Marketing « RJ's Virtual Assistant Services Blog

An Online Business Tool for Virtual Assistants and their Clients

May 12, 2009 at 3:21 pm | In Entrepreneur, Marketing, Online Marketing, Online Survey, Outsourcing, Rita Cartwright, Rita J. Cartwright, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Services, Virtual Assistants | 1 Comment
Tags: Entrepreneur, Online Business, Outsourcing, Rita Cartwright, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur, Virtual Assistant Services, Virtual Assistants

ritajoblack1 Those of you who have been following my blog posts know that when I discover useful information I like to pass it on to other small business owners. If you need to create an online survey, I recommend using SurveyMonkey.com. It is very user-friendly, and the basic service is free. Although the basic service is limited, there are a lot of features included with the free version.

The survey is very easy to design and includes option of templates, as well as over a dozen types of questions; for example, multiple choice, drop down menus, and rating scales. You also have a choice of how you want to collect the data. You can put a link on your blog or send the link via e-mail. I used Aweber for one of my clients to send out e-mails because we needed to set up an auto responder follow-up e-mail. You can also send your e-mails through Survey Monkey. If you use Survey Monkey for your e-mail distribution, you can see who responds to your survey, as well as send follow up reminders to those who don’t.

Another feature is you can analyze the results as they are collected in real-time, including filtering and cross tabulation. In addition, you can download the results in multiple formats.

Remember, if you don’t have time to create your survey, outsource it to your Virtual Assistant(s).

A Marketing Tool for Your Online Marketing Strategy

February 26, 2009 at 11:30 am | In Blog, E-book, Entrepreneur, Marketing, Online Business, Online Marketing, Outsourcing, Rita Cartwright, Rita J. Cartwright, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Book Tour, Virtual E-book Tour | Leave a Comment
Tags: E-book, Entrepreneur, Outsourcing, Rita J. Cartwright, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Virtual Assistant

Recently I went on a virtual e-book tour to promote my newly released e-book, “Online Marketing Tools for Today’s Small Business.” For us entrepreneurs and small business owners, writing can be an inexpensive way of marketing our small businesses. This can involve writing articles, blog posts, and/or e-books. It is not necessary to be a well-known author in order to write or have virtual book tours. If you choose to write e-books, you can go on virtual e-book tours to promote your e-book. As a result, your services and/or products, and your business will be promoted at the same time. If you are an author, you, too, can do virtual book tours to promote your books.

Because of today’s technology and blogs, book tours can be done virtually, and it is an inexpensive, creative tactic to advertise your e-books or books. However, coordinating virtual book tours can be time-consuming. If you don’t have time to arrange the tour, outsource this task to a Virtual Assistant. The process consists of you (or your Virtual Assistant) and blog owners coordinating dates for when you will stop by their blogs. On the date of your tour stop, the blog owner can interview you or you can participate in a question and answer session with the blog owners’ readers. If you choose to do an interview, you supply the blog owners with the questions and answers for them to post on their blogs, which is the standard procedure in the current media world. Periodically, you check in to see if there are any questions or comments from the blog readers you need to address regarding your interview.

To encourage the blog readers to get involved, hold some type of random drawing for anyone who submits a comment or question. At http://random.org/, you enter the e-mail addresses of the participants in a list randomizer and a random e-mail address is selected. This would be your random winner. On my tour, I gave away free copies of my e-book to random winners who participated, as well as to the blog owners as a way of expressing my gratitude for them hosting my tour stops.

In my e-book, I discuss various online marketing tools and strategies, which include virtual book tours. If you would like to learn about additional marketing tools that you can use in your online marketing plan, click here to purchase my e-book, as well as find out more about it.

When Choosing Your Niche

December 30, 2008 at 5:46 pm | In Advertising, Clients, Entrepreneur, Marketing, Rita Cartwright, Rita J. Cartwright, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur, Target Audience | Leave a Comment
Tags: Advertising, Entrepreneur, Marketing, Rita Cartwright, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur

ritajoblack1 As an entrepreneur and/or small business owner, one of the decisions you make when starting your business is which portion of the market is going to be your niche. In order to choose your niche ask yourself, “where in the market will my products or services fit?” Has a new market been created, because of changes in technology or society, which has a potential demand that is not being met? Once you have answered these questions, you have chosen your niche.

In your niche, you will find people with shared characteristics (market segment). The factors (characteristics) that determine market segments are geographic, demographic, behavioral, and psychographic (attitudinal). Your advertising message and marketing strategy will be based on these factors.

It’s ironic how people are more alike than different. The aforementioned factors will affect how a group of people will behave. We tend to be creatures of habit, which causes us to be “sitting ducks” for advertisers and marketers. We leave clues, based on our needs, wants, and mental files, that tell where we live, how we shop, what we buy, and how we spend our leisure time. The same holds true for the market segment you choose to target with your products and/or services. They will have similar needs or wants and behave in similar ways.

