Category: Articles

The 2019 novel coronavirus (known within scientific circles as SARS-CoV-2) has put the whole world at a standstill. With more than 80,000 people infected worldwide, countries have decided to shut their borders, restrict travel, and force everyone to retreat to their homes.

Community quarantine and lockdowns have been imposed across the United States, Europe, and Asia in a bid to prevent the spread of CoViD-19, the fatal disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.

While a vaccine and better treatment methods are being developed, the best that people could do to maintain a semblance of normalcy is to take their work home.

Life has to go on somehow, so while others are staying in to watch their favorite Netflix shows, you might want to take this time to set up your very own home office.

Here are a few tips you might want to keep in mind for the next few weeks:

 

Do you still have any tasks left undone before the quarantine? For sure, you might as well have a laundry list of these tasks that should have been completed.  If you were able to save these important files in a flash drive or uploaded them to the cloud, spend this time finishing what you can so you won’t have to worry about the most critical assignments.

 

Whether you have an in-house team who are also working from home because of the quarantine or a corps of virtual assistants, you will find it useful to collaborate with them on any ongoing tasks. You can use a variety of productivity tools such as Slack, Meistertask, and Trello which are great for tracking the progress of large projects. When it comes to high-quality conference calls, there’s always Zoom to record your conversations and provide highly interactive meetings. 

 

The bright side of this situation is that many people are working at home. This leaves you with the opportunity to reach out to them and build networks. You can join groups on Facebook and LinkedIn to take part in valuable discussions. It’s a great way to kill time while you build your online clout.

 

There will be moments when you will have to check in on your clients and see how they are coping with the current crisis. You can send them an email assuring them that you’re still on the loop. You may also give them a call and ask them if they have any issues you can help out with. Another approach is to give them suggestions on what they can do during their time at home. There are so many things you can discuss with your clients, so you might as well hire a team of virtual assistants to handle these engagement campaigns.

 

Indeed, in these difficult times, we all have to make do with whatever resources we have. This is not to say we shouldn’t do our part in the fight against CoViD-19. By simply following instructions on social distancing, washing our hands frequently for at least 20 seconds at a time, and staying indoors, we are already contributing a great deal to the war effort. 

As a business owner, you have to make the most out of this situation. With the help of our virtual assistant services, we can help you get so much done in the midst of this situation.

Contact us today!

How are things in your community? We would like to hear from you in the comments below. For the latest updates about the current CoViD-19 pandemic, check out the website of the World Health Organization.

Getting your business to be well-known isn’t going to be an easy mountain to climb over. In fact, it will take a lot of trials and plenty of errors before you finally launch your marketing campaign. 

No business ever had it easy, but to be successful requires persistence, patience, and a general understanding of the most effective strategies.

When it comes to promoting your cleaning business locally, you’ll need some handy tips to get started. These five strategies should do the trick:

 

Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are a few examples of social media platforms that can help you build a strong following within your community. In order to make these an effective part of your marketing strategy, you have to make the content relatable. It has to solve specific problems that people need to handle, such as cleaning without using chemical-based products or getting rid of pet fur. 

To make your social media posts “consumable”, you’ll need to keep your posts short and to the point. Remember, people on these sites are casually scrolling by and don’t have the time to read a wall of text. Don’t forget to also reel them in using a variety of content types, including infographics and videos.

 

Emails are another way of reaching out to local customers. In this sense, email blasts and personalized emails are a great way to promote your offers and highlight the services they ought to use. Using platforms such as Mailchimp and InfusionSoft can help you manage your campaign seamlessly and engage people who need your services. 

 

Print media like flyers and posters aren’t a dying marketing strategy. It’s only a matter of knowing how to maximize their strengths. And the community is exactly the best venue to do exactly that.  

Place flyers in community billboards or anywhere else people will notice them, so long as you have the right permits. Additionally, you could strategically place them close to the cleaning section of grocery stores in order to nudge potential clients. But again, you have to partner up with the store.

 

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is valuable when it comes to promoting your cleaning services to people who are actively looking for them.

Focus your efforts on getting your cleaning business’s website on the first page of the SERPs. You can do this by adding local keywords and key phrases. For instance, if you are a cleaning business that operates in Boston and surrounding areas, you should compete for keyphrases such as “Boston cleaning company” or “Chelsea cleaning company.” The trick here is to narrow down your keyword list to specific terms so you target people who need your service. 

