Do you see marketing as a “trip to the dentist” obligation?
or
Do you see it as a powerful tool to reach your ideal client and to grow your business?
If the latter is your answer, why then do most Virtual Assistants use the “shotgun” approach when doing their marketing?
One of the biggest mistakes usually made by Virtual Assistants, is their preference to market their service to a large general market (shotgun approach) instead of focusing on a small “passion or niche” market (rifle approach).
Remember, a “passion or niche” market is a group of customers who all have the same specific need or want.
If your passion is Administrative Assistance, you might think everybody needs administrative assistance and decide to market it as such. By doing that you are marketing your services to a fairly large, general market and the money you spend on marketing can become wasted.
On the other hand, if you’ve decided that your “ideal clients” are business coaches and you market your administrative assistance to business coaches you will definitely attract “business coaches”.
Experience proof that if you have the expertise of your “passion or niche” and you market your services accordingly, you will have the “crème de la crème” waiting to become your clients.
Four steps to help you reach the “cream of the crop” of your niche.
1. Identify your specific “passion or niche” market
Find the things in your career that fulfil your passion, that makes you happy, that inspires and excites you. Furthermore find the things you love to do with dedication and commitment and build your niche market around it.
Make sure your experience and expertise compliment your niche market in order to reach the heights you are looking for. 2.
2. Develop a strong marketing message to hook your ideal clients
Don’t just tell your prospects that you are a new Virtual Administrative Assistant for business coaches. They do not care about that.
Find clients in your niche who stay up at night worrying about their administrative chaos and develop a strong message to show them how they can benefit by making use of your specialized niche services for business coaches.
By doing this, you will set yourself apart from the normal virtual assistant who only does general administrative services and ensure you have found yourself the ideal hook. The most important thing to do now is to develop your marketing message around your hook.
3. Become visible in your Niche Market
It is imperative for you to climb out of your cocoon and become visible in your niche market.
Join “their” organizations and learn, learn, learn about their industry and their pitfalls. Join their forums; do research and offer solutions; meet their unique needs; say the right things; know and understand their “hot buttons” and be prepared to communicate with your niche group as an understanding member and not an outsider.
4. Build relationships and credibility with your niche market
Start to build relationships and credibility with everyone you talk to or work with by keeping in touch with them on a regular basis. By doing that, you will “outplay” your competitors who tend to contact a prospect once and then give up.
Remember the old saying: “You have to give before you will receive.” Start to send them niche related information, articles, research and referrals and they will begin to remember you and see you as a serious businessperson.
The bottom line
If you want to stop marketing your valuable services to “unprofitable” customers …
- Your passion or niche market should be very specific;
- You should develop a sharply focused marketing message so that your prospects believe you are talking specifically to them or about their problems;
- You should know the ‘walk and the talk’ of your niche market and become visible;
- You should build ongoing relationships; and
- You should never stop to aim you marketing approach “through the telescope of your marketing rifle”
