11 Key Reasons SMBs Should Hire A Creative Virtual Assistant
If you’re a small business owner with big dreams, chances are you’re juggling a lot of different responsibilities. But that doesn’t mean you need to do everything yourself! Hiring a creative virtual assistant can make all the difference in improving your productivity and freeing up more time for what really matters: growing your business.
What is a creative virtual assistant?
A creative virtual assistant (VA) is a skilled individual who works remotely, usually on a freelance basis or as part of a virtual assistant agency. These VAs can perform the creative tasks needed to run and promote your business — tasks you either don’t have time for or don’t have sufficient knowledge in. These tasks may include social media management, social media scheduling, digital marketing, graphic design, website design, video editing, content writing, and marketing communications, to name just a few. Most virtual assistants work as independent contractors and have more than one client.
Creative virtual assistants work on a per-hour or project basis, which means you only pay for the work that was completed during a specific period. You can hire a creative VA for as much or as little work as you need. And because virtual assistants already have their own equipment and pay their own insurance and taxes, you save a lot of money.
But just because virtual assistant services are more cost-efficient doesn’t mean that VAs aren’t as qualified or capable as regular employees! Most VAs are skilled professionals with years of work experience in their chosen field. They simply choose to work remotely because it suits their lifestyle or circumstances or gives them access to global job opportunities.
Read: 20four7VA has been recognized among the Top 15 Virtual Receptionist Companies in 2022 by DesignRush
Why should small to medium-sized businesses hire a creative virtual assistant?
With the right virtual assistant, you could have more time to focus on your core functions, ultimately making you more productive and your business more successful.
Here are 11 compelling reasons small businesses should hire a creative virtual assistant:
1. Build and maintain a social media presence
These days, having a solid social media presence is an essential part of any business. It lends credibility to your brand, helps you reach a wider audience, and can drive your sales. Even if you don’t have time for (or interest in) running your social media accounts, there’s still a lot that needs to be done to make social media work for you.
A creative virtual assistant can help you create and maintain a social media presence that reflects your company’s brand — whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, or TikTok. The VA can create and manage content for each platform and schedule posts for the times of day when they’ll get the most views. VAs can also interact with your followers, run paid ads, and tap influencers to promote your business. The possibilities for revenue generation through social media are endless!
2. Create content that your customers and target audience will love
No matter what industry you’re in, it’s crucial to develop content that your website visitors, email list subscribers, fans, followers, and customers will want to consume. Content can be in the form of blog posts, ebooks, whitepapers, videos, podcasts, infographics — you name it! Depending on your needs, a creative virtual assistant may also be able to help with SEO writing and keyword research — things that are not only important to ranking well in search engines but can also boost conversions when used correctly.
3. Deploy more revenue-generating campaigns and projects
Marketing is about connecting with your target audience on an emotional level to motivate them to take a desired action. This could mean landing a new customer, increasing an existing customer’s average order value or lifetime value, creating fan engagement, ranking higher in search engines — anything that helps move you toward your company goals.
A creative VA can help you brainstorm and carry out marketing projects that get results. They can also create and manage email campaigns, which have proven to be one of the most effective ways to convert leads into customers.
4. Creative virtual assistants bring fresh ideas to the table
As well as having years of industry experience, creative virtual assistants are also keenly aware of what’s new and trending. If your business is stalling or you’re feeling stale in your approach to marketing, bringing on a creative VA can give you access to innovative ideas and fresh insights that’ll help boost your business growth.
5. Hire someone who has the skills that you need without needing to train them first
Even if you can afford to hire a full-time employee, there’s still much expense and time involved in training them. An employee may also not have the skills that you need or want, but a creative VA should have all the skills, knowledge, and experience required to ensure that you get the right results.
One of the most remarkable benefits of hiring a VA is that they can complete any project without needing more than your guidance. A creative virtual assistant is ready to hit the ground running and will accomplish more than an intern or a less-experienced employee would be able to, without your needing to worry about micromanaging their work.
6. Reduce internal costs and save time
By outsourcing creative tasks to a VA, you’ll free up your internal resources so that they can focus on the core competencies of your business. This will help increase revenue, reduce expenses, and boost profits.
7. Focus on your core business development efforts while still taking care of marketing and promotions
If you’re a small business owner, entrepreneur, or solo professional who’s juggling too many responsibilities, then there may be times when you drop a ball here or there. Marketing and promotions are some of the tasks that are often relegated to the back burner, especially when meetings, research and development work, and admin tasks pile up.