 

Nothing gets the word around like a reputation for quality services. Simply put, focusing more on enhancing customer experience allows you to leverage your business’ strengths. 

That said, you should be able to get positive reviews and testimonials from your clients. You can also ask them to help get the word out. But of course, to make them do that means giving them a compelling reason.  Along with marketing, focus on how you can make your clients happy and how you can help them achieve their goals.  

 

Additionally, there are also people who can help spread the word about your business. OneVirtual Solutions can help give your brand exposure and the position it needs to get local clout. 

Contact us today!

The world of business can be difficult without the right tools at your side.

There are many challenges to overcome, which is why it’s only natural to look for ways to make things a lot less difficult. 

To be specific you’ll need to find tools to help you with five components of running a successful business: collaboration, communication, accounting, website construction, and marketing.

Here are five tools that can help you out across these areas:

 

Trello 

Image via Trello

Working together is what keeps a business standing tall.

Collaboration involves coordination and teamwork in order to enhance productivity and achieve the best results — so long as you put all your heads together as a company to accomplish the tasks at hand. 

Trello is an effective tool to help everyone in your business work together. It lets you create boards and task cards with deadlines and member settings so each card or task can be assigned to any specific person or group in your company and updated in real-time. That way, everyone gets a good view of the most important priorities. 

 

Zoom

Image via Zoom

A business without communication does not have the capacity to make decisions.

That said, communication is what holds a business together. So, it’s always important to discuss ideas and action plans whenever possible with meetings and conferences where all team members have a say. 

This is why with Zoom it is possible to keep company operations going through communication. The platform lets you set up high-quality video conferences and meetings, with options that allow you to control the other person’s window remotely!

 

Quickbooks

Image via Quickbooks

Managing the numbers of your business is a tricky and messy job which can lead to a lot of problems if done incorrectly. This is true if you want your finances, earnings, and expenditures all accounted for, in which case you need the right software to handle these messy components. 

Quickbooks is an easy to use accounting tool that can generate business forms, track expenses, and lets you know how your company is performing in terms of its finances. Also, you are guaranteed free unlimited support if you ever have questions on how you can navigate the messy area of accounting.

 

Shopify

Image via Shopify

A business website is always an important factor for acquiring and converting prospects. Consider what kind of site you think will attract visitors and get more people interested in your business. What pages do you need to add to really sell your products or services? What would it look like? These are important questions to ask yourself that will really benefit your company in the long run. 

For sure, you need a website builder that’s easy-to-use and provides you total creative control over your online presence. Shopify has an assortment of themes ready for website building and is incredibly generous with giving you control over how YOU want it to be presented. No wonder e-commerce businesses use it for selling their products. 

 

Hootsuite

Image via Hootsuite

If you want your business to be more well-known, you’ll have to invest in multi-channel marketing. This means you need to use every available digital channel for getting the word out about your brand.

For this, Hootsuite is certainly a handy tool that helps you manage multiple social media accounts, connect with your audience, and help make your brand more well known in general. 

 

If you have these tools at your disposal, you can also hand them to virtual assistants who already use them. Just think about the possibilities when these tools are in the hands of business VAs who also know a great deal about your industry. 

For this, look for a company that provides virtual assistant services that suit your business’s needs. Contact OneVirtual Global Business Solutions today!

Located in the central part of the Philippines, Iloilo City has come a long way to become an important commercial center. Who would have thought that this once humble fishing community would transform into one of the fastest-growing metropolitan centers outside the capital?

But there is a lot more to love about Iloilo City than its performance on a global scale (In fact, the city was listed among “100 Super Cities” in the 2018 Tholons Services Globalization Index, of which you can read more about here).

In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we are listing a top few reasons why Iloilo City is definitely the next best thing: 

 

A vibrant creative culture

Image by Bert Espado via Flickr

Iloilo City prides itself on having a vibrant cultural and artistic ecosystem. The Dinagyang Festival —a religious spectacle featuring dancers with elaborate costumes and headdresses — attracts tourists within and outside the Philippines who want to experience the Ilonggo version of merrymaking. While a part of the city’s heritage, the festival now enjoys a global following, having been featured in vlogs and taken part in the Philippine Independence Day parade in New York. 

