“Let’s make you an appointment.” This assertive one-liner often starts most sales transactions in the entire business world. Selling would even be more effective when you set appointments and sp...
Outsourcing appointment setter jobs free up a lot of time for your internal sales representative to exert more effort in closing sales and making strategies to support your company.
2. Expanding the sales force
Virtual appointment setters are not just telemarketers. They are an extension of a business sales team. He or she can develop a customized script that focuses on the client’s products and services. These VAs can also do a research as to what types of companies should be contacted, and connect with the key decision makers.
3. Cost-effective solution
Your in-house cold-calling tasks will require management either from you or from a supervisor, which can only add up cost to the company.
Working with an outsourcing company that provides appointment setters telemarketing services is indeed a cost-effective solution. They can manage their own virtual team (such as your appointment setter) so you don’t have to worry and manage additional staff.
4. A way to promote your business
Marketing yourself and your business and getting noticed in the market is a no-easy task because of thousands of competitions.
Professional virtual assistance companies have trained people to be experts in cold calling. They even have gained more experience and knowledge than regular employees because of the diversity of client base that they handle.
This information can allow a business to look at what areas need to be altered to increase the effectiveness of its overall sales strategy.
5. Generating and nurturing leads
There are different stages of the buyer’s journey that require different approaches. Having a proper nurturing system in place can tremendously help in nurturing leads and converting them into cutomers/clients.
An appointment setter VA can create a list of warm and cold leads (top/bottom of the sales funnel) and hand them over to sales department for follow-up.
If you don’t have the resources to run full-funnel marketing, you may need to outsource to a virtual assistant who can generate some highly-qualified leads to jumpstart your revenue.
6. Data and analysis
As mentioned, a lead list must be developed to prioritize the most interested prospects. A qualified list will more likely to succeed with setting an appointment that will result in a closed deal.
To do this, a virtual assistant can gather and analyze the relevant data to determine the right people who are responsive in a company’s product or service, as well as those who are the appropriate decision-makers.
7. Dedicated skills
Statistically, an appointment scheduler is much better at setting up qualified sales appointments than sales representatives who prefer the limelight of presenting, negotiating and closing deals.
8. Avoid what you dislike
In numerous surveys, salespeople say cold calling is their number one dislike. Some say they plain hate it and avoid it at all cost. If this is you, then it’s definitely time to outsource rather than lose a sales lead.
9. Perform other tasks on the side
Sales appointment setting virtual assistants can also be invaluable in surveying your customer base, introducing new products and performing data base marketing.
10. Easy to track
Appointment scheduling services provide a trackable and much improved ROI over traditional sales approaches.
11. Taking it a notch-higher
Top 2% of companies are doing the new paradigm of separating prospecting and appointment setting from selling.
12. Building client/customer loyalty
Appointment setting VA companies are better able to call on the most profitable leads—those most likely to buy from you soon.
Ready to hire your Appointment Setter Virtual Assistant? Virtual Assistant Talent can help! CALL US at 1-866-596-9041 and see how our highly qualified and trained VAs can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any Real Estate related success stories, please leave a comment below.
To compete with the fast-paced, demanding business such as the insurance industry, there’s an absolute need of streamlining organization processes. Take a look at the following best apps for insuran...
15 Insurance Agents Productivity and Marketing Tools
1. DocuSign
Going paperless speeds up processing times and increases productivity. One of the most popular insurance agent sales tools is DocuSign. With this app, agents can obtain immediate client signatures, regardless of location.
Enables storing, signing and transmitting just about any document.
There is no need for faxing documents.
Documents stored in the cloud are sent out for signature via email.
Document ‘tags’ direct signing parties’ attention to areas requiring action.
Most importantly, electronic signatures are secure and widely accepted.
2. Slack
Slack is one of the most effective insurance agent marketing tools for communicating with your team. This app is used exclusively by the TrustedChoice.com and Agency Nation marketing team.
It’s a simple, intuitive messaging app that works on desktop and all mobile devices.
