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Why Your Business Needs a Virtual Assistant for Marketing

Every entrepreneur knows how tiring it can be to run a small business. There are constantly things to do all the time, every day. Even when you’ve technically “clocked out,” it isn’t uncommon for your mind to still be at work, mentally going over the things that still need to be completed. Oftentimes, many of these are mundane, time-consuming tasks that are filling your hours, making it more difficult to do things like actually run your business.

Even so, those tasks do need to get done. Why not hire a virtual assistant? These professionals are skilled in a variety of areas, from basic administrative work to bookkeeping. One particular area they may be able to make quite a big deal of difference in is marketing.

Quite a few digital marketing tasks do not require the skill of a professional marketer, especially if you are a small business that does not yet have the need for a designated marketing team. A virtual assistant could aid you with some digital marketing tasks so that you have time to spend on more demanding areas. Read on to understand more about the benefits and why you should hire a virtual assistant to help with your digital marketing tasks.

How is a virtual assistant beneficial?

No matter what kind of business you are, you need digital marketing. These online marketing campaigns are ways that companies can grow and expand, and it’s important for you to get on board.

Depending on the type of digital marketing you are going for, you may find it necessary to have promotions, manage social media content, work with partners, and do much more. It is possible to automate some things — the scheduling of social media posts, for instance — but as your business grows, your marketing efforts will have to as well.

Virtual assistants are contract workers that typically work by the hour, meaning you don’t need to pay for benefits, training, tax, work space, or much else. All you need to pay for is the hours they worked. Additionally, they’ve probably already got some training or experience in terms of digital marketing tasks, so you won’t have to do much other than briefing.

With a virtual assistant, you can reduce the length of your to-do list significantly and spend more time on the things that matter. He or she will continue to make sure your necessary marketing tasks still get done while minimizing the bother of training, paying, and managing a full-time in-house assistant.

How can a virtual assistant help me with marketing?

Just about everyone uses social media and other digital platforms nowadays. However, it isn’t just anyone who can run a good social media marketing campaign. Digital marketing requires some degree of expertise.

Though a virtual assistant definitely won’t be as technically skilled as a professional marketer, you may be able to find one who has some amount of skill and experience and has a good grasp of inbound marketing. They may have worked with other businesses that required some digital marketing work and have developed skills that they will be able to apply to your business.

Here are a few specific marketing tasks a virtual assistant can take over:

Email Marketing

A lot of small businesses choose to regularly send out newsletters to a mailing list in order to keep in contact with their audience. It may be to give them informative material to read, or even to offer special promotions exclusive only to them. Many companies choose to use email management systems such as MailChimp.

Though software does make it easier, email marketing can still be pretty time-consuming. A virtual assistant can save you quite a bit of time by scheduling your email newsletters, formatting content to make it attractive, and maybe even writing some content. Many of them may already have experience with email management software and will able to do it quickly and efficiently.

Content Marketing

It’s important for your business to produce content in order to enhance your brand presence and encourage sales. That said, it is another one of those time-consuming tasks. You need to put together quality, interesting content to draw your target market in, so it’s important not to neglect it. Does this mean you have to either hire a content writer or add that task to the end of your extensive to-do list? Nope! Opt for a virtual assistant.

Some virtual assistants have had experience writing content for business that will drive sales. And, if content writing is a priority for you, find one of these people. Your blog posts, social media captions, newsletters, and email can be written by a virtual assistant, which will clear up a significant amount of time for you. This will do wonders for your content marketing efforts.

SEO

Search engine optimization is one of the more time-consuming tasks of digital marketing. It requires constant attention. Your keywords have to be reevaluated, content has to be optimized, and your website and other social media channels have to as well.

A virtual assistant trained in SEO tasks will be able to contribute to website traffic growth, generating high-quality leads, and potentially driving sales. You don’t want just anyone to visit your site — you want people who want you.

Social Media

Most businesses have several social media channels they use to connect to their audience. It’s an incredibly useful tool, but one that requires constant attention. A virtual assistant could help you create an appealing business profile on different social media platforms (or to improve upon existing ones) and keep it updated with content for your audience to enjoy. They may also be able to continue to engage with your audience, making your customers and potential customers feel valued — increasing brand loyalty.

Conclusion

Digital marketing is not a core business activity, but it is definitely an important business task. It is one that cannot be neglected. However, for small business owners, these tasks can be extremely time-consuming.

With a virtual assistant, you will be able to free your schedule for the things that you really need to do while knowing that your digital marketing efforts aren’t being neglected. You won’t be spending a huge sum on additional in-house staff, but you’ll still have someone who helps to better the business and drive sales.