The city’s cultural relevance does not end there. The current administration plans to transform it into an arts center, a testament to which are the 12-newly created art spaces. With the opening of a number of museums showcasing local and international art, opportunities abound for Ilonggo talents with a passion for art, especially now as the country becomes a hotbed for creative process outsourcing services.

 

A tech-friendly environment

Iloilo Business Park via Panay News

Iloilo City proves to be yet another viable investment center for the IT-BPO industry, a sector that has driven the country’s economy since the early 2000s. As investments overflowed from Manila and trickled down to other areas in the country, Iloilo City is able to access opportunities for its growing talent pool. This comes as the demand for office space in the country picks up and boosts the need for viable areas for IT and BPO developments.

Last year, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Proclamation No. 733 establishing an Information Technology Special Economic Zone in Iloilo City, citing its potential as a commercial center. Not only will this decision help generate jobs for thousands of native Ilonggos, but it also puts the city at an advantageous position in attracting domestic and foreign capital.

 

A resilient and competitive city

Image via Outsource Accelerator

Economic and cultural factors have created the impetus for boosting Iloilo City’s potential for greater competitiveness. This has resulted in the city winning the top award for resilience in the Cities and Municipalities Index Awards 2019, the same year it was tapped as the first local government to serve as a model for resilience by the National Resilience Council. 

These developments will most likely boost the city’s responsiveness to the challenges of climate change. At this crucial point where it has the potential to become a “smart city”, Iloilo City would definitely have a clear roadmap as it navigates through the era of digital transformation and “green” technology.

 

Indeed, it is because of these fundamentals that Iloilo City has seen the rise of homegrown BPO companies which will help usher in a new chapter.

At OneVirtual Business Solutions, we are proud to call Iloilo our City of Love and show to the rest of the country and the world how Ilonggos can be creative, innovative, and resilient for the years to come. 

Contact us today! 

It’s any business’ goal to nurture a loyal following. A strong client base ensures steady income and helps make your brand stand out. To sustain profitability, a business has to fortify the bridges that connect it with its audience. 

The same is true with relationships. It takes great effort to strengthen bonds and make things work regardless of the circumstances.

In the spirit of the Love Month, we’re going to teach you how you can keep the love alive between you and your current clients.

 

If you’re looking to get more clients for your business, the best source would be those who have been loyal to your brand. You can launch a referral program where current clients can get their friends or partners to buy a product from you or subscribe to a service. In turn, you can give out discount vouchers, freebies, and other great prizes for each referral they provide. Everybody wins with this strategy!

 

Clients will appreciate it if you give them freebies for every milestone they achieve. If you run a cleaning company, for instance, you can give out free gift baskets or instructional Kindle books to recurring clients. This will help keep them engaged and always have something to look forward to in the long run.

 

Whether it’s Valentines, St. Paddy’s Day or their birthday, any occasion gives you the opportunity to reach out to loyal customers. Normally, this would require a lot of work unless you know how to design custom greeting cards and send them out on the right dates. Much of the work can be reduced if you hire a virtual assistant service that specializes in CRM, graphic design, and email marketing.

Want more tips on how you can build rapport with current clients? Check out this article for the most effective CRM strategies to infuse your campaign with.

 

If you’re planning a hosted event (trade show, conference, workshop, etc.), you can invite your clients to join. Offer free or discounted tickets, or have them over as speakers. You just have to make sure that the event you’re planning has something valuable to give your clients. You can also give them a heads up on upcoming podcasts and speaking engagements that touch on what matters a lot to them. 

 

Everyone needs to be recognized in some way or another. If your clients have no qualms about publicizing their names, then you might want to acknowledge the trust and support they have given your brand. This will also add social proof to your campaign and allow you to improve your reputation.

Indeed, 2020 will be a year when businesses will be keen on improving their reputation. But what other trends lie in wait for businesses big and small? We’ve rounded up a few of the most important trends to keep watch this year.

 

There are a lot of other ways to show love to your clients. But if you’re not sure which ones to use, then you might want to get help.

At OneVirtual Solutions, we can provide you all the support you need to reach out to your clients. Click here to get started.

A full decade has passed, but what does it spell for your current career?