Comparing insurance is often times a hassle that’s why there’s a number of insurance agency management software to make agents’ job a lot easier. Go car insurance app on iTunes can help insurance agents find the best car policy coverage for clients in 60 seconds.
Find packages that can actually save your clients money.
Chat with a seasoned experts: Even independent insurance agents need advice from professionals who have been in the industry for a while.
Chat with agents who can give you tips on getting cheaper rates for your clients.
4. Kaggle
Not a data scientist? Kaggle helps you get a handle on your data. You can upload a data-based problem, such as identifying fraudulent claims within your database, to the Kaggle community, who will then come up with different models to solve the problem.
You’ll have the opportunity to tap into the minds of several data scientists via one service and you can also use the winning model to protect against future instances. This encourages creative thinking and helps you get to the best solution possible.
5. Google Docs
Google Docs is a free counterpart to the Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
The advantage with Google Drive tools is the ability to collaborate on documents and files with other team members in real time, anywhere as long as there’s internet connection.
Google Docs is a great tool to use while collaborating on a new business proposal or creating a sales/marketing letter.
6. CamScanner
With CamScanner, scanning process is reduced to a few taps on your smartphone. You can capture images of technical and legal documents like insurance agreements, policies, etc.
Scan on the go: A mini scanner that you can carry around with you and use whenever you come across an interesting document that can help you service your clients.
Convert images to PDF files: Just take a picture of the document you want to scan, edit to your satisfaction, then convert into a PDF file. You can then share the PDF with clients or colleagues.
Get crystal-clear documents: CamScanner takes pretty clear and crisp images that don’t blur even when you zoom into them. It has several modes that you can use to customize your scans and make them look more professional.
You even have options to send scanned documents via email and social media and to even upload them on third-party cloud services.
7. Evernote
“For everything you’ll do, Evernote is the workspace to get it done.” And indeed, strong reviews are backing up this potentially game-changing tool for on-the-go insurance agents.
Insurance professionals can use Evernote to:
Write in any format, from lists to extensive research
Real time discussion, sharing and communicating projects with others
Collect items such as Web articles, handwritten notes and photos
Present work as it progresses without creating slides
Easy accessibility for all documents and files from any device that supports the apps.
Basic Evernote version is one of the free insurance agency management software out there.
8. OmniFocus
OmniFocus is a handy productivity app for Mac, Apple Watch, and all iOS devices. It allows you to manage and sync your email inbox, to-do list, calendar, ongoing projects, and much more from one platform.
Everything is organized through different perspectives, allowing you to separate various personal and work-related activities.
9. InnoCentive
InnoCentive@Work allows you to create a closed crowdsourcing groups of specific employees and individuals. This private network leads to more efficient problem resolution and idea generation by allowing you bringing together employees, partners and even clients.
In addition to its “collaborative SaaS-based innovation management software,” InnoCentive also offers Challenge Programs for solutions generated through externally crowdsourced programs and competitions.
10. Dragon Dictation
The Dragon is a software line from Nuance that offers professional-grade dictation for a variety of specialized needs. This app allows you to speak into your phone with 99% accuracy to draft emails, Word documents, Evernote notes, and other documents—with no word limits.
If you’re pressed for time or simply don’t enjoy writing, Dragon dictation is a fantastic way to create content. Also, the Dragon Anywhere app is what most insurance agents will be most interested in.
11. PR Underground
PR Underground has described itself as a “search engine optimized social media news release tool,” that uses Google News and social channels to facilitate and manage businesses’ release of news and promotions.
Press releases are such effective marketing tools for insurance agents because getting the word out about an agency’s successes makes people take notice.
This tool ranges from $39/month to $119/month, with volume pricing available for agencies.
12. Effective CRM System
Customer relationship management (CRM) is essential for managing all of your leads and clients and growing your agency efficiently. Check out the following best CRM for insurance agents:
Salesforce
Insightly
Infusionsoft
SugarCRM
Zoho
Be sure to find the right CRM for your insurance agency by comparing costs and features, including whether or not the CRM software integrates with your agency management system.
For example, TechCanary, an agency management system, has built-in integration in Salesforce CRM. This is an exciting feature for the sales-focused independent insurance agency.
