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Marketing Tips: Your Virtual Team and Your Target Audience


One of the top virtual assistant skills: marketing. To dress a person, you need to know their measurements. To sell to your target market, you need to know your audience.

66% of businesses have a formal marketing plan and 63% of them outsource all or a portion of their marketing efforts to virtual assistants.

Not surprising that the 47% of small businesses that spent the least amount of time in marketing did not experience revenue growth. You won’t lose your precious time and money when you avoid premature engagements.

It’s like taking a gun and firing because everyone else is shooting toward the foliage. The clueless client shoots, too–without knowing what he’s shooting. He doesn’t hit anything.

Be particular about the why, how, and what of your virtual team’s task.

Every door-to-door salesman who has ever knocked on our grandmothers’ doors sauntered up the walk and rapped on that wood ready with a pitch. A pitch that more often than not made its mark because these salesmen were systematically trained: they knew their audience.

They would inevitably open with a line that Nana could only answer with No or Yes, and which would only keep them hooked to the whole operation until the salesman was done. Why else do you think people slam their doors? It’s out of self-defense!

These salesmen were powerful! Give them a few minutes and you’ll soon be giving them your money as well.

Door-to-door is completely extinct, but the pitch is not. It has evolved into little bits of content and social media marketing on the screen. One of the evolutions is the ease of getting right in front of your audience with their smartphones. Sure, you’re there, but can you catch their attention or will they scroll away?

92% of customer interaction happens over the phone with over 36% of online sales completed on smart devices. Take advantage of your social accounts for your business success.

Many entrepreneurs hire virtual assistants for social media campaigns. Before you do, have a plan. And after you’ve hired an SEO specialist and a copywriter, ask yourself:

Do you have your pitch? Will your pitch work? Will it work because you’ve studied how to make an impact on your market audience?

How do you do that? With the Quadruple S’s.

Good ol’ stalking

Stalking Cartoon Figure
Let’s call it research! Doesn’t everyone? Market research and audience research are essential in social media marketing.

Historically, there was an unspoken but much prevalent stalking that went on in people’s trash in previous decades, just so advertisers can get insights about them and their lives. Now, in this day and age, it’s easier (and more dignified and hygienic) to get clues on what would make your audience listen to you.

A virtual assistant skilled in research and data analysis can generalize your existing audience using third-party software or in-app insight tools.

They can also take a small number of your target audience and devote a day or a week studying them. For convenience, check their LinkedIn accounts or look for people who open their social media to the public.

By answering these questions, you can create a semi-fictional representation of your target audience. Customizing your message based on your buyer’s persona increases the clickthrough rate to 16%.

  • What are their jobs, and consequently, their average incomes?
  • What are the other pages or personalities they follow? What do those pages/personalities usually post?
  • What are their goals?
  • What do they usually share on their social media?
  • What online communities/groups do they participate in?
  • What topics get the most interaction from your target audience in those communities/groups?
  • In your pages and posts, what gets the most interaction? What triggers the following: Likes, Shares/RTs, insightful/vehement/amused comments/replies

Good ol’ surveys

Survey Cartoon Figure

Ask and you shall receive. If you need to know something, try asking the question directly.

Asking questions is effective. For instance, Reddit or Quora. Ask a simple Yes or No question gets the redditors answering. Sometimes, they share stories. You can also join specific subreddits to get insights into your specific niche.

Depending on what you’ve found out through ‘stalking,’ your team of virtual assistants can prep and lay out your survey and research question/s in a way that would appeal and ensure a response from your target audience. You could add it to your site pages, include it in newsletters, etc.

80% of marketers stated that personalized content is more effective than non-target audience content. Your hired content writers should tailor their work based on your target’s preference.

Good ol’ spying

Spying Cartoon Figure

If you’re in a competitive market, you’ll want to know what your competitors are doing, and whether their methods work or not. Either way, you learn. You can improve on, or completely overhaul, what the others are doing.

Your detective work can start by following your competitor’s account. See what you can learn from their social media interactions. Find the intricacies of how your competitors distribute content and what offers are they marketing.

You don’t have to copy them–and we recommend and practice NOT doing so.

Skilled virtual assistants use this ‘reverse engineering’ method in social media marketing. They look at your competitors’ websites and social media platforms, study them and make notes or a report of ideas. It’s a routine check, and yet often forgotten.

Offer something better. 65% of consumers prefer a positive brand experience more than a great marketing strategy. Make sure you have the overall quality that they’re looking for.

Good ol’ SEO

SEO Cartoon Figure

They say content is king, but that’s because the content serves the emperor, His Imperial Grace, The Search Engine. Virtual assistants make sure to add SEO to their list of skills.8 Optimize your content for search and make sure your target audience can see you when they look for you.

But your target market doesn’t care about search engines, they care about what your content gives, so always make sure it has a human spark. Great copywriters pique the audience’s interest right at the first 8.25 seconds.

Keyword research shows you high-traffic keyphrases that would drive your target audience to you. Google Analytics shows you if you and your virtual team are using SEO effectively, or if you need to step up your game plan.

Stalking, spying, surveys, SEO– these can give you and your team specific action points and insights to take your marketing to the next level.