Over 15 Ways to Market Your Virtual Assistant Business (2024)

To become a full time Virtual Assistant and quit your 9-5 you need clients, right? The only way to do that is by marketing. Cue stomach ache, feeling sick and throwing yourself on the floor. But listen, don’t worry, because 90% (made up figure but it’s definitely high) of us did not come from any sort of marketing background.

If you were anything like me you might’ve got your Virtual Assistant website live and then kept refreshing your email inbox to see if someone had emailed saying ‘I need a VA immediately. 20 hours a week’.

But, it doesn’t damn well work like that unfortunately. Instead, we’ve got to tell potential clients we are there, what we do and how much they’ll be paying us.

While Virtual Assistants are very much in demand, there are trillions of businesses out there on the world wide web, including plenty of websites advertising the services of other VAs, and there ain’t no one looking for you unless we tell them you exist.

Here are a few ways you can market yourself as a Virtual Assistant to start getting clients:

Website

The first thing you absolutely need is a website, it shows you’re serious about your business and is reassuring for potential clients. It feels safer to invest in someone with a website, doesn’t it?

You’ll hear websites referred to as a business owner’s 24/7 ‘shop front’. It enables potential clients to find everything they need in order to work with you.

Anyway, I’m not going to bang on about the whys or how’s of a website because I’ve already done that in another blog, ‘Do Virtual Assistants Need a Website’.

And if you’ve not yet got a website you can build your own, and learn a new very lucrative skill, with my WordPress for Beginners course.

Social Media

This is the stomach churning bit for many Virtual Assistants. You know that as a Virtual Assistant you need to promote yourself and that social media is the quickest and strongest way to get your name out there to people you couldn’t normally get a moment with but the thought of it makes you feel insecure, vomitty and self conscious. I remember those feelings exactly.

But look, the people you are targeting as a Virtual Assistant are primarily small business owners – one man bands – just like you and they all started in exactly the same place as you! So, your target audience as a Virtual Assistant will NOT be judging.

Even if you end up bumping into your next client while fighting over that swinging egg chair in the middle aisle at Aldi, there’s a good chance that they’ll Google you before committing to working with you.

Having an online presence is one of the best ways for potential clients to find out about you, what you do and then they look at your website to check you’re legit, worth investing in and not just trying to get a bit of dosh together for the holidays.

So again, a website and social media presence are essential.

Potential clients will learn about you through online content. It makes you seem less like a stranger and more like a genuine professional who can help them to move forward in their business.

Try not to overthink what you put out there. It just needs to be a good mixture of business (so people know what you do) and personal (so people can get to know you). I recommend using LinkedIn as a Virtual Assistant to promote you and your business as it’s the easiest place to build an audience, it’s full of business owners and ranks very highly on Google when someone looks for your name!

The sooner you show up online, the sooner your future clients can find you.

Face to Face Networking

The Society of Virtual Assistants Annual Survey in 2023 lists face-to-face networking as the second best way to get clients. Introverts… don’t worry.

Face to face networking events are not for everyone, especially not introverts. If that’s you then there’s good news! Face to face networking is not essential for success as a Virtual Assistant! Many business owners are more than happy never meeting so don’t worry if you want to remain 100% virtual, like I do with clients.

I attended a few when I first started out but soon realised I was just seeing the same people who were all trying to sell stuff and far too many MLMs for my liking as well. I never enjoyed them, can’t stand small talk, don’t want to get up in front of everyone and do a ’10 second pitch’. I just wanted free coffee, almond croissants and someone to utilise my services as a VA – I got the free coffee but nothing else, so I stopped doing them.

For those of you who will enjoy face to face networking, it can work well to get your name out there locally. That’s because your potential clients can get to know you at a deeper level through your pitches and conversations over time.

Networking is just another way for us to market ourselves, but like anything, it’s not a quick win. In fact it can often result in no real wins at all because, if you go to the same networking event every week, you’re going to see the same people so you’re not reaching a wide audience, unlike on social media.

Also, and this was one of the other reasons I don’t go to such events, your time is money. There’s a lot of ‘expense’ to consider when attending face to face networking.

Masterclasses / Webinars

Joining free, or paid, masterclasses/webinars are useful not only for learning new skills but also for the chat that goes on during.

You can show your expertise by responding to any questions asking and add some value, you never know who is watching. As scary as it seems, you could also put your hand up to speak if an opportunity arises. This makes you more memorable to other attendees!

Make sure your visible username is your full name and ‘Virtual Assistant’ and not ‘SarasMum’, or something like that, as that’s another crafty way to promote yourself!

Let people know what you do and get involved in conversations with other attendees, make friends and (hopefully) influence people! If there is someone on there you find interesting but don’t get the chance to chat with then note their details, you can send them a LinkedIn invitation saying you were on the same call and start the relationship.

