Marketing is all about growth and growth normally happens through planning and action.
When you’ve found your passion, marketing will be something you “love to do” and not something you have to do. You will look at marketing from a different perspective and it will not only become an effort to grow your own business but it will become a joint effort with your niche market to grow their business as well.
The “action” part of marketing your virtual assistant services to your passion or niche market will involve…
- Building Relationships
- Communicating Services
- Outlining benefits and values
- Keeping in Touch
Building Relationships
Building relationships are very important for your business success especially in today’s situation where everyone is running around to keep their head above the water and to stretch their 24 hours in order to get everything done.
Now is the perfect time to put you in your niche customer’s shoes and look at the situation through their eyes.
As per John C Maxwell: “If you would sell John Smith what John Smith buys, then you must see John Smith through John Smith’s eyes.”
Focus on the needs of your niche market and address it in such a way that they will see you as a solution to their problem. This will help to built mutual trust and a shared belief that you can depend on each other to reach a common purpose.
“This may seem simple, but you need to give customers what they want, not what you think they want. And, if you do this, people will keep coming back. ” John Illhan
Tip: Start implementing a plan to get and keep in touch with your prospects at least once a month.
Communicating Services
Once again. Communicate your services to your niche market in a way that they understand you are the solution to their problem. Your marketing message should be very clear to state who you work with, what benefits you offer and what results you produce.
For instance: “I work with organizations who struggle with administration tasks” will not get you the same results than “I work with business coaches who stay up at night to attend to their day to day administration.”
Tip: Start telling your target market about your services in such a manner that they would actually want to hear more.
Outlining Benefits and values
Clients nowadays are not only persuaded by the price of a product or service, they are moved by the benefits and values they will receive by buying a product or making use of a service.
For instance: “Letting me handle your administrative duties will give you more time to ‘sleep’ and to concentrate on your coaching activities” outlines the benefit where “I can handle your administrative tasks” only states the service.
Tip: Make a list of the benefits of your services and use it when communicating with your niche market.
Keeping in Touch
Relationships are not built by once off hits. It is an ongoing effort from your side to be in your customer’s mind’s eye all the time.
Jay Abraham said: “If you’re attacking your market from multiple positions and your competition isn’t, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income.”
My version: “If you keep in touch and build relationships with your niche market while your competition isn’t, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income.”
Tip: Keep in touch with your niche market by sharing valuable information regarding their business with them at least once a month.