Maybe you got your first job or maybe you’ve been in a career for quite some time and you are wondering if this truly is where you’re destined to be.

Whatever the case, this new decade is still the best time to consider a career shift. The growing presence of artificial intelligence and automation provides new opportunities that make you want to jump ship and set sail for more prosperous waters. 

But before you take a dive into a new career this 2020, we’ve prepared a few pointers to guide you through: 

There are as many challenging jobs as there are job opportunities in the new decade. 

That said, it’s time to add new skill sets to your resume. Upskilling is necessary in the age of digital transformation. As software tools become even smarter, you may need to adapt to the current climate by acquiring new skills and being aware of recent innovations. 

If you’re aiming for a career as a virtual assistant, for instance, you will need to acquire at least two or three skills to get you started, and more as you go along. This raises your competitiveness in a market where the amount of skills you have matters a lot.

Upskilling can give you an edge in the age of AI. Click here to learn more. 

 

Is it really the right time to finally give HR that letter of resignation you’ve been shelving for so long? 

You might want to consider a few things beforehand:

• Your finances. Do you have just enough money to last until you receive your first paycheck from your new employer? 
• Will your job even allow it? Have you dedicated enough time and effort in this line of business that you’re sure they won’t let you leave?

• Are you sure the market will be open? You may be leaving at a time where job applications may be dry and you won’t catch a position in miles. Not even an online job might take you in at this time, so give it some thought.

 

Freelancing jobs such as proofreading and editing are becoming more popular. The same goes for careers in virtual assistance whether office-based or home-based. 

The new decade offers a variety of jobs that have not existed before. You just have to make sure you have found a career that will give your space for professional development. 

 

Your colleagues might be pressuring you to stay where you are, but in this day and age, you’re better off working somewhere that offers something new every day, gives you ample space to grow, and lets you focus more on personal well-being. 

Heading back to the job market might be scary in this new age, but remember that the decade offers more opportunities and choices than ever before. A career change is ultimately still your decision to make, so don’t allow any influence other than your own to push you towards a more fulfilling life as a professional. 

Are you ready to take steps toward a new career this decade? Why not try a new field like being a virtual assistant?

Give us a call at 09065935852 or send your resume to [email protected] so you can start this decade working at a job you truly love!

As marketing becomes even more complex and costly, businesses will have to maximize their use of social media to generate the most value.

To do that, your focus should be on using the right tools that can help in boosting brand awareness, cut marketing costs, and deliver valuable content to an audience that’s hungry for information. 

The choice of an automation platform is critical. You will need a system that does a ton of work for you and save you time and money that should’ve gone to the more important aspects of your business.

Here’s a list of social media marketing tools we think can support your digital strategy.

Hootsuite

When it comes to running a consistent and effective social media campaign, Hootsuite is definitely a powerful social media automation tool to have. 

Aside from scheduling posts across multiple platforms, Hootsuite lets you track audience engagement and monitor the performance of your campaign through accurate and real-time reporting. 

We particularly love this app because of how it makes collaboration seamless. No wonder many virtual assistants in the cleaning and real estate industries are using Hootsuite for managing their clients’ campaigns.

If you’re opting to hire a virtual assistant service to drive brand awareness and lead generation, outsourcing your campaign might be the right step to take.

CoSchedule

With a straightforward interface, CoSchedule boasts a simple and straightforward experience in setting your content marketing campaign in motion.

It features a highly collaborative editorial calendar where everyone in the team can modify at any time. 

It also comes with cross-platform integration that lets you convert, schedule and publish files on WordPress. That way, you can ensure that your campaign produces a consistent stream of fresh content. 

BuzzSumo

Another heavy-hitter in the social media automation field is BuzzSumo. It allows organizations to look for shareable topics with the most likes, mentions, and comments. 

The platform is great for identifying and evaluating trends that your campaign can leverage to generate awareness and engagement. From there, you can then come up with the right tactics for getting the most value from your digital marketing efforts. 

To get the most out of your content research efforts, you can use these social listening strategies for creating high-value content for your audience.

Sprout Social

If you need an all-in-one platform for directing all your content marketing efforts, then Sprout Social is a keeper! 

The platform can draft, save, schedule, and publish content seamlessly. And since customer interaction is at the core of your campaign, Sprout Social has the ability to publish relevant and engaging content to the right audience using a sophisticated audience targeting system. 

