang out. Are they online or offline? Knowing these things will help determine your marketing strategy. You need to know as much about them as you can so you will know how to attract them. I have always worked under the assumption that my clients will find me if I provide the trail for them. And it has always worked for me. I have never had to go and look for clients.

Create the best, information rich, informative site you can. Optimize it for search engines and participate in social networking. Twitter and LinkedIn are my 2 favorites. The VA forums are good too. You will get to know other VAs and though them you might pick up some subcontracting work. It's always good to know other VAs because it helps get you known in the industry. Twitter and LinkedIn are good for making business connections. Facebook is also a great place to connect with people. Create a Facebook business page and then link to it.

Besides online networking, one of the best ways to get organic traffic to your site and increase your search engine rankings is through the keywords you use on your site, having lots of keyword rich content on your site and by blogging. Blogging needs to be done regularly or not all. A stale blog attracts no one.

Offering your visitors a free report or a newsletter is a great way to build a list and give potential clients some useful information.

Check out HubSpot. They are online marketing pros and they dedicate their business to "inbound marketing". (driving traffic to your site) http://www.hubspot.com/marketing-resources/

Got a virtual assistant question? Ask it in the comments section.

My favorite thing to track in my web analytics are keywords. I am fascinated by the keywords people use that land them on my site. Today I found this keyword phrase in my HubSpot analytics: "what if you don't have a network on facebook". 

I thought it might be fun to write one blog post a week centered around a keyword phrase found in my website analytics. I'm not sure what to call this weekly event but for now it's called "the keyword blog post of the week". I'm open to suggestions so if anyone has a better name please let me know. 

Okay then, onward and upward. Here is the first keyword blog post of the week for January 2009!

I wonder if the person who typed those keywords that lead to my website ever found the answer to their question?  Of course I don't know what they totally meant when they typed those words into Google so I have to make my own conclusions. I conclude they wanted to know the obvious and the answer is: No, you don't need to have a network on Facebook. This is the official statement found in the help section of Facebook:

"It is possible to register for Facebook without affiliating yourself with a network, but why? Networks are so cool. Unaffiliated users will only be able to see the profiles of confirmed friends, whereas affiliated users will be able to browse profiles within their networks. If you're worried about who can see your profile, you can always control this from the Privacy page"

So there you have it folks. Straight from the horse's mouth. (so to speak ;))

Of course, I think it really depends on your motive for participating on Facebook. If it's simply to keep in touch with friends then perhaps you don't need a network. But as a business person who uses Facebook for business networking, my take on the whole thing is that you DO need a network on Facebook. It opens up your business' exposure to a greater range of people. True, it's a little haphazard and untargeted, but what the heck. There's no harm in allowing people in other networks to view your profile and there's no harm in you viewing the profile of others. If you're there for business it can't hurt to join a Facebook network and it can't hurt to make your profile public. Can it?

Let's save that for another post. 

If you're a VA thinking of expanding your skillset, or are simply researching the field to decide if internet marketing virtual assistance is a worthwhile business then let me say this: there are an abundance of opportunities available for Internet Marketing Virtual Assistants (IMVA) because there is an increasing demand for our specialized skills. Since opening my business in 2007 I have seen a steady increase in both prospective and actual clients wanting my particular skill set of services. I think it's safe to say that entering the field of virtual assistance is a worthwhile pursuit. Specializing as an internet marketing virtual assistant is even more so.

Virtual Assistance is a "business" not a job. 

Let's be clear that Virtual Assistance is about owning and operating your own business. If you're looking to make a quick buck then virtual assistance is not what you need. You need a telecommuting temp job or something similar. I know there is debate about the meaning of virtual assistance but I'm not going to address that here.

What I will say is this; if you're looking to start your own business as a virtual assistant there is no better place to learn the ropes than VAnetworking and Virtual Assistant Forums. I belong to both forums and they provide invaluable information for aspiring and established virtual assistants. You'll learn what you need to know and develop an amazing support group of other virtual assistants at the same time. And it's all available for free! You simply need to invest the time in learning and researching.

