TJConsulting Virtual Assistant » TJConsulting news

Outstanding VA Reaches Finalist Position in UK’s Industry Awards

Diane Scott — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:00:50 +0000

PRESS RELEASE

Tamara Baranova, of TJConsulting Virtual Assistants, has reached the finalist position in the search for the UK’s Outstanding Virtual Assistant of 2012 (under or over 2.5 years in business).

This is the only national awards scheme of its kind for VAs in the UK and Europe and Tamara Baranova of TJConsulting Virtual Assistants, based in Wisbech, UK, is one of 11 in the running for one of two prestigious awards. “I launched the inaugural National VA Conference and Awards in April 2007, as part of my nationwide campaign to promote and boost awareness of the VA industry as well as in my quest to find the most outstanding VA” states Founder, Carmen MacDougall, of The VA Coaching and Training Company.

Virtual Assistants support their clients, from around the globe, providing PA and business support services, working from their own office, communicating with clients via the internet. TJConsulting Virtual Assistants specialise in Internet marketing, web design and online business management services.

“I am very excited and proud to have reached the finalist position”, says Tamara Baranova, “and believe this will demonstrate to my clients and prospective clients my professionalism, commitment and approach to providing an outstanding service as well as my support to fellow VAs.”

It is hoped the awards scheme, in association with The International Association of Virtual Assistants (www.iava.org.uk) and The Virtual Assistant Coaching and Training Company (www.vact.co.uk), will promote a wider understanding of the rapidly developing industry. Judges include BeMyVa.com, Reed Learning, Mums the Business, The International Association of Virtual Assistants and Executive Secretary Magazine.

Further information on the event is available at www.vaconference.co.uk or contact Carmen MacDougall on 07967 332915 or Carmen@vact.co.uk.

Contact:
Tamara Baranova, TJConsulting Virtual Assistants
www.tjconsulting.co.uk
tamara@tjconsulting.co.uk; 0203 468 8594

Have you been thinking about Facebook pages for your business?

Diane Scott — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 11:47:53 +0000

If so, you need to stop thinking and take action now before Facebook make changes on March 10th. Facebook are changing the way tabs work on business pages by gradually phasing out FBML(Facebook mark up language) and using iFrames(the website code which builds the tabs) After the 10th March , even if you have Pages you will not be able to add tabs as easily as you can now. From the information available so far, we are not sure whether you’ll still be able to add custom tabs, this will mean, no more Welcome tabs, Newsletter sign up and Special offers tabs.

At the moment existing Facebook business pages with existing custom tabs (built with FBML) can still be edited. If you have been procrastinating about getting Facebook pages for your business you need to stop and take action now before Facebook introduce this change. With only just over two weeks left of the FBML style Facebook and pages taking a few days to build, make that decision and contact us now to get your Facebook business pages.

As one of the largest social networks with 500 million users worldwide, Facebook now directs more web traffic than Google. It shares and finds more weblinks, providing an incredible platform to advertise your business. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to spread the word about you and your company.

We can set up your Facebook Business page or fix existing ones. For those ready to take action and get ahead of the last minute rush we will install Google Analytics on two of your Facebook Business pages at no extra cost. So make that decision now and contact us to get your pages before it’s too late.

Emails: read or shred and how to make a difference to open rates – pt.2

Diane Scott — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 10:00:42 +0000

You can read part 1 of this post here. Below is the continuation – part.2

Email personalisation when used by companies gains higher order values than generic emails.

Campaigns can be aimed at specific customers increasing order value. Using a customer database to determine purchase history,demographic and channel behaviour allows you to personalise your emails and target your customers.

Using the name of the recipient in the subject line of your email almost doubles the ‘open’ rate. Using the name of your recipient in your email marketing gets their attention and increases open rates.

You can take the personalisation one step further by using where your customer lives in the subject line. There are plenty of tools available to automatically merge all the personal details together into a highly personalised email.

Because the name and subject line may be all your prospects/customers see in their Inbox, it’s important that first impressions get across as much as possible to achieve higher ‘open’ rates.

Try different things:

Vary your subject line and check your metrics to see if it’s made a difference to your open rate.

Keep a common element in your emails, so even if some parts of it change you have consistency and don’t automatically get deleted when your email, in the main, goes unrecognised.

Spam filters love ‘special offer, ‘free’(and all the different ways of typing it) ‘limited time’ ‘buy now’ and usually bin your carefully tailored offering immediately, so try to keep these words and phrases out of the subject line.

35 or less characters in the subject line also make for better click through rates. Learn to keep it brief and to the point. Many email clients only show 30 characters so make those count, getting your message across in the beginning.

Knowing your readers, through a good CRM, may help you write your subject lines to communicate to the different sectors. Let them know in the subject line precisely what you are ‘selling’ rather than a vague comment stating your website is updated.

Test your email. Send a test email to yourself to check how it looks like when it arrives in your Inbox. Would you be compelled to open it?

It may be a good idea to include a common word or newsletter name in brackets [] at the beginning of your subject line so readers can easily white list your emails.

Consider what time you publish. Too early in the morning and they may be overloaded with the flurry of emails that have arrived and may delete to keep clear. It’s obvious from my email box that everyone thinks that between 4 and 5 in the afternoon is a good time to send! Probably not so good if you work in an office and want a tidy Inbox for tomorrow. Try different times and check your open rates to see what works for you.