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.
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!
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up to date, and with so many other tasks demanding your attention it’s all too easy to let your profile languish, out of date and unloved.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.
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.
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.
We all know how important it is to protect the planet, and with World Environment Day taking place on Tuesday 5th June, there’s never been a better time to think about the eco-friendliness of your business.
Going green isn’t just good for the environment – it can be good for business too. Not only can environmentally friendly alternatives save you money, they can also attract customers. In 2017, a global study by Unilever found that one-third of consumers prefer to buy from sustainable companies.
Interested? If you want to boost your business’ eco credentials, here are 5 easy steps you can take today.
Here at Get Ahead VA we are privileged to work with a wide variety of clients ranging from will writers to window cleaners, financial consultants to fashion designers. All of our clients are motivated and driven business owners, with clear plans for business growth. They recognise the value of outsourcing, passing on to others the tasks that either they lack the skills in or that drain their valuable time.
Here’s 60 seconds with one of our clients, Pip Evan-Cook from The Marketing Architect, who came to us looking for some support in her marketing business:
GDPR is coming – the EU’s new data protection rules will come into force on 25th May, and will affect all businesses dealing with individuals and companies within the EU. If you’re not sure how to handle these new regulations, don’t worry: our ‘30 Days to GDPR’ post has you covered.
But GDPR could also have an impact on the sites you use every day, including that all-important networking platform: LinkedIn. How will businesses that rely on LinkedIn for making connections be affected when GDPR finally comes in?
If you want to know more, here’s the lowdown on LinkedIn and GDPR.