7 Ways a Virtual Assistant Can Help You Update Your Website

Virtual Assistant, Websites0 comments

As I mentioned in my previous blog, Why Updating Your Website is Crucial for Online Success, it’s essential to keep your website updated if  you want to drive more traffic to your site and rank highly in the search engines.  An out of date website looks unprofessional and can stop visitors from contacting you as they may think that you are no longer in business.

So here are 7 ways that a virtual assistant can help you to keep your website updated on WordPress.

Add latest news about your business. If you have a “latest news” section on your site, then a virtual assistant can keep this updated for you with any current offers or news about your business.   There’s nothing worse than seeing latest news on a website that’s over 6 months old!

Update web pages. If you make changes to your services or hire a new team member, then you’ll want to update your website as soon as possible.  Your web designer may be too busy to do such a small task straightaway, so this is where a VA can really help.  They can make quick changes to web pages or design new ones with text, images and links.

Format images. The images on your website should be of the highest quality and have “alt tags” on them for people who have images switched off by default.  A VA can do this for you and ensure that the alt tags are SEO friendly and the images link through to the appropriate pages on your website; this all helps with search engine ranking.

Check for broken links. Broken links can make your website  look very unprofessional.   A VA can check that all the links are working on your website – either manually or using a plugin that checks for broken links automatically.

Add social media links. If you are using social media to promote your business then you’ll want your website visitors to be able to connect with you.  A VA can add social media icons to your website that link through to your profiles, such as  Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook etc.

Update copyright. A lot of people forget about this, but it’s a good idea to have a copyright date on your website and ensure that it’s current.  If it’s out of date, then your visitors may wonder if you’re still in business.  A VA can set this up so that the date automatically changes each year.

Add and update plugins. One of the great benefits of using WordPress for your website is the additional functionality that you can add with plugins.  A virtual assistant can suggest the plugins that you need for your website, such as social sharing, backup and caching –  and ensure they are updated as necessary.
 

Want to develop your skills?

Personal development, Virtual Assistant0 comments

Are you thinking about setting up an email marketing campaign but don’t know where to start?

Or want to start a blog but don’t know how to set one up?

Perhaps you’d like to create a Facebook tab for your page but don’t have the skills?

Well, I’m planning to put together some webinars, workshops and/or 1-1 training in the next few months on these kinds of topics.  But before I do, I’d be interested to find out whether these would be of interest to people and in what format they would prefer to have the training – workshop in London, webinar or 1-1 training via Skype or Join.me.

Please take our survey to let me have your feedback.  As a thank you for taking the survey, one person will have the chance to win a free place on one of the workshops or 1-1 training sessions (worth up to £67).

The subjects that I’m thinking of covering are:

• How to set up an email marketing campaign (using MailChimp)
• How to set up a blog on WordPress
• Creating a page on Facebook with welcome tab
• Creating a profile on LinkedIn

So take the survey and let me know if these would be of interest to you or if there are other topics that you would like to see covered.  I will do my best to accommodate suggestions depending on my level of expertise.

Take the survey now and have the chance of a free place at one of our upcoming workshops or 1-1 training events.

How a Virtual Assistant Can Help You with Video Marketing

Online marketing, Virtual Assistant0 comments

Another blog in my series on how virtual assistants can help you to promote your business, and this one is about video marketing.

Now video marketing is becoming an increasingly popular way for small businesses to promote their services or products.  If you’re like me and running a business on your own, then it’s a great way for people to get to know the person behind the brand.  In fact, I’ve recently started to put some videos together – mainly short screencast tutorials – which I will be sharing shortly.

So if you are someone who would like to use video marketing but don’t have the time or skills to set everything up, then here are 5 ways that a virtual assistant can help you to manage and promote your videos.

Research appropriate equipment and software.  One of the first things you need to consider is getting the right equipment to shoot your video.  This will include camera and microphone, and possibly lighting and screen.  A virtual assistant can research and recommend appropriate equipment based on your needs and budget.  They can also suggest software to edit your videos whether you are recording head shots of you talking to camera or recording your computer screen for tutorials.

Help with editing.  Once you have got your video recorded then it can be time consuming to edit the video and add in the appropriate titles etc.  A virtual assistant can do this for you with your directions.  So they can add or remove audio and visuals as required, add captions and call outs to sections of the video, and cursor and zoom effects when you want to highlight a particular point.

Make it look professional.  To make your video look really professional then it’s a good idea to add intro music and a title both before and after the main content.  A virtual assistant can research and add appropriate music, titles and graphic effects to the video which will help to promote your brand.

Promote video.  Once you’ve made your video then you obviously want people to see it!  A virtual assistant can set up a channel for you on YouTube, complete with your company details and branding.  They can upload videos and add tags so they appear in the search results.  They can then promote the videos via social media and email marketing so they get the highest visibility and ranking on YouTube, as well as submitting them on video promotion sites such as TubeMogul and Traffic Geyser.