In the market place, there is an area or subset where your products and/or services will fit (niche). In the market place, there is a group of clients who can use your products/or services (market segment). As an entrepreneur and/or small business owner with limited advertising and marketing budget, it is important to choose a niche, as well as a segment, in the market.

Using Twitter to Connect with Your Clients

December 16, 2008 at 4:25 pm | In E-book, Entrepreneur, Marketing, Online Business, Online Marketing, Rita Cartwright, Rita J. Cartwright, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Social Networking, Solopreneur | Leave a Comment
Tags: Entrepreneur, Online Marketing, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur

By now you have probably heard of Twitter, a free social networking and micro-blogging website. It may be a little overwhelming trying to figure out who you should follow and who you would like to follow you. Twitter has a search directory called Twellow, located at http://www.twellow.com/. At Twellow, you can filter out the tweeters according to your target market. All you need to do is perform a search using your target market search term(s) and research the results looking for tweeters who you can follow and maybe follow you. Hopefully, they will become your ideal clients.

Social media marketing is becoming one of the most popular online marketing tools available today for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Social networking is just one form of social media marketing, and it is one of the online marketing tools that I mention in my e-book, “Online Marketing Tools for Today’s Small Business.” Read what others are saying about this affordable, must-have e-book.

Are You Blogging Yet?

March 31, 2008 at 12:07 pm | In Clients, Entrepreneur, Marketing, Outsourcing, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur, Virtual Assistant | 4 Comments

Obviously, we as entrepreneurs and small business owners do not have large marketing budgets like big corporations. However, blogging is an affordable marketing tool. Are you blogging yet? I recently read a blog post, which emphasizes the importance of blogging when trying to brand your products, services, and/or company. The blog post is entitled, “Social Media Works for Small Business.” In it Ryan Moede also talks about how to use social media tools as marketing strategies.

On the other hand, one of my favorite bloggers, Grant Griffiths, wrote a blog post called, “Blogging is More Than Just Simply Marketing.” He talks about how we can use blogging to engage our clients in conversations regarding our products or services, as well as other important discussions.

Blogging presents us with the opportunity to level the “marketing playing field” with large businesses. It doesn’t cost us anything but our time. You can also outsource your blogging project to a Virtual Assistant who specializes in writing and has experience in blogging. Are you blogging yet?

Rita J. Cartwright, Owner
RJ’s Word Processing Services
Your Business Success Is Our Success
http://rjswordprocessing.com
866-651-3073

Marketing Tips For Small Business Owners

March 13, 2008 at 12:31 pm | In Entrepreneur, Marketing, Single-Person Business, Single-Person Business Owner, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Solopreneur, Target Audience, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Services, Virtual Assistants | 1 Comment

I came across an interesting blog, which contains 10 marketing tips for entrepreneurs. The author points out how market segments are shifting and desiring the same things out of life, especially more time for themselves. Nowadays, different socio-economic segments have access to products and services that were in the past only for the affluent market. This fact affects our marketing strategies. One example of this shift is cell phones. When cell phones were introduced to the market, the non-affluent market could not afford to purchase them. Now everyone has a cell phone, including adolescents and teenagers. Here is an excerpt from the blog:

“As an entrepreneur, what can you learn from the luxury travel industry? Actually, quite a lot! By examining the trends that are taking place in the luxury travel market you can see ideas and business segments that are emerging amongst some of the world’s most affluent shoppers.

Why? These trends, which may start out in the luxury market have a habit over time of making their way into other demographic markets as well. Like luxury travelers, other consumers realize that not only is time money, but money is time. And we’re willing to spend our money on time.

Let’s take a look at some of the trends and see how you, as an entrepreneur, can use them to help grow your business.”

Please visit http://homebizblogger.com/2008/03/12/entrepreneurs-what-every-business-can-learn-from-the-luxury-travel-industry/ to read the entire post.

Rita J. Cartwright, Owner
RJ’s Word Processing Services
Your Business Success Is Our Success
http://rjswordprocessing.com
866-651-3073

Marketing Tool for Virtual Assistants

September 11, 2007 at 12:38 pm | In Advertising, Advertising Agencies, Marketing, Small Business, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Services, Virtual Assistants | Leave a Comment

I recently discovered a valuable marketing tool for virtual assistants (VAs), which is participating in the forums of your target market. When you post your comments, your signature block can include your company’s name. However, in some forums the posts only have the person’s username as a signature, but your profile that you create on that forum is available if anyone wants to learn more about you and your company. If appropriate, your posts can be about the benefits of using virtual assistants or about the VA industry. Although more and more industries are become aware of the Virtual Assistant industry, many still do not know about us.

