The simple answer is yes, Lead Generation is an ideal task for your Virtual Assistant. A large part of Lead Generation is admin based and generic communication. This can be a time-consuming activity, but as a business owner you can outsource this bit and get involved once you have warm lead.
Here are some examples of how you can use a Virtual Assistant for Lead Generation
- After a Business Expo or Event
Have you collected a lot of business cards, or run a competition on a stand at an expo and now got a list of email addresses to follow up on? This is a time sensitive activity as you want to be in contact whilst they still remember who you are and why they spoke to you.
You have up to 72 hours before a lead goes cold – but the sooner you contact the better.
But it doesn’t need to be you that does this. You can provide the content of what you want to say, and a Virtual Assistant can send this communication out on your behalf and manage any replies.
They can direct responses to an area of your website if they want more information, they can book a meeting in with you if they are keen to speak to you, or they can remove their contact details from your mailing list if they no longer want to be contact – ensuring you don’t come across as spammy and keep a good reputation!
You may have software that generates messages to your LinkedIn connections but once that data has been captured what are you going to do with it? Technology can only go so far; you then need a human touch. A Virtual Assistant can then tailor the rest of the communication to what the individual does, what their entry point might be and how you can specifically help them. Once this is a warm lead they can arrange a meeting or call with you for you to covert.
- Research
Are there particular sectors of professionals you want to send a marketing campaign to? A Virtual Assistant can spend the time doing this research and pulling together a list of contacts for you. This can be a really time consuming exercise and since it speculative you can’t be sure what you will get out of it, so it is not something you want to be spending your valuable time on, but a Virtual Assistant can work on it and give you a comprehensive list. And as we have already said they can also manage the responses and convert the leads appropriately.
- Keep your data up to date
Have you got lists from previous events, or from clients old and new. These lists are only useful if they are up to date with the right people, the right contact information and if they are people, you still actually want to contact. Do you really want to email that nightmare ex-client about your new services?!
A Virtual Assistant can go through this data and make sure that it is all the latest details. Depending on your CRM you can add tags or categorise them as to who you want to contact about what, are they a client, ex client, prospective or supplier. This will all help get your message out to the right people about the right thing!
- Reports
If you want to analyse your data for future lead generation exercises you can use a Virtual Assistant to dig into your contacts and and track the progress of your communication, enquiries and conversions.
SliceVA offers a service where you can pay by the hour as and when you need to a boost in your lead generation activities following an event, we can also keep on top of your data and send out regular mailshots and communication.
We highly recommend having a CRM system that you can give your VA access to, this will keep all of your activity in one place and you will still have visibility of all your data but your VA can keep it up to date and use it for their Lead Generation activity