Category: Articles

The business landscape is full of uncertainty and risk, but that doesn’t mean your enterprise will stagnate forever. Once a disruption has passed, you can focus your efforts on supporting your recovering business. 

Crises may come and go, but you can still find ways to recover and let your business thrive well into the future.

One way is to hire virtual assistants who can support your activities in the aftermath of disruption — whether it be a pandemic or a hurricane.

Here are a few reasons why it would be a great idea to hire a virtual assistant as your business recovers:

From digital marketing to simple administrative tasks and even to industry-specific activities like real estate listing management, a VA can help you get your business up to speed quickly. You won’t have to spend time and money to deploy someone who can help you sort out complex or repetitive tasks. It’s only a matter of searching for someone who is knowledgeable in the tasks you need help with.

You can find freelance VAs who can work on specific tasks. But when it comes to long-term projects such as website development and search engine optimization, look for a team of experienced VAs who can work on the project immediately. Aside from that, they can also provide advice on how your business could seek high-value opportunities.

 

Did we mention you could save money and time for certain campaigns or activities? For sure, a business would need to use available resources as effectively as possible. You need to keep your capital outlays at a minimum while ensuring higher returns so your business remains productive and profitable.  

By getting help from a team of VAs, you can keep your costs down since you don’t need to launch a recruitment drive just to hire the right people. All you need to do is to look for the right virtual assistant service, ask questions, sign a contract, and put your plans into motion. You won’t have to waste a minute or a penny to get your business on its feet!

 

VAs are already equipped with the experience and knowledge needed to handle the tasks assigned to them. This is crucial because as your business recuperates from massive losses, it has to get as much value from its expenses as possible. No doubt, quality work is assured in the case of hiring a dedicated team that comes with a project manager. Such oversight helps guarantee that every dollar you invested in remote staffing brings valuable results.

As an added bonus, there is greater scalability if you decide on hiring VAs for your campaign. In other words, you can always downsize the scope of the services you avail or the number of hours your VAs are required to render each day. You basically have total control over your outsourcing budget so you don’t have to worry about overspending.

 

Probably the best advantage of hiring a VA is the fact that you can focus on areas such as finding investment opportunities, growing your networks, or innovating your product or service which are more crucial to a recovering business.

A VA can help deal with the more tedious work while you and your in-house staff can handle the most important aspects of your business’s survival.

If you want to get started with hiring a virtual assistant service, then OneVirtual Solutions has got you covered!

Schedule a consultation with us today and let your business come out of any crisis better than it was before!

A 2017 article from Enterpeneur.com says that companies spend at least $75,000 per year on digital marketing. In another more recent article on Business2Community, small businesses will see their digital marketing budget rise to 45% this year. With the coronavirus pandemic still prevailing, it won’t come as a surprise when more and more businesses decide to migrate all their marketing efforts online.

Even then, businesses will still need to keep a level head when it comes to spending on digital marketing campaigns.

While it’s always important to generate new clients through your digital marketing campaign, you still need to keep your marketing budget from pulling your business down.

Here are a few ways you can save money on digital marketing and still convert more customers:

 

While using multiple channels can help generate more leads for your business, it only works if you have enough resources to maintain a digital marketing campaign of that magnitude. You are only spreading your resources too thin when you can focus a good bulk of it on a single, high-performing channel.

This is why it is important to keep tabs on your marketing analytics. Keeping track of your engagement rate and click-through-rate helps you identify those channels that generate the most opportunities. You can then allocate more time and effort in optimizing that channel so you won’t have to spend money on approaches that don’t simply work.

 

Perhaps the most effective way you can promote your business is by letting your clients do the work for you. As brand advocates, they can help you spread brand awareness and allow you to attract people from within their circles. You don’t have to pay anything, but you just have to give them a reason to talk about your brand.

It helps if you set up a loyalty program. You can offer existing clients discounts, freebies, and other perks in return for social mentions. You can also encourage them to post a review or share content by adding engaging calls-to-action. That way, they can help put your brand front and center for very minimal expenses.

