How to Hire a Website Assistant for Your Business
Many businesses today are run through their websites. You might be wrong if you don’t think your website is that important to your business. 94 percent of how people see your business for the first time will be based on how your website looks. For some businesses, the only thing they need is a website. It’s the place where all of your sales come from. For some businesses, a website might just be a small part of the sales process, and the in-person experience might be more important. No matter what, every business needs a website these days. It isn’t just a business card. It’s the first thing you see. Many of your customers won’t call you first. Instead, they’ll look you up on Google. They want to see that your website looks like it was made by a professional. And it takes them less than 0.05 seconds to decide what they think about your website. There are a few things wrong with this:
- You aren’t a website expert. Not at all. As a full-time business owner, you don’t have the time to learn how WordPress works, nor do you have the years of experience to start from scratch with a website.
- You don’t have time. Digital marketing, social media, and managing content can all take a lot of time. You need to be able to hire someone else to do that. Ideally, someone else who knows how to make your website interesting.
- You don’t have the eye for graphic design. And maybe you do, but even if you do, do you have the time to make your graphic design ideas work on a website?
The easiest way to deal with this is to hire a full-time or part-time website assistant to do many of these tasks. If you do this, you’ll not only make sure that your website has everything it needs to make a better first impression, but you’ll also have a much better sales funnel that you can use for your whole business. Here’s what you need to do.
What You Can Achieve With a Website Assistant
A website assistant is a virtual assistant who can help you with many different tasks related to running your website. If you’ve ever found it hard to build or maintain a website, a website assistant might be just what you need to keep your site in good shape without having to spend a lot of time on it.
Here are some things you can give to a website assistant right away:
- Making your website more informative. About 47% of the people who visit your site will first look at your services and products. That means people are interested in what you have to offer. If your site doesn’t have enough information, people will just go to your competitors’ sites until they find one that does.
- Scheduling and consultation. If you run a service business and depend on leads from your website, it’s always a good idea to hire a website assistant to make things easier. You could connect them to your calendar so that people who fill out your online “schedule a consultation” form can easily set up a phone consultation, for example.
- Customer support. When a customer goes to your website with a problem, it’s important that they feel like they’re being heard. The problem is that as the head of the business, you won’t always feel like you have the time or energy to help customers. For example, if you’re busy with digital marketing, you might not feel like you have the time or energy to help customers.
- Updating news and the latest developments. Most likely, your business likes to keep its customers informed. You don’t have to print and send out a company newsletter anymore. But you can have a website assistant add the latest news and changes to your site so that your customers are always up to date without you having to do it yourself.
- Uploading new content. New content is very important. You don’t want a customer to check out your blog and see that the last thing you wrote was in 2017. They may wonder if you’re still in business. Instead, have a person who works on your website find ways to add new content.
These things might not be the main focus of your virtual website assistant, but some may have extra features in these areas. However, you shouldn’t expect:
- Website design. Sure, you don’t think a business needs a pretty website to be successful. But did you know that 38 percent of people still leave a website if it doesn’t look nice? Hire a website design expert or a website assistant to do the work. They can help your website look its best. They should know how to use the code that your site is built on, which is usually CSS and HTML/XHTML.
- Making a website more mobile-friendly. Did you know that 74 percent of users are more likely to come back to websites that are easy to use on a mobile device? If you don’t have a content management system or a design that works well on mobile devices, you might be missing out on more repeat visits than you realize.
Each virtual assistant will have different skills, so if you have a specific need, make sure to mention it right away. A website assistant is mainly an administrative assistant who helps keep the website running.
The Benefits of Using a Website Assistant to Take Work Off Your Hands
A website is more than just an online business card these days. It’s where all the information about your business can be found online. And your customers will expect you to handle it that way. When you run a business, you don’t have time to keep track of every little thing that goes into keeping your website up to date. When you hire a virtual website assistant, you can save money, which is one of the most important benefits. For example, let’s say you thought about hiring someone to run your website full time. Best of Budgets says that going virtual could cut operating costs by up to 78% per year. With an experienced and skilled website assistant, you’ll be able to keep your website’s quality at the same level and still save money.
