Launch Your Digital Product ASAP With A VA’s Helping Hand
1. Conceptualizing and Strategizing
Needless to say that there are numerous aspects of the digital product that will need to be planned in parallel and then aligned so everything works in perfect synchronization. You wouldn’t want to create hype and then fail to deliver on the promised date, would you? Or deliver a product on time but fail miserably at marketing. Avoid these product launching pitfalls and work alongside a VA. Some worthwhile strategies include establishing a product roadmap, building trust with an audience, and creating relatable digital products and advertisements that will generate hype. This can extend to social media marketing and affiliate packages. Also, depending on the digital product, some websites with a likely huge following will also need extra attention in advertising strategies.2. Organization and Preparation
There are a lot of things to create and organize prior to starting a marketing campaign. It’s much better to have a prepared collection of marketing materials beforehand than creating them along the way. For one, this makes coordination less of a headache. Also, it allows ample time for the repurposing of content. Some nuances like adding correct payment links in place and reduction of repetitive tasks will also need attending to. Your virtual assistant can do these things pretty well.3. Broadcasting and Marketing
If it still hasn’t come to light yet, you should be aware that social media is a crucial part of any product launch. This is where the buzz and hype for your offering will gain a huge momentum. Your virtual assistant can stir up social media hype by sharing your content and uploading it to your website as well as schedule social media posts and e-newsletters for hyped followers. This inadvertently builds trust and they end up spreading the word.4. Launching Coordination and Support
While product planning may have taken quite a monumental effort for you and your virtual assistant, do note that it doesn’t end there. A successful launch will have its fair share of product support tasks which include coordination of contests, webinars, and updating of marketing information. Oh, and affiliates shouldn’t be deprived of support as they are your partners in sales. These are just a few of the things that virtual assistants can lend a hand with. Get things done and hit the ground running by employing the help of your trusty VA as soon as possible.Building Digital Products With The Help Of A Talented Virtual Assistant
E-Book publishing
E-books are great advertising materials that can boost visibility and, well, sales. Have your VA proofread, format and design your e-book in a way that it reflects your branding.Brand and content designing
Whether it’s newsletters, social media images, e-books and website themes, your VA can handle content and ensure that they adhere to your business branding.Copywriting
Trust your talented VA to conjure up an endearing copy that communicates and appeals to potential clients. Let your ads speak to clients at a personal level.Repurpose your content
After a sizable number of contents is created, your VA can repurpose them and convert them to different formats. A collection of blog posts, for example, can be collated into an ebook. Or maybe create infographics out of blog posts.Creating affiliate packs
Creating affiliate packs with wonderfully designed ad banners are great for business partners. Affiliates love it if the ads they’re posting on their site is designed well since it inadvertently boosts their credibility. Get the headstart you and your business need to get ahead of the competition. Delegate these tasks to your VA.How To Plan Your Trip Without Stressing Out
Work With An Attentive Virtual Assistant
Before anything, consider hiring a skillful virtual assistant to help you out with the trip planning as well as during the trip itself. An extra hand to help you out is a blessing. It goes without saying that plans don’t always go as planned. Changes will be made along the way. And a VA should be there to update those changes to the itinerary as they come. While planning for the trip, having a virtual assistant around frees up your time so that you can make room for more personal tasks and packing your stuff. Packing is never fun when in a rush. Not to mention that you’d probably end up missing a few items. It’s also a good idea to use this extra time to plan for other details such as hiring a babysitter and assigning household responsibilities to other members of the family. Oh, and your VA can collate this extra information so it can be incorporated into the plan as well. Neat. If that sounds amazing already, then you’re in for a treat. An efficient virtual assistant can already do wonders for your trip-planning woes. But imagine what a VA can do when armed with a trip planning app such as ones recommended by TripAdvisor. A travel app can function as a middle-man platform for you and your virtual assistant. A must-have tool for your VA to quickly update travel itinerary changes. And then relay the updated information to you through a mobile phone interface. Need to make last-minute checks on restaurant ratings and then make dinner reservations? No worries. Your virtual assistant and your travel app have you covered.Research, Research, Research
