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10th Annual IVAA Live Summit

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Many of you may know I’ve spent last week in Portland, Oregon at the 10th Annual International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA) Live Summit. It was a wonderful week of learning and spending time with good friends, getting to know current acquaintances better (turning some of them into friends) and meet new ones. But, I wonder how many people understand how much of ourselves committee members put into an event like the IVAA Live Summit.

Planning for an IVAA Live Summit literally starts 2 years prior to the event. Since the venue for the next year’s Summit is announced 1 year prior (at the end of the current Summit) multiple venues must be researched (including estimated travel costs for attendees); availability, food, beverage, lodging and venue rental prices must be quoted by potential locations; the final venue location must be chosen and the contract must be signed 1 1/2 to 2 years prior to the actual event date.

While for many people a week at a business conference is almost a vacation, when you’re on the planning committee, that week is anything but a vacation. After literally 2 years of planning, many of the committee members arrive a day early – some 2 or 3 days early – to make sure everything at the venue is ready for the attendees; walking through with venue staff making sure all the tables, chairs, food & beverage plans, audio/visual is set up, swag is ready for attendees, sponsors have what they need, all shipments have been received and accounted for, etc.

The IVAA Live Summit Committee members do all this without pay. We volunteer countless hours of our time, pay our own travel, lodging and registration fees, then, many of the committee members miss out on attending the sessions taking care of the details.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining, I’m about to begin my 3rd year on the Summit Planning Committee. Your IVAA Live Summit Committee works hard to make sure those connected to the Virtual Assitant industry have a top-notch conference to attend so they will have a place to learn about the new trends in the industry, learn new skills, connect (or re-connect) with others in and around our industry. One of the best ways to show your appreciation for all the hard work is to attend an IVAA Live Summit.

The next IVAA Live Summit will be April 17 – 20, 2012 in Memphis, Tennessee. Show your support and invest in your virtual assistant business by attending the Summit in 2012. Registration will be open after the IVAA Online Summit and there are generally big discounts for IVAA members who register during the “early bird” registration period. Attendee registration prices for 2012 have not yet been set, but historically, early registration has been in the $250-$280 range with full registration in the $500 range. Travel varies greatly depending on where you’re coming from, but average airfare is in the $300 range if you book early, and the IVAA attendee price for a room at the Peabody (where the Summit will be held) will be $169 per night (most attendees get together with a roommate or 2 and split the cost of the room – plus it’s more fun with a roomie!). Two lunches and 2 – 3 breakfasts are generally included in the price of your registration as are beverages and light snacks during sessions.

There are 48 weeks until the beginning of the Summit in Memphis. For most attendees, all costs could be covered by putting aside $22 per week starting now. That would net $1,100 in your Summit Savings by the first day of the Summit. Breaking it down into milestones you’d have $528 set aside by the time early registration begins – more than enough to pay for your early registration. Depending on where you’re coming from, you’ll probably have enough to pay for airfare by Thanksgiving – which is when you’ll probably want to start looking for flights. By the time Summit starts you’ll have enough put aside for a room at the Peabody without needing a roommate to split the cost. But, again, it’s MUCH more fun with a roomie!

The committee works hard to put these events together for us, so attend, learn, enjoy, connect! (And think about volunteering!)

Email Marketing No-Nos

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I received an email today from someone I had gotten a service quote from in the past (for my house). I received it in both my business email and my Gmail account (because I have my Gmail set up as a “back up” for my business account). I didn’t even look at it in my Outlook…simply deleted it because there was NO TEXT in the body of the email. However, Gmail has the thumbnail preview of attached images at the bottom of the emails, and I saw it was possibly a “legitimate” email, so I opened the full picture.  As a result, I sat down and wrote the following email:

Hi [removed],

I received your email today with your [removed] Sunroom information. However, if I may offer some suggestions…

Sending an email to 436 people in a way where anyone receiving the email can view and save the email address of everyone else the email has been sent to is bad email etiquette. It’s very easy for someone to simply right click on a name and get the email address for every single person on your list. For example, I know that [removed name]’s email address is [removed]2001@aol.com simply by using that technique. And in Gmail, I don’t even have to go through all that trouble…I can just click on the “show details” link in my email and it will show the email addresses of everyone with a single click. Some people just don’t want their email addresses out there. And if someone has the option checked to “automatically add recipients to my contact list” in their email program and they click on “reply all” to your email…guess what, now all those people on your email are in that person’s contact list and are more susceptible to viruses and those incessantly forwarded email jokes and chain letters.

Sending that many emails at one time will many times get you flagged as a potential spammer by your Internet service provider as well as raise your SPAM score in SPAM filters…so your email might not even get seen by your customers and potential customers because it is much more likely to get filtered out by their SPAM filters.

Subject line. Most people do not open email where they do not understand the subject line. Your subject was “Emailing: Page Title”. That has no call to action and does not give the sender any information about what’s in the email.

No body text. There was not TEXT in your email stating WHO the email was from, what company, etc.