Word-of-Mouth Referrals

Even in this digital world, word-of-mouth recommendations are incredibly powerful. It’s so much easier to establish that know, like, trust factor with potential clients when someone they already know, like and trust has recommended you.

So how do you get these priceless referrals?

Firstly, clients (and past colleagues) are well-positioned to recommend you to other people because they have actually worked with you. Ask them for testimonials that you can share on social media and / or your website. In my VA Starter Guide I show you how to get the most effective testimonials and it’s probably not a way you’d ever considered.

Another way to get referrals is to make connections with other professionals who work with your clients. Don’t be shy to let your existing clients know you have capacity and that you’d welcome them referring you to any other business owners if the opportunity arises.

Avoid offering an incentive, like ‘get a free hour for every referral’, as your time is money and an incentive often means people refer you willy nilly just to get something for nothing.

Business Cards

Not such a big thing these days but useful to have.

There are a few ways you can use your business cards. The last one I wish I’d tried myself just to see if it worked:

There’s a sandwich shop around the corner from me and it’s frequented by local co-working business owners, and self-employed tradespeople on their way between jobs, so it’s a great place to display business cards as they’re our target market.

Have a think whether there’s something similar near you. Perhaps a cafe? I’ve heard of people casually dropping their business cards anywhere they visit. Maybe don’t literally drop them as you don’t want to be known for being a litterbug but accidentally leave them on chairs/tables etc. where the next customer might pick them up.

Co-working spaces are also the perfect place for you to display your business cards as again, they’re frequented by business owners.

Another bright idea I had was to take a train at peak time, wander through first class and drop your business cards on laptops! I dare you!

Make sure your business cards contain information that will tell an alien what you do. For example, include:

Business name
Your name
Contact details
Website
Services provided
Who you work with

Don’t go mad ordering 1500 like I did because you’ll still be looking at them seven years later!

Past Colleagues

Past colleagues are a very useful source, well if you got on with them that is.

Tell anyone you used to work with what you are doing now.

While the person you’re telling might not need your services you never know who they know! They know how efficient and amazing at your job you were and who knows, their partner/aunty/dog walker might just be looking for some help and mention it to them. So many people are in awe of anyone who starts their own business and are only too happy to help you out where they can.

Friends and Family

This is an easy one! Make a list of all of your friends and family. These people are already rooting for you, and if they’re not then they can shove off.

LinkedIn Circle

Have you seen this on LinkedIn? It was my creation!

Here’s potentially another way to get clients as a Virtual Assistant on LinkedIn.

I’m sure you’ve seen some people using the ‘Open To Work’ circle on their LinkedIn profiles but… it doesn’t work for the self-employed.

I did a poll a while ago asking whether people associated the Open to Work with people looking for employed roles or clients and it was overwhelmingly associated with employees looking for work.

Even LinkedIn markets it as a way to let ‘recruiters’ know you’re looking for work and recruiters don’t use VAs.

Therefore, if you use the Open to Work circle you may well be putting potential clients off looking at your profile.

But instead of telling people not to use it, I have created one that might work for VAs looking for clients!

Access my template and instructions for use by clicking the link here > Taking on Clients Profile Circle

The colour and text should remain as it is as it has been designed to catch the eye and people who see it often will come to know that it represents a self-employed VA with capacity. It’s good to let people know you have some capacity as they might think you are too busy to bother otherwise.

Google Business Profile (Google my Business)

This is an important one. Almost everyone’s first port of call when looking for someone to help is Google so you need to everything you can to get yourself on there. Having a website is the first step but Google has so many websites to pick from you need to help it find you and trust you enough to recommend it in the list.

One way to do this is to use Google Business Profile (formerly known as Google my Business). It’s free and enables you to promote your business, website, reviews and your services.

Many people a too worried to use it as you ‘have to put your address on there’. You do initially, but once you verify your listing (which from my experience takes a matter of days) you can remove your house number and / or street name.

Blog

Blog posts, well, engaging blog posts, will drive traffic to your website and once people are there, if they are enjoying what you’re sharing, will be compelled to have a look around at what you offer.

Again even if they aren’t in the market for some help immediately they are obviously someone who may need you in the future as why else are they looking at your VA blog?

Your blog post should be targeted at your ideal clients and give advice as well as be at least a little entertaining..

Have a think about the kinds of things our ideal clients would be Googling and address those in the title and content of your blog.

Here are some blog post ideas that you could write as a Virtual Assistant:

How much does a Virtual Assistant cost
How to communicate with a Virtual Assistant
How can I find the right Virtual Assistant
How to share secure data with Virtual Assistants
How do I give work to a Virtual Assistant
Can a Virtual Assistant do (insert one of your services)

Guest Blog

Guest blogging on someone else’s site is a great way to be found by people who may not know that they need a VA until they read about you.