No matter how big or small the trip may be, knowing a little bit of info about the location is a big advantage. Let your virtual assistant help you out with researching. They can provide additional information and unbiased inputs when making crucial decisions. Your VA can read hotel and restaurant reviews in order to handpick only the best services for your trip. And when a decision has been made, your VA can then check for availability and book reservations promptly. It’s easy to get your hands on detailed directions and maps to hotels, airports and other locations with a trusty VA and a multi-functional travel app.Indulge Your Travel Preferences
Do you prefer a certain airline service over another? A favorite plane seat, perhaps? A virtual assistant can access information on plane seat maps and then verify preferred airline, hotel, or restaurant in the area. And then have this information updated in real-time in the travel app. Small details like having a map of an unfamiliar airport might sound whimsical – but it’s a handy reference to have. Airport designs are rarely the same, so it’s a good thing to find your way easily and avoid unnecessarily wasting time. Also, an airport map is extremely helpful when hunger sets in. Which is likely during long, boring layovers. A map with information on restaurant locations, menu, and ratings can ensure that a quick bite doesn’t have to mean a run-off-the-mill, empty calorie snack.Enjoy The Dining Experience
Whoever says that eating is a minor part of a trip is either fibbing or have never bothered to look for top-rated restaurants. Heck, even travel websites categorize ‘Food’ alongside ‘Travel’. This alone speaks of the importance of food when traveling. Provide your virtual assistant with a clear list of meal preferences, preferred price points, and favorite restaurants so they can make reservations accordingly. Of course, your VA can read reviews and information about specific locations prior to making reservations so low ratings – and unpleasant dinners – can be avoided.Five Tips To Making Travel A Lot Easier
Convenient Travel Plan Access
With well-designed travel apps like Tripit, traveling is made a lot easier by making the master itinerary, document copies, and calendar just a few taps away. Whether from a mobile phone or an ultrabook, you can have real-time information as soon as your virtual assistant makes changes as per request or changes in travel plans.Let Friends And Family In On The Plan
Sharing travel plans to close friends and family members is highly encouraged. This makes it easy for them to coordinate crucial points of the trip such as meeting you at the airport. Virtual assistants can add contact information such as email addresses and phone numbers to your TripCase profile. No need to worry about making phone calls on the spot as you arrive at the airport. There are few things as nerve-wracking as making an important call and then crossing your fingers in hopes that it doesn’t go straight to voicemail. In addition, by sharing the trip itinerary with involved parties, changes in it will be communicated to them so they can adjust their schedules accordingly.Sync Plans With A Nifty Calendar
A virtual assistant, armed with an app like Tripit, can make travel plans easy to visualize thanks to calendar sync functions. A calendar that contains travel details can’t be emphasized enough for its convenience. It’s helpful when switching between a calendar and the master itinerary. It’s an immensely invaluable feature when going to several locations in a single day or attending multiple meetings. The visual cues that a calendar provide helps a lot considering that we are guided and influenced a lot by our visual perception.Quick Communication And Coordination
Storing important information such as a preferred hotel for a specific location or a favorite restaurant is one feature of Tripit that gets a lot of praise. Your VA can gather pertinent information and store it to your Tripit profile so that you are able to make quick reservations and appointments. It also does the opposite, wherein locations that turned out unpleasant and unimpressive can be tagged as ‘no-go’ places. Thereby avoiding travel mishaps the next time around.Handy Travel Tools
Having the right travel tools such as checking specific information regarding services and places irons out the kinks of traveling. Tripit provides such information and is a useful tool for quick checks on locations that are part of the travel itinerary. Tripit provides a handy set of tools like real-time weather checking, transportation requests, rescheduling, Loungebudd as well as searching for flights. And then there’s the convenience of checking if there’s a huge gap in the calendar in order to make room for side-trips. Travel apps like Tripit make planning and traveling much easier. A trusty VA and a handy app can manage the trip details for you so you don’t have to fuss over minor travel concerns. Instead, your focus should be on your trip objective. Whether that is to have fun or to keep your focus on a business meeting. But then again, with the help of a VA and Tripit, business meetings doesn’t have to mean not being able to visit interesting locations.Three Simple Things to Make a Trip Hassle-Free and Enjoyable
1. Make Sure To Have A Master Travel Itinerary
