‘Tis the season of celebrations and joyous gift giving and business owners are leveraging these feelings to put their brands on focal point for all shoppers. Find out how you too, can come up with s...
Let’s face it. People and their mobile devices are inseparable—at home, at work—everywhere. It virtually has become a ‘basic’ need that we are using day and night. That alone is one of the M...
More and more people are using mobile phones, smartphones, and tablets for years so you want to make sure they can access your business through their mobile devices.
We all want to provide a good user experience. And one of the reasons why people leave the website sooner is due to its long loading time. Mobile optimized sites load faster so you’re one step away from losing a potential customer.
Around 40% of the traffic to most websites is now from mobile phones. That means that almost half of your users need a mobile friendly website to engage with your business.
Many mobile users will simply click away from a page if it doesn’t respond the way they want it to on a mobile device.
Another reason why you need a mobile optimized site is because it makes it easier for people to find you in online searches.
Google announced that from April 21, 2015 its new algorithm favors mobile-responsive websites. Also, in this way you won’t be penalized for having duplicated content.
5. Makes it easier to manage your content
Having a mobile friendly website allows you to save time, energy, and resources on publishing your content online. Aside from that, duplicate copies of your content is just hard on your search rankings so it’s better to have one website and develop a responsive design from it.
Because of the fast-paced generation we are currently in, there’s a basic need for people to be informed instantly.
One of the benefits of mobile optimization is it makes mobile users want to read product reviews and compare brands faster and purchase whenever they want or need to.
Using mobile devices makes it easier for website visitors to share interesting posts, pictures, and videos with friends. Notice how social media buttons are everywhere when you browse with your phone? Otherwise, the word SHARE is featured prominently on the article.
8. Lower maintenance cost
A mobile-responsive website may cost you upfront, but it has definitely much lower maintenance cost. For instance, you do not need to reformat, duplicate or add features to your content twice, like you would do using a desktop and a mobile site.
Aside from better search engine rank, a unique URL results in a stronger linking setup. All your backlinks will point to the same domain instead of being split between desktop website and mobile website.
10. It will help your website prepare for the future
As mentioned, increasingly more individuals are choosing smart phones and using tablets. It’s definitely a good business sense to provide them with the service they need to keep using your website.
Abercrombie & Fitch uses simple color palettes with beautiful photography to draw the visitor’s eyes to the products, rather than the elements of the site.
This one nails down the simple user experience. You can get an auto insurance quote right away by entering your zip code; or you can “Find an Agent” to learn more information about their services.
Final TIP: There’s an easy way to check your website using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test. See if there’s some work to do in order to maximize the mobile user experience of your website.
What do you call something that is action-packed, full of information, and delivers your message perfectly without making visitors scroll down the entire page? An explainer video! That’s right. A si...
Explainer Video Facts: 11 Types of Animations You Can Make
Explainer videos serve many purposes and can be produced in-house so you can try to make one yourself. You can also search online for apps or hire a Technical Marketing VA service.
These are common types of explainer videos:
Live action
Animated screencast
2D animation
High and 2D animation
3D animation
Video Infographic
iPhone/iPad apps
Whiteboard
Music only
Moving Typography
Stop Motion
Why Your Company Needs Explainer Videos
1. They showcase your product or service in seconds!
These marketing videos explain your product or service fast, and in an entertaining way—delivering a perfect pitch every time. See how this cute animated video shows a service in just 30 seconds:
Explainer videos help small business owners keep track of what product or service prospects are interested by checking the number of views on each video.
3. Emphasizes the pain points that your business can solve
One of the reasons why you need an explainer video is that people are buying based on how you’ll solve their problems. Focusing on pain points is a compelling way to invite your target audience because they NEED your product or service, on both a practical and emotional level.
This Tripcase video is a particularly strong example because it makes the pain point really hurt—the hassle and chaos of travel experienced by other tourists, while the Tripcase user remains cool.
More and more companies are utilizing images and animation videos to spread the word about their businesses. Check out this really interesting product video by Dollar Shave Club:
5. They help to build your brand
Explainer videos give you an opportunity to connect with your audience on a personal level and allow them to know everything they need to know about your brand. See Pinterest’s video:
All of this will help grow trust within your existing and potential customers.