A website assistant might also help you with parts of your website that you had never even thought of. For instance:
- Website speed. 47 percent of people who visit a website want it to take no more than two seconds to load. If this kind of thing isn’t taken into account by a website assistant, you might not even know why people are leaving your website in the first place.
- Call to action optimization. “Click here” isn’t exactly a compelling way to get people to do something. But if you have a trusted website assistant who looks for problems like these, they can improve and tweak your CTAs. So many people don’t pay attention to this one thing that 70% of small businesses don’t even have one on their page!
- Customer experience. How a potential customer uses your website is a very important factor. 88 percent of online customers who have a bad experience are less likely to ever come back.
- Integrations. Doesn’t some of the software on your website, like its content management system, overlap with other software you use every day? You might be surprised by how many integrations are available that you’ve never thought to use. Work with a website assistant to make sure your site works well with the rest of your systems. This will not only save you time, but it will also help you make sure you follow up with every visitor and possible lead.
- Ecommerce improvement. If your business is mostly about Ecommerce, you will have a website assistant to keep track of any changes on your website. Problems like slow speeds or customers who are having trouble can be brought to your attention right away, so you don’t have to keep an eye on the website all the time.
It would be very helpful to have a virtual assistant who can do all of these things. They’ll help you shift your attention from the day-to-day upkeep of the website to a bigger plan. How will you make your business better? How will you get out of your own way so you can see the big picture? It starts with giving out the small jobs.
How to Get Started with a Website Assistant
Does it sound hard? It’s not that hard, especially if you know what to do. Here’s how to get started with your first website assistant, according to us:
- Sign up. Fill out the VA FLIX Contact Form! This is an easy process, but if you have trouble with any part of it, one of our staffing managers will help you get to the next step easily.
- Work with a staffing manager. We don’t think you’ll be able to do every step on your own. So, we send in a staffing manager to help you find the right website assistant for your needs.
- Select your website assistant. Need someone with precise knowledge of how to match your needs? Now’s the time to make sure that your website assistant is someone who has the skills and experience to handle the tasks that you’ve identified as most needed on your website. This can include everything from high-quality edits to the graphics of the home page to serving as a general web developer when you need one.
- Onboard your new employee. Make a list of the most important things you need to do on your website, and then explain how to do them. This will be your welcome letter. Include detailed instructions about what you want and the results you want, as well as the log-in information that the website assistant will need.
Start Expanding Your Business and Cutting Costs with VA FLIX.
1. Meet your assistant
We will ask you some questions in order to pair you with a virtual assistant and a backup assistant.
2. Create a workflow
Our platform allows you the ability to tailor your workflow to your lifestyle. You determine how your assistant will monitor time, interact, and share files.
3. Start delegating
Our platform empowers you to design a workflow that complements your lifestyle. You decide how to record time, interact with your helper, and exchange files.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Some may find the phrase “website helper” to be unclear. Let’s eliminate any ambiguity by addressing the most often asked questions:
What does a website assistant do, exactly?
The quick answer is what they must perform to maintain your website in excellent shape! However, this might signify various things for various firms. For a firm that focuses largely on e-commerce, this may include managing an online shop and providing customer service. For a service-based organization, this may include administrative assistance in maintaining the website’s connection to office tasks, such as scheduling.
What kinds of businesses need a website assistant?
Numerous firms might benefit from a website helper. It is preferable to determine if your organization has special demands that match the qualifications of a website helper. Do you, for instance, need to outsource a portion of your digital marketing efforts? Do you require someone with skills in graphic design to handle certain aesthetic issues? Both of these duties may fall under the jurisdiction of an experienced website assistant.
Why shouldn’t I hire a full-time web developer?
You can! However, before you do so, consider how much you may save by outsourcing to a website assistant. According to Best of Budget, in some instances you might save as much as 78% on expenses. And a website assistant is an excellent method to test out a fresh approach to managing your website without paying someone to work full-time in your office.
What kinds of skills should website assistants have?
These talents should correspond to your particular requirements. For example, if you operate an e-commerce business, you’ll need someone who can manage the demands of customer service and website development. If, on the other hand, you mainly operate a WordPress blog, you’ll need someone with WordPress knowledge who can manage any possible code difficulties that may arise as you add new plugins.