The Ultimate List Of Tasks to Outsource to Virtual Assistants
Feb 3, 2023 • 13 min read
Virtual assistants allow you to focus on what you do best — running your business — while outsourcing some of the repetitive, mundane tasks. If you’re thinking about hiring a virtual assistant yourself, here are some things to keep in mind:
- What type of task would benefit most from being outsourced?
There are plenty of tasks that don’t require much skill or expertise that could easily be handled by a virtual assistant. For example, you might want to outsource customer support, social media management, email management, email marketing, administrative tasks, event planning, graphic design, writing, data entry, research, proofreading, project management, web development, video editing, photography, accounting, bookkeeping, inventory control, sales, and more.
- Is it possible to find a good fit for my needs?
If you’re looking to outsource specific tasks, make sure to narrow down your list based on what you’d like to accomplish. You’ll likely end up working with a variety of people depending on your needs. Some people prefer to work alone, while others thrive in a collaborative environment. Others prefer to communicate via text, while still others enjoy face-to-face communication.
- How will I know whether or not I’m getting value for money?
It’s important to understand how you’ll measure success when you outsource certain tasks. Will you track the number of hours spent each week? Or will you simply look to see if the job gets done well? Once you’ve narrowed down your list, start searching for potential candidates. Make sure you ask questions such as “What does this person charge?” and “How long have they been doing this?”
Having a virtual assistant (VA) can help you out with many things. You don’t have to hire one full-time employee to do everything for you. Instead, you can use a VA to handle tasks like social media management, article creation, data entry, research, etc. They’re perfect for people who are busy running businesses and want to free up some time to focus on growing their online presence.
If you already have employees, it might make sense to assign certain jobs to VAs to keep everyone productive while saving you time and money. For example, you could give your marketing manager the task of creating blog posts and press releases. Your customer support team member could take care of answering questions on Facebook and Twitter. And your web designer could update your site’s design and layout.
Hiring a VA won’t cost much money. Depending on what type of job you assign to them, VAs usually charge anywhere from $5-$20 per hour. If you plan on assigning multiple jobs, you can easily pay for a VA once every week or month.
You don’t have to worry about training someone to perform specific tasks. Most VAs know how to complete most types of assignments because they’ve been doing it for years. However, there are always exceptions. So, you’ll want to train your VA on anything unique to your brand or industry.
You’ll learn:
- Tasks you should consider outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant
- How much does a virtual assistant cost?
- Where do you find virtual assistants?
- Tips for finding an excellent virtual assistant
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Tasks you should consider outsourcing to a Virtual Assistant
If you spend most of your day working on a wide range of tasks like email, managing contacts, and doing administrative work, virtual assistants could be just what you need to free up some time. These programs are designed to do everything from schedule appointments to answer emails to manage social media accounts. They’re especially useful for busy professionals who don’t want to waste time trying to remember how to use multiple apps.
The best virtual assistants handle a range of tasks depending on your needs. This includes everything from managing your contact list, calendar management, travel arrangements to bookkeeping tasks and sending out client invoices.
Virtual assistants charge around $10-$20 per hour depending on the types of tasks needed and experience and education levels.
There are some of the tasks you should consider delegating:
1. Managing emails
Managing emails shouldn’t be left up to chance. You want to make sure that you’re getting the most out of your inbox. But how do you manage it without having to spend hours checking each one?
- Your virtual assistant will check your emails every day.
- Your VA will help you avoid losing track of important emails. If you’ve ever lost track of an important email, you know what I’m talking about. It happens to everyone sometimes. Luckily, your virtual assistant can prevent this from happening again. They can also bring your attention to important emails and follow-up on previous emails sent.
- They’ll help you avoid being distracted by unimportant ones and delete spam
- VAs can handle replying to most common emails from clients. Tip: give them guilde lines on how to respond to FAQs from customers.
2. Answering phone calls
Your VA can handle all outbound and inbound phone calls of your business. You can eliminate the distraction of phone calls to your virtual assistant so that you can focus on your core business activities.
If you’ve got a landline, consider setting up a dedicated number where your assistants can pick up the phones and handle all your incoming calls. This will help ensure that they never accidentally forward your calls to voicemail. You can use Google Voice or another VoIP provider to set up a separate number.