13. 30/30
30/30 is a task manager that makes it easier for you to schedule your day and maintain high productivity. When you break up a to-do list into 30-minute chunks, you avoid feeling overwhelmed.
Among other independent insurance agency software, the basic idea is simple: NO DISTRACTIONS!
You work for 30 minutes, focused only on a single task. After which you give your mind a break and do something different, also for 30 minutes. And then you repeat the cycle: work/break, work/break – 30/30, 30/30.
14. Social Media Apps
You always want the ability to communicate with prospects and current customers, as sales opportunities are always present 24/7 on social media.
LinkedIn’s mobile app is mandatory for insurance reps, and also Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. If you’re really into social media marketing (SMM), you can also try promoting your services on Snapchat as well.
15. Insurance Agent VA Services
Last but not the least, find yourself someone with the right skills to handle specific projects. There are a lot of virtual assistants to “tackle any job, any size, any time.” Freelancers perform a wide range of jobs, from CRM management to prospecting to administrative support. You can pay at an hourly or project basis.
Once implemented, these great insurance tools for agents can make business and life simpler and more productive.
Selling insurance? Find out how insurance agent virtual assistant can help you in prospecting, do research, find deals and other daily admin activities – call us at 1-866-596-9041 and see how our highly qualified and trained VAs can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any insurance apps & tools related success stories, please leave a comment below.
Like it or not, as an entrepreneur, you only have a limited amount of time each day to get things done. But then again, you likely have an almost endless list of tasks to do—so you find effective wa...
Clearly one of the most important hacks for small business owners is to go through a to-do list and determine the most important tasks that only YOU can do or that are imperative to your day-to-day operations.
These are the most urgent tasks that should go at the top. More long-term projects and plans can go on a separate list so that they don’t distract or overwhelm you from those more urgent items. Identify what those duties are and proceed to #2…
Do the most important tasks, and DELEGATE the rest
Delegating work to your team members can give you more time to concentrate on your CORE FUNCTION. Find team members or professional virtual assistant services who can handle the mundane assignments that would otherwise take up much of your day like answering phone, replying to emails, calling prospects, etc.
AUTOMATE your email communications
Automation of emails is heaven-sent and is always at the top of productivity hacks. Email marketing improves your communication with your customers and followers. For example, every time a visitor signs up to your newsletter, they receive an email that you prepared in advance.
By automating these pre-customized emails, you enhance your engagement with page visitors and build stronger relationships with them while saving loads of time on manual sending. One thing to remember is, do not use your personal email for marketing.
There are tons of email marketing tools online with ready-made email templates, like MailChimp, Constant Contact or Klaviyo. The process is totally straightforward; you customize a template, create triggers, and program the email to send at your preferred time.
Get the LEAST desirable tasks out of the way before lunch
Another growth hacks for startups is to do what you don’t want to do. Everybody dreads something in his or her job and anything that you dislike is going to cause you more stress than other tasks.
So it’s best to get those things out of the way early. Commit to finish those pesky items before lunch so that you can take a break as a reward for completing them.
Do ONE thing well
Instead of trying to do it all, it’s better to do one thing exceptionally well. Start with the most effective strategy when you’re constrained by time and resources. If you focus all your efforts to one piece that you are particularly strong at, it will make a difference for your business.
Learn to say NO to offers that don’t fit with your objectives
When you take on extra projects that don’t fit with your business’s main goals, it can be a huge drain on your time and resources. It might be difficult to say “no” but it’s necessary to ensure that you and your team stay as productive as possible. Small business hacks include saying NO even to your partners or other collaborators and focusing only on the most essential activities.
Set a timer for time-consuming tasks
First, outline exactly how much time you plan to spend on tasks that take too long to do at once. If you have those ones that need to be broken up throughout the day, set a timer when you start doing them so you don’t get caught up and forget to look at the other items on your list.
Schedule your social media posts
Leveraging social media is another growth hacking marketing that a small business owner should take advantage with. Promoting social content online should couple with frequent and consistent posting.