Video blogging.  Another way to use video is to create video blogs (or vlogs).  If you’re someone who blogs a lot then you can shoot a short video which is related to the blog.  The virtual assistant can then upload the video on to YouTube with a link to the blog post, and add a link to the video on your blog.  This creates traffic both to your blog/website and to your YouTube channel so dramatically increases your online profile. 

Although you could do all the above yourself, by outsourcing the technical and promotional tasks you can focus on the marketing message you want to get across so that you can maximise the results from your video marketing activities.

How a Virtual Assistant Can Help You to Use Local Marketing

Marketing, Online marketing, Virtual Assistant0 comments

As someone who runs their own virtual assistant business, I know how essential it is to have an online presence.  However, it can sometimes be very difficult to make yourself heard above all the other marketing messages being broadcast whether it’s via Twitter, Facebook or blogs.

So if you’re a business owner like me who wants to reach out to people in your area, how can you do this?  Well this is where the power of local marketing comes in.  By targeting your marketing to people within a specific area, you are able to become more effective in communicating your message.

So if you want to make yourself heard, here’s a list of the top 5 local marketing tools and how a virtual assistant can help you to set them up.

Google places. This free local listing service is the quickest and easiest way to get on the first page of Google.  A virtual assistant can set up your profile with all your company details, including information on your services, location and opening hours.  They can also upload any images or videos, and will include specific search terms within your profile so that your place appears when people are looking for your services or products within your area.

Facebook Places.  A VA can create a Facebook Places account for you where they will set up or claim your “place”, ie your business address and then complete your profile with details of your location, services and products.  Once this is set up, then people can “check in” when they visit your business and by doing this, they tell their Facebook friends about you.

Facebook advertising is like Google Adwords where you set a budget and then pay every time someone clicks on your ad.  A virtual assistant can create an ad with images and text and then specify who sees the ad by selecting criteria such as age, gender, interests and location as specified by you.  They can monitor the performance of your ads and manage your budget.

Foursquare is very similar to Facebook Places, and again a VA can create or claim your place, and set up your profile with any exclusive discounts or special offers for people who check in to your location.  When people check in, they share their location via social media which spreads the word about your business.

Google Adwords works in the same way as Facebook advertising where you set a daily budget and then pay every time someone clicks on your ad.  A virtual assistant can create an account on Adwords with criteria specified by you.  This includes where your ads are displayed, eg in a particular country or city, your cost per click budget, and which keywords you want to use – you can use location-based keywords so that your ad appears when people are searching for your services or products within that area.

So if you want to communicate to potential clients within your local area then these tools will help you do this and keep you one step ahead of the competition.  By using a virtual assistant to set these up and monitor them for you, you can focus on following up the leads that have been generated from these marketing activities.

How a Virtual Assistant Can Manage Your Events

Event planning, How to, Virtual Assistant0 comments

This is the first in a series of blogs detailing how a virtual assistant can help you in certain areas of your business. The first one covers handling the administration of events and future ones will include helping to set up webinars, e-courses, podcasts and videos.

There are many ways that you can market your business; putting on workshops is a great way to raise your profile and credibility, and videos and podcasts are becoming increasingly popular too. However, you may not have the expertise or time to learn how to set these up yourself. So this series of blogs will show you how a virtual assistant can help you.

If you are someone who organises training events such as workshops or seminars, it can be easy to get bogged down in the details of organising the event rather than focusing on preparing the necessary materials. If this is the case, then here’s how a virtual assistant can help you organise events that your delegates will benefit from attending.

Bookings and payments. You can easily set up an online booking and payment system using applications such as Eventbrite. A virtual assistant can set up a booking page on Eventbrite and keep track of the number of attendees. If payments are being made by invoice, then the VA can raise and send out the invoices and chase up payment.

Event promotion. Eventbrite integrates with MailChimp so the virtual assistant can upload on to MailChimp the details of people who have booked in and then send out further emails about the event. They can also post a link to the booking page on your Twitter profile, and use the events feature on Facebook and LinkedIn to promote the event to your online connections.

Manage attendees/speakers. It can be time-consuming handling all the enquiries from attendees and speakers so let a virtual assistant do it for you. They can deal with any issues or enquiries via phone or email, as well as add a FAQs section on the booking page. A virtual assistant can also prepare and collate any materials such as agendas, name badges, goody bags etc, and manage equipment requirements for the speakers.

Liaise with venue. Ensuring that everything is set up properly at the venue is essential for the smooth running of any event. A virtual assistant can liaise with the venue to ensure that the room is set up correctly, all the necessary equipment is in place and working properly, there is sufficient catering, and there is a front desk to book in attendees if necessary.

Follow up after event. Once the event is finished, it’s essential to get feedback from the attendees as this is invaluable when planning future events. A virtual assistant can set up and send out a questionnaire, and collate feedback received. They can also email details from you about any future events that may be of interest to them.

So if you’re someone who organises workshops and seminars, then hire a virtual assistant to help you handle the administration so you can focus on ensuring that the delegates will gain valuable insights and learnings from the event.

If you want more tips and advice, then download our free guide How to Plan a Successful Event.