3. Schedule management
Back-and-forth emails can be an effective way to set up meetings, but they’re often inefficient because they require too much work on both sides. Meetings scheduling tools like Doodle and Zoom allow you to plan out multiple meetings simultaneously while keeping everything organized and easily accessible. You don’t even have to worry about remembering what day and time each meeting takes place — your assistant does it for you.
Virtual assistants are another great option for managing meetings. They can help you manage your entire team’s schedules without having to rely on email threads with the use of cloud tools.
If you do need to reschedule a meeting, your assistant can call people directly and rebook. This helps prevent unnecessary disruptions and keeps everyone on the same page. Plus, if you’re taking off site, your assistant will make certain you have enough time to travel from one location to the next.
Common tasks include: Appointment scheduling, appointment setting, communicating with clients and potential clients, etc.
4. Data entry and Admin tasks
A virtual assistant can help you gather, organize, and enter your data—all without having to spend hours every day typing away. Data entry involves a lot of repetitive tasks. These tasks have to be done, but they don’t necessarily have to be done by you. A VA can work with your software and input data into databases and documents. Data entry daily tasks like database management and file management can be delegated.
Common Administrative tasks include:
- Updating customer spreadsheets
- Using tools and software like Google Analytics, Google Drive
5. Bookkeeping
Virtual Assistants can help you manage your personal finances. They can take care of things like paying bills, tracking expenses, keeping track of income and expenditures, and even helping you find ways to save money.
Find a reliable VA who specializes specifically in bookkeeping. Make sure he or she understands how to properly enter transactions into QuickBooks, Xero, or similar accounting programs.
Having someone working part-time to keep track of your expenses and carry out payroll tasks can be a great help.
6. Research
Research is one of the most important things you can do to improve your marketing strategy. But how much time should you really devote to it? And where does your time go?
A virtual assistant can help you save time and make sure you’re getting accurate data. If you’re spending too much time searching for the information you need, you might be missing out on opportunities.
7. Client relationship management
A VA can help companies manage customer relationships across multiple channels. They can update your CRMs. Thes are used by salespeople, marketing teams, support representatives, and others to track leads, nurture prospects, convert customers, and close deals.
A CRM typically includes features like contact management, lead tracking, campaign management, reporting, analytics, social media tools, email marketing, web forms, surveys, document sharing, and more. Depending on how it’s set up, a CRM can help automate repetitive tasks, streamline processes, and provide visibility into performance metrics.
A personal touch also goes a long way. Clients appreciate hearing how much you value them, and they feel valued when you treat them like friends rather than just customers. They’ll remember you for making them feel special. And it doesn’t cost anything extra to show up in person.
If you’re having trouble remembering birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, or other events, consider outsourcing some of the grunt work to a VA.
For example, let your virtual assistant send messages of appreciation, and birthday greetings and coordinate gift-giving.
8. Travel planning
Virtual assistants make it easy to find cheap flights, hotels, rental cars, and even activities while traveling. They’re especially helpful for those who prefer to plan ahead rather than wing it.
9. Social media management
Social media VAs are usually paid professionals who manage multiple accounts across platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc. They often create content for clients, schedule posts, and monitor performance. A social media VAshould be able to use all the different tools available to them.
10. Content writing
If you hate writing but still want to create quality content for your brand, consider hiring a virtual assistant to take care of it for you. You might think that you could just hire someone to write something for you, but there are some things you need to know about how to make sure your content is effective. Here are 10 things you need to know before you hire a writer.
1. Check out their portfolio. Do they have experience creating content for businesses like yours?
2. Find out what type of content they’re best at creating. Is it product descriptions, articles, or blog posts?
3. Ask them questions about their background and expertise. What platforms does their work focus on? How long have they been working in this field?
4. Make sure they understand your industry and target audience. Are they familiar with your competitors?
5. Get references. Have they worked with clients similar to yours?
6. Read reviews. Look up their social media profiles. See what people say about them on sites like LinkedIn and Yelp.
11. Graphic design and video editing
A virtual assistant can help you build great content for social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and others. They can create materials, including flyers, postcards, posters and banners. They can even edit photos and videos and make GIFs.
12. Customer support
A virtual assistant can help out in customer service situations. They are able to answer questions, provide information, and make recommendations based on what you tell them. You don’t even have to talk to them directly.