Scheduling tools like Hootsuite and Buffer allows you to create your posts in advance and set up a publishing time. Facebook also has its own internal scheduling tool. This way, you maintain an active social presence by increasing engagement and reach. Truly, it’s a one-stop-shop for this type of work, maximizing your productivity.
Complete quick and easy tasks right away
When you have small tasks like quick phone calls or emails that inevitable, do them right away. It can help your productivity to get those things and cross them out your to-do list early. Or again, hire virtual office assistant to do these basic, repetitive tasks so you can focus all of your energy on just one or two major projects throughout the rest of the day.
Be like Facebook: Evolve
Getting and keeping customers is pure hard work and dedication. If people are coming in the front door and leaving through the back door, that’s bad marketing. Try to do something that Facebook, the social media giant, does. They have created a series of additional addictive features so the users keep on coming back.
Manage your email inbox
Boomerang for Gmail schedules emails to automatically send based on criteria you set.
Collaborate and manage projects
At Virtual Assistant Talent, we use Trello to manage our workflow. It’s a great tool for file sharing, project management, automation and centralized communication. Also check out Slack or Pivotal Tracker as alternatives.
Stay off social media during the day
Rather than checking your personal accounts constantly, it can be beneficial if you stay off of social media throughout the workday if possible. And for any business related accounts, you should set aside time to schedule posts and respond to inquiries on social media.
Focus first on acquiring customers. Then make the product addictive
Instead of putting all of your energy into traditional marketing avenues that a Fortune 500 company would invest in, like utilizing media and running ads, use that money and time to add value to your product.
In the early days of a growing business, the best thing a company can do is make its product more addictive and add make it viral into the experience.
Make sure all meetings have clear agenda
Avoid getting trapped in unproductive meetings by cutting out those that don’t have clear agendas. Meetings can be absolutely necessary for keeping your team on track and your clients happy. But unfortunately, they can also be huge time wasters.
Not only should every meeting have a purpose, but it should also have a strict schedule that outlines which items to discuss when.
Get clutter off your desk
This one is a no-brainer. Clear and organize your workstation so you can find an important document easily whenever you are on a project. It can even be difficult to get started on some projects if you’re distracted by messy surroundings. So set up a simple filing system and try to keep your desk as clear as possible.
Give your team a clear direction from the start
As a small business owner, you can only get so much done on your own. But your team can help you accomplish much more, if you allow them.
Give them clear instructions for their specific duties and projects so that they can work more independently instead of constantly coming to you to ask questions or get approval. This way your productivity and theirs can go smoothly.
Schedule breaks and exercises
You also need regular breaks throughout the day to keep your mind sharp. It’s helpful to schedule a few quick breaks everyday to get up and walk or stretch. You can do a series of 90 minutes of work and a 20-minute break. You can even set an alarm or timer so that you don’t forget.
Unplug completely when a beating a deadline
Last but not the least, when you’re working on tasks that are approaching strict deadlines, it may be necessary for you to avoid potential distractions online. What you can do is log off on your social media accounts and other interests so you can potentially get more done if you work offline for short periods of time until you get those projects completed.
Interested in utilizing virtual assistants but not sure where to start? Check out our VA services and see how our highly qualified and trained virtual executive assistants can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives. CALL 1-866-596-9041.
We would love to hear if these growth hack ideas worked for you! If you have questions or any Small Business related success stories, please leave a comment below.
The road to top real estate agent or realtor status involves long sleepless nights, working on weekends, and endless prospecting. But, it’s becoming a growing trend to outsource an assistant to help...
Real estate agents live the fast and busy life. Most mornings are spent checking through e-mails and phone messages while eating breakfast. You need to organize your day and every transaction, but you must likewise be efficient with your finances.
The smart move is to hire a real estate virtual assistant over an in-office employee. She is an entrepreneur like you, being an independent contractor doing a variety of tasks. Thus, she takes care of her own business expenses.
With a VA, you don’t need to pay for social security benefits, health, dental. and unemployment insurances.
3. No vacation, holiday, sick pay
Moreover, you don’t have to think about any labor laws and be obliged to provide them vacation and sick leaves, or even overtime fees! The VA takes care of all this because he or she can work virtually, and can manage his or her time efficiently.
