In this day and age with millions of people accessing Internet on a regular basis, the concept of virtual assistant can be considered as a practical options rather than a sci-fi. A virtual assistant (VA) is an individual who provides private executive assistance to an individual or a group.  AVA does not appear in person at the work place but rather takes care of the day-to-day responsibilities viaInternet. He or she organizes meetings for the employer over phone, videoconference, or email.  The VA also is in regular contact with important business associates, organizing files, and preparing important materials for his/her employeeto ensure the employer is regularly reminded of different scheduled meetings and other activities. As previously mentioned at the very beginning, everything is communicated via the Internet by utilizing such resources as email, Skype and MS Lync.

Since the individual taking care of all the works of a private assistant from a distant location instead of appearing physically at the work place, we term this person as the virtual assistant. Virtual Assistant Services LLC (VAS) is an organization, which is going to provide that service to different clients.

Hiring a virtual assistant can be highly beneficial for C-level executives or a small firm that wishes to cut down their operational cost as much as possible.  A virtual assistant can carry out almost all kinds of tasks remotely just like a private assistant.

Like it was mentioned earlier, a virtual assistant will play the role of a private assistant. Looking at the industry recent trends in the corporate world,a majority of the activities that was taken care of by private assistants can also be executed by an individual from a remote location simply using the Internet.

VAS services are designed to provide services such as email, setting-up teleconferencing via Skype, or MS Lync.  VAS also provides additional services such as coordinating meetings, managing multiple tasks at any given time, and website maintenance.

VAS targets mainly C-level executives and small firms that are significantly cost sensitive and willing to replace a regular private assistant with a virtual assistant who can literally take care of almost all the responsibilities the current private assistant is handling. Since, a virtual assistant is working over Internet from a remote location; he or she can only help with tasks that can be dealt online. Brick and mortar organizations that need people to visit some site physically or dealing with machineries is not the target market, as these tasks cannot be taken care of virtually.

Both physical and non-physical markets can be targeted. Physical markets like small retailers who are not willing to hire a private assistant may consider hiring a virtual assistant who can help with tasks like data entry, emailing, scheduling, processing pay role, keeping records digitally, helping with marketing by participating in brainstorming, product and service design, and online support for potential customers.

Non-physical markets like e-commerce based business entities are the bigger target market for VAS. These companies have more of a virtual business entity and they prefer dealing their day-to-day business via theInternet.  These companies are easily convinced to go for a virtual assistant.The non-physical companies heavily rely on web based marketing for their products and services. One of the key differences between conventional personal assistants and virtual assistants is that often virtual assistants are well trained to deal with certain aspects of online marketing like search engine optimization, social marketing, keyword research, and other web based business development activities. This actually broadens their realm for VAS. Virtual Assistant Services, LLC has a very detailed training program that allows their virtual assistants to be more dynamic and professional. Not only that they are capable of making business calls, emailing or maintaining, and organizing schedules for their clients, but they can also help with important activities like web based marketing which is going to be an important part of the sales pitch for VAS when it comes to selling their services to the target market.

The company offers VA services; therefore those services are their “products”. But in order to offer competitive services to clients, VAS will need to do marketing research. There are many reasons for conducting a marketing research. First, it can show whether the company is ahead in the market or if they need to train their workers or acquire new ones with new specific skills. Marketing research also helps in determining the scope of the market, the scope of competition, updated information about new VA skills the market requires, and you can research about future business prospects (DJS Research). As VAS operates online, online marketing research can be the most effective kind of research. There is a wealth of online resources that are not too expensive and can bring back result faster than traditional market research tools.  In fact, most of these tools may already be in use (Inc. Staff). Keyword Search using search engines like Google and Yahoo can give you approximate information on companies that need the services that you give; the number of your competition online and how vigorous they are in their own marketing strategies; and what is trending in the market that you still are not aware of.