More website traffic means a potential to increase conversions & sales with professional explainer videos. Old Spice generated over 54M views and according to Ad Week, Old Spice’s sales have increased by 107% using viral video.
Speaking of web traffic, when visitors land on your page, what do you want them to do? You want them to take THAT action.
Whether it’s buying your featured product, downloading a free trial, or subscribing to your newsletter, it all boils down to getting them to click your call-to-action (CTA) button.
Social video generates 1,200% more shares than text and images combined.
Free video hosting sites such as YouTube and Vimeo have useful tools that allow you to upload your videos and use keywords to make them more findable.
Explainer videos are also easily shareable, unlike text web pages. People are more likely to share and watch videos online than read paragraphs on a website.
Sham Wow video was so popular that there are 64K of views on it and tons of remakes and parodies:
Email Marketing goes a long way when it comes to attracting new prospects and maintaining customer/client loyalty. Creating an effective email newsletter is one major part of this marketing strategy t...
Top Tips to Create an Effective Newsletter Content
Here are some great pointers and e-newsletter examples to help you create a newsletter that gets results for your business.
1. Focus on a specific topic or area of business
Concentrate your newsletter topic on a specific area so that you can appeal to a niche audience. This gives you the opportunity to get higher engagement rates than you would if you produced a one that featured all of your products or services.
Here’s an example of a topic-based email newsletter from BuzzFeed: “This Week in Cats” where they offer up one specific publication for people who love reading about cats…
Display a brief list of statements that explain the benefits you provide to your audience. These key phrases should explain what sets you apart from others and why your expertise is so helpful.
Here’s what we’ve done with one of our newsletters:
Keep your content scannable is the key to making your newsletter more effective. Using content blocks, snapshots, takeaways, bullet points, and call to action (CTA) buttons, will give your readers’ tired eyes some relief.
But remember, the goal is to leave the subscribers eager to learn more. Lead them back to your website, blog, or service/product page for more info. InVision’s newsletter is a great mix of content—a nice balance between images and text, and CTA buttons.
Source: InVision via HubSpot
5. Choose catchy subject lines
Keep your email subject lines as creative and attention grabbing as possible because it can be a focal point as to whether or not the reader opens your email. Always make sure that they are true to your content to avoid misleading readers.
6. Be true on your “Subscribe” page
Clickbaits are widely used by everyone to get traffic. BUT be careful not to mislead your subscribers. Your goal is to properly communicate your newsletter’s focus and content on your “Subscribe” landing page.
Get specific. Tell potential readers exactly what will be in the newsletter and be true to your words. Take a look at SmartBrief’s page:
Source: SmartBrief via HubSpot
7. Be reliable and consistent
Pick a frequency and stick to it. It can be daily, weekly, or monthly. So if you tell readers to look for your newsletter each week, you’d better be there. Set expectations on your opt-in page on how often they will receive something from you. Some people don’t like surprises, no-shows, or last-minute drop-ins.
Show a small picture and provide brief description of a featured product, such as a webinar, book, PDF, video course, etc. Tip: Create urgency by offering a promo code or discounted price if they order in a limited time that you specify.
Here’s HubSpot’s take on featured product:
Be sure to include a CTA or website link to purchase your products, and test it for accuracy before sending out.
9. Professional-looking layout
Many people read email newsletters using their smartphones and tablets. If possible, use a template that displays ONE column. Don’t use 2-3 columns. Also, compliment your good content with good graphics.
If you’re knowledgeable with publishing and graphics tools, try doing it yourself. Or, use a newsletter marketing service to make a template for you. Then, you can easily customize it with new content for each of your future issues. Check out Second Glass’ colorful and informative email newsletter. Plus, it has a very clear CTA that urges people to purchase tickets.
Source: Second Glass via HubSpot
10. Test everything
Find out what works for your business and your mailing list. And before you send a newsletter, test all functionality such as the links and CTA buttons; as well as run it through a spam checker.
