11 Marketing Tasks to Pass Off to an Ecommerce Virtual Assistant

Hiring an ecommerce virtual assistant for your online business is a game changer. With the right person to help you with day-to-day tasks, you will change your perspective of running an ecommerce business from daunting to downright profitable. Imagine the number of sales your social media, or SEO, or PPC campaign can drive if you have a skilled assistant to scale up your operations.

Find out the type of work that you can outsource to a remote freelancer.

But first thing’s first.

What is an ecommerce virtual assistant and why do you need one for your business?

Virtual assistants are typically individual contractors who work remotely for business owners. They have a diverse skill set which can range from administrative to creative, and technical with specific specializations. Digital freelance platforms like FreeUp that specialize in ecommerce have a great network of global talents that you can pick from. They are capable of handling work professionally despite the independence. You will interact with them through online channels all the time and their commitment to communication is top grade.

With the sustained rise of the gig economy, these freelancers continue to prove that they are more than just a skill asset to companies. They have the expertise to contribute significant ideas to current business processes. A reliable assistant working hard in the background will allow you to focus on bigger things and achieve greater heights for your business.

What kind of tasks do you need to outsource?

Marketing plays a major role in the growth of any type of business. Digital marketing is especially popular as most businesses have adopted the ecommerce trend and moved to online platforms. It is one of the most anticipated skills that business owners look for.

Apparently, marketing tasks – and there are a lot – are quite important to lead your business to success. An ecommerce virtual assistant can support your social strategy and together, build your audience and increase the value of your brand. Here are essential marketing tasks that you can outsource to a virtual assistant.

1. Social Media Management

Social media is essential to every ecommerce business. Billions of consumers spend several hours on their Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube account every day. Because of the convenience that the internet provides, customer expectations have also increased. One post per week is no longer enough to keep your audience engaged. Queries and feedback should be acknowledged as fast as possible. Generally, shoppers enjoy the ease of getting what they want at a tap of a finger. Managing several social media pages for your business require skill, patience and an awful lot of time.

Here’s an overview of what a virtual assistant will do for your social media accounts each day.

• Organize a social media calendar to schedule what type of content will be posted for every day of the week.
• Create content which can range from photo posts to videos, curated content, or even an original article.
• Use several project management tools to schedule posts, track, and monitor audience impact.

2. Facebook Group Management

Facebook groups are becoming increasingly popular these days as it shows to be a better avenue for customer engagement. As a leading brand in your industry, you have to demonstrate your expertise in your own field. Building a community of followers and experts alike who see you as an influencer is great for promoting yourself and your business. Being an expert needs continuous input of knowledge and there is a myriad of ways to learn. Having your own Facebook group will strengthen your position and provide a place where you can exchange ideas with people who work and think the same as you do.

But you won’t have time to lurk on Facebook every day, will you? After all, you need to run your business to back up your claims as an expert in your business. This is where an ecommerce virtual assistant will be valuable. He or she will:

• Moderate your Facebook group which includes approving and rejecting member requests, posts, and comments.
• Posting substantial content that can start a topic among your followers.
• Monitor and respond to comments and direct messages in your inbox.

3. Blog Writing

Many ecommerce marketing experts believe that content is KING. For the most part, articles being published on your blog generate traffic to your website or e-store with the use of SEO. You take all visitors of your site to be potential buyers, so you want as many of them as possible. However, the other benefit of blog writing – one that is less understood by business owners – is that great content can convert readers to loyal customers and not just one-time buyers. That is why it is always worth it to spend some of your marketing resources on maintaining a blog for your ecommerce business.

Writing is a special skill that most virtual assistants possess. Since they work on social media posts, ad campaigns, and SEO, they are adept in using words to engage customers and convert them into sales. There are plenty of other writing tasks that you can assign to an assistant, found below.

4. Product Listing

This task focuses on writing product descriptions for your website or e-store. How you describe your product is your ultimate selling point to get direct sales. A great virtual assistant should be able to rank your product page on top of search engine results and write an effective sales pitch to compel a visitor to click on “buy.”

5. Email Marketing

Your email list is a powerful tool in driving sales, strengthening engagement, and building brand loyalty altogether. Your marketing begins with collecting leads which an experienced ecommerce virtual assistant can take charge of. Furthermore, he or she knows how to create engaging content that will convert read emails to sales. Virtual assistants also know how to take care of responsive customers and use them to advertise your brand.

6. PPC Advertising

Advertising is one of the tasks wherein you will need an assistant who is particularly experienced in setting up ad campaigns. Pay-per-click has one of the highest ROI in digital marketing. If you want to focus your resources on that strategy, it is best to get an assistant who is an expert in creating, managing, and analyzing PPC advertising campaigns.

7. SEO

By all accounts, SEO is very useful for all kinds of content that are used in digital marketing efforts – be it for your social media, blog, product copy, or pay-per-click ads. Whoever get onto the first pages of Google search results hoards the traffic and has the highest chances of getting sales. In my experience, SEO is not a task that you can assign to an untrained professional. It requires knowledge and experience to be able to do the following:

• Keyword research while taking into account recent trends and changes in Google search algorithms.
• Proper link building.
• Setting up backlinks for your website.

Although it may appear that freelancers are very capable, you must understand that not all the skills you need to run your business can be found in one person. There are specific functions which focus on an area of expertise. Whether you need to hire one or two assistants will depend on how you assess your business processes and identify the ones you can utilize. Below are even more specialized tasks that you can outsource to one or more ecommerce virtual assistants.

8. Web and Graphic Design

Ecommerce creative designers work on a range of tasks for your business. They are adept at working in an ecommerce environment and understand that in this industry, designing is more than just being creative. These virtual assistants have a good grasp on what consumers would like to experience on your website.

9. Fulfillment Services

Most e-store business owners experience a challenge in fulfillment services, especially tasks that fall under inventory management, which can easily become overwhelming. Failing to balance your time between checking inventory, downloading barcodes and product labels, and tracking shipments can cost you a lot! An ecommerce virtual assistant specializing in fulfillment has probably been doing these tasks for years and hiring one will definitely save your business.

10. Customer Service

Awesome customer service is like the icing on top of a great shopping experience. Established companies invest in customer support because they believe that it is one of the crucial drivers of success. You will need to look for a virtual assistant who has special people skills. He or she should be capable of pacifying irate customers, solving issues, and overall, making buyers feel good about transacting with your brand.

11. Accounting

Accounting is indispensable to every business. Personally, I wouldn’t want to entrust my finances to a non-accounting expert even if the virtual assistant is accomplished in ecommerce work. A mistake in any of these tasks will have a significant effect on your business:

• Bookkeeping
• Tax services
• Preparing invoices and sending out payments
• Paying bills and other financial management activities

Conclusion

Every business owner is busy trying to make a name out there. You, on the other hand, are still thinking about how to keep up with everyday tasks. If you have reached this point in your career as a business owner, perhaps it is time to utilize remote support. Do not think twice of outsourcing to an ecommerce virtual assistant so you can focus more on the growth and development of your company.

If you want to learn more about how outsourcing freelancers can scale your ecommerce business, read more business tips from the FreeUp blog.

You can also schedule a meeting with FreeUp CEO, Nathan Hirsch. Tap into FreeUp to get introduced to qualified ecommerce virtual assistants from their pool of talented professionals.

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