Target the right audience: Your most important marketing fundamental as a VA business is to promote your very niche service to your executive ideal client.
Never stop selling: Another marketing fundamental is that you never - NEVER - stop promoting your services. Much like you never stop networking. You might market and network less with a full client roster, but you never stop. Marketing is a forever business fundamental. I've been around the world and to very remote locations. I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't know the name Coca-Cola, and yet the Coke company never stops making commercials. If Coke still has to promote its brand, then so do we.
The truth about branding: Defining your brand can be expensive and costly as a VA. A company's brand is a product or service that has a unique identity that distinguishes it from other products or services in its industry. Too many VAs have taken this to be about them and not thought enough about the executive clients they serve. The truth is we don't get to define our brand — the paying client does. No company does.
Avoid this mistake: In 2018, Weight Watchers rebranded to "WW" and added the tagline "Wellness that works." The new logo and tagline confused customers and caused them to question the company's core purpose of weight loss. The rebrand led to a 600,000 subscriber loss in six months, a 34% drop in stock valuation, and a disappointing post-holiday season in 2019. This is just one of many rebrand disasters. Spending money on your logo, your colors, and fonts right out of the gate — especially before you have paying clients can be super fun and exciting. However, 99% of the time it's a disaster.
The VA industry is different than other industries: People aren't hiring you because they want to be like you. Clients hire EVAs who fit into their brand. Creating your brand using your favorite (or even signature) colors won't cut it. This is what 99% of branding "experts" don't understand and why 99% of VA branding before they have paid ideal clients fails.
What defines your brand is you: And the value you provide to the client, which already matches the client's brand. The number of executive clients — both men and women — who have told me they don't want to speak with a VA who has a pink website, cursive writing, frilly fonts, and unprofessional language is extraordinarily high. They find it unprofessional.
In the beginning, your brand is your niche: Your niche is the services you provide better than anyone else to a specific executive-level client. A general rule of thumb is to wait a year and then decide if you want to create personal branding. At this point, your personal branding becomes an extension of both your niche and your clientele. Remember, in a service-based business where the client does not want to be like a VA, rather the VA is hired to assist and serve them, you are not the focal point. The client is. Successful virtual assistants know this well.