Matlin, a Realtor for more than 20 years, made the decision to employ a virtual assistant. She said that with real estate increasingly moving online, she needed help keeping up with new social media platforms.
“The business is changing, and I wanted a fresh look,” Matlin said.
She needed someone with specialized skills and knowledge of social media, and how Matlin could use those tools to stay in touch with clients and her sphere of influence – Facebook, LinkedIn and her personal web page. She also needed help writing and sending a monthly electronic newsletter to her database.
4. No payroll taxes and paperwork
Hiring real estate virtual assistant services is truly one of the greatest investments you can make. Outsourced assistants can pay their own local taxes.
5. No extra office space or equipment costs
Unlike in-office employees that you have to provide office equipment such as computer, office supplies, and electricity.
6. No administrative costs
And on top of that, you don’t have to plan, arrange, and spend a single dime on company outings and recreations.
7. Increase level of productivity
A real estate VA’s primary purpose is to organize time so you can focus on the functions that matter more to your business. Instead of handling incoming calls and paperwork, you can focus on preparing for your appointments and meetings.
You can divert emails to the work from home real estate assistant. He or she can oversee all communication so you do not have to spend valuable time to these basic tasks like attending to inquiries, taking messages, setting appointments and taking notes of important details.
The real estate Virtual Assistant becomes your work filter so the path toward your day’s objectives will be cleared. Ultimately, you will notice that you are able to be more punctual in your meetings and accomplish more activities in one day.
8. “On-call” basis work
Pay only for “time on task” or by project. Unlike having an in-office employee that you have to keep busy, virtual assistants can work anytime upon your request. This gives you more flexibility in terms of budgeting and delegating tasks.
9. Extra staff during seasonal or peak activity time
Unlike the VAs, you must hire and train any additional in-office staff needed during peak seasons.
10. Fast turnaround time
And because a fully trained real estate VA works by the hour and is monitored by a time tracking software, you can expect a fast turnaround time in terms of output or call quotas.
Amy Kite, a Realtor with Keller Williams Premier Properties in Lincolnshire, knew she needed to hiring an assistant.
“I was too busy to handle everything,” Kite said. “I was losing leads, and I could tell that business was slipping through my fingers. I should have gotten my first assistant sooner.”
Her real estate VA, Denise, has helped accomplish just that by helping Kite prospect, schedule appointments with prospective clients, close transactions and maintain client relationships.
11. Weekend and evening assistance available
It’s difficult or expensive to hire admin staff for weekend and evening work—another thing that you can appreciate a virtual assistant for because again, #8 and #9-he or she can work upon your request.
12. Increase sales conversion
In real estate, lead generation such as prospecting is an important function. However, generating leads takes time and requires effort. Experienced VAs can call and follow-up prospects through online and traditional methods.
13. Improve quality of work
Real estate virtual assistants are not just your average “assistant”. They have varied skills. For example, almost all of the VAs in the Philippines are degree holders and have acquired higher training and certification in their respective core competencies.
14. Specialized skills available
As mentioned, virtual executive assistants are not limited to a single skill or talent.
Are you looking to organize your listings of properties, contacts and clients? He or she can help manage or create a CRM program for you and can regularly update it so you can lead prospects into a sale.
Do you need a presentation to an important client? There are VAs who are savvy in MS Office programs and can create professional looking Power Point presentation slides for your proposals.
They can also prepare well-organized and detailed spreadsheets for your financial projections.
Do you need more content for your real estate website? A VA can write relevant and keyword-optimized content for your page so that you can attract more visitors.
Need someone to manage and maintain your website? A web designer/programmer VA is perfect for you.
15. Reduce Stress
Last and probably one of the major reasons for outsourcing services to a real estate virtual assistant, is to open up more time for yourself and your family.
By taking some time off to recharge, you will come back better and more productive. Thus, having a real estate virtual assistant on-board is a valuable asset by making you enjoy a luxury many often overlook: time.
Do you have any questions about virtual office assistant services? Call us at 1-866-596-9041 and see how our highly qualified and trained VAs can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any Real Estate related success stories, please leave a comment below.