 

Organic traffic is the golden nugget for many businesses. People who are actively looking for a certain product or service using a search engine are most likely to purchase such a product.

In order to get more high-quality leads from your search marketing efforts, you will need to update your keyword list with search terms that are highly relevant to the kind of products or services you are selling. Use tools such as SpyFu to find the best keywords in terms of ranking and competitiveness. That way, your brand gains a better position in the Search Engine Results Pages and attracts high-opportunity prospects.

 

Outsourcing your digital marketing campaign offers numerous benefits. For one, you get to tap into expertise and tools you may need to spend more for. This helps you save resources for other important components of your business.

When it comes to finding the right people to handle your online marketing activities, look for a company that specializes in virtual assistant services. More importantly, look for one that has proven experience in social media marketing, brand-building, web design, and web development so you are fully equipped to generate more business.

 

Give your digital marketing efforts a boost without exhausting your budget! 

Using the right strategies and having the right people on board, your business is well on its way towards greater growth!

Want to hire a virtual assistant? Get started by giving us a call today!

Customer relationship management or CRM is integral to the growth of your business. It involves turning customers into brand advocates and maintaining the credibility of the brand itself. However, a CRM strategy requires a lot of work to put together.

Businesses are left with the option of outsourcing their CRM for the following benefits: 

• Ready access to skills, experience, and infrastructure, thereby reducing overhead costs
• Greater focus on other essential areas such as digital marketing, product development, etc. 
• Flexible arrangements as businesses can scale their campaigns to align with specific priorities

If you are planning to outsource your CRM to a service provider, keep these tips in mind:

 

What made you consider outsourcing in the first place? Is it to generate more sales from referrals? Expand your brand’s reach? Maintain a stable client base?

You need to identify your goals first so you can find the right company that’s capable of helping you accomplish them. Doing so can also help you maximize your outsourcing budget, ensuring that you end up with the results you need. 

 

There are numerous places you can outsource your CRM, but the Philippines stands out as a top choice. With their excellent grasp of the English language and proven expertise in customer service, contact center companies in the Philippines are sought-after by enterprises across a variety of industries.

You only need to find the right service provider. While you may as well look for a company that specializes in CRM alone, you can always find one that offers other services such as web design, digital marketing, and lead generation for certain niches. OneVirtual  Solutions provides CRM support services for companies in the real estate, cleaning, and medical industries. 

 

As you look around for possible outsourcing companies to hire, you need to make sure you end up with the right one. This can be a challenge because most of these companies pretty much make the same offers. You have to do a great deal of due diligence to hire one that benefits your business in the long run.

Before signing an agreement, make sure to ask these essential questions:

1. Have you handled customer service for companies in my industry?
2. How can I be assured of quality results?
3. What CRM platforms do you use?
4. What is the best arrangement for my situation?
5. Can I request a demo?

With these questions in mind, you should be able to find the right outsourcing company that caters to your needs.

Outsourcing your CRM is definitely the first step towards enhancing your business, but it’s only when you find a Philippine outsourcing company that’s capable of helping you meet your goals. 

OneVirtual Solutions has expanded its contact center solutions. If you are planning to outsource your customer service, give us a call today!

The disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic has been far-reaching. Countries noted a slowdown in economic activity as citizens are advised to strictly follow social distancing and hygienic practices. Even now that hard-hit countries such as the United States, Italy, and Spain are gradually lifting their quarantine measures, people will still need to adjust to a “new normal.”

With that in mind, how will businesses respond to a post-coronavirus future?

One thing’s for sure, the landscape will be ripe for businesses to foster better customer engagement using offshore contact centers. 

Here are a few key takeaways explaining how an offshore contact center can benefit your business in the long run:

 

The coronavirus pandemic has adversely affected the bottom lines of vulnerable sectors such as travel and real estate. The underlying downturn in demand has placed companies in these industries in an uneasy position to maintain a healthy bottom line. 

