The AVA State of the VA Industry Report – Finding Gaps in the Market

Finding gaps in the market is essential as the Association of Virtual Assistants leads with its mission to be the most trusted source of information in the industry. When virtual assistants are thinking about entering the industry they want to know where the demand is in hope of finding their niche and clients. 

A large number of survey respondents identified as a General (34.8%) or Executive Virtual Assistant (26.9%). Other options to choose from were Social Media, Tech, Marketing, and Launch VA. Finding this gap in the market is beneficial for virtual assistants everywhere now as we know the deficit we’ll need to fill for our clients. Additionally, clients who already work with these types of VAs secured on their team, will not be able to easily replace them, possibly driving up the minimum industry standard pricing. 

As an association, we want to find the gaps to make sure that enough VAs are being trained and certified in the areas that will keep up with client demand. However, we need to make sure we are not only finding the gaps but that we also have VAs filling the gaps. 

Social media remains a definite part of business. Of the VAs we surveyed 66.9% said their clients have a social media presence. However, 34.9% said they didn’t know how happy their clients are with their SM presence. This leads us back to the gap. The VAs surveyed may not have been experts in social media, tech, marketing, or launches, thus they may not have felt like they had the right questions to ask in order to respond appropriately. 

At 92.6%, most VAs believe they will see a rise in online courses becoming an active part of their client’s business.You can bet that the Association of Virtual Assistants will have and be training VAs to be on their game as clients continue to release online courses. 

Entering the VA fields of social media, tech, marketing, and launches in the industry without the skill set will not be the answer. With highly skilled and knowledgeable clients who have likely been doing the work already on their own, virtual assistants will be expected to bring the client skills they don’t already possess.

When it came to social media, the VAs we surveyed fell into two buckets on the list of what social media platform is essential for business.  LinkedIn was believed to be 58.8% essential to a VAs business, while Facebook had the only other strong showing with 31%. The AVA strongly agrees with LinkedIn as an essential for business as LinkedIn is the only major social media platform created specifically to build a professional network and create profiles highlighting current and prior work experience.

The AVA has already addressed this and has a two-part training series on how to use LinkedIn in our member portal taught by Christy Hoskins of Professionalpedia. 

Facebook makes a strong argument and the AVA believes in FB as a strategy considering that 70% of high-income earners are on FB. In fact, the AVA partnered with Sarah Lorenz of Get Some Magic to create a Facebook Ads certification for virtual assistants based on the demand. 

Additionally, our latest certification on Instagram for Virtual Assistants taught by Shannon McKinstrie of Boutique Social DC is geared to help you crack the “Gram” code. Instagram is not like other social media platforms. You could easily be growing your followers without growing your dollars and that’s not the type of growth VAs or potential clients are looking for. 

The AVA is also addressing tech, marketing, and launch VA needs with our future certifications in podcasting and funnels with partnerships with Fei Wu of Fei’s World and Sandra Ocasio who is a ClickFunnels expert and has orchestrated six and seven figure launches. . 

Want to receive the full AVA State of the Industry Report when it is released? You can download our Industry Standard Pricing Guide or the VA Business Blueprint and this will automatically put you on our email list and you’ll be automatically notified when the full report becomes available.

Ready to become a member and take advantage of the many discounts available on the certifications? Join the AVA today! 

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