Visiting just one city is already stressful enough as it is when it comes to making travel and accommodation arrangements. Imagine not having a master travel itinerary when visiting multiple cities. The trip might just turn out to be memorable for all the wrong reasons. Without a master travel itinerary, every step of the way feels like the last few seconds of a reality cooking show. The good news is that TripIt, in the hands of a capable VA, can easily compile travel information including flight schedules, and hotel names and locations. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg as to what the app and the VA can do. Important travel information is consolidated, and a well-ironed master itinerary can be made available to you, which can be accessed through multiple platforms including the ubiquitous web browser and mobile operating systems including iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone.2. Update Plans On The Fly
Let’s face it, even with a master itinerary, schedules don’t always go as planned. This can be a good thing or a bad thing. Sometimes you just have to take a side trip to a place that locals recommend. Or maybe it’s a delayed flight. Regardless of the unforeseen changes, you can easily update plans with the help of your VA and TripIt. You will be able to access an updated itinerary in no time. Don’t stress yourself out and let your virtual assistant help you stay on your feet.3. Keep Travel Documents Safe And Accessible
It goes without saying that pertinent travel documents should always be kept safe and secure. And, of course, accessible when needed. TripIt is the perfect platform for storing electronic travel documents. Passport, driver’s license, Global Entry card, and other ID’s can be consolidated into the platform for secure storage. In addition to this amazing service, your VA can also create an emergency contact list within the TripIt app that you can access conveniently. From emails to mobile phone numbers and physical addresses, these can be made available and updated if needed. The peace of mind from knowing that important people are just a speed dial away is worth it.Virtual Assists And Its Benefits For Your Business
As an entrepreneur or solo business person, you in all probability wear numerous caps to keep up the achievement of your business. Viably dealing with your anxiety and requiring some investment for yourself, is essential to keep away from wear out and at last evade the disappointment of your business.
Particularly in today’s economy, numerous entrepreneurs are deciding to do the greater part of the work themselves as opposed to picking to contract on location staff. An option to contracting extra staff is to outsource the additional work to a Virtual Assistant. Enlisting a Virtual Assistant, might be one of the best choices you could make to keep up the achievement of your business.
Who is a Virtual Assistant?
A Virtual Assistant is a self employed individual who is committed to helping organizations succeed by giving the same administration needed from on location help staff, with the exception, of working from a remote office and utilizing his or own gear and softwares.
Virtual Assistants are accomplished independent contractors who have chosen to work for themselves. Virtual Assistants have worked in managerial parts as well as in showcasing, administration, Information Technology (IT), and Real Estate upon offering services as VA’s. Using emails, for example, the web, telephone and fax machine to stay in contact with their clients, a Virtual Assistant basically functions as a business partner who might be accessible at all times , sparing you cash and profitable time.
Choosing to contract a Virtual Assistant can spare you cash as well as assets regularly connected with getting on location staff including: charges, occasion pay, profits, supplies and office space. These are benefits for your business that hiring a virtual assistant can provide.
In the event that you are thinking about the choice, the profits are interminable to employing a Virtual Assistant. The following are seven primary points of interest:
Focus on business growth: When you employ a Virtual Assistant, you make more of an opportunity to concentrate on making your business grow and producing income. Your business will never again be running you. A Virtual Assistant will permit you to run and focus on your business and your future.
Pay Only for the time worked: When you employ a Virtual Assistant, you will pay for only the time utilized. You don’t pay for profits, assessments, lunch breaks or excursion. Whether you get support for one extend, one hour or for several months, you just pay a Virtual Assistant on an as required for your business.
No need to get an office space: When you enlist a Virtual Assistant, there is no reason to use up significant office space and give costly supplies. A Virtual Assistant works from a remote office and utilizes his or her own gear and software.
Business is less stressful: Procuring a Virtual Assistant who gives full business help, will help to concentrate on the bearings of your business. A Virtual Assistant who gives full business help is basically your “undetectable” business partner; creating advertising materials, advertising methods and overseeing normal business operations.
