Does anyone know the best way to get the attention of local businesses without spam?

OfficeAngel

I am set up in business as a virtual assistant and keep being told that there are a lot of SMEs that are crying out for my services on a local level. I have made a few good contacts by attending networking events and courses and have advertised on a local website. I do not advertise in the local papers anymore as they seem more social than business orientated.

I am toying with the idea of getting car magnets made up and putting them on a local taxi. Has this worked for anyone?

Has anyone got any ideas how I can get the attention of more local businesses without spamming them?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

kenbrady

OfficeAngel wrote: »

I am set up in business as a virtual assistant and keep being told that there are a lot of SMEs that are crying out for my services on a local level. I have made a few good contacts by attending networking events and courses and have advertised on a local website. I do not advertise in the local papers anymore as they seem more social than business orientated.

I am toying with the idea of getting car magnets made up and putting them on a local taxi. Has this worked for anyone?

Has anyone got any ideas how I can get the attention of more local businesses without spamming them?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

Offering virtual assistant, so you need to be reliable and trust worthy.
Targeting local businesses.

For your service this is the best way.

Call in person to local businesses with a brochure, only costs the price of a brochure.
You get to meet them puts a face to the business.

It's a hard thing to do, but it's the best way to get a return and it should work fairly quickly.

OfficeAngel

Thanks Ken. Like you say that will be hard but well worth it if I find the work. The problem is the people I am likely to serve best work from home, most have websites depending on their trade, but I can only find them if I know their name first. As an administrator I can serve all sectors in a variety of ways. I have a couple of hard copy references that I can show them too.

Thanks again I will try harder now.

kenbrady

OfficeAngel wrote: »

keep being told that there are a lot of SMEs that are crying out for my services on a local level.

OfficeAngel wrote: »

I am likely to serve best work from home, most have websites depending on their trade, but I can only find them if I know their name first.

People who work from home are not SMEs.
Are you targeting people who run their own small business/ one man companies ?
Why are you targeting only local ?

If people are crying out for this service, web savvy, they will use the internet to find it. So google adword/SEO are your best bet, you can use geo targeting to only display your ad for a specific location to keep costs low.

To convert the people who visit your site to customers you need to work on your market message.

Also you can hire virtual sales assistants who will try and book appointments with companies for you.

People are crying out for lots of things, doesn't mean they will pay for them.
I looked into hiring a Virtual PA before, what put me off was the time it would take to train them in, cost; they wanted a monthly retainer and trusting them.

OfficeAngel

Sorry Ken I see that was a bit confusing. I am trying to target both for different reasons as this is all still very new to me.

I don’t have a website yet, planning this for next year. I don’t think it is fair to charge a retainer until I have become useful, i.e. after training. Even then it would only be appropriate if I was so busy I couldn’t do everyone’s work in a timely manner. So far the people I have worked for have trained me as I worked for them and they seem more than happy. The system appears to work well if you make it easy for the customers who have all been local to-date.

I hope this explains my situation.

kenbrady

OfficeAngel wrote: »

Sorry Ken I see that was a bit confusing. I am trying to target both for different reasons as this is all still very new to me.

I don’t have a website yet, planning this for next year. I don’t think it is fair to charge a retainer until I have become useful, i.e. after training. Even then it would only be appropriate if I was so busy I couldn’t do everyone’s work in a timely manner. So far the people I have worked for have trained me as I worked for them and they seem more than happy. The system appears to work well if you make it easy for the customers who have all been local to-date.

I hope this explains my situation.

You sound more like a temp worker rather than a virtual pa, this would be a different type of business.
Different customer needs, so different marketing etc.
Good companies pick the customers that they want, you need to clearly identify what you are offering and who you want to offer it too.

Website is a must is these days.
- Domain name .com €10 per year
- Hosting €50 per year
- Free website template http://www.oswd.org/ get smeone from adverts.ie to add text for you €100 one off

the most important part is the text you write on the website, so take some time to get your message correct.
- Customer
- Service - what you will do for them
- value Proposition - what are the benefits
- USP - why should they pick you over competitors
- Pricing
- How it works

OfficeAngel

They are pretty similar granted. Although I am not attached to any agency therefore can work from home without the overheads. I am a virtual assistant to a couple of my clients and a temp to others. My goal is to get 20 businesses that only need one day a month. I use Local, Flexible and Cost-effective as my USP. that's why I was targetting local, but who knows the new year isn't far away. My key skills I suppose are attention to detail and presentation, I love long documents and how professional you can make them and the logic of databases, amongst others.

Many, Many thanks for all your advice.