Get training

The field of internet marketing virtual assistance is still newly emerging yet the demand for skilled IMVAs is overwhelming. Just recently VAClassroom started a training program for those VAs interested in offering internet marketing virtual assistance as a service to their clients. I checked out their 7 day free trial that was offered in June and I can honestly say it's an excellent program and I highly recommend it. It provides valuable hands on training for anyone wishing to pursue a career as an internet marketing virtual assistant.

Providing hands-on service is valuable. But, I also find value in knowing search engine optimization (SEO) and other aspects of increasing your online presence. There is an increasing demand for VAs who can effectively optimize a website for search engines and otherwise bring value to a client's website. This is a true specialty and if you can become an expert you can add this skill to your list of services and attract clients who need this valuable service. As more people turn to the internet for marketing their businesses they will appreciate a savvy VA who knows how to effectively optimize their website for search engines and potential customers.

Set up your Google Reader and subscribe to the HubSpot blog, Aaron Wall's Blog, Seth Godin's Blog and Marketing Profs. Then subscribe to other internet marketing blogs you find interesting.

What other IMVA services can you offer?

Lots! Old traditional outbound marketing is giving way to the new inbound marketing. This includes social media. Social Media marketing is a huge niche right now. Assist clients with creating, setting up, and maintaining their online profiles. Assist them with choosing the right social media for their business. Get your clients LinkedIn, Twittering and involved in Facebook and others.

Of course, there's also podcasting, videos, teleseminars, webinars, email marketing campaigns, blog installations, website maintenance, affiliate marketing, copywriting, etc.

Let me know if there's something you'd like to know about  becoming an internet marketing virtual assistant that I haven't covered here and I'll answer it for you! And if you're already an IMVA and have something to share please do. :)

I spend a lot of time on Twitter. Perhaps too much time. And the one thing that drives me crazy above all else is the automatic direct message from those I choose to follow. I don't even know how to set up the automatic message let alone send one. Even if I did know how to set it up I wouldn't use it. And here's why...

It's impersonal. It says "hi, thanks for following me. Check out my website and by the way, I can't be bothered to send you a personal thank you so I'm sending you my canned message because you're not important enough for me to do otherwise."

Why do people do this?  It seems to me it's becoming a trend to send the canned message. Twitter is "social media" with the emphasis on "social". How social are you being if you're sending out canned replies. Would you do that at an in-person event - if you could? I hope not. So why is it okay to do it at an online event. Because that's what Twitter is...it's an event. It's entertainment, it's information gathering, it's sharing. It's SOCIAL!!!!!

As business owners we need to be aware of our public persona and the image we project. In these days of looming recession and tight wallets it's more important than ever that we convey a message of caring. Caring enough to personally acknowledge a new follower on Twitter and not send them a canned hello. A new follower could be a potential customer. Sending a generic response implies you can't be bothered. If you can't put forth the effort with your twitter response then who's to say you'll put forth the effort in your customer service.

I spoke with a solo business owner this morning who mentioned he doesn't have time for social media networking even though he knows he should. "I'm too busy trying to sell my products" he said. "That's precisely why you should be networking on Twitter or Facebook" I said. Who do people buy from? They buy from people they know, trust and like. Or, they buy from someone who has been recommended by a friend. Twitter and Facebook are full of friends; old, new and soon to be.

The beauty of Facebook and Twitter is they are "social' by nature. Twitter is like a business mingle. It isn't the place for pushy sales pitches. Subtle yes, pushy no. Twitter is a great place to meet people and engage them in conversation. Curious as humans are they will want to check out your Twitter profile, with your website URL, allowing them to follow and learn more about your business. 

I think of Facebook as more of a town square. It's a place where friends gather to meet as well check out the offerings in the marketplace. I can go to my Facebook account and see the goings-on of all my friends at a glance. I can catch up with old friends and check out the new groups I've joined all at the same time. I can see who's offering what and decide whether I'm interested or not. 

The bottom line is this: if you're a small business owner interested in selling online you need to make the time to network on Facebook and Twitter. Granted, there are some online businesses that may not benefit from either of these 2 social media outlets. But how will you know if you don't at least see what they have to offer. There's no debate that both places provide an opportunity for you ,and ultimately your business, to be seen, heard and recognized. That's a key component to marketing.

I'll get you started. Connect with me on Twitter and Facebook.  Mention that you read this blog post.