Marketing Your Blog Through A Virtual Assistant

Posted March 29, 2019

Promoting a startup blog site is labor-intensive. With more established content creators dominating the blogosphere, it’s difficult to figure out how to keep up and make a name for yourself. You need to get your blog out there, and it’s definitely challenging for one person to accomplish everything at once.

Blogging is more than just writing an article and posting it online. To be successful in this industry, you need to be well-versed in the world of content creation and search engine optimization (SEO). For this reason, more and more bloggers engage virtual assistant services for their content management needs. Have you hired one already? If you haven’t yet, here are the reasons why you should hire a virtual staff for your blog.

Work-life balance

When your blog starts to flourish, beating deadlines becomes a part of your daily life. There are endless emails to read and respond to, content to write and brands to work with. After all, partnerships are a blogger’s bread and butter. A virtual employee can help you manage your time better so that you can balance out work and personal life. Although you love what you’re doing, but taking a time off is necessary to avoid burning out.

Consistent blogging

People crave relevant and high-quality content. Whether you are blogging for the sole purpose of providing information or blogging to promote your business, you need consistency to gain a strong readership.

Search engines like Google, Bing and Yahoo prioritize fresh content, so the more often you blog, the higher your chances are of ranking high on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS). A virtual assistant can take some minor tasks off your plate so you can focus your time and energy on content creation. Or better yet, hire a competent content writer VA to help you with your blog posts.

Professional knowledge & experience

A virtual assistant can fill in the gaps in your knowledge and skills. For example, a graphic designer VA can create infographics for your social media page to attract more readers and increase engagement. A website developer VA can improve the aesthetics of your website and ensure topnotch site performance. An SEO specialist VA, on the other hand, can help you maximize website traffic through website optimization. This way, you wouldn’t have to spend so much time trying to master all these skills on your own.

Marketing & promotion

Not getting enough engagement despite all the efforts you have invested in your blog can be frustrating. That’s normal. Just know that being a successful blogger does not happen overnight. Sometimes you have to accept your limitations no matter how skilled you are. If you think your blog is going nowhere, it might be time to restrategize and escalate your marketing efforts further.

Marketing 91 likens the process of blogging to product manufacturing, in which the “product” is your blog and the “consumers” are your readers. Similar to a manufacturing company, the blogger must also market his blog to gain more readers and keep creating new content simultaneously.

In order to increase work productivity, consider expanding your workforce. Blog marketing, in particular, requires a certain skill set and demands a huge chunk of your schedule. Save yourself the trouble by hiring a virtual assistant. There are several out there who specialize in marketing to help you promote your blog to a larger audience. To ensure the quality of services, engage a specialist VA to help you out.

Working with a virtual assistant to market your blog

You can market your blog in two ways — by marketing the blog itself and by marketing individual blog posts — both of which can be done by a home based virtual assistant. But as a blogger, it is still your responsibility to see to it that your virtual assistant’s tasks are aligned with your own vision for your blog. Here are the methods on how to maximize the services of your virtual assistant:

Social media marketing

Social media platforms have opened many opportunities for bloggers to connect with readers on a more personal level. And since most, if not all people have at least one social media account, blog promotion has never been this convenient. Convenient, but not easy. Despite the variety of available information online, people are still more likely to read content written by people or brands they already know, making it difficult for newer bloggers to get their attention.

Don’t let this setback stop you. With the right strategy and tools, you can still use social media to your advantage. For better interaction, have your VA work on just one or two platforms with the most target readers. For example, if your blog posts are professional in nature, LinkedIn may be your best choice. Consequently, if you think your topics appeal more to the younger audience, then Facebook can provide you with better results. Here’s Statista’s global social media ranking (by the number of active users) as of January 2019 to further help you decide.

Let your virtual assistant repost old articles to maintain engagement. Use interesting headlines without sounding too “clickbait-y.” Promote to groups with the same interests. Include infographics.

There are various social media marketing tools your virtual assistant can use to simplify and automate their tasks. Hootsuite and Buffer are among the most popular software, which are mainly used to publish posts according to a set schedule.

Submission of blog to blog directories

Blog directories are databases that list blog sites according to their categories or subcategories. In the past, bloggers relied heavily on online directories when it came to improving their website ranking in Google. The algorithm was way simpler back then; the more directory links you had, the better your Google ranking would be. However, recent Google updates changed the algorithm in a significant way, discouraging bloggers from submitting to blog directories.

While blog directories are no longer that relevant to Google algorithm, your can still utilize them to establish your credibility and boost traffic to your website. With this new perspective in mind, it is no longer about the quantity, but the quality and reputation of web directories that you will be submitting to. Make sure that your virtual assistant only fills out listings on reputable sites that are relevant to your readers. Search Engine Journal have listed down the online directories that are still worth your time in 2019.

Submission of blog feed to RSS directories

Before the rise of social media, people turned to RSS directories for the latest news and updates from all over the web. Think of it as a newspaper customized according to the preference of the reader. It was a fast way to drive website traffic in the old days, but just like blog directories, RSS feed submissions have now become fewer. Nevertheless, they are still of importance, so instruct your virtual assistant to submit your blog feed link to good RSS directories such as AllTop, Blogarama, Bloggernity, OnToplist and SpecificFeeds, among others.

Monitoring mentions and feedback

Mentions are oftentimes indicators that your blog is getting recognized. And while this is mostly a positive sign, some feedback can have a negative impact on your reputation. Someone should keep track of them at all times. A virtual assistant can do the monitoring for you using Google Alerts, a tool that lets you know each time someone mentions your blog on the web.

Remind your virtual assistant to keep an optimistic mindset when dealing with feedback. Express gratitude every time a positive comment comes in, and treat negative comments as opportunities for improvement. Keep conversations friendly, because how you interact with the audience can shape the future of your blog.

Interaction with other bloggers

Some bloggers don’t realize how important it is to establish friendships among fellow content creators within the same niche. Be it through comments, link exchanges or even a simple mention in one of your blogs, having a network of bloggers by your side helps in boosting website traffic. Have your virtual assistant reach out to your network and find ways to collaborate. Guest blogging, for instance, is not only a great way to showcase your expertise to a wider audience; it increases your chances of gaining new followers as well.

The best way to work with a virtual staff…

Marketing via social media, submitting to blog and RSS directories, monitoring feedback and building a network are indeed crucial for the success of a blog, but all your marketing efforts will just go down the drain without this single most important element: clear communication. Always check with your virtual assistant to see if you are on the same page with everything. Provide clear instructions and guidelines. Conduct Skype meetings on a regular basis. And most of all, maintain a transparent reporting system for an easier assessment of results.

If you are interested in hiring a virtual assistant for your blog or business, check out our VA packages here.