Marketing isn’t just an important part of the business — it is the business. No business can thrive or succeed without an effective marketing strategy. But creating one isn’t an easy feat because aside from the skills, businesses also have to pay attention to industry trends. 

According to a report from DoubleVerify, global online content consumption has doubled since the pandemic started. This will require entrepreneurs and other creative professionals to increase their daily workload in order to meet this demand. 

Instead of making drastic adjustments to your existing business model to cope with the industry’s demands on marketing, hire a virtual assistant. They’re qualified to solve various marketing problems and support a business’s marketing efforts.  

4 Common Marketing Problems Businesses Face

Marketing is more than just selling products and services — it’s how potential customers see your brand and offerings. Determining the best techniques to use to appeal to your target audience is challenging, which is why many businesses experience these marketing problems:

Lack of Resources

Even starting a business with huge capital doesn’t guarantee you can create an effective marketing strategy. Besides the money, businesses should also have sufficient manpower to carry out different marketing tasks, like content creation and competitor analysis.

Creative Blocks

Even the most creative entrepreneurs need time to replenish their creative juices. However, there’s not enough time for entrepreneurs to “do it all,” putting them at risk of experiencing a creative block. Over time, this can reduce their motivation, resulting in a mediocre or subpar marketing campaign. 

Lack of Focus

It’s common for entrepreneurs to lack focus as marketing involves a lot of moving parts. Not to mention entrepreneurs have to juggle different responsibilities, which can compromise the amount of time and effort they put into building a robust marketing campaign. 

Burn Out

Since entrepreneurs have a long list of to-dos, it’s no surprise they’re more at risk of burnout. This can impact their physical and psychological health, and prevent them from accomplishing essential tasks, like creating an effective marketing campaign. 

What is a Marketing Virtual Assistant and How Can They Help?

A marketing virtual assistant is a professional whose primary responsibility is to support you with your business’s marketing tasks. They possess excellent verbal communication, customer service, and business management skills. 

As opposed to hiring an in-house employee or marketing agency, outsourcing marketing tasks to a virtual assistant is a better option as they’re more affordable, accessible, and flexible. 

Here’s how a marketing virtual assistant can help your business:

Maximize Your Marketing Campaign

So, you have a marketing campaign in mind but don’t have the time to complete and implement it. Don’t let that idea go to waste; let a marketing virtual assistant bring your vision to life. 

Here are some ways a marketing virtual assistant can transform your ideas into a tangible marketing campaign:

• Research your target audience and develop buyer personas
• Find ways to reach new audiences in a manner that they’ll engage with your brand
• Brainstorm unique and relevant ideas for engaging content 
• Analyze past campaigns to determine which strategies can boost ROI
• Revise your existing marketing campaign

Develop Your Brand’s Social Media Presence

A 2022 report from DataReportal reveals that 75% of internet users rely on social media to research products. If your brand isn’t visible on any of the biggest social media platforms, customers won’t even consider you an option and will choose to buy from your competitors.

Hiring a marketing virtual assistant is one of the best ways to improve your brand’s social media presence. They have access to tools that determine the best content to post and the best time to post it. Additionally, they’ll help grow your audience fast by:

• Publishing and sharing content that appeals to your target audience and keep them engaged
• Replying to messages from customers across different platforms
• Running and monitoring paid social media campaigns

Manage Email Marketing Efforts

According to Statista, the number of email users worldwide is expected to grow. In 2022, there were 333.2 billion emails sent and received daily, and the figure is anticipated to increase to 376.4 billion by 2025.

A marketing virtual assistant can manage your email marketing while adapting to the changes that take place in the industry. With a virtual assistant, you’ll have someone experienced to boost your campaign’s open and click-through rates, provide you with new leads, and gain more traffic to your website. 

A marketing virtual assistant can do all of that and more by:

• Building and maintaining an email list
• Creating and sending newsletters to individuals on that list
• Developing promotions that will attract your target audience
• Managing promotional campaigns to maximize ROI
• Responding to requests and inquiries sent by customers through email

Create High-Quality Content

Using high-quality content is essential to your business as it improves your brand reputation and conversion rates. It also positions your business as a leader and expert in the industry. 

Creating compelling, high-quality content is time-consuming and challenging, so entrust a virtual assistant to accomplish this task on your behalf. They can help conquer your content goals by:

• Refreshing and improving content on your online platforms (if there are any)
• Posting content to all of your business’s social media profiles
• Crafting high-quality articles that will capture the interest of your target audience
• Making regular newsletters
• Proofreading written content, such as microsites, landing pages, brochures, and others

Conduct Market Research

When it comes to marketing, knowledge is power — being well-equipped about the industry and marketing trends can help you stay ahead of the competition. But conducting research is an ongoing task, which you probably don’t have time for. 

A marketing virtual assistant can help scale up your business by conducting timely and relevant market research. This type of work will require your virtual assistant to:

• Discover where you can find new customers
• Explore potential growth opportunities
• Evaluating new marketing tools to determine if they can work for your business
• Keeping up to date with what your competitors are doing

Maintain Your Business Website

A 2015 online survey from Verisign revealed that 84% of customers believe a business with a website is more credible than one with several social media pages. This goes to show that having a well-designed and functional website is important to a business’s brand and success. 

After your business publishes a website online, let a marketing virtual assistant take over to maintain it. They can regularly check the site’s features and repair any issues immediately. They can also update it from time to time to comply with the latest algorithms rolled out by different search engines.

Additionally, a marketing virtual assistant can increase the traffic on your website by:

• Updating content to keep the site fresh and accurate
• Curating eye-catching graphics to encourage visitors to stay on the site longer
• Checking links to avoid redirecting visitors to error 404 pages
• Uploading blogs regularly to keep the site informative and engaging

3 Tips Before Hiring a Marketing Virtual Assistant

Before hiring a marketing virtual assistant, it’s important to set up processes and systems first. In this way, you can onboard a virtual assistant and maximize their skills immediately. 

Identify Which Tasks to Delegate

You won’t be able to enjoy the services of a virtual assistant if you always say, “It’s faster if I work on this me” or “I’ll spend more time re-doing tasks when I give them to others.” 

You’ll only see improvements in your business’s marketing strategy if you learn how to delegate tasks to your virtual assistant. Be patient with them and give them time to adjust to the workflow and your business’s culture. It won’t be long before they get the hang of it, and you can enjoy the freedom to innovate and lead. 

Create a System

The productivity of a virtual assistant will be at risk if you hire one without having a system in place. Prevent this from happening by introducing tools that allow you to provide instructions and structure to your virtual assistant. 

Ideally, your virtual assistant should use three systems: one for communication, file sharing, and project management. For example, ClickUp for project management and communication plus Google Workspace for file sharing. These tools bring clarity to your virtual assistant’s day-to-day responsibilities.

Train Your VA

Exerting time and effort to train your virtual assistant is an investment, not an additional expense. Teaching them early will prevent them from committing significant and expensive mistakes. Remember that your business also benefits when your virtual assistant continues to grow professionally.  

Start Finding Your VA 

Hiring a marketing virtual assistant is the best way to go if you want to use an effective marketing strategy without wasting resources. Virtual assistants already have in-depth experience in marketing and can significantly contribute to your business’s marketing efforts.  

Start scouting for the right marketing virtual assistant. The sooner you do this, the sooner your business can enjoy the rewards of having an effective marketing strategy!

What to Read Next

Check out more articles about Virtual Assistants here.