Grow your business with social network engagement: Promoting strategies are rapidly growing to incorporate the utilization of the web and social networking outlets. A Virtual Assistant, who is mindful of and accomplished with web and online networking promotion, is one stage in front of the rest! It is troublesome to possess a flourishing business nowadays without a useful site. What’s more a business display on online networking destinations, for example, Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter is opening itself up to new potential outcomes, furnishing itself with access to incomprehensible measures of data and producing huge amounts of leads and movement.
No need to train: Remember that when you contract a Virtual Assistant, you are enlisting a person who, before working for himself or herself, used years working in the workforce as an Administrative or Executive Assistant. A top notch Virtual Assistant is normally tech adroit and will have the fundamental aptitudes, learning and training to give your business top quality administration.
Accesibility: As an off camera accomplice, your Virtual Assistant will be accessible to guarantee your business runs easily. Whether you are on a business excursion and need an archived messaged faxed, or need a presentation complete in short notice; your Virtual Assistant will take care of details, and allow you to run a beneficial and prosperous business.
Whether your business has been, or is in the works and needs ‘start up’ support, or you discover you are running yourself thin by tackling work that might be taken care of by a partner; the profits of contracting a Virtual Assistant, particularly a Virtual Assistant who gives full business support can help you to focus on business growth and in the long and short run, give you benefits for your business.
How To Find And Utilize The Services Of A Virtual Assistant
Finding a Virtual Assistant
First of all, you need to know the best way to find a Virtual Assistant. There are several methods of finding an assistant quickly and easily. You can look online and search for Virtual Assistants, advertise on one of the many, virtual assistant association sites, or ask friends and colleagues if they can recommend anybody.
You’ll also need to be extremely specific about what you want and how you want the Virtual Assistant to help you. This will enable you to get the right assistant for your needs.
However, before you do this, you must think about how you can best work with your new Virtual Assistant.
Detailed below are some of the key elements you’ll want to address.
1. Probing your to be VA
The first thing to decide is how you’ll conduct a Skype or phone session. Are you happy to partner with somebody based on the information on their website or on their portfolio on a freelance site, or do you want to find out more about them to get an idea of how they work?
If this is the case, then you might want to consider meeting with them over Skype, phone or if locally sometimes over coffee so you can get a better idea about the person you’re considering working with.
Show and not tell is also a great strategy. Most VA’s would offer a reduced fee for a trial time period.
2. Giving instructions
You’ll need to decide how you will give instructions to your new Virtual Assistant. Will you give them the information over Skype or will you send the details via email so that you have a written record of what you need? Virtual Assistants have different methods of communicating so finding the one thats right for you should be one that fits your business needs.
Will you require your new assistant to manage your calls and take instruction throughout the day, and if you do will they use their own phone or will you supply it?
3. Questions to ask
One of the first things you’ll want to ask is about the experience your Virtual Assistant has. You also need to make sure that they have experience in your particular field as this makes working with them much easier.
Although the majority of Virtual Assistants like other business owners, have a set hour of work. You will also need to check what their work hours are. For example, some people just aren’t able to work weekends while others won’t be available in the early evenings.
You might also need to ask if your Virtual Assistant is happy to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and you might want to check if your new assistant is happy to sign a contract. Most VA’s already set up, have their own agreements that both party has to sign before the start of any project.
4. How will you educate your new assistant?
Sometimes, a business owner will want a Virtual Assistant to manage their calendar and emails for them. However, this can sometimes be quite a challenging task if your new Virtual Assistant is not sure how to respond to some tasks.
To avoid this, draw up a list of common scenarios that occur in your business. For instance, you might have to regularly send out items in the post and sometimes a parcel might go missing. Your Virtual Assistant will need to know how to respond if this happens. Otherwise, this would simply mean passing the query on to you to handle and it won’t help to lower your workload.
To find and utilize a VA is one aspect but do you have the right information for them to work with? Most Virtual Assistants are proactive and are able to ask you about the culture of your business and the do and don’t’s. If you find one that knows and acts on this basic step, you can be rest assured, that they would be a good fit for your business.