This would mean downsizing the budget for essential components such as customer relationship management or CRM. Still, businesses may see the need to improve their CRM without running up costs. By outsourcing contact center functions to the right service provider, businesses can save on overhead expenses. It also helps eliminate the need for hiring and training

 

Businesses that already maintain in-house contact centers will need to address high call volumes. The onset of the pandemic resulted in massive amounts of inquiries in the financial and real estate sectors at a time when there was a high influx of refinancing and forbearance applications among homeowners. The retail sector also had to address delivery orders as physical stores were closed as customers stayed at home. 

Indeed, the easing up lockdown measures will also result in higher call volumes, so businesses will need to reinforce their existing workforce. Hiring an outsourcing company specializing in contact center solutions is one way to reduce hold times and lower customer abandonment resulting from higher call volumes.

 

With entire populations staying indoors throughout the initial course of the pandemic, businesses were able to adjust their marketing strategies to maintain effective audience outreach. With a digital marketing campaign that includes social media, email, and SEO, businesses could still tap into pent-up demand.

Sure enough, there will be a sudden upsurge in the demand for products and services once lockdown measures are fully relaxed. Businesses will need to prepare themselves for this by incorporating cold-calling and online chat support into their lead generation campaign. This helps put companies in a better position to support the bottom line.

 

Offshore contact centers will play a definite role in the recovery of businesses in the “new normal.” And as the medical sector is making headwinds on developing a treatment for CoViD-19, businesses may have to nurture their client bases as much as they can. 

Looking to outsource your CRM and marketing activities? We can help you get started. Contact OneVirtual Solutions today and see how we can help your business thrive.

There are two things your business cannot escape from: taxes and risk. It’s for these reasons why you need to develop a future-proof game plan for your business 

But while you can always settle your dues to the government, preparing for worst-case scenarios like a pandemic isn’t so simple. 

The current coronavirus situation caught businesses off-guard, with many having to downsize their operations to cushion the blow to their bottom lines. 

Does the coronavirus experience tell us that businesses could have done better to prepare for a major contingency such as CoViD-19?

It is impossible to predict the future, but if a business wants to stay for the long haul, it has to plan for any eventuality.

Here are a few ways you can future-proof your business:

 

Expanding to other markets, developing new solutions, and acquiring alternative investments are some of the best strategies you can use to keep your business from going under. 

Relying on one niche alone renders your business vulnerable to disruptions within that niche. If you own a cleaning company that specializes in residential cleaning, you can expand your services to include commercial establishments. This allows you to acquire more clients, grow your revenue, and secure your business when, say, the market for residential cleaning services takes a downturn. 

 

It’s important not to let your guard down even as your revenue numbers rise. There are risks you need to prepare for and it helps if you are able to draft out a detailed plan of how you are going to keep things running. 

When developing a business continuity plan, focus on how you are going to maximize available resources, and mobilize your workforce as soon as you can. There is also the issue of data security. You can use cloud-based solutions that allow you to save crucial company data offsite. 

Once you have drafted the protocols to be followed in the event of a major crisis, you may need to share these with members of the management departments of the company. That way, coordination will be easier and you won’t spare a single minute putting the contingency plan into action.

 

One thing that secures successful businesses from uncertainty is innovation. Digital transformation is making it easier for businesses to scale. Digital marketing, eCommerce, and customer relationship management tools are now accessible to small businesses that want to gain a better position for themselves in their markets. 

In the age of big data and emerging technologies such as AI and augmented reality, businesses may need to drift away from their current infrastructure. Success requires the need to be forward-thinking in the way they approach familiar situations. On top of that, they also need to identify how issues can evolve and disrupt their capacity for growth. 

These will make the perfect case for companies (especially SMEs) to leverage new technology and get access to the expertise needed to handle emerging tools. For this, hiring virtual assistants specializing in web development, digital marketing, and back-office support will play a key role. 

 

As several countries aim to ease up their lockdown measures, this is now an opportune time for businesses to plan for the future. No doubt, virtual assistant services will play a key role in this. 