Getting a creative VA will allow you to focus on developing and launching new products without missing out on marketing opportunities. You’ll be able to focus on your business and earning a living instead of running around like crazy trying to handle everything by yourself.
8. Grow your business’s bottom line quickly and easily
Hiring a creative VA will definitely help you improve marketing results, but it can also reduce your costs and increase profits.
For example, if you’re currently paying for advertising campaigns to be run manually by an employee in-house or through the services of another agency, then hiring a creative virtual assistant allows you to cut those costs. You can work with your VA to optimize the campaigns that they’re running for you so that they cost less and target the right potential customers.
If your business is growing and you’re doing well, then it’s likely that hiring a creative VA who can handle more tasks for you will help you continue on this growth path. By automating repetitive or time-consuming marketing activities, your business will be able to focus its efforts where they’ll generate the most profit: in developing new products and services or improving existing ones.
9. Hire someone who’s personally invested in helping your business grow
As a small business owner, it can be challenging to motivate yourself to do the things that help grow your business without becoming overwhelmed or frustrated. This is where a creative VA can be extremely helpful. They are personally invested in helping your business succeed and will work hard to help you achieve the results you want. In addition, they’ll have an outsider’s perspective on your business and won’t be afraid to tell you when something isn’t working or nudging your marketing efforts in the right direction.
10. Learn from your creative VA’s experience and expertise
A creative virtual assistant will have more content creation/marketing/branding experience than you do, regardless of how long you’ve been operating your business. Creative VAs have many years of experience, which means they’ll also have a lot of knowledge about what has worked for other businesses. They can share this unique insight with you so that your business can grow in the most efficient way possible.
11. Get a variety of tasks done at a fraction of the cost of an in-house employee
A creative VA isn’t limited to only performing a few narrow functions, like doing some after-hours data entry for you. Depending on your needs as a business owner, they can perform many different tasks for you at once or step in and help you out when you need them.
The tasks that they can perform will vary depending on the nature of your business. Try to think about what areas of your company or personal brand need improvement. These are often good places to start looking for new opportunities to gain more customers and increase revenue.
What are some creative virtual assistant tasks?
No matter what business you’re in, there’s a creative VA who will be able to help your company grow.
Creative virtual assistants are multiskilled individuals who can handle tasks like:
| Writing press releases | Creating and executing marketing campaigns |
| Creating videos | Conducting market research on competitors |
| Writing copy for ads, websites, opt-ins, landing pages, etc. | Researching industry trends |
| Proofreading and editing | Organizing events or assisting in event planning |
| Writing articles, scripts, ebooks, whitepapers, courses, etc. | Brainstorming marketing ideas for your company |
| Developing presentations | Designing and maintaining your company’s website |
| Creating lead magnets | Creating and maintaining a company newsletter |
| Managing blogs | Creating and deploying email campaigns and automations |
| Designing logos, brochures, and other marketing collateral to promote your business | Running ad campaigns |
| Creating social media posts and managing social media accounts | Creating and carrying out SEO strategies |
| Keyword research and optimization | Coming up with and managing promotions |
| Handling influencer outreach | UI/UX design |
| Managing your company’s reputation | Managing sales funnels and workflows |
| Editing images, videos, and audio | Building and maintaining a community of followers on various social media platforms |
| Tracking and analyzing marketing campaigns and strategies | Surveying customers to determine how well your company’s products or services are working |
These are just some of the many tasks that a creative virtual assistant can complete. Now that you know what a creative VA can do, the next step is to find one for your business!
Hire a creative virtual assistant and watch your business skyrocket
Maybe you’re trying to accomplish a lot in a relatively short amount of time. Or you have more than enough on your plate and are feeling overwhelmed by the number of tasks and projects that need to be done to keep your business afloat. We bet most of the tasks on your list aren’t easy or fun. In fact, many of them probably take up precious hours out of your day that could be spent more productively. We’ve been there too.
If you’ve never considered hiring a creative VA before, it’s time to take that step. These types of virtual assistants will free up your hours and perform a wide range of tasks for your business. They can help propel your company upward in terms of growth and revenue – all while saving you money.
If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of working with a creative VA, contact us today for a free consultation. All it takes is one conversation, and we can help you find out how hiring a VA can help you. And if you need more information on any of our services, don’t hesitate to ask!