Experiment with the following best practices:
Short, Funny Subject Lines – put a smile on your recipients’ faces
CTA Copy & Design – experiment with loud, bright colors or simple, professional colors on your CTA buttons
No Images – try stripping away images in favor of seriously well-written copy (plain text email)
Sender Name – send using your business or company name, or you can play with it by tying it with a theme phrase or featured persona
Need help with crafting your company newsletter? We offer marketing virtual assistant service to work with you step-by-step in creating, designing and managing newsletters. CALL 1-866-596-9041 to learn more.
We would love to hear if these ideas worked for you! If you have questions or any email marketing success stories, please leave a comment below.
To have a website for your business is one thing. To create a high-converting landing page is another. This is your ultimate guide to make your site visitors do exactly what YOU want them to do. As yo...
The mantra of your landing page should be as simple as ‘ABC’: Always Be Closing.
Buy Now. Learn More. Sign Up. Contact Us. See Our Samples. These are just some of the CTAs that are pretty straightforward. What do you want your visitors to do? That’s what you should be asking them, persuasively.
Don’t distract them with lots of other requests.
Below is a sample from Pocket. Notice how your eye goes right to the CTA?
Rich and informative content will give your page an SEO boost and helps people who need to know more about your business before handing over their information.
Some landing pages choose the main headline to contain their main value proposition and use the sub-headings to discuss the actual offer. So it’s absolutely important that your value is clear and convincing.
5. Neat and Enticing Opt-in Forms
Take a look at WebDAM’s landing page. The form itself has an excellent contrast of colors and neat features like the little icons next to the info you need to put in. The form is also shaped like an arrow pointing down as a cue that you’ll progress to the downloadable guide.
Source: WebDam via Hubspot
6. Narrow Focus – Keep It Simple
Research shows that the more choices you offer people, the longer they take to make a decision.
Keep copy brief and make sure everything is relevant to its purpose
You don’t have to send all of the visitors to your home page. Create dedicated landing pages for your marketing programs
Use visuals to keep the focus on the most important features of the page
Set off the core space of the page with white space and move admin links to the footer
Make sure any header or side links don’t distract from the main purpose of the page
Source: Salesforce via Kissmetrics
See how Salesforce did it. There’s no navigation bar at the top, the few company links are placed at the bottom, and the CTA is a bright, catchy, offer. Even the social links are small and grayed out so that the focus is narrowed to the form.
7. Testimonials and Trust Signals
Trust badges and user testimonials give visitors impression that your offer and brand are trustworthy. It works best if you display logos of well-known brands you’ve worked with in the past, certain endorsements and recognitions you’ve received, or groups/associations that you are a member of.
Always keep in mind the user experience and how visitors would see your landing page. Keep the most essential parts of your message such as the logo, headline, CTAs, at the center top of the screen, with supporting features on the rest of the page.
Think of an inverted pyramid where the most important elements are at the top. H.BLOOM’s landing page is an eye candy because it uses high-resolution photography and lots of white space.
Need guidance on crafting effective landing pages? We’re here to help! Our virtual assistant service will provide you with a dedicated web designer so you can see the most important features of your business come to life in PC, mobile, or tablet. CALL 1-866-596-9041 to learn more.
We would love to hear if these ideas worked for you! If you have questions or any website related success stories, please leave a comment below.
Each of us has the same 24 hours a day to juggle everything that we need to do. But sometimes, there isn’t enough time for one business owner to accomplish every aspect of a marketing plan. Find out...
Got a long list of qualified leads? A virtual assistant can easily make calls to identify which ones are ready to purchase your product or subscribe to your service.
This way, you only spend time pitching to true prospects that you can lead down the sales funnel. An assistant can also schedule those interested prospects on your calendar to set appointments with you.
One of the top virtual marketing assistant jobs is competitor analysis and research. Now you don’t have to spend hours in front of your computer trying to figure out where and what your competitors are doing.
3. Email Marketing
Marketing communication is all about making sure that your customers/clients remember you and the perfect way to do this is through email marketing. Stay in touch with your existing and future target market by having a VA handle the following:
Create and set-up auto-responders
Create and set-up thank you email
Create, edit, and send email newsletters – packed with useful content and promotional content
Create opt-in forms, etc.
Remember, communication is core in building up a business relationship and it is important that you get a well-rounded VA.
