Hi there fellow VA's!

My business partner and I are about ready to launch our virtual assistant business and were wondering how others began building their clientele. We have a few contacts that can send us a few clients that need tasks done here and there, but we were looking for at least a few long-term consistent clients to begin with to get our business rolling. We have the basic marketing tools such as a website and facebook, twitter, and blogspot accounts but we don't really have the money to spend on advertising at this point.

Does anyone have any tips on how to get our name out to potential long-term clients?

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you!

Good timing on this post! I was just about to ask a similar question and I look forward to the responses. I'm also curious as to how receptive businesses are to receiving emails and/or marketing materials via mail.

Good luck to you on your new business!

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Donna
Paragon Support Services

I am also looking at ways to build my clientele. I am going to do some cold calling to some smaller businesses in my area to see if I have any success. I have also decided to look in the job ads for companies that are looking for part or even full time assistants. If the company is smaller and I think it would allow for the assistant to be virtual, I am going to call them and offer my services.

I am very interested in other ideas people may have as well.

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Kara Tesch
GetVirtual Solutions, www.getvirtualsolutions.com

Great question!
I would love to hear others advice as well. I am planning on doing some postcard mailings and am thinking more on doing a press release but would like other ideas as well.
I look forward to reading more posts!

Doing the same thing. I am also sending out marketing to different industries to see which ones I will receive replies from. Curious as to which industry will be the most successful one to apply to. That is just it, when starting out it is very tough to first figure out which clientele needs or wants those services. Wanted to just concentrate on one industry, the legal industry, but realized if I wanted to find out which markets are the most promising I should also offer those services to other industries. So far I am marketing, slowly but surely, to legal entities, apartment complexes and I will also begin to market to real estate companies. Have found additional on line sources for local small businesses and I will send marketing materials there.
I myself hate to receive phone calls from people trying to sell stuff and I will often hang up on such people. I figure if I mail out the marketing I will have a much better chance of explaining exactly all of the benefits that I can offer with my services. That could never be explained to someone who does not like to be on the phone in a time frame of 20 or 30 seconds. From my own experience I also don't like it when a business calls me ten times in order to sell me their products. So I am not quite sure what to think about follow up marketing, if it is just a waste of time and money. Because when I decide to want the products or services from a company I will want to be the one as a consumer to contact that company. If a company sends me two or three marketing efforts via mail, E-mail, or phone than I tend to automatically recoil. It is just the nature of the marketing beast. Many times I have brochures lying around from companies that I simply do not have the time to follow up on. I don't think that I will bother prospective clients every two or three weeks. It seems wrong, and the last thing for a business owner to pay off would be to annoy potential customers.
Therefore, rather then sending out a follow up piece of mail, I would propably take the money from that and stick it into a marketing envelope that will be mailed to a new prospective client who has not been contacted before. I may after some time decide to send out post card reminders. That is to be seen.

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SAS, Superior Administrative Services
Office Services, Typing Services

Your best source of business is networking, which takes time. I have also had some success with post cards, but going to networking meetings, leaving biz cards everywhere I go and telling everyone I know what I do has gotten me a lot farther.

I won't do email because as a consumer I consider unsolicited email to be spam and I get annoyed when I receive it, especially considering how many emails I receive that I DO need to deal with... I try to base my marketing strategies as a business owner on how I react to the same strategies as a consumer.

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Lily Chambers, The Virtual Office Goddess, LLC
Author "How to Do Your Own Small Business Bookkeeping"

Originally Posted by Office Goddess

Your best source of business is networking, which takes time. I have also had some success with post cards, but going to networking meetings, leaving biz cards everywhere I go and telling everyone I know what I do has gotten me a lot farther. I won't do email because as a consumer I consider unsolicited email to be spam and I get annoyed when I receive it, especially considering how many emails I receive that I DO need to deal with... I try to base my marketing strategies as a business owner on how I react to the same strategies as a consumer.

I know this is an older post but this is a great point about emailing services for marketing strategies~! Thanks

Looking for marketing tips, I found Tory Johnson's Spark and Hustle website and listened to a recorded call on marketing. She suggests that you always have a list of 50 potential clients in your target area to market to. As people so yes or no you mark them off and add another in its place so the list is always full. I am working on this list and since one of my target markets is medical I am googling the surrounding areas for counselors, psychologist, etc to add clients to my list. I then plan to send out post cards and/or brochures to each business. I am new to the VA world too so this is the first time I have tried this, I hope it's a success.

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Rachel Clay
http://virtualassistantsofthewiregrass.weebly.com/

I'm also in the same boat , this is an informative thread.

Cold calling and post cards are a good and inexpensive way to get our names out, I tried emailing once or twice but people don't respond , because it's spamming I prefer the latter.

I will also try the list , that sounds like a good idea for a starting point.

I agree with Janine, it is all about networking. Many of my current clients have some from the networking that I do (offline as much as online). When I am out and about I always talk to those around me and one of the first questions I ask is what they do. This is a great way to find business owners and a great conversation starter.

Also, look for conferences, workshops or meets that are out of your area and attempt to attend those so you can widen your reach.

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Lee Drozak
My Office Assistant