The first quarter of 2017 has come and every real estate agent and investor is grinding to achieve a successful real estate business this year. The ultimate goal of course is to implement your marketi...
6 Real Estate Marketing Trends and How a VA Can Assist You
1. Marketing Automation and List Building System
In 2017, more real estate agents will adapt marketing automation because it saves a lot of time and money, especially when you are busy with closing deals, communicating to clients or taking care of your family.
However, often times, real estate professionals don’t know how to do it, or don’t have the resources to pay for real estate marketing automation software.
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
MLS & CRM Management – Real Estate Virtual Assistants (REVA) are experienced and familiar in maintaining top database systems like Salesforce, InfusionSoft, Top Producer, E-Edge, etc. When a new lead comes in, you don’t have to spend time transferring it to your CRM because the REVA will do it for you.
Database and Property Software Management – For Property Management Firms, the virtual assistant will update your database to make sure you have complete tenant info such as payment transactions.
List Building and Prospect Management – For Real Estate Investors, the VA can perform lead generation tasks according to your preferences (Probates, FSBOs, Foreclosures, etc.)
In this way, the leads are automatically contacted and added to your ongoing marketing strategy system.
Creating meaningful targeting ad campaigns take extra work but you will definitely love the results. First thing to do is to segment your audience based on whether they are buyers, sellers, investors and other sub-categories. The trick here is to maintain that your ads are not flagged down when you post in sites like Craigslist.
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
Posting Ads – The virtual assistant will create and manage ad postings online and make sure your ads are not taken down.
Update Property Listing – He or she can also update your listings to include only recent properties that are available for rent, lease or for sale. Task them to tag or remove those properties that are no longer available in the market.
Listing Coordination – For investors, a REVA can manage accurate and timely updates of your property information. They can also assist in finding agents or brokers where you list your properties either for lease or for sale.
Online Marketing – Additionally, the VA will use the following sites to market your properties online: Craigslist, Backpage, Kijiji, Zillow, Trulia etc.
This approach will help you get more leads and conversions from your targeted ads. Remember that once your prospects are tagged properly, you can then launch customized ad campaigns to attract them.
3. Real Estate Agents/Investors Will Do More Personalized Content Marketing
This year, you’ll discover more that personalized content is one of the most effective real estate marketing ideas to generate organic traffic to your website. Agents and investors need to focus more on user experience and create custom CMA reports and presentations for clients.
Target audience factors to consider:
Types of clients: First-time homebuyers, upsizing, downsizing, relocation, investors
Hyper local areas: zip codes, neighborhoods and subdivisions
Types of homes: condos, lofts, townhouses, duplexes, lakefronts, estates
Timing of the transaction: Moving now, moving soon, moving next year
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
Website and Social Media Updates – virtual content specialists can post relevant updates in your social media channels to increase engagement and update property listings on your website.
Create Graphics and Marketing Materials – they can also provide you visually enticing images and graphics for flyers, brochures, leaflets and ads.
4. Website Live Chat and Customer Support
According to Forbes, online live chat support is going to be huge this year in the real estate industry. A live chat platform on your website means clients can visit your site and not only browse your properties but also have the opportunity for a person to person interaction.
Virtual real estate services include chat support agents that can answer questions in real time and provide further details people want to know about your business.
Phone/Chat/Email Support and Customer Service – Virtual assistants will answer incoming calls from prospective tenants and will also handle maintenance calls from active tenants.
Handle Inbound Calls – VAs can act as receptionists taking inbound calls. They will also answer phone inquiries and reply to emails.
Appointment Setting / Follow-up calls – The executive assistants can also follow up with leads or with your prospective buyers and renters. They will also make outgoing calls for rent collection and payment reminders.
Cold calling for Real Estate Agents and Brokers, Investors – Got an existing list of persons to contact? Real estate assistants can pitch them for your properties that are up for grabs.
Meeting Set-up and Calendar Management – A dedicated assistant will set up your meetings and manage your calendar to ensure you are never overbooked and on schedule.