Reading blogs about your specific market can also be helpful. They are all over the Internet and news that are newer than websites post. They have conversations that discuss trending topics. Information such as these can be considered as secondary research (QldGov). Online Surveys, another effective Internet tool that use effective questionnaires, can show you which of the services you already have or you plan to include are most appealing or asked for by participant. Online Surveys is a primary market research (QldGov).

Another marketing research strategy that can be quite effective is conducting focus groups; but since the company does business online, an online focus group can obviously have merits more effective than traditional focus groups. Obviously, participants would be representatives of companies who would require the kind of service you provide and it would not be easy and sometimes virtually impossible to ask them to travel just so they can attend a traditional focus group discussion. You will save money from travelling expenses. And it has been proven that both synchronous (real-time chat) and asynchronous (bulletin boards) focused discussions allow for more candid revelations than when participants are answering questions and discussing moderated subjects face-to-face with others (Inside Heads).

Virtual Assistant Services mainly deals with products and services that are non-tangible. So in a way it is more of a service based organizations. Its service includes providing virtual assistants for firms with limited budges.  There are a variety of services VAS will provide to its clients.  Each type of service will depend on the service package level purchased.

VAS official website will define all these services along with further details (e.g.a benefit of hiring VAS virtual assistants to execute these tasks).

VAS virtual assistants will be categorized into three different levels Platinum, Gold, and Regular.

The platinum level VA is an individual who has experience of at least five years to work as a virtual assistant and is highly skilled inexecutingday-to-day tasks by with high standards

The gold level VA has the experience of at least two years as a virtual assistant. This individual is also well trained and highly skilled but not as versed as the platinum.

The regular virtual assistant is an individual who has at least one year of experience as a virtual assistant but this level also includes entry-level personnel.  These individuals are also well trained and groomed to provide the best service to the clients.

Price for each type (Platinum, Gold and, Regular) will vary based on the level of skills. VAS will charge its clients on hourly basis.

Price Scheme for Fixed Projects

Platinum

Gold

Regular

The central location for offering the service is the main business website of the company. Here the potential customers will be able to access all the information about the company, its services and pricing. If customers have additional inqueries, they may make the use of our 24/7 live support, email service and toll free phone service.

VAS will also include affiliated marketing system to encourage professional sales people to promote our products as a part of business development. Our services will be available for purchase from their sales pages as well.

In addition to that, VAS will target the freelancing websites where individuals post for jobs of virtual assistants. VAS will directly bid in these sites and communicate our services with the potential customers in order to generate sales.

Since, VAS is an online-based business; the company will heavily depend on Internet based marketing. Both onsite and offsite SEO will be conducted in order to improve the position of the official site in search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. In addition to that, blog networking, social marketing in Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Delicious, Pinterest, Diigo, Google Plus one, and Stumbleupon will also be some of the major parts of the marketing campaign. Conventional marketing like putting ads through affiliated marketing service providers like Google, Yahoo, Orkut, and email marketing will also be included in the program.

Since the main target market is the small or limited sized businesses, we will directly communicate with the business owners through phone, face-to-face and even by providing brochures. In this case, direct marketing is going to be the main approach.

References

Demand Media (n.d.). About Companies& Marketing Research. Retrieved fromhttp://smallbusiness.chron.com/companies-marketing-research-643.html

Inside Heads (n.d.).Which Online Qual Methodology to Use? Retrieved fromhttp://www.insideheads.com/Why%20Online%20Focus%20Groups.pdf

Inc. (n.d.) Conducting Online Market Research: Tips and Tools. Retrieved fromhttp://www.inc.com/guides/biz_online/online-market-research.html

Queensland Government (March, 2014).Market Research Methods.Retrieved fromhttp://www.business.qld.gov.au/business/starting/market-customer-research/market-research-basics/market-research-methods

DJS Research Ltd (n.d.). Definition of Market Research. DJS Research Ltd. Retrieved fromhttp://www.marketresearchworld.net/content/view/14/38/

 
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