9 Things a Virtual Assistant Can Do Better (and Cheaper) Than You

Virtual assistants can be incredibly helpful to small businesses. Oftentimes little things get
neglected, like thank you cards for incredible suppliers or new clients. Besides those little things though, there are quite a lot of other tasks that virtual assistants can take on to free up your schedule. Here are a few:

1. Bookkeeping: One of the basic tasks that virtual assistants can take off your hands is bookkeeping. They can keep track of bills, invoices, receipts, and lots of other things so that you never have to fall behind on payments.
   

2. Online Research: Though you may not be ready to hire a dedicated marketing or business analyst, you may find great value in having a virtual assistant doing some business research for you. They can look for information on competitors, look at new products in the industry, and even do background checks on applicants or other individuals coming into contact with your business.
   

3. Database Entry: Data entry is incredibly dull, but essential. Don’t let the mundane task of updating client information fill up your time. Simply let your virtual assistant know exactly what you need, and hurry off to your more pressing business meeting.
   

4. PowerPoint Presentations: Need a PowerPoint presentation for an important meeting? Have a virtual assistant transform your data into a beautiful, professional presentation.
   

5. Email Management: At times, email can be an incredible waste of time. A virtual assistant can filter your inbox, marking the ones that need immediate attention, the ones that can be dealt with later, and even deal with basic replies by themselves. Of course, this requires some trust and training, so spend some time with your virtual assistant before you have them take care of your email.
   

6. Social Tasks: Those little extra things do make a difference in professional relationships. Send out little thank you notes or gift baskets for major suppliers or clients with the help of a virtual assistant.
   

7. Travel Research: Got a business trip coming up? You don’t have to deal with managing your trip yourself. With a virtual assistant, you can simply have someone book your flight, your hotel, and even send you itineraries for your journey.
   

8. Meeting Management: Another big time waster is meeting management. A virtual assistant can schedule and manage your calendar for you, ensuring you don’t schedule anything on top of another obligation.
   

9. Industry Research: As a business owner, it’s important for you to stay on top of industry news and trends. However, it can be time consuming to look for and curate all the information yourself. You can hire a virtual assistant to keep track of those major industry changes for you, ensuring you never have to smile cluelessly when a client or another person brings it up.

Name one person that does everything themselves

Name one person that does everything themselves. Got that name? If so, how successful are they? Are they happy or frustrated? Thriving or surviving? Growing or plateauing?

Contrary to popular belief, a team of one can only accomplish so much. As the to-do list grows, so does the stress, time constraints, and the potential for error. Be intentional about creating a team that will support you and your endeavor. Cultivate that trust so you can share the load and operate at your highest potential.

Be intentional about creating a team that will support you and your endeavor. 

Your team doesn’t necessarily have to consist of many people. Take a hint from one of the greats, Batman. He relied heavily on his trusty butler, Alfred Pennyworth. But when he needed a little bit more, he knew he could rely on the entire Justice League, the team of superheroes who saved the world together.

It’s best not to do live on a deserted island. Whether it is one extra set of hands or a large team you need, you can trust My BTLR to be a support structure.

Allow us the pleasure of joining your team and running alongside you. Contact us today to find out how we can help you.

How a virtual assistant can save your start-up time and money

When you start a new business, it is easy to get overwhelmed by all the things you have to do. You’ve got to produce products or provide services, fill orders, ship packages, create content, and maybe even send out a weekly newsletter.

Chances are you’re trying to take care of everything by yourself and that's great for keeping costs down. Your business may be growing fast, but it isn’t quite at the point where you need to employ a couple more people full-time. Plus, when you hire a new person, you’ve got to train them. That’s going to take even more time. How are you going to find time with all the things you already have to do? You may be able to do it all, but chances are you’ll also burn out and feel overwhelmed by everything you have to do.

Don’t let your business suffer the consequences. A virtual assistant may be just what you need! These individuals can lift some of the burden off your shoulders by taking care of those boring, but necessary, administrative tasks so you can put your time and energy into really running your business.

How exactly does a virtual assistant help my business?

Client Relations

A virtual assistant can make the dreary task of getting back to clients a little bit easier. They can help you filter emails, voicemails, and other messages from clients and prioritize them. Any useless messages can be deleted, and the remainders can be sorted by urgency. That way, you’ll know which clients have important messages that need immediate replies, and which ones can wait for a better time. A virtual assistant can also help schedule meetings and keep you on top of any events you have scheduled for the week. Why plan yourself when they could do it for you?

Administrative Services

Virtual assistants do a lot more than schedule meetings. They can do lots of administrative work — document creation, file type conversion, travel arrangements, and other things that are too mundane for you to be doing yourself. It’s a great way to enjoy an organized business so you can spend your time focusing on the business’s core activities. Virtual assistants can also do research for your business, searching for cheaper suppliers or ways to streamline the production process.