5. Virtual Open Houses and 3D listings
In real estate, virtual reality tours are becoming a more convenient option than the actual visit. This gives way for the buyers or renters to look at lots of houses quickly in their initial research phase.
One trending platform now is the Matterport 3D Tours that allows you to digitize your listings, helping buyers see a realistic 360-degree view of each of your properties.
What a Real Estate VA Can Do:
Create Marketing Materials – Outsource virtual assistant to help you out with creating a virtual tour for your properties. He can also edit your existing videos or create other marketing materials such as flyers, brochures, leaflets and ads.
Online Marketing and Website Update – as soon as you have your virtual open house ready, the VA can then promote it online such as in listing directories and include it in your website as an additional feature.
6. Mobile and Video Strategy
In this age of ‘on-the-go lifestyle’, more people conduct search and purchase right on their mobile phones. This can be one of your real estate marketing strategies where your content and ads can be optimized for better user experience.
Create/Edit Video – VAs can use a service like Listing Videos from Vscreen and add 3D animation, professional narration and custom branding. This will help give consumers something extra, and keep their attention longer.
Create Mobile-responsive Website Update – a tech VA can upgrade your website to include mobile functionality and improve user experience.
Need help implementing these strategies for your business in 2017? Take a look at our real estate virtual assistant services and see how our efficient VAs can assist you in your everyday tasks and objectives. CALL 1-866-596-9041.
We would love to hear if these tips worked for you! If you have questions or any Real Estate related success stories, please leave a comment below.
Earlier this 2017, LinkedIn launched its new redesigned platform with a goal to offer experience that is faster, intuitive, and creates more value to the users. Even though the new LinkedIn design rai...
Workaround: When you click on “Work” icon on the navigation bar you can also visit your groups, and other LinkedIn products/services.
2. 200-Character Summary Preview
As you can see, your LinkedIn profile does not display your full summary as before. Now, there’s a roughly 200-character preview of the description with an option to “See more” and read the rest.
How to increase brand awareness using LinkedIn:
Think of the preview as your secondary headline or value pitch.
What could you say to prompt a click from visitors right away?
Workaround: Make the first 200 characters of your summary compelling enough to engage your audience. Include a call-to-action. Ex. “If you’re looking to achieve work-life balance and run your business using virtual executive assistants, click “See more” to learn how I can help you!”
3. Articles and Activity
LinkedIn reconstructed the Post section to also include your activity. Check it out:
Status updates can let your network know everything about you from your expertise and knowledge, to your interests and how involved you are within your industry. We personally like this update because we can easily access our activity and see what updates were already posted and stood out for our followers.
Workaround: It’s totally fine if you are not the writer type who posts articles here and there. Outsource virtual assistants to help you out with content marketing. With this new design, you’ll want to build up your brand with the value you want to share with your network.
4. New Search Function
Unfortunately, the Advance search that we all love no longer appears on the top of our page.
But the new Search feature still allows you to find people and filter the results by Connections, Keywords, Location, Industry, etc.
Workaround: You might be asking yourself now how to get customers on LinkedIn. The trick is, find prospects by using keywords of your choice. Example: We searched for common first name “Adam” with “real estate” in his title.
5. Save Profile to PDF is back!
Go to your profile and click the three-dot (…) icon and then Save to PDF:
You can also visit another connection’s LinkedIn profile and choose to Save it to PDF or Share the profile, Remove the Connection, etc. See example:
Before, we can tag individual connections so that we can sort our customer/client database on LinkedIn and contact particular people on a regular basis.
Now, you can no longer tag your connections but you can still see the existing connection categories in your archive of data. You will need to have your own Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System in order to manage your relationships with people.
Workaround: Consider having your own CRM for managing your contacts, especially if they are important customers or clients that need regular messaging.
7. Organized Skills Section
Instead of that old list that holds your top 10 skills, the new layout limits you to three top skills only, along with the number of connections that endorsed you with these skills:
Workaround: You’re still able to list 50 total skills in this section but showcase the three that summarizes your major areas of expertise, rather than three specific skills.