If you are aiming to future-proof your business, start by hiring a team of virtual assistants to handle your repetitive and time-consuming tasks while you keep your business afloat.

Contact OneVirtual Solutions today for virtual assistant services you can trust.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, realtors are still seeing some market activity as a result of people leveraging low mortgage rates.

And while Fanni Mae points out that the market could rebound next year, real estate agents should, for now, explore other means of engaging potential clients who could be shopping for homes online.

The bottom line is that there are still people who want to buy and or sell a property and virtual tours will play a considerable role in the process.

For sure, you will need all the help you can get to set up real estate virtual tours.  Hiring a team of real estate virtual assistants would be advantageous for the following reasons:

Technical Support

Virtual tours allow you to highlight the best features of a property without the buyer being physically present. This is the reason why virtual tours are the best alternative to open houses considering the need to observe social distancing policies. 

But setting up a virtual tour is not just about taking interior and exterior shots. You also need to pick and set up the right platform for promoting your virtual tour. A lot of work is also involved in uploading a virtual tour to your website, which is what a virtual assistant specializing in web development can do for you.

Creative Support

A well-designed virtual tour can attract a prospective buyer. Aside from staging the property well, you also need to ensure that the photos or videos you are using are properly rendered. You need to calibrate the lighting and color balance, create enticing graphics, and include your brand’s logo as well. 

These tasks require virtual assistants who are excellent at using tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. You may also need someone to create copies that contain enticing information about a property. Creative tasks such as these can be handled by virtual assistants experienced in graphic design and photo editing.

Marketing Support

Once you have created virtual tours for your real estate business, you need to let people know you are offering such services. You will need to launch a multi-channel marketing campaign so people can start experiencing virtual tours through their PCs or mobile devices.

A virtual assistant who is adept in digital marketing can provide you with the needed expertise for promoting your services across social media, email, and blogging. This should help a lot in terms of raising brand awareness and attracting potential home buyers. 

Get a VA for Your Real Estate Virtual Tours from OneVirtual Solutions!

Virtual tours are just one of the most important channels to leverage in the age of digital transformation. Your real estate clients want to shop around for homes conveniently at no risk and virtual tours offer such advantages.

You only need to find the right people to organize amazing virtual home tours for your clients.

Hire a virtual assistant today! Click here to get started!

Due to the current coronavirus situation, real estate companies are finding it difficult to work with buyers and sellers. But despite social distancing measures, closing a deal with a client is still very much possible — difficult, but possible.

As people are looking to leverage lower mortgage payments following the Federal government’s decision to cut interest rates earlier in March, the real estate sector will still see transactions coming in amidst widespread cancellations of open houses. Brokers and agents will only need to come up with a “contactless” way to market their listings.

The solution: virtual tours.

An article from Fox Business points out how agents in hard-hit states like California are using virtual walk-ins to reach out to buyers who are unable to visit properties in person.

Although virtual tours aren’t a new concept in the industry, real estate companies can make the most out of them despite the current downturn. 

Using the following tips, you can create virtual tours that will help keep your real estate business running.

 

Homebuyers prefer 360-degree views to simple gallery photos. They want to imagine what it’s like inside the property without having to travel, especially if they want to save time and money shopping for homes. 

Panoramic videos and photos also allow you to highlight certain aspects of the property that will generate interest. For this, you might want to invest in a high-resolution 360 camera.  For a more affordable alternative, you can use apps like REVR which allow you to create stunning 360 virtual tours on your iPhone. 

 

Before starting a 360 photoshoot around the property, you need to make sure that the property itself does not fail to impress. Make sure to declutter the interiors and include a few finishing details such as a bowl of fruit on the dining table or potted plants in the living room. 

But the most important key to home staging is lighting. You want to take pictures or record videos of areas that should stand out, so you will need the right (and consistent) amount of light in order to emphasize these parts. For this, you should make full use of natural lighting depending on the mood you want to set. If you want to achieve an energetic effect for the master bedroom, for instance, anytime between 10 am to 1 pm is ideal. 

