Considering your content marketing plan for your virtual assistant company? The general consensus amongst businesses that offer expert services is that consumers are less likely to knock on your door for professional advice, if you provide it for free.
A substantial number of the latest marketing studies not only rejects this myth, but also prove evidence that contradicts this theory. In fact, if leveraged wisely, content sharing holds the possibility to become one of your most influential marketing tools, which can yield noticeable business results.
Your content can be shared in many ways; through speaking at industry events, hosting online webinars, offering guides or eBooks that can be downloaded, or giving out advise and information through blogs, video guides or regular newsletters. Here are some of the top benefits your virtual assistant business could build on, through an astute content sharing strategy:
Thought leadership
Thought Leadership is the art of positioning your virtual assistant business as a leader in its niche market through high quality content. By publishing articles, videos, research, or any other form of original content regularly. Potential clients and members of the VA industry begin associating your brand with insightful ideas and regarding it as authoritative. When the time comes to hire a virtual assistant company, yours is at the forefront of their mind.
Thought leadership requires targeted effort. It requires your focus, using content or simply interacting, with a group of people and topics you know inside out.
In a progressively competitive market place, one of the biggest challenges that any business is faced with is the ability to be differentiated from the crowds. Consistently sharing knowledge and advise that are of useful value to your target audiences will let you stand out from your competitors, help position you as a specialist and, over time, let you become the go-to person in your area of expertise.
Brand awareness
Brand awareness is best spread through both inbound and outbound marketing efforts. Competition in the virtual assistant industry is increasing; brand awareness can be one of a business’s greatest assets.
Using strategically identified platforms in the digital space to persistently share content on, is an enabler to increase your virtual assistant brand awareness, to the market at a fraction of conventional advertising or marketing costs.
Research shows that people are more likely to share content with their own network of peers and contacts, provided that it is useful or interesting. This has the additional benefit of your reach being extended exponentially, at no extra cost, or with no further effort on your behalf.
Lead generation
The purchasing process has evolved, and when marketing your virtual assistant business you need to find new ways to reach potential buyers and get heard through the noise. Instead of finding customers with mass advertising and email blasts, you now need to focus on being found and learn to build continuous relationships with clients.
If you offer guidance via any medium online, your intention should be to drive readers to your website for more information and prompt them to sign up for your newsletter, register an account or submit their details to gain access to additional content. This allows you to build a database of leads to correspond with in the future.
People willing to engage with you this extensively have voluntarily offered their details and processed your information. They have become a warm lead and will be more inclined to deal with you going forward. Your success ratio for closing deals with them will therefore be increased.
Customer loyalty
The production of valuable content shared among your target audience allows for increased customer loyalty. Direct engagement with potential clients and the generation of honest feedback on products and services offered create a sense of security and honesty.
Maintaining happy, loyal customers in your virtual assistant company is easier and more cost effective then generating new clients. The power of word-of-mouth and direct referrals is one of your greatest marketing tools.
Essentially, the question is no longer whether you can afford to share your knowledge for free. It is rather: ‘can you afford not to?’