In addition to the possibility of promoting your business, you may learn some useful information. For example, I have a marketing degree with an emphasis in advertising; therefore, I chose advertising agencies as one of my target markets. Generally, they are a small business. According to U. S. Department of Labor, 68% of advertising agencies and public relations firms employ 1-4 employees. Participating in the forums of ad agencies, sales, and marketing has given me a refresher course in marketing in addition to learning new marketing techniques.

As a Virtual Assistant, participating in your target market’s forum(s) can be a valuable marketing tool for you, as well as provide valuable information. It doesn’t cost you anything but time.

Rita J. Cartwright, Owner
RJ’s Word Processing Services
http://www.rjswordprocessing.com
Your Business Success is Our Success

Starting A Virtual Assistant Business

August 6, 2007 at 11:40 am | In Marketing, Small Business, Small Business Owners, Virtual Assistant, Virtual Assistant Services, Virtual Assistants | Leave a Comment

When starting a virtual assistant business, the first item on your to do list is coming up with a business name. You should give this a lot of thought. This is the name that you will be using in your advertising and/or marketing campaigns and other communications. The name you choose should reflect your products or services. I’m considering changing my business name because now I offer more than word processing services. Therefore, selecting a correct name is very important from the beginning.

Speaking of advertising and marketing, these are very important tasks. First, decide who your target market is going to be. In order to create effective messages, you need to know who you are directing the messages to. Having a website is necessary, but it is not enough. I didn’t become aggressive in marketing until the last two years. The first three years, I didn’t use the same marketing strategy that I currently use. Being more aggressive has brought in more business. E-mail marketing is an excellent marketing tool and is affordable. One of the capabilities of your website should be to capture e-mail addresses to use in your e-mail marketing campaigns. For instance, offer e-newsletters to visitors to your site. Using the signup box you have on your website, the visitors will subscribe to your publication by providing their names and e-mail addresses.

Online networking is another great marketing tool. Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA) is a very informative forum to be a member of. In addition to having access to valuable information, you are able to network with other virtual assistants. The members of this forum are at various stages from beginners to seasoned small business owners. Offline networking is also a great idea. This would involve networking with members of your target market. Your local Chamber of Commerce generally has networking events for business owners.

Also, as part of my marketing strategy, I have started writing articles and blogs. This gives you credibility, as well as exposure for your services.

If you are considering starting a virtual assistant business offering virtual assistant services decide on a business name, choose a target market, create marketing campaigns directed towards your market, and network both online and offline.

Virtual Assistants Do More Than Just Type

July 3, 2007 at 2:35 pm | In Bookkeeping, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Target Audience, Transcription, Virtual Assistants, Website Design, Word Processing | 1 Comment

Virtual Assistants (VAs) who are business owners do more than just type. We are also entrepreneurs, in addition to being small business owners. Virtual Assistant Networking Association (VANA) defines VAs as “A Virtual Assistant (substitute VA or Virtual Associate) works independently at an arm’s length, via the Internet, utilizing the latest technologies, to provide immediate professional support, services and skills to busy entrepreneurs and business managers.” International Virtual Assistant Association (IVAA) definition is “A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent entrepreneur providing administrative, creative and/or technical services. Utilizing advanced technological modes of communication and data delivery, a professional VA assists clients in his/her area of expertise from his/her own office on a contractual basis.”

As small business owners, we face the same issues and concerns as our clients. VAs are dedicated to helping their clients grow their businesses, while at the same time expanding his/her own company. It is a win-win situation. In addition to providing services, we are faced with the daily operations of a small business. These operations include everything from bookkeeping to marketing. In fact, VAs are hiring their own virtual assistants to help with the administrative tasks. We understand our clients’ business needs, because we are them. We do more than just type.

Rita J. Cartwright, Owner
RJ’s Word Processing Services
http://www.rjswordprocessing.com

Another Way To Grow Your Virtual Assistant Business

June 30, 2007 at 8:21 pm | In Bookkeeping, Business, Marketing, Small Business, Transcription, Virtual Assistants, Website Design, Word Processing | Leave a Comment

We, as virtual assistants (VAs), generally attempt to grow our businesses by obtaining more clients. Now the new strategy is to grow our businesses by organizing a team of VAs to subcontract or outsource projects to. These VAs provide services, which will complement your services rather than compete with them.

In an attempt to grow my virtual assistant business and deepen my service list, I’m applying the same strategy. I recently organized a team of three VAs. My core service is word processing, and my team services include bookkeeping, real estate virtual assistant services (REVA), transcription, and website design. Their services complement my services rather than compete with them. Now I can offer these services in addition to my current offerings.

If you are Virtual Assistant wanting to grow your business, consider organizing a team of virtual assistants.

Rita J. Cartwright, Owner
RJ’s Word Processing Services
http://www.rjswordprocessing.com