Are You Doing Everything? 5 Projects You Can Outsource Today to a VA
Many of my clients don’t know what project they could give a VA (Virtual Assistant) when I gift them with a 2-hour VA time bonus. From scheduling to web design, from billing to client services, they do it all!
Are You Doing Everything? 5 Projects You Can Outsource Today
When I included 2 hours of my VA’s (or Virtual Assistant’s) time as a bonus for my clients, I heard from several of them who weren’t quite sure what to use that time for.
These amazing women entrepreneurs were doing it all! While I admire them for their myriad talents (heck, I can’t design my own sales page!) and commitment to getting things done, I also know that freeing up as little as 1 extra hour per week can be very profitable if you use that time well.
Here are my personal top 5 projects to outsource to a Virtual Assistant this year:
1) Editing and re-writing my articles to be posted on blogs, newsletters, article marketing sites, guest blogs, etc. (I admit I am writing this one from scratch, on my own time!)
2) Newsletter production: while you should probably continue doing the actual writing, the production piece (formatting, proofreading, finding images, pre-scheduling) can easily be outsourced. I know that uploading images into iContact drives me crazy, while my wonderful VA actually enjoys the process. And she is faster at it than I am! So a task that can take me 1-2 hours per week might only take Susan 30 minutes. That’s ROI I can get behind!
3) Building and updating sales pages for my programs and products. Even with an easy-to-use system like WordPress, this eats up hours of my time for every program launch.
4) Billing and customer service: after a very costly attempt at setting up my merchant account on my own, while also juggling about 12 important projects, billing was the first task I outsourced. I haven’t looked back since! I also find it more professional to have a separate team handle payment processing, while I focus on delivering my content to clients.
5) The newest project on my VA list is to update all my professional membership
profiles on various sites (including this one) with the latest bio, pictures, and contact information.
When I started on my entrepreneurial path, I prided myself on being able to handle everything myself. After all, I had an MBA and significant business experience in the corporate world. I quickly found that not asking for support was a recipe for failure.
As with many investments, when we step up to receive help – even for 1 hour a week - we open the space for bigger opportunities to come in.
What are the tasks and projects in your business that are taking up your valuable time? Which if these can be delegated to an employee, and intern or a virtual assistant? How much of YOUR time will that free up?
Google AdWords vs. Facebook Ads – Where Is Your Ideal Client?
It’s 2 a.m. and your ideal client, Angie, is up at her laptop researching baby eczema, because her 8-month-old son Conner is miserable. Angie is a conscious “earth mama” in Austin, TX and wants only the best, most “green” products or remedies for Conner. Is Angie more likely to Google “organic baby lotion for excema” or ask her Facebook friends?
The answer to this question can help you choose how and where to position your pay-per-click ad campaign for your new line of chemical-free, organic, pediatrician-endorsed baby care products.
For my clients, Facebook Ads is becoming a bigger part of the advertising strategy we create. Top reasons: besides the worldwide reach (200+ Million users), I am a big fan of Facebook’s targeting options. If you only want to have your ad – about 150 characters of text plus a small image – displayed to married 25- to 35-year-old women who attended Arizona State and love soccer – you can be that specific!
This is where Facebook is different (and in my opinion superior) than Google. Remember when you filled out your profile, complete with education and employment history, and then spent a long night listing your top TV shows? Facebook has that information and much more! As an advertiser, you can tap into this wealth of information and create uber-targeted campaigns. You can choose to only for clicks (for most of my clients Google recommends a bid of around $0.80 – $1.10 per click) or by impression (this means a flat fee regardless of how many people click over to your site).
So is this the end of Google AdWords? Hardly. Google is still going strong and processes about 60 Billions searches a day! And each search is an opportunity for an AdWords ad to be served up. So when Angie, your ideal client is up at 2 am Googling “organic baby lotion for excema” she can see your ad for your new line of chemical-free, organic, pediatrician-approved baby products alongside other search results.
Here are some of the factors I use for deciding between Google AdWords and Facebook Ads for small businesses.
- Your industry and competition: if your industry is dominated by big players with deep pockets (such as insurance, legal, or financial) AdWords can be prohibitively expensive for small businesses. The cost can be partially addressed by selecting more specific (i.e. “long-tail”) keywords and requires some research, planning, and possible an update of your website.
- Your ideal client: is she searching for a solution to a specific problem (i.e. organic lotion of exzema)? Then Google is your ticket. Or, is she part of a particular demographic you are trying to reach (college seniors in New York)? If your college senior prospect isn’t googling “nonprofit internship for Spanish majors in New York” he is likely socializing on Facebook and you can reach him there.
- Bottom line: Facebook and Google have both created budget-friendly, easy-to-use platforms to help you get your message in front of your ideal clients. By doing some homework and research, you can pick one (or both!) and create a highly targeted and campaign to bring more visitors, leads, and sales to your website. I call that “connect with your ideal client.”
Google AdWords – Can You Afford It?
As I speak with entrepreneurs about the most effective way to bring new qualified visitors to their websites, the top question about AdWords I receive is around cost.
It seems at one time or another everyone has been burned with spending too much on advertising without seeing a return.
Having managed as much as $100,000 in Pay-Per-Click budgets per month, I can definitely see how it’s easy to “blow through” a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars on Google. And, I have also worked with clients who are spending as little as $10 a day on AdWords. In both cases, there was a strategy for selecting the budget, and more than one checkpoint to make sure the investment (whether $10 or $10,000) generates a return.
So instead of asking “Can I afford AdWords?” I suggest you ask yourself:
- How many people are currently visiting my site per month?
- How many visitors, leads, or sales per month do I want?
- What is the main reason people are coming to my website? What can they buy, sign up for, or experience that will be of value to them?
- How much is a new lead or customer worth to me? what is the average order size on my site?
These questions will help you get clear on your website strategy goals. For example, you may decide you need 500 additional unique visitors to come to your website every month, in order to reach your sales goals.
You will also know that for every 500 new unique visitors, for instance, you can expect $500 in sales. (this is just an example, your numbers will depend on your business).
Next step? Set your Google AdWords budget. You will probably want to at least break even on your AdWords campaign, so if you expect to make $500 back, I recommend you plan your budget to be under $500.
Armed with this information, you can log in to your Google AdWords account and put a few checks in place:
- Your maximum pay-per-click bid should be at $1 or just above, on average. This way you can get 500 visitors (or “clicks”) for around $500.
- You can also set your daily budget to around $18/day (which works out to approximately $500/month).
- Set an End Date for your campaign (30 days out) so Google does not auto-renew on your behalf.
- Install Google’s Conversion Tracking code on your website so you can track the sign-ups and sales your campaign generates.
Then, you can turn your campaign on and relax, knowing that you are in control of your AdWords spend.
At the end of the campaign, compare the actual results against your projections (500 visitors, $500) and adjust your future AdWords strategy accordingly.
There are many nuances to AdWords, and staying focused on your business will help you control your cost and ROI.
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