Content Creation

If you’ve got social media for your business and a blog area on your website (which you should), a virtual assistant can aid you in creating content to publish. They can also properly format any content from external sources and write good captions for posts online. After content has been published a VA can also reply to comments and interact with your audience.

Social Media

Just about every business has social media accounts nowadays. It’s a great tool to reach and interact with customers. However, it takes a lot of time and effort to manage it. With a virtual assistant, you won’t have to worry about it. They can create content, schedule posts, and interact with your community online. They can also assess the effectiveness of each channel and help you determine which should receive your main focus.

Marketing

Marketing is an essential business activity for every company. You have to know how to present your goods and services to the audience you are trying to reach. Most virtual assistants are well-versed with different marketing tools — and they can help you market effectively. This may be through press releases, social media, influencers, and even newsletters.

Basic Website Help

If your business isn’t ready for a full-blown designer website, a virtual assistant may be able to help you set up something simple first. Most are knowledgeable about the basics of WordPress — web hosting, installing themes and plugins, posting content, and a lot of other things. He or she can help you develop a web design that is attractive and effective so your customers can have a great user experience on your site. Virtual assistants can also help you get started on SEO so you rank higher on search engine result pages, securing you a greater amount of traffic and therefore greater leads and sales.

Save Money With Part-time Help

Generally, virtual assistants don’t work full-time. Rather, they work when they are needed, so you won’t have to pay for a full-time employee (including wages, benefits, office equipment, deductions, etc.) if you aren’t even sure you have enough to keep them busy for the whole day. All you’ve got to pay for is the work they perform.

How much time do you spend booking a flight?

A virtual assistant can help you with your travel planning and booking.

It's easy to book a flight. However, over 50% of people spend more than an hour booking a simple flight. That's a lot of time. In fact, according to a study by Expedia, travel package bookers visited 38 travel websites 45 days prior to booking travel. That's a lot more than an hour.

Save time booking travel

You don't have to be a corporate executive to enjoy the benefits of a travel manager. A virtual assistant can manage your travel instead and save you time. She can research, plan, price and book your flight. Whether you're traveling for business or pleasure, your assistant can take care of the details. She can also have your rental car waiting at your destination airport, reserve your hotel, and plan your itinerary.

Get the best prices

How many times have you researched a flight to find the price has gone up significantly by the time you book it? Most of us don't have time to monitor the prices in real time, so let your virtual assistant do this for you. She can work with your preferred travel agency, book it online, or deal directly with your preferred airline. Plus, your assistant can manage your frequent flyer account to ensure you get the seat and meal options you want, ensure you get credit for miles flown, and even request the coveted upgrade!

Support while traveling

Unlike travel agencies that simply give you options on trips, a virtual assistant knows you. Not only can she handle the booking details, she's also behind the scenes for your entire trip. If anything goes awry, she can make on the spot changes and get you back on schedule. Want to make a change during the trip? Done. Book restaurant reservations on the fly — a virtual assistant can do that too!

Leave your travel details to a virtual assistant and enjoy your trip. Call My BTLR today to find out how easy it is.

What is a Virtual Assistant?

A virtual assistant can help your get your business up and running.

Entrepreneurs start with a lofty dream. You're going to mix things up, change the business world as we know it. However, once you get started you begin to realize how many seemingly mundane, boring things you have to do to actually get the business up and running. There are a lot of administrative tasks a business requires that may keep you from making your dream come to life. Why deal with the daily drudgery when you could hire a virtual assistant?

What exactly is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant is someone who takes cares of administrative duties for you remotely. They can reply to emails, do data entry, do website administrative work, and even handle your social media channels. Many of these people work on a contract or freelance basis, meaning you get to take advantage of the flexibility by only hiring them for as long as you need them.

Are you still unsure of whether your business could benefit from a virtual assistant? Read on to learn more about what a virtual assistant can offer.

You’ll have more time to do other things

Most entrepreneurs hate the lengthy meetings, drawn-out phone calls, and mundane emails piling up in their inboxes. It can easily take up a lot of your time, meaning you don’t have as much time to focus on your core business activities. A virtual assistant frees up your time, allowing you to do so.

They’ve got expertise

Virtual assistants are becoming more and more widespread and the field is becoming more competitive. As a result, many have developed other skills — social media management, marketing, copywriting, or maybe even basic accounting. If your business has yet to require full-time employees for these tasks, you may find that a virtual assistant is just what you need. Plus, you won’t have to think about tax, employee benefits, or yearly contracts.

