Providing various virtual assistant services is a great way to get started as a freelancer, develop your skills set and gain a deeper understanding of online entrepreneurship as a whole – all while providing a valuable service to your clients and making money in the process!
Table of Contents
Who Is a Virtual Assistant?
“A person who works from home and carries out certain administrative functions for clients. Virtual assistants (VAs) communicate with their clients via phone, instant messaging, e-mail, or some other collaborative software.”
Virtual assistants are not your regular 8-5 guys that sits in an ivory tower – they are real people completing challenging tasks.
What Does a virtual assistant do?
A virtual assistant delivers various services to businesses or entrepreneurs from a remote location.
Their services range from digital marketing tasks, managing events, scheduling appointments to personal errands.
You can make a virtual assistant do practically anything. Here are my top 10 tasks that you can outsource to your virtual assistant:
- Accounting or Bookkeeping
- Managing emails
- Social media tasks
- Online Research
- Database entries
- Industry knowledge preparation
- Data presentation
- Travel research
- Scheduling
- Chasing business
In addition to the above tasks, your virtual assistant can be used for, but not limited to:
- Carry out research about your competitors
- Transcribe your voicemails into text-based word document or emails
- Translating your daily status report notes into the client specific status report format
- Carry out follow up as required with sign-ups
- Summarization of key emails coming from your clients and subcontractors
- Making traveling arrangement
Not sure what to offer? Check out this list of 150+ services you can offer as a Virtual Assistant and get paid for!
Types of Virtual Assistant Services
Administrative Functions Support
The administrative support function is a vital Virtual Assistant role. This will not just make your client’s life a lot easier, but it’s also a straightforward starting point for anybody who is familiar with administrative tasks.
1. Managing calendar/schedule for your client’s
2. Building or managing databases of contacts
3. making reservations, booking appointments and calls
4. Making travel arrangements
5. Monitoring voicemail
6. File management (in Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.)
7. Data entry
8. Creating reports
9. Generating forms
10. Preparing slideshows
11. PDF conversions
12. PDF merging or splitting
13. Drafting letters, emails, internal communication, etc.
14. Preparing agendas
15. Sending cards/gifts (for holidays, thank you’s, milestone events, etc.)
16. Personal online shopping
17. Setting up spreadsheets
18. Drafting presentation slides
Customer Service
Customers services task take up a lot of time and attention. There are quite a few of these tasks that you can help take off your client’s plate.
19. Processing orders and shipments
20. Processing refunds
21. Handling customer inquiries
22. Operating live chat
23. Following up on orders, inquiries, etc.
24. Chasing outstanding payments
25. Updating member records
26. Inviting/approving requests to join a membership community (e.g. Facebook)
27. Setting up/updating CRM tools (Customer Relationship Management)
Content Production
If your business client has an online presence, they have to on a regular basis create content. Content creation, especially for online business owners, is a task that is huge and time-consuming. And this is where you come in to save the day.
28. Sourcing photos
29. Editing photos
30. Creating graphics
31. Uploading posts
32. Formatting posts to be published
33. Scheduling posts for publication
34. Improving posts with social share options (such as Click-to-Tweet)
35. Adding internal links to posts
36. Adding affiliate links to posts
37. Proofreading posts
38. Editing posts
39. Coordinating with contributors and guest posters
40. Managing the editorial calendar
41. Generating topic ideas
42. Drafting content
43. Topic research
44. Compiling, formatting and uploading ebooks
45. Keyword (SEO) research
Social Media
Social media can be a great expansion for a Virtual Assistant looking to move beyond just administrative tasks.
46. Setting up new pages, accounts, groups, etc.
47. Promoting new posts across various social media channels
48. Promoting old posts via social media
49. Promoting posts of others via social media
50. Keeping the conversation going via social media (by creating polls, for example)
51. Sharing images/videos/articles
52. Replying to mentions/messages/comments on social media
53. Designing banners, headers and backgrounds
54. Growing social media followings
55. Creating giveaways and contests
56. Researching popular hashtags for your client’s niche
57. Creating and running ad campaigns (e.g. Facebook or Instagram ads)
58. Uploading presentations on Slideshare or Prezi
59. Setting up social scheduling tools (such as Buffer, Tailwind, Hootsuite or MeetEdgar)
60. Uploading content to social scheduling tools
61. Writing or updating online business profiles (e.g. LinkedIn)
62. Managing online communities (such as Facebook groups or other online forums)
Blog/Website Management
Once you know your way around WordPress or other blogging platforms, you can offer blog management services, taking care of everything from SEO to comments to broken links.
63. Moderating blog comments
64. Updating plugins
65. Repairing/updating broken links
66. Replying to comments
67. Making SEO improvements (headlines, page titles, content, images, etc.)
68. Setting up 301 redirects
69. Tracking 404 errors (via a plugin)
70. Reporting trends in blog activity, such as hot topics or comment activity
71. Removing unwanted pages and posts
72. Tracking website metrics (e.g. Google Analytics)
Email Management
Most of us are astounded by our inboxes. Save your clients hours upon hours every week by taking care of their message inbox and leaving behind only the things they actually need to see.
