How are business owners getting the maximum value from their Virtual Assistants? What are the most in-demand tasks?
How long would it take for you to learn how to use the advanced skills of your software? If you wanted to make an update to your website, how long would it take you to learn how to do it? If you wanted to have your landing page, marketing, social media, website, and presentation coordinated, do you have someone you could trust to handle it all? What about setting up dynamic email automations?
Virtual Assistants work best when they’re empowered. The more we can take off a solopreneur’s plate, the more value we can provide. If you want to profit from your virtual assistant’s work, you need to look at the most in-demand skills: technology, integrations, website work, email marketing, social media, content creation, and project management.
Some Virtual Assistants even specialize.
I, for example, have special skills for authors. I’ve worked with Woo Commerce and Shopify for retail sales, I’ve set up BookFunnel to deliver Advance Reader Copies (ARCs), ebooks and audiobooks. I’ve set up GoodReads giveaways. Need early reviews? I’ve set up NetGalley, and other services for early reviews. And then I’ve done the social media about the new book. I’ve set up the email marketing automations required to handle all of the above. As an Author Virtual Assistant, these skills dovetail and take a lot of time off the author, so they can focus on booking readings and applying for awards and events.
Another Virtual Assistant friend of mine specializes ghostwriting blogs, proofreading and editing. Yet another VA I know specializes in all things Excel. With a Virtual Assistant particularly well-suited for your specific needs, you’ll get the very best fit with your Virtual Assistant’s Skills.
The most in-demand virtual assistant skills are a peculiar mix of talents.
Most people who hire virtual assistants are spurred to do so because they need help with email marketing. Yes, all of these professionals could learn these skills, but is that the highest use of their time? With that comes newsletter design and creation, email subscriber welcome series, website pop-ups to gain subscribers which might even require lead magnet creation. I love to set up A/B tests on everything. I’ll test serious and friendly subject lines. I’ll test different wording for your Call to Action.
Social media is extremely time-consuming and therefore very much in-demand. Especially if you don’t do it every day. Social media in-demand skills can include strategy, ideation, creation, writing, hashtag research and scheduling. Also, technical knowledge is required, and changing daily. Can you have a URL in an Instagram caption? Does Facebook let you post a still image on Stories? How can you save your Stories for future viewing? Should you treat your Google Business Profile like social media? How do you know when to post? An in-demand social media virtual assistant is learning about the craft every day.
Events. If you want to do a writing retreat, mah jongg tournament or a yoga night, you might want a landing page, some email marketing, some social media to spread awareness, a matching ad to run on your favorite platforms, a way to collect payments on the website, or a way to sell tickets through Eventbrite. Plus any forms, signage, and handouts you need day-of. A Virtual Assistant can do the business of the event, so you can do the hosting of the event.
Websites. Most businesses need to update their websites at least quarterly. Maybe your hours have changed, you’ve added a new service, have new testimonials, or you now have an online scheduler for booking appointments. Maybe you want a refresh with twenty or thirty little adjustments. Maybe you want to start fresh with an entire soup to nuts rebrand. With a VA, you can have one trusted person working with you through these adjustments. No big web developer contracts, no hefty price tags. Just pay for the work you need done. Also, if someone is familiar with your website and business, their primed to do some basic, low-hanging Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improvements.
The Cost Benefits of Having a Virtual Assistant
What’s a Virtual Assistant’s value? Well, as a specialist in what you do, does it make sense for you to spend 90 minutes learning how to set up a conditional logic customer survey? No, because your time is valuable. You’re the revenue generator. The more time you’re able to use your talents, the better. If you take two discovery calls per week, book one on average, and have a Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) of $4500, you should never, ever be writing your own blogs, finding your own stock photos, or learning how to set up a moving website banner. If you could increase your Discovery Calls to three per week, that could be a 50% chance of getting another $4500 customer. Or you might be someone who benefits from industry events, but never has the time to go. With a Virtual Assistant, you can make the time to bring in more revenue.
What is Fueling the Popularity of Virtual Assistants?
Rapidly changing software, website trends, and social media environments make in-demand Virtual Assistants indispensable. A Virtual Assistant who does social media will keep up with these changes. But no busy business owner should be wondering if you can post a six-minute video on YouTube Shorts, or if you can start SMS messaging with the phone numbers you have in your CRM. (No, and only if you have explicit permission.) It would be bonkers for a business owner to try to manage all of this themselves. And this is becoming more and more evident as advanced services roll out. Canva used to be simply photos, graphics and text. Now it’s captioning videos, using AI to generate royalty-free music that you can use in your ads, and making shocking photo edits once only available to Adobe Photoshop subscribers. Emails used to be simple one-messageThings are moving quickly…and it’s only getting faster.
Three Key Takeaways
- You can’t do it all. And more importantly, it would be pound-foolish to do so.
- A Virtual Assistant costs less than a lost opportunity for you to get a new client.
- One trusted person handling your loose ends, from technical work to stock photo selection, will give you better results in less time.
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