Welcome to this edition of Weekly VA Marketing Tip! This series is specifically designed to help virtual assistants avoid marketing insanity.  Every Monday, my posts will prompt you to accomplish one specific marketing action to promote, brand or position your professional virtual business.

Implement these tips each week and I guarantee you’ll sustain your marketing momentum, increase credibility and visibility in your field, build stronger relationships, boost your ‘know, like and trust factor,’ get more ideal clients looking for you, and have a consistent marketing game plan for your virtual assistant business.

You might even start to like marketing!

Practice Your 30-Second Intro

I don’t know if summer means more networking for you or less. In my days as a VA, summer meant more opportunities to network. I guess it was because more informal business networking events were planned (barbecues, sightseeing, etc) than during the winter.

Whatever this time of year means for you when it comes to networking, it’s a great time to practice your 30-second networking introduction. Out loud. With real people.

How do you answer the “So, what do you do?” question in the following situations:

• Round-robin style introduction at formal networking events
• At a family function
• In a check out line
• When leaving a voice mail
• One-on-one at a networking cocktail

If you answered “I usually wing it” or something along those lines, that tells me you’re unprepared. Being unprepared means you’re leaving lots of money on the table.

You never know where or when you’ll meet a potential client or referral partner.

The best way to counter this situation is to turn it around. In other words, prepare yourself ahead of time, so you’re ready to give your compelling 30-second intro.

Here are 5 steps to help you create your networking introduction (each of these steps are explained in detail in my guidebook):

1. Identify your target market or ideal client.
2. Identify your key benefit.
3. Label yourself (and I don’t just mean “Virtual Assistant”)
4. Create your call to action.
5. Put it all together to create your basic template:
   “I help [target market] + [key benefit]. I am [label] + [call to action].“

Once you’re basic introduction model is created, start testing it out — that means practicing it out loud in front of real people.

Here are some ways to practice your 30-second introduction before using it in a professional networking setting:

• Call friends (the ones you know won’t be there) and recite your networking introduction on their voice mail. When they call asking what in the heck that was all about, say you’re conducting marketing research. What did they hear you say?
• Take a video of yourself giving your 30-second self promotion, post it on your blog (or YouTube) and ask readers to leave their constructive feedback in the comment section. Make it viral by publishing the link to your social networking sites.
• Take the initiative by introducing yourself to strangers — when you’re walking the dog, running errands, taking the kids to the park, etc. You’ll be amazed how pushing the envelope on your comfort level makes those boundaries disappear.
• Come up with your own creative ideas of practicing your networking introduction.
• Finally, the obvious one, call your mentor(s) or coach, ask them to critique your 30-second pitch and to brainstorm ways of making it better.

Yes, I get that doing this is really scary. You’re already coming up with ways on procrastinating on this one, right?

Don’t.

Your 30-second intro can make or break you. You may as well practice and refine your message in inconsequential situations, so you’ll be ready for when it really counts.

So… how will you practice your 30-second commercial this week?

I guess everyone is getting ready for International Networking Week ‘09 (February 2-6), because I keep finding all these great articles on networking and creating your 30-second commercial.

Here’s an article I found in the CampbellRiverMirror.com, writen by Colleen Evans, Executive Director of the Campbell River Chamber of Commerce.

My favorite quote in this article highlights the importance of having as a networking objective to building relationships (as opposed to trying to make a sale, getting a meeting, etc.):

The purpose of networking varies based on one’s own agenda, but the primary focus is to meet people, and have people meet you and to build relationships. It’s not a license to sell yourself and it’s not a contest to see how many business cards you can collect. (Emphasis mine.)

If you’re looking for direction on how to build relationships through networking, check out my guidebook, Designing a Compelling 30-Second Intro.

Kevin Dervin wrote an article, Do You Get Attention With Your 30-Second Introduction?, for WebProNews a while back that I wanted to share with you.

He offers these 5 tips for developing a compelling 30-second intro:

1. Start with the first sentence.
2. Avoid the What You Are approach.
3. Avoid the What You Do approach.
4. Say how you solved a problem or served a client.
5. Tell them why you’re unique.

You can read the entire article here.

My new guidebook, Designing a Compelling 30-Second Intro, takes you through the creation process of creating a networking introduction designed to get the coveted “Tell me more!” reaction.

Grab your copy at http://www.30secondintro.com.

Rick Spence wrote an article in the Financial Post today entitled Why nailing your elevator speech is crucial.

I love this sentence the most:

“Networking is your key to new contacts, referrals and customers – and most people are so bad at working a room that anyone who even tries to do it well will stand out like a pro.”

Click here to read the entire article.

If you want to do more than just ‘try doing it well’ you’ll want to get your hands on my new guidebook Designing a Compelling 30-Second Intro, which was officially released today!

Check out http://www.30secondintro.com for all the juicy details.

Networking speaker, Hank Blank was featured in a Reuters article yesterday. His suggestions echo what I go into detail about in my guidebook, Beyond Muzak: Designing a Compelling 30-Second Intro.

Here’s a quote from the article:

“Effective networking is about less of you and more about helping the other people that you meet first. A lot of people think that is counterintuitive or contradictory. My philosophy is that you can get more by asking for less and doing more for others.”

Read the entire article here.

Here’s a 30-second intro formula by Bob Bly, one of my favorite services-based marketing authors.

I’m about to deliver what is my biggest project to date. You’ve heard me talking about it, and now it’s in pre-release mode. My guidebook Beyond Muzak: Designing a Compelling 30-Second Intro is finally ready for the world…

Well… not just yet. I need to test the entire process before the official January 5th release date. That’s why I’m writing this post.

I need your help (why is that so hard to say?), so I’m reaching out to you, my trusted readers!

Here’s the deal:

1. Go to http://www.30secondintro.com
2. Purchase the guidebook ($27) or the brainstorming package ($137).
3. BEFORE clicking the “Checkout” button, enter this promo code: prelaunch. You’ll get $10 off the guidebook or $20 off the brainstorming package (code expires Jan. 4th).
4. See a glitch? Was it easy? Send me constructive criticism/feedback on the process, your suggestions, and your impressions on the overall experience.

If you’ve ever wanted a coaching session with me, now’s your chance to get a discount.

Are you up for it?

Thanks in advance for your support!!

PS - There’s no need to keep this a secret. If you know someone who needs help with their networking introduction and they love a good deal, send this message to them! You can also sign up as an affiliate. Get 50% commissions on all my programs.

Marketing is about building relationships with people by talking about their challenges and showing how you solve them.

A gossip is one who talks to you about others, a bore is one who talks to you about himself; and a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about yourself. — Lisa Kirk

Which one are you?

Take Lisa’s advice the next time you give your 30-second intro, and you’ll generate more than mere acknowledgment.

Seeing as I haven’t given birth yet, I figured I’d mosey on over to LinkedIn Answers and pose a new question: What are the 3 biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when giving their 30-second intro?

As usual, the responses received so far have been insightful and informative. Want to join the discussion? Click here to post your answer.

Mistakes aside, what are your 30-second intro pet peeves?

My 12 Mistakes to Avoid in Your 30-second Intro series is finally completed, which you can get for free when you sign up for my newsletter.

Use the form below to sign up for this 12-part series.