Marketing Guide for Beginners, Pros, and Business Owners virtual assistant hire philippines va flix vaflix VA FLIX

Marketing Guide for Beginners, Pros, and Business Owners

Large and small companies have one thing in common: marketing is their driving force. Regardless of how you handle marketing for your business, it is the lifeblood of a healthy business, ensuring that clients continue to become aware of and patronize your company.

However, marketing may be a beast, particularly if you don’t consider yourself a marketing expert. There are hundreds of channels to occupy, a limitless number of campaigns to create, and tens of thousands of tools to master. It is simple to get overwhelmed.

Whether you’re just beginning to construct a marketing operation for your firm or you’re drowning in the marketing activities you currently oversee, a virtual assistant (VA) is a viable alternative for streamlining your workflow.

In our opinion, the majority of individuals fall into these two categories:

  • BEGINNERS, who are just beginning to dabble in marketing and are so confused by the alternatives, channels, and tools that they don’t know where to begin.
  • EXPERIENCED MARKETERS, They already handle too many marketing activities across too many platforms.

We have separated our marketing advice for each of these categories below. We explain how a virtual marketing assistant may aid in both scenarios and provide guidance on how to operate successfully with a VA, as well as provide marketing management advice for each situation.

Tips to help get your marketing operation off the ground

It’s easy to become mired down in the details of each channel, social media platform, email automation service, and more when you’re just starting started with marketing for your company. But at this moment, you should concentrate on learning and experimenting.

In the end, there is no silver bullet in marketing; it all depends on what works for your company and clients. Even for seasoned marketers, there is always an element of trial-and-error.

Listed below are a few suggestions that will assist you in making the most of this period and putting your marketing efforts to work as soon as feasible.

Tip #1: Learn from your competitors

In the future, the majority of your marketing choices will be based on historical data about your clients and your previous marketing efforts; yet, you now have no previous marketing campaigns from which to learn. Therefore, we urge that you learn from your current competition. (For the sake of this discussion, “competitor” refers to anybody vying for the attention and wallets of your target clients.)

Unless your firm is really specialized, you have rivals on social media, creating content, and conducting PPC advertising. These marketing initiatives are chances for you to discover what is effective in terms of reaching the clients you and your competitor are pursuing. By examining their marketing strategies, you may determine the channels your clients use, as well as the language and forms that appeal to them.

If it seems intimidating, it need not be.

Don’t trust us? If evaluating competition efforts is now too time-consuming, you may delegate this task to a virtual marketing assistant. During the first phases of marketing and competitive research, a virtual assistant may be an important second pair of hands:

  • Identify rivals to investigate Collect and organize the social media postings, content pieces, email campaigns, and other marketing assets of competitors for research.
  • Analyze the marketing strategies of your competitors to identify trends and choose where to invest your marketing money.

Tip #2: Focus on one or two channels at a time

While your comparative marketing investigation may find rivals who are executing campaigns across many channels, we do not advocate jumping in with both feet. Instead, you should concentrate your first marketing efforts on one or two channels with the greatest potential for success.

Thus, you may develop your messaging and marketing abilities without overextending your time or resources. In addition, if you achieve success with one marketing channel, it is easy to replicate that success with other channels.

Tip #3: Start with no or low budget tactics and channels

Regarding budgets, we are aware that your marketing budget does not yet approach Apple’s. Therefore, it is essential to begin your marketing efforts with no- or low-cost channels and strategies. This affords you more flexibility and capacity for experimenting with new things and learning as you go.

Tip #4: Block off time to put on your marketer hat

Steady marketing is one of the greatest methods to assure consistent sales, but it may be tempting to neglect marketing initiatives during busy periods. Who has time to think about acquiring new consumers when they barely have time to handle their current clientele?

However, it is crucial to maintain a steady flow of consumers and clients, which is difficult to achieve when marketing is inconsistent. Therefore, it is essential to consistently schedule time to don your marketing hat. Schedule it in your schedule and adhere to it.

Tip #5: Measure, measure, measure

Measuring the efficacy of your marketing activities is crucial at all times, but especially during the period of learning and experimenting. Only via accurate monitoring and reporting can you determine if your marketing activities are effective in generating new business.

You’ll also need a method for determining which efforts are generating that business, so you can double down on the strategies that work and avoid wasting resources on those that don’t.

Another area where a virtual marketing assistant may be of great use. A virtual assistant can consolidate data from all of your marketing channels into a single dashboard. They can construct Google Analytics reports and dashboards that measure everything from traffic to engagement to conversions for each marketing channel, and they can provide you with frequent updates.

Resources to help you jumpstart your marketing

If you’re still uncertain about entering into marketing, the following resources have all the knowledge you’ll need, from high-level explanations to specific methods.

HubSpot’s marketing blog

The marketing blog on HubSpot is the go-to resource for all things marketing, from beginning tutorials to expert marketing guidance.

CoSchedule’s Free Marketing Templates

CoSchedule has compiled roughly one hundred free marketing templates in a single blog post. There are templates for everything, including reporting, strategy, and editorial planning.

Quick Sprout’s beginner guide to online marketing

If you are still feeling overwhelmed and uncertain of where to begin with internet marketing, Quick Sprout’s advice is designed to help you get started.

edX online marketing courses

When you need more than a textual guide can provide, edX’s online marketing courses are an excellent option. They provide courses on every element of marketing, including several from prestigious institutions such as Babson College and Boston University.

DigitalMarketer videos

If you prefer to study via videos, DigitalMarketer’s YouTube channel provides films on a variety of marketing subjects with practical lessons to help you get started.

How a VA can help get your marketing moving

If you’re perusing the materials and advice listed above and thinking, “I don’t have time for that!” You’re not alone.