The platform can do a lot more, so it’s definitely something worth trying when your main aim is to turn social engagements into high-value opportunities.

Zapier

Not a stranger when it comes to improving business productivity, Zapier helps make things move a little faster. Connecting more than 1,500 different apps together, Zapier can streamline workflow tasks based on event triggers. 

For instance, an event in one app will trigger an event in another, thereby creating a workflow process that’s completely hands-free. With such a feature, Zapier can be a great asset for automating your social media postings while you focus on the more critical aspects of your campaign. 

A good trick would be to connect your RSS Feed to your social media accounts so you can share content instantly across all platforms. 

Get a VA to Handle the Right Social Media Automation Tools!

Found the right automation tool for your social media campaign? 

Handling it yourself with a great platform is okay, but there’s a big difference if you hire a team of experienced virtual assistants who can do more than just post content.

Book a meeting with us to get started!

Business forecasts see the global economy grow at a rate of 3.4% in 2020 despite an ensuing trade war between the United States and China and other disruptions that could affect supply chains. These can barely have any immediate effects on small businesses in the real estate and residential cleaning industries, but, it still pays to remain vigilant of developments that will define this new decade.

It is still too hard to see far ahead. No matter how uncertain the business landscape gets, businesses can still remain relevant and productive when they adopt the tools and strategies that lead to new opportunities for growth.

For this, here are a few important trends to watch out for in 2020:

Information is getting bigger and businesses have to upgrade their infrastructure to meet the demands of digital transformation. Moreover, big data will become even more valuable in developing multi-channel marketing strategies.

Data analytics will play a key role in helping organizations gather the needed insights for understanding audiences and determining the right mix of marketing tactics to use. Looking at the complexity in handling such a large volume of data, businesses may need to use a Cloud storage service and marketing automation software to reduce the amount of work that goes into market research and analytics tracking. 

 

There are numerous trends in digital marketing that businesses should follow, the most significant being Google’s focus on delivering quality search results to users. It is not enough for companies to conduct effective keyword research in a bid to raise their online searchability. Google will be focusing more intensely on user experience. Companies will be prompted to improve the loading speed of their websites and fix other performance issues along the way. These will require advanced skill-sets in web development and web administration to ensure consistent results all throughout.

Content, on the other hand, will still be an important element in generating leads and facilitating conversions in 2020. It is only a question of how companies will be optimizing their blog posts and other content assets for growing the bottom line. However, focusing on keywords alone will not necessarily lead to higher sales volumes. People need valuable information before they can make a decision to purchase. For this year, content has to address specific problems and offer fresh ideas. To attract modern B2C and B2B buyers, intensive research is needed to generate ideas for videos, articles, and other content types that provide an authoritative answer to specific problems.

 

Businesses must not ignore the value that effective customer relations management can bring to the bottom line, especially as audiences across all industries have become well-informed in choosing the perfect solutions for their needs. Social media will undoubtedly remain a staple as businesses seek to engage their audiences even more closely and respond immediately to their concerns, thereby giving these businesses a boost in their reputation.

Quality will be a top priority when it comes to CRM. And while they can always use machine-learning systems to develop personalized responses, companies are still better off hiring experienced customer service agents who can address questions in a more detailed and organic way. 

 

Learning about these trends is only half the battle. You also need expert help to tap into the numerous opportunities that 2020 will provide. Hiring an experienced virtual assistant for your web development, digital marketing, and CRM is the right way to go about it. 

For that, you might want to look for a company that provides quality virtual assistant services across these key areas. 

Contact OVS today to get started.

Having an extra set of helping hands is one way to push your business forward in 2020. In this sense, hiring quality virtual assistant services would be the best option. 

Virtual assistants or VAs are changing the world of business. They grant companies access to added skills and knowledge without having to spend on talent acquisition. But while most VA services claim to have experience in handling a range of tasks, you still have to make the best of all possible choices to ensure that your business gets the results you have always expected. 

The growth of your business is at stake and you just can’t settle with a VA service that doesn’t meet your standards. Here are a few tips that can help you look for quality VA services for your business:

 

Your industry is an important factor in finding the right VA service. Almost all VAs can accomplish basic tasks such as calendar management and appointment setting, but it takes expertise to handle complex industry-specific activities such as preparing a comparative market analysis or setting up a sales funnel for a cleaning service.  