It’s also really good for SEO (getting found on Google) to have an outgoing link (known as backlinks) on your website.

Just ensure that the person you’re guest blogging for has an audience that’s relevant to who you’re looking to work with. For example, you don’t really want to guest blog for Saga magazine as those readers are largely retired.

Case Studies

Us VAs are renowned for our efficiency and ability to find an easier way to do things. You’ll one day, if not already, work with someone who has seventeen spreadsheets that really could all be combined into one and that in turn saves the client soooo much time and brain space trying to remember to complete them all.

Another thing you might do is help a client go from inbox overwhelm to – what’s the opposite of overwhelm – uh… Inbox underwhelm. I don’t know. You know what I’m trying to say.

Anyway, these instances are a superb way to show your worth and what you can do for potential clients. They’re our way of showing the ‘before and after’, like a PT does with his/her clients.

Don’t worry if you have nothing now, it’ll come.

Email Signature

Make sure your email signature tells people what you do and has a call to action – e.g. your website address.

Don’t feel you need to include your phone number if you don’t want to. The way you communicate with clients is up to you. Personally I prefer people only email me and don’t give out my number, as it’s easier to keep track of conversations than trying to remember everything said in a call.

You could also list your social network links so people can have a right old nose.

Some people like to include an image in their email signature, sometimes of themselves or of their logo. Just a warning that having an image in an email can sometimes make it go to the recipients spam if it’s the first time you’ve contacted them.

Facebook Groups

There are so many groups out there so which should you choose? I would search for a few business networking groups or groups around your niche, if you have one. If you can see posts before joining then make sure people are engaged in the group before spending too much time on there.

There’s no point being in a group that’s been dormant for a few months. Also avoid groups where ‘anything goes’ as they’re often badly managed and people are left to be bullies which can affect your mental health.

If people are engaged then make sure you post and engage on other’s posts regularly. Self promotion isn’t always allowed but by engaging people get to know you. It‘s about getting people to know, like and trust you. They may not need help immediately but if you are consistent and they like you, you will be the first person they think of when they do need it.

My VA Starter Guide has all the advice on how to leverage Facebook groups to get clients.

SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

SEO is, in a nutshell, how you get your website further up the list on Google. It’s about optimising your content so that Google selects your website when someone searches for related keywords (these are words that people put in Google when looking for a person/service etc.).

For example, although you’re virtual and can work with anyone anywhere, it’s always a great idea to have your location somewhere on your website so that when anyone Googles ‘Virtual Assistant Swindon’ for example, you will come up.

Having the correct SEO on your website is invaluable but there is an art to it!

I did an SEO course (which is no longer available) when I first started out as a Virtual Assistant – maybe a year in I can’t recall – and within 2 weeks of implementing it I was at the top of Google for my chosen keywords!

No one knows the exact algorithms that Google and other search engines use but ensuring you have the correct keywords on each page and that you link to other pages within your site is a good starting point. Also use a good heading structure.

The idea of SEO is to enable the Google crawler bots to easily understand your website structure and content. They build an index and then when anyone asks Google a question it searches its index for sites that mention the words searched for. Make it easy for the bots.

I know that can all sound mind blowing but SEO is so important for your website and this is why I spent years finding a suitable SEO course for Virtual Assistants, to recommend. Take a look at my lovely friend, Hannah Martin’s, SEO course here.

Co-working Spaces

Co-working spaces are great places to meet other self employed people. As I previously mentioned, it can be a great place to leave business cards. I used to have a sticker on the back of my laptop that read ‘Virtual Assistant At Work’ which encouraged a couple of conversations when I was working in a cafe. You could perhaps have a sticker with your web address on – if they’re anything like me they’ll be nosy and have a look.

Obviously going over to other busy people and trying to aggressively sell your services or pressing your card on them is going to make you no friends at all and may get you banned from the space, but casually dropping in what you do and how you help people if you do get chatting to them is fine.

If you are genuinely working there and not just browsing your favourite shopping site whilst waiting for your ideal client to turn up then be aware of who can see your screen. It may put people off if they can see you’re spending your clients time shopping.

If you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of being super visible online, check out the Marketing Masterclass for Virtual Assistants. It includes a bunch of tips that I used to build my six-figure VA business over time, as well as 50 free hooks and endless content ideas.

The sooner you show up with consistency, the sooner your perfect clients will be asking to work with you. So what are you waiting for?

Ultimately, these things take time. You’re building relationships. You wouldn’t go on a first date in a wedding dress, would you? So don’t expect to convert people into clients the first time they ever become aware of you – although it does happen, most need to get to know you a bit more first.

As well as being virtual friends with Hannah Martin I was also honoured to be selected as one of her affiliates, so will receive commission if you purchase the SEO course.