8. Exporting your LinkedIn Connections
You can no longer export your LinkedIn connections by going to ‘My Network,’ ‘Connections,’ clicking on the cog icon and choosing ‘Export LinkedIn Connections.’ This time, you have to Request an Archive of your Data. Check it out:
9. Checking Your Number of Connections and Followers
Finding your connections is now easier with the new design. Click on My Network to see exactly how many connections you have on the top left hand side of your screen.
Click on See all and you will be able to sort them by First Name, Last Name or Recently Added.
Knowing these big and significant changes can surely make an impact on the way you handle your LinkedIn strategy. Here’s an example of a LinkedIn Marketing Plan that can help boost personal brand and generate more prospects for your business.
If you have questions or need help in implementing these LinkedIn steps, call us at 1-866-596-9041 for a free phone consultation.
Attracting a variety of small business owners and professionals looking for work-life balance and flexibility, the virtual assistant outsourcing industry is becoming more than just a one-stop shop. Im...
Imagine most of your business and personal needs are all taken care of without having to pay for a full-time office employee. It’s definitely time to take advantage on these highly skilled and reliable VAs to help propel your business forward.
No training required (except for specific business-related needs)
No payroll taxes
No employee benefits to pay
No office equipment/supplies needed
Less time and money to spend on recruitment
One-on-one delegation
Extra staff anytime you need it
Special/technical skills available
Dedicated assistant for your business
Option to go from one VA to another
Collaborative and modern working style
Economical alternative to retaining workers
Tailor made business services
Create a positive working relationship
Assign daily, repetitive tasks
More time to focus on high priority goals
More savings to expand your business
Simplify mind-boggling tasks
No need to manage (top VA companies manage their own staff)
Cover different areas of your business
Help you generate more money than you are paying
More free time for yourself and family
Get the tasks done while you sleep
Vested interest in your success
You see, capitalizing on virtual assistant services is one of the best investments you can ever make to grow your business. And the best part about outsourcing is, if the assistant’s performance is below expectations, the VA company will find and replace him/her for no additional charge—no need to hire again!
If you need help with finding the right fit for your business, contact us at our main number 1-866-596-9041 (510-400-8006 local). We have client representatives on standby from 8am to 9pm EST to assist you with any questions.
Real Estate is one of the most competitive businesses in the market. Agents have to work twice as hard to penetrate, be visible and make their presence known physically and virtually to get market s...
A real estate agent assistant is a cost-effective solution to add support to your business, giving you the time to focus on more important things like assisting your clients, managing your finances, generating more income that leads to more profit.
As an investor, one should understand the importance of delegating tasks. Soon you will need someone to assist you with specific projects as your business grows.
“I’ve used virtual assistants over the years on Craigslist. Most people spend their time getting around the Craigslist spam filters but my VA found potential leads that just need to be contacted. So, my virtual assistant spend months calling on properties that were listed for rent. The idea was that many of these listings were from mom and pop landlords who owned rental properties and would be interested in buying more.”
–Ken Corsini, biggerpockets.com
“Having an assistant is one of the best investments you’ll make as a realty entrepreneur. A good assistant will help you to generate much more money than you are paying (bringing you a rate of return that would make any investor jealous). I would never have experienced all of the benefits if I had been stuck trying to do it all myself (and failing)”
-Alan Brymer, reiclub.com
Just imagine having more free time for yourself, friends and family because you know your property investment business is running well and efficiently. Not to mention your website drawing more traffic thus, leading to lots of enquiries. After all, you want to run your business, not have it run you.
The secret of successful Real Estate Agents is how they are able to produce more output in a day. If you are an agent, one day may be not enough for you to do all of the tasks that you need to accompl...
Most entrepreneurs often leave out the importance of productivity when it comes to growing their business. It’s not a shortcoming per se. It’s just that the idea of getting more clients is too dom...
Managing time and resources has been a huge challenge for founders of startups and small businesses. There’s always that urge to do everything on your own but extreme multitasking often times result...
The recent bill signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown raising California’s minimum wage to $15-an-hour has speculations going on regarding its pros and cons. While it could boost pay and help work...
