What does a virtual assistant for marketing do? How can they help your team? How will your life change when you hire one? Simple questions, but there are many ways to answer them. So, we’ve put together a short guide on how to hire a virtual marketing assistant, including some important facts you should know, how a virtual marketing assistant can help you with basic marketing tasks, and what your business or solo venture might look like after you hire one.

But let’s get specific. What does a virtual marketing assistant do, and do they have the skills to take over complex tasks like your marketing strategy, email marketing, or even digital marketing? Here’s what you’ll need to know.

What an online marketing assistant can do for you

All of this comes down to one basic question: what do you get in exchange for hiring a virtual assistant with experience in marketing? You should expect that they have the marketing experience and skills to fit in well with what you are doing, whether that means doing keyword research or using business development software. But everyone from C-level executives to solo entrepreneurs needs to know that their virtual assistants can handle the following skills:

• Content marketing. Content marketing is an important part of digital marketing, and you need a virtual assistant who knows the basics. They should be able to help you manage a content calendar for social media, help you write blog posts, know the different kinds of content you can make, and be able to do all of this with an eye for detail.
• Researching keywords. Keyword research is so important to digital marketing these days. This helps you find people who are interested in your service. A virtual assistant should know about and know how to use the best keyword research tools.
• Social media management. Social media is as important to your business as any CRM tool you use. So, it’s helpful to have a virtual assistant who can help generate leads through LinkedIn, Twitter, and other sites.
• Strategy. Can your virtual assistant handle your latest marketing campaigns’ overall strategy? A marketing assistant can do more than just help one person. They can be a part of the team that uses their knowledge and experience to make your campaigns work better.
• Project management. To be a good project manager, you often need to be able to lead and keep things organized. But as your team grows, there’s no reason why a virtual marketing assistant can’t help. They can organize marketing activities, help coordinate a remote team, and act as the personal assistant for an entire marketing team.
• Getting leads. How do you get people interested in your business? Is too much time spent on finding new clients instead of doing good work for the ones you already have? If so, hiring a virtual assistant can be a way to “shortcut” your lead generation so you can focus on other parts of your business.

This is just one example of what a skilled virtual marketing assistant can do. Keep in mind that every situation is different, and if you have more specific needs and gaps to fill in your own marketing campaigns, you can always look for a VA who can do that.

Getting a virtual marketing assistant to work for your company

Whether you’re a C-level executive with a big company to run or a solo entrepreneur making your first outside hire, it can be hard to figure out how to hire a virtual assistant (VA) at first. So, we like to give you an idea of what your life might be like after the hire:

• Having someone else do your basic marketing tasks. You might have a well-thought-out marketing plan and just need some extra help to carry it out. A skilled and experienced marketing VA can do just that.
• Taking care of your needs for e-commerce. If you have an online store or have to spend a lot of time keeping up with your e-commerce marketing in other ways, you can find a VA who knows how to handle these things. This gives you more time to think about what you’re selling instead of how you’re selling it.
• Marketing support. Sometimes, the marketing team just needs an extra pair of hands to make their jobs easier. This is true whether you work for a large company or are a freelancer or a solo business owner who needs help with your online marketing. 
• Scheduling your marketing calendar. Between all the social media tasks you have to do and setting up content for the blog, it can be hard to figure out when your organization’s marketing will happen. Having a virtual assistant (VA) keep track of your schedule and remind you when you need to do something can be an important step in the process.

Why Have a Virtual Marketing Assistant to Start With?

So far, we’ve talked about the “what”: what an assistant does and how your business might change if you hire one. But what about “why”? Why should you hire someone to help with marketing remotely when you can always add someone to your team who can come to the office in person? Here are a few ideas.

If you hired someone with marketing experience and specific skills as a full-time member of your team, it might help your marketing efforts, but you’d be surprised by the hidden costs of that move. 

When you hire someone full-time, you have to pay for their benefits, bonuses, and the inefficiency of paying them to be at the office even if they’re not working. It means paying for vacation time and giving someone a long time to learn how your business works.

Compare this to how a VA usually works. They often get to choose their own hours because they can work full-time or part-time. Often, that leads to more work getting done. Some statistics show that full-time workers are only productive for 2 hours and 53 minutes a day. Most of the time, it’s easier and simpler for an employer to hire a VA who works for three full hours per day.

