This article does a great job of explaining the benefits of narrowing your focus. Many of you will be familiar with Freelance Folder, but for those that aren't, you can subscribe to their articles and they are a great resource!

Freelance Folder: Why You Aren’t Landing Clients You Want (And What To Do About It) by Glen Allsopp

Enjoy!

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Kate V. Kerans
Kerans Virtual Assistance

Hi Kate, good points here about narrowing the point of focus and really defining the ideal client - thanks for sharing.

I will say though that I disagree with his take on participating in industry forums - and as an SEO I think he missed an important point about the value of participating in forums [of course I'm biased ] But I point this out because an industry forum like VAF is going to be 1,000x more optimized than say, your average VA business website - by simple volume of keyword density if nothing else. And then when you couple that with the kind of active SEO and promotion that's done for a site like VAF the search returns become even more intensive and cast a much wider net.

With that in mind, the chances of a client searching for a VA via specific keywords in Google and landing on your thread, blog, profile or group page on a VA online community are so much greater than that client landing on your VA business site for the same keywords.

We know that clients are landing on this site in particular, and seeing conversations that resonate with them, they get in touch with the VA - locating their VA business site via their profile page or the link in their signature.

The question then really is - is your ideal client using Google to search for a virtual assistant? [And of course they very well may be] Which leads to the next question - when you DO participate in online communities are you treating it as an important part of your marketing and networking agenda?

Potential clients will find you through Google searches, here and on other social networking sites. That's when good client consultation practices become very important - to help identify the potential for an ideal working relationship with clients who do come to you that way.

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Hi Tess,

I agree entirely with your comments regarding SEO. The fact that more than a few VAs on this site have landed clients who originally found them here is evidence enough of the effectiveness of posting on forums, at least with regards to VAF!

I also think that too many VAs lack the understanding of how effective it is to narrow your focus as opposed to casting a huge net, as the author speaks of. While I think we should always take a multi-level approach to marketing and use different internet mediums to target markets, that base understanding of how the funneling process works is important.

As always, love your viewpoint and insightful commentary!

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Kate V. Kerans
Kerans Virtual Assistance

Hello, Tess! I like your signature...it is sooo true!

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Have a Great Day on Purpose!!!!!!!!!!!

Great thoughts Tess. I met with a Business Start-up coach and she first asked how big I wanted to become, she then asked me what areas I wanted to serve. I answered her questions and told her pretty much central MN for my area of coverage. She then asked me how many of my targeted businesses did I think were in Princeton. I gave her my guess. She looked at me and said if each of these towns that I mentioned had this many targeted businesses and I market to them all, I will get far bigger than I want and far too fast.

The reason why I brought this up, is if you span your marketing with a large net, yes you may get business quickly, but can you handle it when it comes, and the business you get, did it cover the actual cost of such a wide marketing area?

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Erika Glem
www.advadminsol.com Let my administrative solutions be to your advantage.

I definitely advocate developing an ideal client profile and knowing where to find them, how to reach out to them, etc.

So often when I ask a new VA who her target market is, the answer is 'small businesses' - yikes! Not only is that impossible to effectively market to [too many!] but how will you identify their 'pain points' in order to craft your message in the first place? Sure, most small businesses deal with a list of the same issues - but when you fine tune that message to suit specific industries you're better able to communicate WITH your target market, instead of just 'to' them, which will lead to more contracts with ideal clients.

Thanks for opening this conversation!

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