A virtual marketing assistant, a virtual assistant, a business consultant, a social media marketer. Do you ever wonder what the difference is in all these terms being used today? The term virtual assistant is becoming more well-known all the time, but it can apply to a whole lot of disciplines -- web design, copywriting, graphic design, social media work.
A virtual marketing assistant is a bit more specific, but you may not be clear on exactly what it means to be a virtual marketing assistant, as opposed to a more generalized VA. That's a clarification I want to make today, because a virtual marketing assistant offers you something others VAs won't -- guidance.
Are you ready for a virtual marketing assistant?
If you've made it this far, most likely you're an entrepreneur or a small business owner used to being in control. Now, it's time to relinquish some of that control to someone else. If you want to make all your own decisions and only need a task master to implement them, that's fine. You can hire a technical VA who carries out commands. On the other hand, if you're ready to trust in a partner who can understand and express your vision creatively and strategically, so that you can focus on your business and your bottom line, then you want a virtual marketing assistant.
To find a virtual marketing assistant, you can look for someone who is fully specialized in that area and can provide sound marketing strategy, or you can consider hiring a multi-VA firm that offers marketing coaching as one of several services.
How a marketing VA can help you
A virtual marketing assistant can help you with a variety of things, all related to defining your goals, your direction and your timeline.
Social media: While you can hire a VA who does only social media marketing, you will find that most virtual marketing assistants offer to help you set up and maintain a blog, as well as social media platforms such as Facebook, Google-Plus, Twitter and LinkedIn. Social media is quite time-consuming, so having a VA who can help you professionally improve your company visibility is extremely helpful.
Generating leads: A virtual marketing assistant can offer you guidance in the best ways to capture leads on your website, most often from a free gift that you offer with sign-up to an email list. If you want professional consultation about what kind of product to create, how much time and energy to invest in it and how to most effectively set it up on your website, a marketing VA can offer you useful tips. These email sign-ups can then be used for newsletters, promotional emails and other marketing over time.
Online advertising: These days, there are almost too many options to track. Who has time to locate and learn the strategy behind pay-per-click advertising such as Google ads? Not to mention the Facebook and Linked In advertising that is now available. Facebook alone has a variety of advertising styles available. You can set demographics or other criteria to pinpoint your target audience, and you can choose to pay by click or by impression, or you can purchase a "sponsored story" instead of a regular ad. That's a lot to wrap your mind around when you have a full-time job running your own business! A virtual marketing assistant can help strategize your online advertising presence.
At Springboard Designs, we understand that you have a product to sell, customers to serve, budgets to prepare and a long-term vision to fulfill. You're no doubt quite innovative to start or manage your own business. But when it comes to implementing all those ideas strategically, you could very well end up treading water, if not sinking, under the added workload. That's where a virtual marketing assistant can come in to work with you as a partner in meeting your marketing goals and lifting some of the burden from your shoulders.
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