You’ll be able to entrust more tasks to them as time goes on

In the beginning, you’ll probably have your virtual assistant carry out simple duties — email management, customer service management, or bookkeeping. If they perform well, you’ll find that as time goes on, you’ll be able to entrust more complex and important duties to them, further freeing up your time to do other things.

You can strategize and grow your business

Chances are you started your business doing everything yourself, maybe with a person or two by your side. This is a great way to cut costs, but it also can be stressful and leave less time for long-term thinking. Having a virtual assistant take care of time-consuming but otherwise mundane tasks gives you time and energy to put some thought into where you want your business to go, and how you can take it there.

Ready to hire a virtual assistant? My BTLR can help. Contact us today to learn more about our USA based virtual assistants and how to get started.

Jack of all tasks, master of none?

We all can't be great at everything. Delegate the tasks your not good at and get more done.

Do you constantly find yourself saying, “I can do it,” or even, “it’s easier if I just do it myself?” While it may seem noble to do it all, you are ultimately decreasing productivity and increasing stress by taking on every task, big and small. Instead, consider adopting the habit of delegation.

Why delegate?

It forces you to prioritize

Before starting a task, ask yourself, “is this the highest and best use of my time?” If the answer is no, delegate the task to your assistant. Your time is valuable. Once it’s spent, there are no refunds! Focus on what you specialize in and allow your assistant to focus on more generic tasks.

It increases efficiency

By delegating your to-do list, you are able to spread the weight of the day. No matter what you think, you cannot do it all. With everyone taking a piece of the pie, one person is not burdened with all the stress, pressure, and headaches of an overcrowded calendar and pressing deadlines. You can be more effective and efficient in your work.

You can work on your business instead of in your business

Whether you are a business owner, a manager, or busy parent, your time is best spent on planning and strategy related tasks that will promote growth and efficiency. Focus on what is most pressing and allow others to focus on the rest.

Today is a great day to practice delegating! Consider a virtual assistant from to help you tackle your to-dos and take a load off your plate. Do what only you can do and delegate the rest.

Too busy? Try a virtual assistant.

Not enough time in the day? A virtual assistant can help you get your time back and be more productive.

When your business is growing, sometimes you may find you need a little extra help. However, employing another person full-time costs a lot of money and ends up reducing your net profits. You may not even need enough help for a full-time position. Do you really have to wait until your workload doubles to get an assistant?

Thanks to technology, you don’t! A virtual assistant may be just what you need. Here are some reasons why you should give it a try.

The hiring process is much faster

Finding someone you trust to lend you a hand can take quite a bit of time. Before anything else, you’ve got to advertise the available position. After you’ve received word from applicants, you have to go through the candidates and schedule interviews. If you’ve got a few you like, you can narrow down the list until you eventually find the one you hire.

Despite it being quite a process, it’s something you have to do if you want to hire additional staff. And even after you’ve made the hiring decision, you have to train them to perform the tasks you want them to do.

The process of hiring a virtual assistant is much simpler, and you can skip many of the things you have to do otherwise. You could be getting help much quicker.

It saves you money

You don’t spend nearly as much on a virtual assistant as you would have to with an in-house assistant. If you don’t have enough to keep them busy for a full day, you could even hire them by the hour for a couple specific things.

Hiring one assistant to help you with a great variety of things may require you to train them for all those tasks. The alternative is to hire several specialized virtual assistants who are skilled in the activities you need them to do. Oftentimes it will save you money in the long run.

Since virtual assistants are not full-time employees, you won’t have to pay benefits and other employee overhead costs you would if you hired a person in-house. This saved amount adds up over time.

Someone else can take care of the routine work

Routine work such as replying to emails and scheduling social media posts can be done by anyone. Why spend your valuable time on it? Specialized employees are usually the only ones who can carry out certain activities. Allow them to focus on their specializations by outsourcing the routine work to a virtual assistant.

This goes both ways. There are some things your employees may not be able to do. Rather than spend time training and orienting them on how to do it, have a virtual assistant complete the task so your projects can progress in a timely manner.

There won’t be any workplace drama

It isn’t all that uncommon for you to hire someone and just not get along with them. There are so many personalities in this world — and, there are bound to be a few you or your employees just don’t get along with. Sometimes this clash of personalities can result in workplace drama. Rather than having to sort out petty fights or arguments among your employees, hire a virtual assistant. They won’t be showing up to work in the same office building, so there probably won’t be much conflict. That isn’t to say workplace drama will never ensue — the risk will just be greatly reduced.

When your business is growing, you want to keep up with the growth. A virtual assistant could help you do just that and more. Giving a virtual assistant a try could be a business game changer for you.