 

It matters where you place the camera during a video or photoshoot. One principle to keep in mind is shooting from corners, staircases, or any other location that gives a good vantage point over the interior space. 

For the best exterior shots, you may need to take as many as you could from different angles. Make sure that there is enough soft light to accentuate specific exterior details. And since it’s already spring, you might want to get started on capturing the overall curb appeal of the property. 

 

Once you have organized your virtual tour, you will need to upload these to a specific platform and promote them across the three main real estate digital marketing channels: social media, email, and web. 

You have already captured impressive shots of the property’s interior and exterior, so you might as well publish your virtual tours for potential buyers to see. For sure, your listings still need exposure. With a well planned out digital marketing campaign, it will not be difficult to find buyers who will gladly move in when the dust settles. 

 

Virtual tours are more powerful this time around, so real estate professionals may want to include these in their mix of promotional content. 

The coronavirus may retreat at some point, but 360 videos and photos are definitely here for the long haul.

Need help with editing and promoting virtual tours for your real estate business? You might want to hire your very own creative team.

 

Hire real estate virtual assistants for your marketing campaign! Contact us today!

Businesses today are grappling a new reality. With social distancing measures in place due to the coronavirus pandemic, consumers are unable to make purchases except for essential items. This has made it harder for businesses to sustain their bottom lines.

Uncertainty has also made it difficult to gauge the pandemic’s impact on the economy. But businesses can still make the best out of the situation using effective and emphatic audience outreach.

It all rests on how you structure a digital marketing campaign.

Here are a few reasons why your business needs digital marketing as it thrives in the current situation.

Businesses will still need to market their products and services even if there is currently low demand for such offers. Nonetheless, Facebook’s ad platform has noted an increase in usage, pulling pay-per-click costs from 11 cents in January to 9 cents in March. 

People are not exactly dissuaded from spending. They still have travel plans and dream houses to realize. That said, it’s still important as ever to constantly reach out to an audience that’s eagerly waiting for the current situation to ease up and start spending again. 

 

In these difficult times, it will be a challenge for companies to create messages that appeal to their interests without having to cash in on a serious health emergency. 

A well-structured ad or blog that delivers value to people who are locked up in their homes while being sensitive to how the pandemic is affecting their lives. That said, your messaging should not focus too much on hard-selling your product or services. It revolves around helping your audience get through this difficult time. 

 

People need to keep themselves productive while their communities are under quarantine. Aside from watching their favorite Netflix shows or trying out new recipes, they can still find time to learn new skills from experts. 

Entrepreneurs are using this situation as well to create online courses, record podcasts, and organize webinars that share useful information. If you are planning to run your own educational series, you need a digital marketing team to help you with preparing and distributing promotional materials. 

 

No one really knows exactly how this situation will last. Until then, businesses will need to do what they can to keep up. 

If you need help making your business relevant, engaging your audience, and sharing your skills and knowledge to others, hire a team of virtual assistants for your digital marketing campaign today. 

Click here to get started.

As the CoViD-19 pandemic continues to disrupt daily life, residential and commercial cleaning companies have noted an increase in the demand for their services. Even in communities that have fewer cases of CoViD-19, people need more help than ever with disinfecting their homes and workplaces.

However, this could be a challenge for both veteran and boutique cleaning companies that want to leverage a slew of opportunities. Personnel safety and compliance are just some of the things to consider as cleaning companies do their part in protecting the community.

If your cleaning company is in the frontlines in the fight against CoViD-19, consider these reminders:

 

Firstly, it’s important to equip personnel with personal protective equipment or PPEs. A single set should include gloves, goggles, a single-piece protective uniform, and a facemask. When shopping for such sets, make sure the product is certified. You will also need to follow occupational safety standards on how to wear, clean, and store PPEs.  

You will also need to use appropriate cleaning materials and products, especially if you are booked for a deep cleaning and disinfection service. The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention recommends the use of EPA-registered disinfectants on hard surfaces such as wood and porous material such as fabric. 

