DISQUS

sara_carbaugh · 7 months ago

This was hard for me because it's difficult for me to see myself as an "expert" in a field. This actually was a great exercise for me to think about my skills and how I could ultimately help educate my target market! I'm not sure if these are the best topics but I think these are a good start.

- Social Media for small businesses
- How to organize your e-mail and make it work for you
- Using SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis to help build your business

Thanks Cristina for a great first marketing tip!

Cristina Favreau · 7 months ago

Way to go, Sara. The whole "expert" challenge you face is a common one. The thing is, how can you expect to be seen as an expert by others if you don't first see yourself as an expert. The key lies in claiming your specialty -- what is it that you do that no other VA does better than you? You'll notice a huge shift in your attitude and will begin to see yourself more and more as the expert in your claimed field.

I'd like to challenge you to take this marketing tip one step further. Replace "small businesses" and "business" with a particular audience. The best place to start is to think of a current or past client whom you've helped with one of the topics you mentioned.

For example, let's say you have a real estate agent for whom you've done social media projects. Spin your first topic for real estate agents. So now your first topic would be "Social Media for Real Estate Agents."

The next step is to name the benefit... what will your speech help them achieve? For example, it could be "to get more listings" or "to close more sales" or "to gain local visibility."

Finally, you don't just want this to be a list of topics and do nothing with it, so you'll need to start developing this topic into a speech.

Let us know how it goes!!

sara_carbaugh · 7 months ago

Thank you so much for your insight! My problem with narrowing the subjects down though is the fact that I am VERY new and have not had any clients as of yet. I think I will need to discover who I like working with and who I don't before I can narrow down a niche.

That is the main questions though, how does one FIND their niche?! I am unfortunately a Jill of all trades and a master of none in my opinion. I LOVE social networking and social media and, like Janet below, I love organization but I'm not sure how to market either of these topics to a specific type of audience.

Hopefully in these weekly tips you can touch on finding your niche a little bit, that would help me SO much! : )

Cristina Favreau · 7 months ago

Yes, defining a target market, niche and specialty are all questions that come up quite often, and I do have plans to address this topic in more detail.

While I emphasize the importance of defining a target market, I don't advocate choosing one blindly. Most new VAs need to get a little experience under their belt before claiming a target.

In fact, I'm a firm believer that, if you clearly define what makes you different, your target market will find you.

My suggestion about drilling down on one audience was not for your VA business but for your speaking topic.

So let's say you have a lot of real estate agents in your local networking group and tailor your topic for them, it'll be far more impactful (is that a word?) than a too broad topic.

I hope this helps!

Janet Barclay · 7 months ago

Because I was a professional organizer before I became a VA, I have quite a few presentations prepared on various organizing topics which I'm still asked to present from time to time. Since this doesn't really demonstrate my expertise as a VA, the next topic I work on will be Blogging and/or Using WordPress as a Content Management System.

Cristina Favreau · 7 months ago

Janet, I love that you said your current speaking topics don't really demonstrate your expertise as a VA. That is the point, isn't it??

As I suggested to Sara, I highly recommend you narrow your topic down to a particular audience.

The good news is, once you've written a speech for one target audience, you need only make small changes to address another set of prospects.

I know for myself, I would definitely be interested in your topic!!