Author: Akiko Design

Press releases are a fundamental part of media relations work and one of the main ways you can share your news with journalists.

But unless you work in PR or comms, knowing how they exactly work and what they can actually achieve is somewhat of a mystery. For instance, just because you’ve issued a release to the media, doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to get any coverage.

In this blog, former journalist and Get Ahead VA team member, Sanina Kaur, sheds some light on the world of press releases.

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LinkedIn is the number one channel for B2B marketers. According to research conducted by the site, 94% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute their content, and more than 80% of B2B leads created by social media come from LinkedIn. So what does this mean for you? Well, if you’re a business looking to promote your products/services to other businesses, then LinkedIn should be your first stop.

One of the best ways to promote your business using LinkedIn is through the messaging service. It is here that you can connect with other users, share your content and find new leads. There are two versions of LinkedIn messaging: the free version lets you message your contacts on the site, while the paid-for version, InMail, allows you to message people you aren’t already connected with.

So, if you’re a business looking to make connections on LinkedIn, here are some tips for getting the most out of LinkedIn messenger.

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According to the age-old saying, business is all about who you know, and it’s true that building good relationships with other professionals is a fantastic way to grow your business and ensure its longevity. That’s why, in the spirit of the UN’s International Day of Friendship on 30th July, we’re looking at how to build lasting business relationships.

There are all sorts of business relationships – colleagues, employer–employee, business to business, business to client – but whichever ones you’re interested in nurturing, these tips should work for them all. Here are 4 ways you can build strong and productive business relationships.

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When asked to list what a virtual assistant does, many people stick to everyday administration tasks such as managing databases, replying to emails and answering telephones. Yes, virtual assistants do all of these things, but we offer many other services too – and some of them might surprise you.

Want to learn more? Here are 5 things you (probably) didn’t know a virtual assistant can do.

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At Get Ahead VA, we’re always on the lookout for exciting tools that can make running a business just a little bit easier – that’s why, earlier this year, we blogged about some of our favourite apps for business.

Today we’re taking a closer look at one of those apps, Grammarly. We’ll show you how it can help with your spelling and grammar across multiple platforms, and why our VAs love it!

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Email marketing: it’s a crucial part of business, but it can also be one of the hardest things to get right. That’s because inboxes fill up quickly and online attention spans are short. If you want to be welcome in your customers’ inboxes, you’re going to need to stand out from the crowd.

Let’s take a look at some of the stats. The average email user receives 88 emails per day, and marketing messages, newsletters and spam account for almost half of these. Only 30% of all emails received will be opened, and just 3.2% of marketing emails will get a click-through to the sender’s website.

Those are tough odds to go up against, so how do you make sure your emails get noticed? Look no further – here are 5 tips for creating marketing emails your customers will read. (more…)

LinkedIn might have been around for a while, but stats published earlier this year show that it is still hugely influential. There are around 500 million users on LinkedIn, 40% of whom use the site daily. Research by the Society for Human Resource Management discovered that, of the employers who use social networking sites for recruitment, more than 90% use LinkedIn.

Even so, it can be tricky to keep your LinkedIn profile up to date, and with so many other tasks demanding your attention it’s all too easy to let your profile languish, out of date and unloved. If this is how your profile is feeling, here are some things you can do to freshen it up, so you can keep making those valuable online connections.

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Prep your business for summer

The longest day of the year was last week, and that means summer is officially upon us. But what does that mean for your business?

For many businesses, the good weather and longer days can mean a slump in productivity as everybody turns their attention to leisure rather than work. But summer doesn’t need to spell disaster for the savvy business owner.

If you want to know how to avoid the dreaded summer slow-down, here are four useful ways to prep your business for summer.

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At Get Ahead VA, we’re always on the lookout for exciting tools that can make running a business just a little bit easier – that’s why, earlier this year, we blogged about some of our favourite apps for business.

Today we’re taking a closer look at one of those apps, Canva. We’ll show you how it can help with all your business’ graphic design needs, and why our VAs love it!

What is Canva?

Canva is a free-to-use graphic design website and app that allows you to create beautifully designed media for both online and offline use. Canva provides it users with thousands of photos, fonts and graphics, as well as lots of handy templates for creating everything from social media posts, to banners and thumbnails, to flyers and leaflets. The program uses a drag-and-drop format, so it’s easy to create your designs. Although Canva is free, you can upgrade to ‘Canva for Work’, which provides access to more features, including extra photos and templates, and makes it easier to save and share designs with other members of your team. (more…)

Networking – love it or hate it, it’s an inescapable part of business. It’s how you make connections, discover opportunities and form lasting relationships that can help your business soar.

With hundreds of business events held each year in the UK, there’s no shortage of ways to get networking. Events like Liverpool’s International Business Festival draw thousands of professionals from all around the world, but whatever size event you attend, it’s important to get your networking right.

Here are our 4 top tips for networking effectively at any business event.

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