Stop marketing to other Virtual Assistants
Your VA community can be brilliant for support, connection and camaraderie. But if your ideal clients aren’t there, it probably shouldn’t be where you’re spending most of your marketing energy.
There is something wonderfully comforting about being in a room full of people who get it. Mention scope creep in a VA group and everybody nods.
Talk about a client sending a voice note after hours, containing seven separate tasks and somebody will inevitably respond with a GIF.
Ask whether anyone knows how to make Dubsado do that weirdly specific thing and, somewhere, another VA has already figured it out.
VA communities can be brilliant.
I've built friendships through this industry. I've learned from other VAs, collaborated with them, hired them and recommended them. But there's something I see happening all the time that we need to talk about.
VAs spending the majority of their online time talking to other VAs... while trying to attract clients who are somewhere else entirely.
Hun...
That’s not it!
We need to leave the group chat occasionally. 😂
Your peers and your prospects are not the same audience
This sounds incredibly obvious when you say it out loud. Yet it's such an easy trap to fall into.
You join VA communities because they're relevant to your work.
You follow other VAs.
They follow you.
You comment on each other's posts.
You celebrate wins together.
The algorithm notices and serves you even more VA content.
Before long, your entire online world consists of people discussing retainers, discovery calls, Canva, Dubsado, hourly rates and whether anybody else has noticed that insert software here has changed that bloody button again.
It feels like you're networking.
And you are.
But networking with peers and marketing to prospective clients are two different activities.
If you support coaches, where are the coaches?
If you work with authors, where are they?
If your clients are accountants, creatives, consultants, therapists or speakers, where are those conversations happening?
You can't spend all your time at the VA table and then wonder why nobody from the client table knows your name.
Stop explaining what a VA is
There's another clue that you may be marketing from inside the VA bubble. Look at your content. How much of it explains:
What is a Virtual Assistant?
Five reasons you need a VA.
Tasks you can outsource to a VA.
Why hiring a VA saves you time.
There absolutely is a place for educational content.
But if you're an established VA trying to attract established business owners who already recognise they need support, you're having a conversation they're several steps beyond. They don't need convincing that (VAs) Virtual Assistants exist.
They're trying to work out which one they trust with their business. That's a very different marketing job.
Your content can speak to what they're experiencing:
The launch that becomes unnecessarily chaotic every single time.
The customer enquiries sitting unanswered while they deliver client work.
The CRM they pay for but barely use.
The diary that's somehow running them.
The business growth that's created more administration than they anticipated.
Their needs.
Their frustrations.
Their desires.
Their world. That's what makes somebody stop scrolling and think:
Ohhhh. She gets it.
Your clients aren't buying “VA services”
This is where marketing becomes much easier once you understand it.
Clients rarely wake up thinking:
“What I really desire today is four hours of virtual assistance.”
They want something to change.
They want the inbox handled.
The launch coordinated.
The podcast managed.
The customer journey improved.
The invoices sent.
The systems organised.
The operations running, without them having to remember every moving part.
Your service is the vehicle.
The outcome is what makes it relevant.
Go where your people are
Now, before you dramatically leave every VA Facebook group you're in, that's not what I'm suggesting.
Your peers matter.
The VA world can be lonely, and having people around you who understand the realities of running this type of business is invaluable. But your network needs r a n g e.
Spend time in the communities your ideal clients occupy.
Attend business events that aren't specifically for VAs.
Build relationships with complementary service providers.
Join conversations within the industries you support.
Connect with accountants, designers, copywriters, web developers, strategists and consultants who work with the same kinds of clients you do.
Comment thoughtfully on your ideal clients' LinkedIn posts.
Go to the networking event.
Attend the conference.
Be curious about the business world beyond our own industry. And — revolutionary concept here — talk to people without immediately trying to sell them something.
Relationships compound. The person you meet today might never hire you.
They might introduce you to somebody six months from now who does.
You need to understand their language
There's another benefit to spending time around prospective clients that we don't talk about enough.
You learn how they describe their problems. That's marketing gold.
We service providers have a habit of naming things according to the solution we provide. Clients don't always use the same language.
You might call it: CRM optimisation.
They call it: “I've got enquiries coming from everywhere and I've lost track of who I've replied to.”
You call it: Client onboarding automation.
They say: “Every time somebody signs up I have to send about nine different emails.”
You call it: Operational support.
They say: “I need somebody else to know what the hell is going on in this business.”
Listen to that language.
Because effective marketing doesn't demonstrate how clever you are. It helps somebody recognise themselves.
Your VA community still matters
And this is important. I'm not suggesting your peers are irrelevant to your business.
Quite the opposite.
Other VAs can become collaborators, referral partners, Associates, friends, sounding boards and some of the biggest champions of your work. There's enormous value in having a strong professional community around you.
But community and client acquisition have different jobs.
It’s integral that you recognise which one you're doing. If you spend three hours engaging in a VA group, that's perfectly fine. Just don't automatically count those three hours as prospecting if the people you're hoping to work with weren't actually in the room.
Have a look at your online world
Open whichever platform you spend the most time on. Look at the last 20 accounts you've interacted with. Who are they?
Now look at your recent content. Who is it actually written for?
Your peers?
People considering becoming VAs?
Or the business owners you'd genuinely love to support?
There's no shame if the answer isn't what you expected.
Just adjust.
Your next brilliant client is unlikely to materialise because you explained the definition of a Virtual Assistant for the 47th time. They need opportunities to discover you.
Your perspective.
Your expertise.
Your personality.
Your understanding of their world.
And your ability to help them get from where they are to where they'd rather be.
So absolutely keep your VA BFFS. Have the group chats. Share the memes. Ask who's figured out what that bloody software update has broken this week.
Then lift your head up and look beyond the VA bubble.
Your peers can help you build a brilliant business. Your prospects are the people who will buy from it.
Make sure you're talking to both. There’s no one-size-fits-all path - just the one that fits you right now.
Associate roles offer structure, support, and the space to gain momentum. Direct client work offers freedom, legacy, and full ownership. Your job is to get clear on where you are, what you can hold, and where you’re heading. Then choose accordingly.
Just don’t wing it. And please - don’t do it because someone on Instagram said it was the “right” way. There is no prize for forcing a fit.
This is your business. Build it like you mean it.
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