In this digital age, virtual assistants (VAs) have been taking the business world by storm. There aren’t many business owners who have not at least considered the possibility of hiring a VA. Then begs the question: Is hiring a virtual assistant right for you?
They say is takes a village to raise your baby, and your business is your baby. Virtual assistants can be an integral part of your village, taking care of behind-the-scenes tasks and letting you focus on the big picture items.
Here are the top five ways a virtual assistant can help your business:
1. Organizing the Chaos
As a business owner or executive, there seems to be no end to the to-dos, phone calls and emails. People are constantly trying to get your attention, and it feels like it’s all you can do to stay afloat; either checking out every communication in hopes it will be a great lead or throwing up your hands in surrender.
A virtual assistant can easily take over your communications, filter through and respond to the non-essentials and present you with needs requiring your personal attention in a well-organized and prioritized manner.
2. Conducting Online Research
It’s no secret the internet has a wealth of information when it comes to business development, yet it often leaves you susceptible to losing half your day with no time left for implementation and taking away valuable time from other tasks you need to grow your business.
While you are out making valuable business decisions, your virtual assistant can be researching your target market and competition; also assisting in managing your business development prospects, network introductions and business opportunities. Whatever your needs, a VA can conduct the research, analyze the data, present the information to you in an organized manner; all while opening doors and helping you use the information to your advantage.
3. Facilitating Customer Care and Support
As a business owner, you can only juggle so many things at one time. It can often be easy to overlook one of the most critical aspects of repeat business: your customers.
A little goes a long way when it comes to customer support, and a virtual assistant is the perfect person to help expedite questions and requests, collect positive feedback/reviews for your business, schedule notes, gifts and other personal touches. It is also important to consistently deliver content to your customers, existing and prospective; a VA is the perfect person to manage your CRM and proofread, or even draft your weekly or monthly newsletters and promotions.
4. Managing Social Media Marketing
While the digital age brings a wealth of avenues to reach your customers and prospects, anyone who has attempted social media planning knows it takes a lot of time and research. Which platforms to post on? How often do I post? What content can I share? How do I create content?
All of the above are very good questions a virtual assistant can help with. As established earlier in this post, VAs are great resources for research and organization. Additionally, a virtual assistant is often gifted in content and graphic creation, able to take your social media game from scattered to intentional and meaningful to your bottom line. Your VA also has time to go into these social media platforms and interact with your audience and others, bringing more views and higher value to your pages.
5. Tackling the Tedious
You know those jobs no one on your team likes to do? The easy data entry that frustrates you to no end and feels like your life is wasting away at your desk.
Not only are virtual assistants capable of completing these draining tasks, many thrive in this sort of work. Handing data entry tasks to a VA is similar to handing candy to a baby. Additionally, your virtual assistant is probably able to do it faster and cleaner than you are because they are able to find joy in it.
Many virtual assistants have a variety of task expertise proven to be valuable assets to your business. Hiring someone virtually often allows greater flexibility for both you and them, enabling you to get more done without hiring another full-time staff member. At The Inside Story, you can hire a team of rockstar VAs with varying expertise for the same or less than it would cost to add another member to your team. Inquire about a Virtual Assistance Team today.
Whether it’s getting you away from the tasks leaving you frustrated and taking up all your time or getting you out from behind your desk and into your community to build relationships, take a moment to consider how having a VA taking care of these areas (and more) would be helpful to your business.