8 Tasks A Virtual Assistant Can Provide Online
For every business owner there will come a point when you start to become overwhelmed with the everyday tasks of running a business. Eventually it will become necessary to find someone to take on these tasks for you, or these chores will take you further away from running your business.
If you are not ready to employ a full or part time member of staff, then this is when a Virtual Assistant will become extremely useful to your business. A Virtual Assistant can take over the tasks that stops you from running your business, and always be there when you need them the most.
Here are some essential tasks that a Virtual Assistant can help you with to make your business run smoothly.
1) Schedule your Dairy
In less than 25 minutes, a Virtual Assistant can help you to schedule all of your appointments for the coming day or week. By using a simple system such as Gmail calender on google, a Virtual Assistant can arrange for alerts to be sent to you ahead of all of your important dates, ensuring that you are never late for an appointment or essential meeting. Evernote is another great tool a VA can use to collaborate with you.
2) Manage your Emails & Voicemail Calls
Answering emails eats into everyone’s valuable time and it can often mean that a business gets swamped with administrative tasks. If you assign a Virtual Assistant to manage incoming emails, then they can forward all of your essential emails directly to you; you won’t be hassled with all of the emails you don’t need.
Perhaps arrange for your Virtual Assistant to forward your emails to you at a set time of day so you can manage the important messages effectively. A VA could also assist with assigning folders for your emails.
A Virtual Assistant can also manage your phone calls in much the same way.
3) Manage Advertising
As a business owner, managing advertising can be a tricky task, but it is also an essential part of your business.
However, a Virtual Assistant can quickly get advertising quotes, find out prices, research circulation etc. In addition, they can also help to get quotes for creating a leaflet campaign or for arranging the distribution of flyers.
4) Create a Flyer
Many Virtual Assistants are used to creating advertising to promote their own businesses so they often have experience in creating eye catching flyers and advertisements.
In less than 25 minutes, a graphic Virtual Assistant will be able to create an effective flyer ready to be sent to the printers. most VA’s also offer printing services. This takes away the hassle of having to do it yourself.
5) Create a To-Do List
A To-do list is essential to the smooth running of any business. A Virtual Assistant will be able to quickly create a To-Do list to ensure that the essential daily and weekly tasks are completed on time and in order of priority.
6) Create a Website
As business owners themselves, Virtual Assistants often have experience in creating their own advertising platforms. A Virtual Assistant can help establish a simple, informative website that will help to promote your business and give potential customers a place to find out more information about your company.
7) Write a Blog Post
These days, connecting with your audience or potential customers is essential to the success of any business. The preferred platform for connecting with customers is often an up-to-date blog.
A Virtual Assistant can help keep your blog updated and keep your potential and existing customers abreast of the latest news, customer offers etc.
8) Manage Social Media
Social Media is a vital part of business promotion. In just a few minutes a day, a Virtual Assistant can keep your followers updated with all of the latest news and promotions, and they can interact with potential customers.
10 Design Tips For Ms-Word
- Take advantage of the Smart Art graphics available in Word. You can insert a variety of graphs and charts easily and with stunning results. This kind of extra to your document will give you an edge above the competition.
- If you are including specific data or information that requires focus, put it in a table. Not only will this make it easy to edit, it will also define it for the reader.
- Don’t forget about Word’s predesigned projects and templates. They can save you a lot of time… but make sure you adjust them enough to make them unique!
- Add ALT tags or descriptions to your images for screen readers.
- Create templates to save time on reproducing similar documents.
- Where possible, justify blocks of text. Symmetry is much more attractive to the human eye.
- You can easily reference and source information in your document using hyperlinks. Either globally, (online links) or locally, (links within the document itself) hyperlinks will make your document that touch more interactive.
- Keep your document dynamic. Inserting images is something that will always keep your readers a little more engaged. Be careful to not overdo it though. Only use appropriate, quality images… and be careful of copyright restrictions!
- Word can be great for those little projects that need doing and you didn’t know how. Business cards, flyers, menus, among menu others, can be easily created using the already designed Word templates.
- Don’t overlook the basics. Make sure your typeface is appropriate. NEVER use comic sans, (it has been recognized as the industry standard in unprofessionalism). If you are producing a document for children, reflect that in the font – likewise for professionals.