Online presence strategy

Before you start

Now that you have decided to become a virtual assistant, it is time to go online and establish your presence so that potential clients can find you. If you have no prior experience in online marketing, this and this are two courses I recommend you get started with.

I can also take you through a 2-week one-on-one tutorial on social media marketing, content writing, basic graphics design with Canva, business blogging, and basic website management. These tutorial is priced at One Hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000.00) only and comes with one website of five (5) pages, one (1) blog article. This offer does not include website hosting and domain name. Contact me if you would like to take up this offer.

Getting started with your online presence strategy

• Setup a website

Unlike popular opinions that you can always start online marketing with only social media accounts, you actually need a website to get started. A website is where you will publish information about you and your skills, offers, rates, and blog articles where you show your expertise and industry knowledge. It is also your website that will host the landing page with which you generate leads that will eventually convert to clients.

Having a website from the onset of your business guarantees that your content is safe, you won’t just disappear at any time and you are not dependent on the mercy of social media algorithms to be seen by your intended audience. So, the first step at this stage is to create a website.

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You can as well start with free website platforms but this is not advisable if you want your website visitors to take you seriously as a business owner.

After setting up your website, don’t stop there. Do business listing so that search engines like Google can pick up your web pages and present your website among search results when your business keywords are queried.

Going on social media

• Be clear about your offer

Before you proceed to setup social media accounts, you should map out what your exact offers are. Remember I mentioned in one of the previous modules that you can start by offering few services that you are sure you can perfectly handle, then add more offers as your skills grow and and your business progresses. So, do not be bothered if all you can offer at this stage is just one service, let’s say for instance content writing for fashion designers.

Your offer here means the service(s) you want to render and the target market you want to serve. Once you know what you want to do and who you want to do it for, you will be able to decide on what social media account to create.

I know there are several social media platforms but it is advisable to get started with one and move to others as time goes on. This will enable you focus and create quality content for your intended audience.

In creating a social media account for your virtual assistant business, you should consider who your audience is and where you can easily access them. In the example I gave above, a new virtual assistant whose offer is content writing services for fashion designers would do well by creating her first social media account on Instagram, as this is where majority of her prospects are easily accessible.

Another example is a new virtual assistant whose offer is online research services to legal practitioners. Such individual would do well by creating her first social media account on LinkedIn, connect with legal practitioners on the platform and maintain meaningful engagements with the exchange of useful content.

From the above, you can see why it is important to be clear about your offer before creating social media accounts for your online presence.

You can add more accounts as you settle into your business in order to create wider visibility.

• Know your client

It is quite important to know who your client is. This will enable you create content that resonates with them. A basic client profile contains:

• Occupation
• Age
• Gender
• Aspirations
• Pain point
• Daily schedule
• Marital status, etc

Study your competitors

The aim of this study is to help you know your industry standards and identify loopholes that existing businesses are leaving open. It is not the same as copying. Simply check out few businesses especially those that are doing well and learn from them. After that, do not go back to check. Draw up your own strategy and keep improving by reading relevant texts and taking online or offline courses.

Listen

By listening, you are making yourself learn what your target audience wants and this will help you create offers that they would take up. Some techniques of listening to your audience pain-points are to:

• Ask questions: you can do this by conducting a survey with selected sample of like 20 people from your target audience.
• Analyze poor feedback: poor feedback are interesting ways to identify customers’ dissatisfaction about a product or service. When you see or receive poor feedback, you should do your best to understand the client’s point and use that information to create a better offer.
• Check your content insights: you can start doing this few weeks after you start posting on social media. Check your posts with the most engagement and repeat such post types to keep delighting your audience.
• Stay up-to-date: Follow industry news and trends to be informed about changes or new happenings will equip you with tools to weigh in where relevant and also adjust your offers as necessary.

Be consistent

Being consistent online is a good investment that yields the know, like, and trust factor. It also enhances your visibility. When you are just starting out, do not allow the frenzy of novelty push you to sharing content more than you can actually handle. It is better to start with posting on social media once daily and once weekly on your blog and gradually increase sharing rates than to start with high numbers that you might not be able to keep up with.

Consistency also has to do with your branding (colors, font type, language, etc). I previously published a blog post on how to market like a pro on social media. Check it out here.

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Notes

In your notebook, create action plans on each of the strategies mentioned above. Also, note useful tips from the links I shared (make sure to read and digest the articles that I linked to, they are loaded with valuable information that would simplify getting started with your online presence strategy for you).

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Do not forget to share this course with your friends and family, they’d really appreciate it.

CONTINUE TO MODULE 5