Only graphics in the email. Most email programs no longer show graphics unless the sender is added to your “safe sender” list or unless you physically click on the “show pictures” option. Again, if no one knows who it’s from and there’s no text in the message of the email to say who you are or what the email is about, so the odds of someone clicking on the option to see the picture to see what you have to say is slim since almost all the emails that have no text and only graphics are ads for “cheap pharmaceuticals” and porn.

Do you have a mechanism in place to see how many people actually opened your email, or are you just going on blind faith?

So, if I have all these reasons why no one would open the email, why did I open the email? I’ll tell you why…because this is what I do for a living…I manage email marketing campaigns for small business and entrepreneurs. And I’m interested in what even the “spam” is like. I learn from every email I receive – good and bad.

If you would like to continue with email campaigns, I would be happy to talk with you about how you can continue to send emails, track who opens them, and increase your “open rate” in the process, I’d be glad to talk with you to discuss how I could help [removed] Remodeling accomplish this.

Will I ever hear from this guy again? Will he even read my email? Will he take any action to help ensure his emails get read in the future? I don’t know.

How do I find a virtual assistant?

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This week I’ve been posting about what a virtual assistant is and the cost of a virtual assistant.  Your next question may be, “How do I go about finding a virtual assistant for my business?”

There are several resources for finding a VA to partner with to help you grow your business. Since virtual assistants are, well, virtual, odds are you will not find a VA in your local yellow pages. Also, because they are virtual, that means you are not limited to a VA in your local area. Other than doing a web search and wading through the thousands of VA web sites, you can turn to virtual assistant associations. All VA associations have a section of their web site dedicated for potential clients to submit a request for proposal (RFP). Once the RFP has been posted to the private, members’ only portion of their web site, individual VAs then respond directly to the business owner who has requested VA services. It is then up to the individual business owner to screen the proposals and begin a conversation with who they believe would be the best fit for them and their business needs.

So, what VA associations are there? There are hundreds of VA associations (local, regional, national, and international). Two good places to start are VAnetworking and the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA). Both are international organizations, but the majority of their members are in North America.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

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“A Virtual Assistant (VA) is a highly-trained independent entrepreneur who provides a myriad of business support services virtually via phone, fax and internet based technology to support and meet the growing needs of businesses worldwide.” – VAnetworking.com

Although the virtual assistant industry has been around for many years and has been utilized by speakers, business/life coaches and real estate professionals, it has only recently been brought into mainstream business world. Entrepreneurs often find they need assistance with business related tasks but often do not have the space, resources or budget for an employee. Enter the VA.

A VA can help with virtually any aspect of your business. Although many virtual assistants are generalists, many VAs offer specialized or niche services. Services range from general administrative services such as data entry, calendar management, email management, transcription and proofreading to specialized services like bookkeeping, email marketing campaign management, desktop publishing and website design and maintenance. Partnering with a VA can significantly free up your time to focus on the money making aspect of your business.

“Why wouldn’t I just hire an employee?”

  • If you run your business from home you may not want someone else inside your home.
  • You don’t have the budget or space for an extra work station (desk, computer, printer telephone, etc.).
  • You don’t want to deal with employment taxes.

“Why wouldn’t I just hire a temp from an agency?”

  • Temp employees do not have a vested interest in seeing your business succeed.
  • Temp employees are just that – temporary!
  • Employment taxes are included in the fee you pay to the temp agency, but you still need the extra work station, have the issue of having someone inside your home (if you’re home based), and many times temps have only basic office skills and are limited in the scope of the work they can perform.

Why Should Your Small Business Use Email Marketing?

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If you think email marketing is just for “Internet” businesses or the “big guys”, your small business could be missing out on one of the most powerful, cost effective marketing tools available. I’m not talking about SPAM emails; I mean a properly managed, fully compliant marketing campaign.

It’s Targeted – A good mailing list will consist of current customers and those who have expressed an interest in your particular goods or services. With a properly managed email campaigns you can target your marketing efforts. For instance, you can send one version to current customers and another to potential customers who have expressed an interest in your product or service.

It’s Flexible – Email campaigns can help your company build stronger relationships with current clients, attract new clients, increase visits to your web site, provide up to date company and product information and build brand awareness.

It’s Immediate – Your mailing list can be notified almost immediately when you launch a new product or service – no waiting days or weeks for printed newsletters or post cards to be printed and mailed.

It’s Trackable – With the right program you will be able to track if your message was received, if it was opened and if the recipient clicked on any links in your email.

It’s Cost Effective – In tough economic times, cost effectiveness is crucial. With email marketing you are instantly eliminating the expense associated with printing, postage and the time it takes to prepare mailings.

It Works – A well managed email campaign and mailing list will yield response rates much higher than other direct marketing methods. Although there are many variables in response rates, overall email marketing has a response rate 5 times higher than direct mail.

Factoring in the cost to have a knowledgeable Internet marketing assistant manage your email campaigns for you, chances are you will be spending less per month for an ongoing email marketing campaign than a weekly ad in the local newspaper. I’m not saying you should abandon all other marketing efforts, but consider adding email marketing to your marketing tool box.