 

With lots of orders coming in, you can expect your cleaning personnel to work extra hours or turn down requests. Then again, you can resolve such bottlenecks by keeping your cleaning schedule organized. 

Using platforms like Launch 27, you can keep track of the available schedules of your cleaners in real-time. This can help prevent your business from stretching itself too thin, maximize the available time of your cleaning personnel without them having to work extra hours, and accommodate new clients. This should also work in tandem with effective customer service. You can outsource this to a capable virtual assistant service with a proven background in supporting residential and commercial cleaning companies. 

 

Apart from equipping your employees with PPEs, you still need to check on their health every now and then. People who have underlying health conditions are susceptible to CoViD-19, so you should determine who among your cleaners can handle a request. It is also important to check the body temperature of your employees before they come in for work. For this, you may need to purchase a no-contact thermometer from a certified vendor.

Since your cleaning personnel is exposed to new environments, you will need to implement strict policies outlined by the World Health Organization. Remind them to wash their hands frequently using mild soap or lather them with a 70 proof sanitizer before and after entering a client’s premises.  

Cleaning companies find themselves in the frontlines in the fight against CoViD-19. But they also need all the help they can get in handling administrative tasks and reaching out to clients through effective digital marketing.

You will need a team of virtual assistants experienced in the cleaning industry to handle these tasks and more. With strong demand for your services, don’t get stressed out in times like these. Hire a Virtual Assistant today!

Pandemics have been a common occurrence throughout human history, but their effect on society can be far-reaching. 

Notwithstanding the toll on human lives, a pandemic can easily put economic activity to a halt. With strict quarantine measures in place, businesses could either reduce their operating hours or consider a temporary closure — either way, could spell trouble.

Considering the situation right now, your business should still be able to generate clients at its current capacity. In this case, you can only look towards digital marketing to lessen the blow to your bottom line.

Here are a few ways you can make full use of digital marketing in the midst of all the chaos.

 

In the age of digital transformation, a shift from traditional marketing approaches is inevitable. It did not take a pandemic to make us realize that there is a straightforward way to generate, nurture, and convert clients. 

For some time now, successful businesses have seen better results using a good mix of marketing channels. Email, social media, and video now comprise today’s marketing arsenals because audiences can easily access them using mobile devices.

Using multiple channels, you can improve brand awareness and generate prospects among people who are currently at home.

 

One key component of your digital marketing strategy is content. You need to provide your audience with relevant information that will push them towards making a purchase.

You need to come up with effective value propositions that will get your audiences hooked. You also need to use the right calls-to-action that will convert your prospects into paying customers.

Above all, you need expert-level copywriting to get your message across while keeping to mind the current circumstances. You just have to look for a content writer who can help you prepare engaging and relevant material for your blogs, emails, and online ads. 

 

When the pandemic’s economic effect became clearer, we have been seeing massive drops in organic traffic. 

However, it’s important to note that these drops were observed in the most vulnerable sectors such as tourism and manufacturing. Interestingly, there have been massive upticks in e-commerce transactions. This is obviously the result of social distancing and quarantine measures that push consumers towards online shopping. 

With that in mind, you might consider building an e-commerce website where you can sell your products and services to people who might need them. For this, you will need a professional web development team to bootstrap your site and set up landing pages. 

Looking to sell your products online? Look for a reliable web development team to help you bootstrap your e-commerce website.

 

Indeed, in this situation, it is still important to maintain relevance and improve brand awareness. For this, it helps if you are able to publish a constant stream of content across all your marketing channels. 

To optimize your campaign, you will need the help of digital marketing specialists who can prepare graphics, write content, and keep your e-commerce website up and running. That way, your business can still generate interest and convert clients. 

 

Nobody knows for sure how this situation ends up. But until we get better clarity of the business landscape a few weeks from now, it’s still important to make do with whatever is at hand. It is only a matter of making the right decisions and staying relevant within your market. For sure, investing in digital marketing should be your best bet.

 

Need help with your digital marketing campaign? Hire a team of virtual assistants who can help you with managing your platforms and creating content. Contact us today!