Need to pursue a sale? Hire a virtual assistant to send a reminder or call to follow up with your warm leads. Answering all further questions can also take time so hand it over to your assistant. He or she can do both inbound and outbound calls.
5. Blog Management
Another integral part of marketing virtual assistant services but takes up too much time is blog management. Thankfully, a VA can do this by…
Researching blog topics and resources
Finding appropriate images/videos or case studies
Writing blogs and articles
Finding contributors for your blog
Researching top sites to guest-blog
Do you find it pesky to manage your editorial calendar? Have virtual assistant create one for you and then execute it.
6. Search Engine Marketing
Search Marketing is all about attracting traffic and increasing visibility through major search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing.
Two major categories under this marketing strategy are Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM). Both can be achieved using SEO Complete Package Solution.
SEO is the process of generating free or organic traffic from search engines while SEM means getting paid traffic from search engines.
SEO virtual assistants can help you with tasks such as:
Website analysis
Keyword research
Competitor analysis
On/Off page optimization
Link building
Monthly reports, etc.
7. Social Media Marketing
If you are a busy entrepreneur or professional, chances are, you don’t have the entire day working on your social media marketing. After all, posting and engaging on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn will keep you busy 24/7.
Creating a buzz about your business involves plenty of tasks that you’ll need to perform on a daily basis. Work with virtual assistants who can implement social media management packages such as the following:
Finding and posting relevant content on social media platforms
Promoting your products or services
Engaging with customers or prospects
Replying to comments/messages
Helping you plan an effective social media strategy
Scheduling of posts by using tools such as Hootsuite
Updating your business info
Monitoring, management etc.
8. Real Estate Marketing
Create property flyers or brochures – Your real estate virtual assistant can gather all the necessary information and create marketing materials for your listings.
Promote open houses – He or she can also promote your properties for an open house via ad and marketing channels such as Craigslist.
9. Website Update and Maintenance
There are various web development services a VA can help you with along with your existing marketing strategy. Tasks include adding new images, videos, content; adding meta tags and descriptions; linking to other posts, etc. A web developer virtual assistant can also do regular maintenance on your website so it runs smoothly and give an excellent user-experience.
10. Content Marketing
Creation and sharing of value-added content is essential to win over prospects or customers. That’s why content marketing should not be overlooked.
Competition gets tougher everyday so you need to beef up your content strategy. Work with your VA to provide fresh, informative and interesting content to your audience on a regular basis.
He or she can help in every step of a content marketing strategy – planning, creation, publishing, distribution and performance tracking.
11. Networking
Making connections online or in person can lead to mutually beneficial relationships. Though there are some networking activities that you really do have to do yourself, pretty much all online connection can be done by a virtual assistant.
He or she can start by researching online communities for you to join as well as networking events to attend. You can even hire VAs to search for call for speakers.
Virtual Assistant Talent, LLC is the number one virtual staff finder dedicated in providing top-notch virtual assistants for Entrepreneurs, Real Estate Agents/Investors, Small Business Owners, and Professionals.
See how our highly qualified and trained VAs can assist in your everyday tasks and objectives. CALL 1-866-596-9041.
We would love to hear if these ideas worked for you! If you have questions or any virtual marketing assistant 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.
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.
LinkedIn networking is all about referrals and attracting highly qualified leads. Active prospecting is what happens when people start to engage with you and open up conversations and opportunities. T...
If you meet people at an event, feel free to send a request and tell them how you met them. You could also ask for an introduction via a mutual connection or introduce yourself in a common group.
2. Joining MLM and Networking Groups
The more active you are in LinkedIn groups, the more contact requests you will generally receive. Focus on your daily strategy using LinkedIn for lead generation:
First, figure out who your target audience is.
Second, find LinkedIn groups with members with that interest.
Next, before joining a group, check the “activity meter” of the group to make sure you are only joining active groups.
Don’t just stick to Home Business and Network Marketing groups.
Expand your search to those who are not involved in Network Marketing that may show interest.
3. Developing Yourself as a “Go-to” Resource
Be someone who people will look for to find good information. This will give your profile more views and open up conversations.
Everyday, go to your home page and post a status update.
