The industry of outsourcing is steadily gaining popularity over the years. It has become a highly considered option for business owners because of the benefits that it can contribute to the company.

One of the most favored services in the outsourcing world is one provided by virtual assistants. Virtual assistants are workers who provide various services to entrepreneurs or businesses from a remote location. As long as it can be done online, just name it and there is a high chance that there is a VA most likely capable of doing it. 

While the need for virtual assistants is constantly growing at a steady pace, there still exists a ton of questions about the particular tasks they can do.   

Virtual assistants are flexible enough to take on basically any task. Below is a list of the most common roles and tasks that can be assigned to virtual assistants:

1. Email Management

Assigning virtual assistants tasks that have to do with the most highly recommended digital marketing strategies is a smart way to utilize their lineup of skills and experiences. Email marketing is a strategy that several businesses of today are incorporating in their customer outreach and brand marketing tactics. 

Sending out and responding to emails can be quite daunting especially in a highly busy work environment. It can also be overlooked, unless there is a dedicated personnel who will handle all incoming and outgoing emails for the company’s marketing campaigns.

Organizing emails and handling a company’s email marketing strategy is a great job for virtual assistants. They generally have more time and attention to focus on each email and ensure that the content represent the business’ message and objectives.

They can also provide more appropriate responses for each email sent by leads, customers or possible business partners.

2. Customer Support

When assigned to handle customer support services, a VA can contribute to increasing the rate of leads converted into customers. The assistance provided by remote staff enable businesses to extend the breadth of what they can do to address the concerns of their customers.

24-hour support can be made possible and this can benefit both large enterprises with several branches worldwide and small startups struggling to maximize their limited resources. 

Virtual assistants need not work during the business’ office hours. Assistance is likewise made more flexible, since the increase in remote customer agents will prompt the business to use other communication channels to attend to a higher volume of customer queries.

3. Administrative Work

As the name states, VAs can take on the role of in-house office assistants and take on tasks and jobs that are organizational in nature. Administrative tasks were among the first set of tasks assigned to remote staff.

From taking calls to calendar management and even making reservations for travel arrangements, big and small companies depend on remote personnel to ensure that their workspace and operations remain well-organized and systematic. 

4. Managing Finances

Handling a company’s finances and earnings can be quite a sensitive job to handle. After all, handling a huge sum of money entails honesty, presence of mind and a good grasp of accounting and numbers.

It can also be quite risky to be organizing finances while out in the open or while in the presence of officemates. Confidentiality of sensitive information about the business’ expenses and sales cannot be guaranteed.

On the other hand, having a trustworthy VA to take care of making purchases for items or facilities needed by the company, keeping track of expenses and earnings and sticking firmly to the allotted budget usually reassures business owners that their finances are managed with more discretion and privacy.

5. Social Media Marketing and Management

Most virtual assistants are either tech-savvy or in-the-know with the latest trends that are affecting consumers worldwide. Their easy access to different social media platforms increase their familiarity with how each can be used to enhance a brand’s marketing approach.

There are likewise VAs who are more experienced and knowledgeable with the more technical aspects of maintaining a business’ social media presence. From measuring audience engagement and creating reports based on how well each post fared in terms of generating the desired reaction from target audiences, virtual assistants can accomplish all that.

Social media virtual assistants can likewise create social media pages and update it regularly with content related to the company’s services. They can also conduct competitor research and check specific marketing strategies and trends that appeal to customers.

6. Content Creation and Research

Virtual assistants capable of producing both quality text-based and multimedia content are a gem. Content posted on a business’ website, social media pages and email marketing campaigns carry the company’s reputation. It likewise projects the kind of impact that a business can generate from its intended audience. 

The breadth of what virtual assistants can do has expanded to a number of industries and fields of expertise. Among these include content writing, video editing, web development and graphic designing.

In addition to creating content, VAs are also well-known for delivering topnotch efficiency and resourcefulness in research. They are the go-to personnel of businesses in need of valuable data that can help them assess the risks and success rate of a new project or product. 

Quite frankly, this list is just the tip of the iceberg that represents just how well-versed and dependable virtual assistants can be. There are even more complex job descriptions that a remote personnel can perform. The key is to scour through the internet and find the virtual assistant who is best suited for the task.