Virtual assistants can be helpful in dealing with customer service issues and customer inquiries. They can handle things like scheduling appointments, booking flights, and ordering products.
13. Simple website maintenance
Your virtual assistant can check exactly what’s wrong with your site, so you can fix things yourself. They’ll also make sure your backups are working properly, and keep track of important dates like birthdays and anniversaries.
Virtual assistants can also backup your data regularly. If something goes wrong, they’ll restore your site to a previous version, just like a human webmaster would.
How much does a virtual assistant cost?
Virtual assistants are becoming increasingly popular among businesses looking to save money. But what exactly do you get for your money? How much does it cost to hire one? And how do you find the best ones? We break down the costs of different types of virtual assistants.
General VAs that perform most admin tasks like scheduling meetings, answering emails, and doing data entry typically earns $12 per hour.
A mid skill worker performs slightly more complex tasks. They might help schedule events, answer customer questions, or manage social media accounts. This person requires some technical skills and usually needs a bachelor’s degree.
A high skill worker is someone with specialized knowledge. They might work on projects such as writing blog posts, creating marketing materials, or building apps. High skill workers often have master’s degrees and earn about $20 per hour.
There are many companies offering virtual assistants. You’ll want to compare prices before choosing one. Some offer free trials while others charge up front. Others offer discounts for multiple hires.
You’ll also want to consider whether the virtual assistant you choose offers benefits beyond just saving money. For example, some allow you to outsource specific functions rather than having to pay full-time employees.
Where do you find virtual assistants?
Finding a virtual assistant can be tricky. If you’re looking for one yourself, here’s how to make sure you hire someone who’ll help you accomplish what it is you want done.
1. Find a company that specializes in VAs.
There are plenty of companies out there that offer virtual assistance. You might even see ads online. But when you look into those services, you’ll likely find that they don’t specialize in virtual assistants. They just provide general outsourcing services.
2. Use a marketplace.
In the world of virtual assistants, you can use marketplaces such as Upwork, Fiverr and DigiWorks. These sites allow freelancers to list their skills and services.
3. Ask friends.
If you know some people who work remotely, ask them about their experiences working with virtual assistants. Chances are, they’ve worked with a few. And they may be able to recommend a good virtual assistant for you.
Tips for finding an excellent virtual assistant
A virtual assistant is someone who works remotely for you. They help you manage your day-to-day tasks, handle customer requests, take care of administrative stuff, and do whatever else needs doing. If you’re looking for a VA, it’s important to know how to choose one. Here are some tips to make sure you hire the best person for the job.
1. Look at their work history.
The most obvious place to start is with their previous employers. You want to make sure they aren’t a serial ghostwriter. If they’ve worked for multiple companies over the course of several years, there’s a good chance they’ll be able to provide references. Make sure those references are current too.
2. Review their profiles.
You might think this step is unnecessary, but it’s worth checking out anyway. Are they active on social media? Do they have a blog? How many clients do they have? These things tell you about their professionalism and experience.
3. Look at their recommendations.
If they have a lot of positive reviews on sites like Upwork, they probably have strong skills. However, don’t forget to ask for testimonials directly from former clients. This gives you insight into their communication skills and client management abilities.
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Use the DigiWorks platform to hire, manage, and pay remote talent from all over the world.
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Using virtual assistant companies or virtual assistant marketplaces like DigiWorks is a great help when looking to hire a virtual assistant and delegate your common tasks.
When hiring remote team members, the most important thing is that they are vetted. The DigiWorks platform helps business owners build their remote teams with 100% vetted VAs. Speak to us today to find out more!
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DigiWorks is an easy-to-use platform that helps small businesses and start ups hire amazing remote talent from around the world. DigiWorks offers a way for you to hire, manage and pay people from all countries. If you find an amazing virtual assistant from Philippines, a content writer from Nigeria, or operations manager from South Africa – manage and pay your entire team from one platform with no hassle.
If you’re looking for a more affordable and sustainable option you might consider making use of a hiring platform like DigiWorks. Virtual assistant companies or platforms like DigiWorks are amazing as they not only match you with pre-vetted and assessed remote workers that can take care of all your business needs but they will also handle all onboarding and payroll needs as well.