You save money because of how much more you get done. Some numbers show that a virtual assistant can cut operating costs by up to 79% every year. 

In short, a virtual assistant (VA) can be very productive, save a lot of money, and still have the marketing skills and experience your company needs to fit in.

How to Find and Hire a Virtual Marketing Assistant Today

Are you already convinced? You don’t have to think about it anymore. You can get started on the process right away. Here’s how.

• Sign up. We make it simple and easy to sign up for an account and take the first steps toward hiring your first virtual assistant.
• Connect with a staffing manager. It’s not enough to just hire any VA. We want to make sure that your virtual marketing assistant fits you perfectly.
• Choose your VA and hire them. When you sign up with us, you’ll have a lot of choices, and we want to make sure you hire someone who is not only a good fit but also a good fit for your current needs. 
• Onboard your new VA. Now is the time to add a virtual assistant to your system. Make sure they have the skills you need for online marketing and that they can fit into your overall marketing plan.

With VA FLIX, you can start growing your business and cutting costs.

1. Meet your assistant

We’ll ask you some questions to find you a virtual assistant and a backup virtual assistant.

2. Make a workflow

You can make a workflow that fits your life with the help of our platform. You decide how to keep track of time, talk to your assistant, and share files.

3. Start delegating

You can talk to your virtual assistant from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in your own time zone. Start giving tasks to other people and grow as you need to.

FAQs for Hiring a Virtual Marketing Assistant

Hiring a virtual assistant (VA) can be a surprisingly easy way to expand your marketing team in the same way that marketing agencies might, but it helps to know the answers to the most frequently asked questions (FAQs) before you start. Here are the things you’ll need to know.

What is the job of a Virtual Marketing Assistant?

One of the biggest worries for businesses is that a virtual marketing assistant will act like any other executive assistant. Instead of being a part of the marketing team, the virtual marketing assistant will be stuck doing data entry. But a virtual marketing assistant can help with content marketing, marketing support, lead generation, and more, so it’s important that you invite them to be a part of these processes at your company.

What do I do next if I do want to hire a virtual secretary?

It’s simple: Fill out the VA FLIX Contact Form! This is a simple process, but if you find any portion of it difficult, one of our staffing managers will assist you in moving on to the next stage without difficulty.

How do I make sure the virtual assistant knows about my business?

We suggest that you make an “onboarding document.” This document will help your VA know which tasks you want them to do most of the time. Also, you should interact with them. Ask them what they do well. What would they do to help you get more sales leads? Help with your marketing? Your most basic marketing tasks?

What are the limitations of a virtual assistant?

The most obvious is that they won’t be at your office, so you can’t expect them to pick up the morning donuts. The most obvious ones are the physical ones. But in this day and age of project management software and remote workers, it’s not as much of a problem as you might think.

What kinds of jobs should you give a virtual marketing assistant?

Treat them like you would any other employee who deserves your time and attention. But keep in mind that a virtual marketing assistant will have experience in this field. You could hire a virtual assistant with a wider range of skills to help you with office tasks like accounting, bookkeeping, expenses, data entry, and managing your email inbox.

What if my helper makes a mistake?

Would you fire someone for making a single mistake? We don’t suggest that you fire a VA for one, either. There’s nothing wrong with having clear standards and high expectations for someone with a lot of experience in virtual marketing, but as your assistant learns how your business works, we recommend that you be flexible.

What should I look for in a person to help me with marketing?

This question is hard to answer because it is different for every person and every business. You might need someone to act as a kind of project manager for marketing and keep a remote marketing team on track. In other cases, you might give basic marketing tasks to a virtual marketing assistant and put them on a larger team, where they won’t have to deal with scheduling and management. It’s important to make sure that the skills of the assistant you hire match up with what you need.

How hard is it to hire a virtual assistant?

Quite simple, actually. We’ve outlined the steps above, and we’ll even give you a staffing manager to make sure you have everything you need to get started. Keep in mind that a VA’s job is to make your life easier. Don’t see it as a burden. Think of it as the first step toward running your business more on your own.