Are you interested in a job as a assistant, but without prior experience? No worries! You don’t have to be an expert virtual assistant to start this career. Many people start at the bottom and work their way up to lucrative careers.
Virtual Assistant Services
A virtual assistant (also known as “VA”) is a business entrepreneur, who provides online assistance utilities to valued clients in different industries around the globe. They do this on a virtual basis. The virtual assistant provides business services from anywhere in the world, including home.
The services provided by virtual assistants include administrative tasks, social networking, and teaching services.
The VA can efficiently handle multitasking tasks. The VA can manage the social media accounts and back-office of a traveling coach while they are based in Australia or India. These are only a few instances.
Virtual assistants must create a LinkedIn professional profile.
LinkedIn links professionals and beginners in a field.
LinkedIn is home to many professionals as well as specialists within each industry. To stay informed, you can contact the professionals experts.
Learning from and observing others is a great way to learn.
The VA provides remote services that can be divided into four major divisions.
General Administration services
- Here are some admin services that you can offer your client as a virtual assistant:
- Cold canvassing, calling, booking sales appointments, and seeking a donation from their prospects/clients. To narrow down the target audience, the market research must be done.
- Follow-up with valued clients/customers regularly via correspondence or online.
- E-Calendar Management makes it easy to keep track of events and add appointments to an electronic calendar.
- File Management (manage and organise their files using DropBox / Google Dri ve us, etc.
- Online google research for blog post topics, newsletters, gathering contacts etc.
- Bookings for Hotel rooms and Flight Travel
- Different reports can be created for weekly or fortnight tasks, deliverables and sales.
- Preparing Microsoft PowerPoint presentations for online courses, webinars and conferences, or other meetings.
- Other freelance employees can be recruited and monitored, such as a web developer or video editor.
- Personal jobs – buying surprise gifts, booking restaurants and events, reserving tables for dinner, house shifting, paying bills etc…
Digital Marketing Services
This is a way to market product or service using digital technology. The mode of digital marketing is promoted via internet. This includes mobile phones as well as other digital resources.
Digital marketing strategies such as Search Engine Marketing or Search Engine Optimisation are spreading all over the globe. The varied options require the VA services.
There is a lot to be done in each digital marketing strategy.
Digital marketing believes that metrics are key to success and that analytics are the best.
Here are a few examples:
- Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing Social Media Marketing – This is the use social media such as twitter, Instagram, Facebook and blogs to market products and services. Online marketers promote products and increase brand awareness to consumers worldwide.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization) – Search Engine Optimization is the practice adopted by the SEO or e-commerce organizations to maximize the visitor count, increase the traffic, populate the website using the optimization methods. Both online and offline modes can be used to optimize your website.
- SEO (Social Media Optimization). This is the process used to increase brand awareness, public interest and product popularity on social media.
- Facebook marketing – Online marketers build brand popularity by creating facebook pages and maintaining a follow up. To gain popularity, marketers create ads.
- Twitter Marketing- Online marketers can create brand recognition by setting up a twitter account and following up with them on a regular basis. To gain popularity, marketers make advertisements and then view their followers.
- Instagram Marketing: Online marketers build brand popularity by creating accounts on Instagram and keeping a constant follow-up. In order to gain attention and increase followers, marketers create advertisements.
- YouTube Management The YouTube marketing allows users post videos to generate virality for millions of viewers. You will need to create a channel, post videos about various subjects, such as fashion, child psychology, hair styling, and child care tips.
- Pinterest Advertising Pinterest marketing is the use of Pinterest to increase awareness about products and services. Pinterest is used to drive traffic to the website and draws audience attention.
- Marketing by Email – Mail marketing is the act of sending commercial content, or messages to valuable clients, via email. Email marketing is used for promoting sales, pitching sales, and to send marketing collaterals directly to targeted individuals.
- Branding- Organizations can use branding actions to differentiate themselves from their peers and other emerging competitors. The branding strategies are implemented to strengthen your position in the market. Marketers are responsible for branding to build brand loyalty.
- Paid Advertising – Online marketers make use to publish paid advertisements on websites and in other search engines, to drive traffic.
- Content Marketing – Marketing stuff is transmitted through content on online websites and social networks.
Creative Job Suite
Here are some examples of Creative Jobs which are in demand:
- Copywriting
- Graphic designing
- Newsletter designing
- Web designing
- Informationgraphics:
- Logo design
- Designing branding materials to launch a new product or service.
- Video editing and creation
Online teaching services
There are two broad categories of teaching services:
1. LIVE mode for teaching
Few examples
Tutoring school children online
Online tutoring English or any other language to students/working professionals/homemakers
2. Teaching services through “How to” video tutorials
There are very few examples of this:
- How to create an online course that’s successful
- How to create graphics using Canva / Picmonkey / Gimp tools
- How to use Google Drive, Drop Box, or One Drive to store unlimited files
- How to make instructional movies
- How to bake pancakes, ice cream cakes, sugar-free cupcakes / whole wheat bread/cookies etc.
- How to do your party makeup or hair in 15 minutes
- How to create fillable pdf workbooks and worksheets
- How to take professional photographs for Instagram / Facebook
- How to become an Amazon/EBay branded affiliate vendor
- How to automate Pinterest market
- How to draw faces for comics books
- You can find a lot of resources online to help you get familiar with work from home opportunities and learn more about your interests.
Which soft skills match up with clients to work remotely?
These are a the mandate skills you need to work or employee long-term with profitable remote clients:
- Be Professional – You need to be more professional in all your interactions and communication with the clients.
- Always be proactive Clients expect that you can quickly and accurately analyse and understand their tasks. You should also take initiative to clarify any doubts immediately without waiting for them.
- Problem-solving skills You must be able to anticipate problems before they become major crises and to provide solutions to clients.
- Efficient – Owing experience, your work efficiency will increase and your continuous efforts to grow the business process will take you a long way.
- Persistence It is possible to be given a difficult assignment that has a deadline or where you have to work extra hard to complete it. You’ll be trustworthy and reliable because of your perseverance and ability not to give up, despite the odds.
- Excellent communication – Clients need you to communicate with them regularly and keep them updated with an open heart. It is not professional to make clients ask for or remind you about work updates.
- Task Organization skills Your ability manage multiple tasks, following the schedules, and focusing on one thing at time will help you manage valuable client projects.
Which tools is the VA going to need?
Here are the basics you should know before you accept client work.
- Google Docs For creating, editing and sharing documents
- Dropbox– File sharing tool
- WordPress: For creating and managing websites
- Email marketing tool MailChimp, GetResponse
- Social Media Management Tool – Hootsuite, Buffer
Virtual assistants are often contracted by many companies. These companies are also called agencies. They act as intermediaries to find a job in the virtual assistant sector.
Follow these websites: Indeed, Upwork, Time, to search for virtual assistant jobs.
Make sure that your search queries are related to the field before you enter the what-where sections.
End Summary
Virtual assistant holds job profile with multi-tasking potential because the job profile covers miscellaneous skills.
Virtual assistants provide technical and administrative support for finance, law, and start-up businesses. You can establish a virtual assistant business, or work remotely from clients around the world.
You should upgrade your skills according to your job role. The annual income of virtual assistants ranges from 20,000 to 80,000 dollars.
Virtual assistants with the highest salaries need to be able to dedicate their time to full-time work and provide executive support to clients.