We are aware that launching a brand-new marketing operation from scratch may need a great deal of initial labor and what might seem like a substantial time commitment, not to mention weekly or monthly maintenance.

In such cases, a virtual marketing assistant (or VA) might be useful.

A significant portion of launching a marketing campaign entails doing research and establishing systems and procedures. And those are two duties that a VA can take off your plate with ease. In general, here are a few marketing areas where our VAs often assist:

  • Email marketing
  • Social media marketing
  • Content publishing
  • Prospecting & research

Virtual marketing assistant use cases

Here are a handful of the unique use cases that our virtual assistants have worked on with clients:

  • Researching the content of rivals through email, social media, blogs, and more. For instance, a VA FLIX VA examines the Instagram accounts of companies comparable to yours and takes notes on the sort of material that generates likes, comments, and shares.
  • Content uploading and publication. If you have a pre-written blog article, for instance, our VAs may upload it to WordPress and publish (or schedule) the piece to become live. Additionally, they may publish and plan your social media postings.
  • Marketing content. When a new blog article goes online, for instance, a virtual assistant may share it on social media and schedule emails to promote it.

Tips for streamlining your ongoing marketing efforts

Researching the content of rivals through email, social media, blogs, and more. For instance, a VA FLIX VA examines the Instagram accounts of companies comparable to yours and takes notes on the sort of material that generates likes, comments, and shares.

Content uploading and publication. If you have a pre-written blog article, for instance, our VAs may upload it to WordPress and publish (or schedule) the piece to become live. Additionally, they may publish and plan your social media postings.

Marketing content When a new blog article goes online, for instance, a virtual assistant may share it on social media and schedule emails to promote it.

Tip #1: Let automation be your friend

Numerous components of marketing may be automated nowadays. You may write and schedule social media posts in bulk for the next month. You may construct automatic email campaign triggers. You may create reporting dashboards that automatically get data from many sources in real time.

Find a marketing stack that works for you, and then let it to handle the day-to-day details. Consider marketing tools first for:

  • Email marketing automation
  • Social media scheduling
  • PPC bidding and ad retargeting
  • Reporting and attribution

Tip #2: Focus on 3-5 channels that are already performing well

Sometimes, marketing overload occurs when your efforts are spread too thin over hundreds of platforms and channels. It’s natural to want your company to be wherever your consumers are, but as a one-person marketing team, this is unsustainable.

Instead, narrow your emphasis to a few channels. You should now be able to determine which marketing channels generate the most revenue for your company. Limit yourself to the top three to five and devote all of your time, resources, and money to them. You may always add extra channels if you have additional time or hands.

Tip #3: Streamline reporting with a dashboard

Reporting is one part of marketing that may easily consume many hours each week. Frequently, understanding your marketing effectiveness requires going from one channel’s native data to another, and so on.

By consolidating your important marketing KPIs into a single dashboard (that automatically gathers data from several platforms), you can reduce these hours to a 5-minute check-in. You may create custom reports in Google Analytics or use an other reporting solution (like Databox).

Tip #4: Work with a VA to keep things moving

Even if you have done all possible to optimize your marketing process, you may still run out of time. In such cases, a virtual marketing assistant may be a useful resource.

As long as the procedure can be recorded and repeated, virtual assistants (VAs) may be taught to do almost any work. Since your marketing efforts are already established, a virtual assistant may certainly manage their maintenance.

(More on all the marketing responsibilities a virtual assistant may relieve you of in the next section!)

How a VA can help streamline your marketing

If delegating a portion of your marketing tasks to a virtual marketing assistant seems incredible, we agree. In our experience, however, many company owners are unsure of what dealing with a VA really entails. Here are a few examples of how a virtual assistant might simplify your marketing efforts.

  • Creating and publishing social media posts (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, you name it!)
  • Editing and scheduling blog posts
  • Promoting blog posts and other content across social media, online communities, and more
  • Scheduling out social media posts in advance
  • Scheduling out emails in advance
  • Cutting and uploading videos to YouTube and elsewhere
  • Managing your Patreon account
  • Pulling data from various channels into one central report

Tips for working with a virtual marketing assistant

After deciding to hire a VA to assist with marketing, you may be unsure of the ideal method to collaborate with them. In the end, working with a VA should make your life simpler and your to-do list shorter; but, these benefits rely on your ability to collaborate effectively. Here are some suggestions to make it a reality.

  • Consider a virtual assistant who has familiarity with the channels and technologies you use: Hiring someone with prior experience can drastically reduce the amount of time required to teach your new virtual assistant to perform your marketing chores.
  • Provide your VA with context — the rationale behind techniques and assets: Providing your virtual assistant with greater information about the marketing strategy behind your efforts will only improve their performance.
  • Remember that you are the industry and consumer expert: While your virtual assistant may perform monotonous tasks, it is not their responsibility to choose your marketing’s budget or approach.
  • Create a secure central repository for the logins and passwords they will require: Put everything they’ll need to manage your marketing in an easily accessible primary hub.
  • Keep a pulse on your marketing with frequent check-ins: While a virtual assistant (VA) might allow set-it-and-forget-it marketing, it’s ideal that you keep a pulse on what’s happening. Schedule frequent check-ins and have your virtual assistant provide performance reports (in Google Analytics or elsewhere) so that you can monitor progress.

Tools to help you and your VA with marketing

When it comes to optimizing your marketing and collaborating with a virtual marketing assistant, a vast array of tools and technologies are available to assist. The following are our suggestions for:

  • Social media scheduling tools
  • Task and project management tools
  • Email marketing software
  • Content marketing tools
  • Marketing reporting software

Social media scheduling

Task and project management

Email marketing

Content marketing

Marketing reporting

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