Then, share it to your groups, own group, and company page.
Participate in groups and ask/answer questions from other members.
Share others’ status updates and blog posts.
Post useful tips in groups.
Make some connections and check what’s happening with people in your group. In particular, a LinkedIn lead generation service can search your target prospects send out connection requests and messages to them.
Step 1:
Step 2:
4. Use Your Unique Selling Proposition to Attract People
Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is what sets you apart from your competitors in the market. Pack up your page with concrete information about you, as this will help people searching for home biz opportunities find you easily.
How to use LinkedIn for B2C marketing:
You should have a clear identity that will resonate with your target audience.
Use advanced search to find people by geographical area, industry, profession, company, keywords, etc.
Factors to consider:
Do you know who your target audience is?
Are they male or female?
What age bracket are they in?
Where do they live?
What are their common challenges?
What to look for:
Connections in common
Associations/offline groups
Something to contact them about (article, looking for an opportunity, looking for referrals)
6. YOU are the Brand
When implementing B2C lead generation strategies, start with connecting. Of course, you should be excited about the products or services you will be offering, but timing is everything. Your initial action with a new connection shouldn’t be a sales pitch. Focus first on connecting on a human level.
You can start building your online reputation by hiring virtual assistant. Assign your VA to connect to people within your niche. You can also have them post status updates and share articles to groups to widen your reach.
7. LinkedIn as a Keep-in-touch Tool
Engage with your connections on a regular basis. Comment on something you know they value or share a resource. Ask them what’s going on in their world.
Now you know some tricks on how to generate leads in sales and capitalize on the power of LinkedIn for B2C. Network marketing on LinkedIn requires the “YOU” view—that’s where LinkedIn gives you a professional networking and lead generation advantage.
There is absolutely no doubt that LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. From Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, down to 467 million professionals and entrepreneurs – you w...
Decide on a two-word key phrase that describes you and your business i.e. virtual assistant. There are a lot of LinkedIn areas that have impact on search such as the following so make sure you put your key phrases and keywords in the titles and descriptions.
Experience
Job description
Publications
Skills and Endorsements
Honors and Awards
Recommendations
2. EMPHASIZE YOUR EXPERIENCE SECTION
Another thing you can do for optimization is break down your resume in small chunks (several positions) and as many titles as possible. Say, CEO specializing in Hiring and Recruitment of Virtual Assistants and CEO specializing in Real Estate Virtual Assistant Services. It has the same position but different functions. (keywords: hiring, recruitment, real estate).
Tip: To know how well your ranking for particular keyword is, run that search in a LinkedIn account that is not connected to anybody. The goal is to be found on the first 10 pages.
After you’ve done some tweaks in your LinkedIn profile, you can then…
3. ADD MORE CONNECTIONS
Before you do this, you want to be able to SEARCH and FILTER the prospects that you want to connect to. Refer to ‘Advanced Search’ in LinkedIn Help Center to see the list of Boolean search types to refine results. i.e use of “”, OR, NOT, AND.
Remember, not all LinkedIn marketing strategies offered will teach you to do this in a way that you get to filter the search results down to the core. Read on to find out the next steps.
If you found a prospect, open the search result in a new tab and save it as a contact or tag it so you can easily locate it in the future. Use the Save Search link next to the gear icon to save your search method and receive notice about brand new prospects.
Note: When thinking about the prospects, the money level is your 2nd Degree connections. This is the “Referral” level in your network. Also, don’t forget to connect to those who searched you. Go to Who’s Viewed My Profile to see the stats.
4. INTERACT WITH YOUR AUDIENCE
At this point, you want to keep your profile alive and engaging. To do this, spend at least 5 minutes a day to…
Like and comment your connections’ status updates as well. Everyone in their network will get email notification, thus, driving more traffic to your LinkedIn profile and increasing your credibility.
5. MONITOR PROFILE ANALYTICS
Finally, don’t ignore your Visibility stats such as “Where your viewers came from” and “Search keywords that led to you”.
Create a spreadsheet to track the status updates to see what catches and what doesn’t. In the next few weeks you will be able to determine what works best for your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
We have a Free Webinar on this topic.
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