73. Setting up Gmail or any other email client
74. Replying to common questions
75. Flagging important messages that need a reply
76. Following up on sent emails
77. Deleting spam
78. Unsubscribing from unwanted promotional lists
79. Tagging and archiving emails
80. Forwarding messages and inquiries to other team members
81. Using email plugins to optimize
82. Drafting responses
Financials
If you have a demonstrable knowledge in financial or maybe you are willing to learn some basic accounting skills, you can offer these services as well.
83. Creating invoice templates
84. Sending invoices
85. Processing payments
86. Managing affiliate payouts
87. Updating a profit and loss statement
88. Bookkeeping
89. Handling basic payroll duties
Email Marketing
Email marketing is another great niche that requires a bit of a specialized knowledge, but is fairly accessible once you learn the ropes.
As online marketing is booming, email marketing is becoming an even bigger market for Virtual Assistants.
90. Setting up autoresponders
91. Scheduling email campaigns
92. Designing email templates
93. Managing the newsletter
94. Email list segmentation
95. Scrubbing email lists
96. Product launch management
97. Track email campaigns (click through, conversions, unsubscribes)
Services Outreach
The act of building relationships with customers is something that several entrepreneurs know they need to be doing, but it can simply become a time suck. As their assistant, you can take on some of these tasks.
98. Leaving comments on other blogs
99. Contacting influencers and potential partners on behalf of your client
100. Participating in relevant groups or forums
101. Reaching out to advertisers for ads or sponsored posts
102. Finding guest post opportunities
103. Lead generation
104. Growing and managing affiliate programs
105. Setting up interviews
106. Distributing press releases
107. Booking speaking engagements
Online Marketing
Online marketing is a “hot topic” right now and the more you learn about this rapidly expanding niche, the more valuable your Virtual Assistant services will be.
108. Setting up webinars
109. Providing tech support during webinars
110. Setting up and updating sales funnels
111. Setting up/managing paid traffic ads
112. Creating newsletters and autoresponder sequences
113. Creating landing pages (e.g. Leadpages)
114. Creating sales pages
115. Creating and managing giveaways and promotions
116. Writing product descriptions (if your client is in the business of online retail)
117. Designing fliers and brochures
118. Managing product launches
Audio/Video Production
If you’re into the production of videos or audio tracks such as podcasts, you are in a greater position to offer your audio/video skills as a Virtual Assistant!
119. Writing scripts
120. Producing content (such as intro/outros, illustrations, etc.)
121. Editing content
122. Upload videos to hosting platforms (such as YouTube or Vimeo)
123. SEO optimization (YouTube, etc.)
124. Uploading audio to hosting platforms (such as iTunes)
125. Image editing (basic) for each audio or video piece
126. Inserting audio or video files on blog or website
127. Sharing audio or video files across platforms
128. Doing audio or video transcription
129. Coordinating interviews
130. Looking for sponsorship opportunities
131. Researching background on podcast guests
Website Maintenance
website maintenance is a very critical role, and it entails that you are up on the latest security procedures.
You’ll need to know enough to create new pages and troubleshoot tech glitches.
132. Making security updates
133. Managing backups
134. Setting up new sites
135. Adding new pages
136. Customizing themes
137. Installing and updating plugins
138. Setting up integrations (with social media, mailing lists, etc.)
139. Setting up and integrating a shop page and/or payment gateway
140. Creating a custom favicon
141. Making and installing a custom 404 page
142. Ensuring that website information stays up-to-date
Miscellaneous
As you learn the nitty-gritty of online entrepreneurship, you will pick up additional valuable skills along the line that are not necessarily simple to categorize but are still highly valuable.
Here are just a few of them.
143. Virtual event support
144. Setting up integrations
145. Creating landing pages, splash pages, opt-in forms, etc.
146. Keyword ranking reports
147. Analytics reporting
148. Graphic design
149. Infographic design
150. Setting up affiliate programs (using WordPress)
151. Monitoring online reviews
152. Monitoring industry news
153. Summarizing the latest research findings that pertain to the client’s niche
Bonus Tips
This is an extensive and valuable list of Virtual Assistant tasks, but it by no means exhaustive.
If for example, you have additional technical skills or expertise with specific or specialized software or marketing method, use that to target clients who need support in that area.
And if you find that you most enjoy one or two aspects of your client work, consider focusing on those things.
As you gain more experience as a Virtual Assistant, study what your clients are always doing with the time you free up for them. Learn their business strategies and the tools they use.
The more you know the way your client run their business, the more you will be able to help them. And there’s a very good chance that you can transfer the knowledge and skills to other clients, as well.
By picking up new skills, understanding business systems and structures at a bird’s-eye level, and/or specializing in one or two specific areas, you make yourself even more marketable.
This way, you will increase your value and command higher rates, and you will be better equipped to run your own business successfully.
Conclusion
The length of this list might seem vast and overwhelming, but don’t think that you have to do it all right away! Start with a few offerings and build your list of applicable services over time and as you get to know your clients.
Now that you can tell what services you can offer, you may have some additional questions when it comes to starting and growing a Virtual Assistant business from scratch.
Just hit the comment section below and leave us a comment or use the contact form to send us an email if you need further help.
We’ll teach you the step-by-step process of launching and building a rock-solid business — from structuring your services through landing your first client.
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A virtual assistant can surely give you a wide array of skills with the goal of making your life easier. It is important that you know your niche and develops it further.