It helps if you can find VAs who already have the needed industry knowledge to push your business ahead of the rest. For this, make sure to ask if they are capable of handling industry-specific campaigns. 

 

Market relevance isn’t the only factor to consider when finding quality VA service. You also need to look into the activities you would want a VA to handle on your behalf.

Tasks such as web design, graphic design, and copywriting should be delegated to VAs who already have relevant experience in these creative fields. It’s not enough to hire a VA based on what the resume says, so be sure to request samples. For other tasks like cold-calling, you may want the VA service to provide you with a recorded call simulation to check for voice quality. 

 

Although it might seem cheaper compared to building an in-house team, hiring a VA service still costs a lot of money whether it’s for the short-term or the long-term. 

The amount you are willing to spend for a campaign or project can affect the quality of your VAs’ output. So, if you can pay for more hours, your VAs will have all the time they need to ensure quality results. 

However, this is not the case with offshore virtual assistant companies that are capable of producing quality work. You just have to find a virtual assistant service that provides affordable options and guarantees the best outcomes for your campaign. 

 

You know you are dealing with the right VA service when it already enjoys a high level of repute among the most recognizable brands in your industry. 

For instance, you might want to check out real estate virtual services that have worked with top agencies such as Re/MAX and Century 21. You know you’re in good hands when a reputable real estate investor or broker says good things about the service itself.  

How do you exactly know if the VA service you want to hire can meet your expectations? At this point, all you need to do is to contact the company directly and use these tips to help you hire the right VA that blends experience and expertise together and provides you with the results you have always aimed for. 

For five years, OneVirtual Global Business Solutions has been at the forefront of offering quality virtual assistant services in the United States, Canada, and Australia. If you’re aiming to scale your business and secure your bottom line, contact us today and see how we can help you with your business’ needs!

A website can help a lot in marketing your business, from publishing content to putting your products and services front and center.

However, most visitors often don’t see value in a website’s content on their first visit. The first thing they will notice is its appearance. 

In fact, according to Blue Corona, 48% of users consider web design as a key element in determining a business’s credibility.

Then again, your website can do more than just establishing trust with your audience. Here are a few good reasons why web design matters a lot more: 

 

Your business can benefit a lot from the brand-building strategy you employ. Sure enough, your website can boost your brand, allowing you to stand out among the competition.  

A well-designed website that makes effective use of color, white space, and graphic elements is bound to make people want to stay in the long run. Moreover, incorporating your business’ identity to the appearance of your website lets you improve brand retention, thereby increasing the number of repeat visitors.

 

Attractive visuals can drive engagement, so be sure to choose the right color schemes and illustrations. It’s best not to overdo it though since adding too many details can distract your audience from the message you’re supposed to deliver.

Like eating sugary treats, there is definitely nothing for you to lose if you handle your web design in moderation.

 

User experience is the most important part of the process of building a website. With the goal of making visitors stay on your website, aim for intuitive and easily navigable design.

Aside from that, each page should load within three to five seconds. Going beyond this range will prompt users to bounce away. Don’t let opportunities pass, so make sure to compress your images and discard any plugins that could be slowing down your website.

 

Finally, most people would like to know more about the products or services you offer. The best way to do that is to pay your website a visit. 

Your website should contain all the necessary info your prospects need before they decide on making a purchase. That said, an effective website contains a list of all the products and services you offer with enticing descriptions prepared by an experienced copywriter.

For the About Page, make sure to include an effective company bio as well as the philosophy that your business has adopted. 

 

Maintaining a website for your business is a recurring process. As new trends are brought up year after year, you will be prompted to either minor changes to your web design or consider a complete overhaul.

A lot of effort is put into designing an effective website for your business. However, your marketing team might not have the luxury of time to review your website, determine the design choices that produce the most conversions, and implement the needed changes. You have probably had more important activities in store, so optimizing your website gets delayed.

Your best option would be to outsource your web design to an experienced team of experienced virtual assistants who know exactly how to make your website stand out.

Transform your online presence by hiring experienced web design virtual assistants for your business!

Contact OneVirtual Global Business Solutions!