Today we are going to talk about marketing - in particular, inbound marketing - and how to do it well to get clients.

Last episode we talked about outbound marketing (or reaching out to clients), so this week we will cover the other half of the essentials of marketing.

First a quick recap: What is marketing? The act of putting your VA business in front of people Instead of thinking of it as advertising and publicity, think more of it as visibility and sales/getting clients Focus on increasing your visibility so your clients can decide on their own to buy

Why do we need to do marketing? Learning how to market is the best thing you can do to guarantee the longevity of your VA business because it brings in revenue and that keeps you in business

The more marketing tasks you do right, or well, the less you actually have to do.

What are the essentials?

What is your offer? What do you want people to buy?

How much will it cost them?

Who is going to buy it?

Where are they - where will they see you, or where can you see them?

What will you say to them? before, during and after

ONLY when you know the answers to these questions, you can doing some marketing to connect with your clients.

Inbound Marketing Content that helps people see you and connect with you or reach out to you (attracting them IN to you)

Outbound Marketing Actions and content that help you reach out to others to connect with them (reaching OUT to them)

Today we are going to talk about inbound marketing.

Inbound: freebies, list building, emailing, posting to social media, videos, blogging and your website (all good).

These things are probably the things you think of when we say marketing. It's about all of the things that we put out there so that people can learn about our business.

VAs don't necessarily need a huge email list, but having people find YOU makes sales conversations easier to get. We don't own social media - so attracting people to our website, blog and email list though - so that it is ours. And no matter which type of marketing you are doing, you need leads - everything you do should lead to sales conversations so you can get clients.

Social Media: Social media posting is great – with the right plan. VAs often do it wrong. Be really clear on what you should be putting out there. Don't talk about being a VA and how great it is. It's all about your clients. Create content that are relevant to what they want to learn about - not just sales posts about your services. For instance, if you offer course creator support, write about that kind of thing - what platforms that you use, updates to platforms or trends, and how you help your clients with them. Show that you are the expert. Become their information source. You don't need to be on social media all day long to do your marketing. Focus on the things that are interesting to your clients, that will help you get better quality content out there.

Messaging is Important: When your messaging is on point, you can do less and have it work harder for you. Get really clear on what you help your clients with - use the concise marketing message. I help (who) with (what) so that they can (what), because I (why). It's not an elevator pitch but this information helps you get really clear on what kind of content you should be putting out there. Anything you put out there should work hard for you, it's never one and done. Set up a system for your digital marketing tasks that plays one off the other to get the best results.

Search Engine Optimization: SEO also is key for any online content The words you use are important to help the search engines put your content in front of the right people. Hashtags, keywords Make your content work harder for you. You don't have to be an SEO specialist, but use words that help people find you when they are looking (what do they type into a search engine) My story - I never ranked in search engines because I didn't use the right words in my titles or articles. I thought I was talking to my audience, but I needed to be speaking to the search engines.

Blogging: Writing blogs is great because you own your website and the content You can guide people to where you want on your own site You can repurpose it easily into more content Creating regular content is good for search engines too - website updates are good! Endeavour to write 400 to 600 words and you will get more content that is still really valuable. Your goal is to have people know, like and trust you: more of the same content does that

Your content: Write for your clients, not for you. Stand out by posting different content than most VAs post. What do they want to know about? Always base content on the services you offer For example, a bookkeeper writes about tax and expense tips & resources, organization tips, industry info – and references the things she does for clients. (not about being a VA) What works for you? Anything related to the services that you offer.

Creating Content: When you write your concise marketing message, you can then begin to create content around that message. Decide on 4 main topics to write about Rotate them weekly. Repeat each month. Repurpose from a large piece of content This creates consistency and cohesiveness, which showcases your expertise

Get Inspired: When you have 4 main content topics, it's easier to collect great info to support them Swipe file is a place to collect stuff to use in your content - bookmark, Google Drive file, digital file. Stats, quotes Curated content Makes creation process faster to collect this all month long

Get Going! Focus on 2 or 3 main things to do in terms of posting content Don't try to be everywhere Work smart!

What will you do to market your VA business? whatever works for you - whatever is comfortable for you - whatever produces results for you.

That's all I've got for you this week.

If you need some help with nailing down your marketing essentials, or creating great content, or doing your inbound marketing better, reach out to me at [email protected]

I've helped hundreds of VAs through their challenges and got them on their way to the next thing. I'd love to do the same for you. I do private coaching, and my new mastermind The Virtual Circle registration is open now. Maybe one of those options is right for you.

That's all I've got for you this week, thanks for tuning in to learn to become a ridiculously good Virtual Assistant.