“How do I find clients for my VA business?” Yup, I’ve heard that one about a thousand times. Starting a business sometimes isn’t the hard part. The hard part is bringing in enough income to make this a sustainable, long-term business endeavor.
So let’s answer this question once and for all! I want you to come away from this blog with your head full of different strategies for finding clients for your Virtual Assistant business.
Identify your ideal client
Before you can implement any strategies for finding clients, you have to know who you are looking for. When thinking about who your ideal client might be, consider the following:
- The services you want to offer
- The services you can offer right now
- The industries/professionals you are interested in serving
- Your previous work experience
- Your previous life experience
An ideal client is a specific type of professional in a specific industry. You are essentially creating an imaginary client who could exist in real life. Specifically, think about what this person’s wants, needs, and fears. What “pain” are they experiencing in their business that your skill set can solve?
This is important because it allows you to pinpoint exactly who you are looking for, and exactly what they need. You’re no longer looking for a needle in a haystack.
Finding your ideal client online
Finding your ideal client now becomes a matter of putting on your detective hat and finding specific prospective clients on social media and online. Brainstorm a bank of keywords that could be related to your ideal client, industry, or your specialized services. Use these keywords to search for ideal clients on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google. And don’t stop there. There are literally hundreds of legitimate social networking sites, search engines, and forums that may be the perfect place to search depending on your ideal client.
If you find a prospective client that feels like they would be a good fit for your services, follow them, engage with them, and add value wherever you can. You can’t just do this once. This method requires you to track and strategically interact with your ideal client so that you can build authority, trust, and develop an authentic relationship.
Pro Tip: As you search, you may begin to notice a pattern about what social media platform your ideal client is most likely to use. This is the platform where you should build your audience. For example, if your ideal client is a fitness professional, and you notice that the people in this target market are mostly active on Instagram, don’t invest the majority of your time on LinkedIn.
The magic of the “warm email”
I’ll admit, I was pretty skeptical about sending unsolicited emails when I first considered using this method. Nobody wants spam in their inbox, and it’s not a good way to get clients. Can I suggest something a little different? A warm email is a cold email that’s been “heated up” with some specific details, connection points, and fully customized for the recipient. Your target audience is massive – even if your niche is small. You can target companies globally using this method.
How to do it: Create an email template that’s easy to customize, and then create a list of companies you want to target. Carefully gather in the information you need to be able to send a thoughtful email. If you batch them in groups of 10 and carve out time to send them every day (and if you are looking for clients, you have the time!) it’s only a matter of time before you’re setting up discovery calls.
These emails are short, and are sometimes called a “letter of introduction”. You introduce yourself, add relevant connection points, share what you do and how it can help them, and end with an invitation to continue the conversation.
Note: The warm email method works best in volume. If you’re only sending out one or two a week, you won’t likely see a quick return on that time investment.
Market Research
The benefits of effective market research is two-fold: First, it allows us to authentically and meaningfully engage with our target audience. Secondly, it allows you to gather valuable information about what your ideal client needs in a Virtual Assistant. Without expectation or an agenda, reach out to ideal clients and ask them if you can ask them a few questions. This is not a sales pitch.
The goal of market research is to give you clarity about your service offerings, find pain points, and verify the demand for services. Ask pointed questions and when your ideal client responds, always thank them for their time, or perhaps even offer a small one-time service as a “thank you” for participating.
What should I post?
Reaching out and engaging with your ideal clients on social media will begin to attract prospects to your online presence. Now, the key is to create valuable content to incentivize them to stick around. Content marketing is creating content (posts, blogs, emails, website pages), that shares information and solves problems, without mention of your product or services. Content marketing demonstrates your expertise and builds authority in your niche while giving your ideal client a reason to continue following you. This part of “finding clients” can be a long game, but it’s also the piece that will eventually have clients coming to find you, instead of the other way around.
Facebook Groups
We’ve already covered some of the ways to use social media to find and attract clients, but one other effective use of social media is using Facebook Groups. Using the same keywords you used to search for clients on Instagram or Google, search for Facebook groups in your industry. It may take a few tries to find a group that is active enough to engage in. In industry-specific groups, the goal is not to say “Hey! I can help! Hire me!”. The goal is to find posts where you can actively engage and add valuable comments and solutions to problems. This will position you within the group as a valuable contributor and authority in your niche. You can also join VA groups and general entrepreneur groups to search for job opportunities.
Networking and Getting Visible
Traditional networking usually brings up visions of businesspeople in fancy suits handing out business cards at a conference. Networking online looks a little different. In addition to identifying ideal clients, you can also identify ideal networking connections. These are usually other online entrepreneurs who serve your industry in complementary but non-competitive ways. For example, a VA who specializes in social media management might want to network with a VA who specializes in graphic design, or a branding specialist.
One of the best ways that I’ve found to establish these connections is to reach out and set up “coffee chats”. These are informal video or phone meetings where you spend 15-30 minutes getting to know each other’s business and learning how your client avatars might intersect. After you’ve “met” a network connection, be sure to cultivate and deepen your relationship through genuine and authentic engagement and communication. This will result in referrals for you – and likely for them too!
Oversaturation is a myth
The market is not oversaturated with VA’s. In fact, this is an industry that will continue to grow and thrive as the online space continues to evolve and expand. Clients are looking for what you have to offer – but if they don’t know you exist, they can’t hire you.
