Whether you’re just starting your online marketing journey or are already an expert, you’ll eventually need an online marketing assistant to help run your campaigns. Maybe you’re looking for someone to help with social media or email marketing, or to help with SEO. There are a number of specialties that an online marketing assistant can cover, so it’s important to understand what you’re looking for. Here are some of the most important qualities to keep in mind when hiring a virtual assistant for your business.
Education And Training
No matter what specialty you have in mind for the person who will be helping you run your digital marketing campaigns, you’ll first need to make sure that they have the education and training necessary to do the job. While it’s not required that someone have a specific degree to become an online marketing assistant, it is necessary that they have the relevant training. This could come in the form of relevant courses in college or university, or it could be self-learning through reading books and online tutorials. Regardless of the method, make sure that your virtual assistant has the skills necessary to do the job. Hiring someone that does not have the necessary education and training to do the job will only lead to trouble later on when you’re expecting them to get the job done.
Extensive Experience
Even if you have the best virtual assistant in the world, who has the necessary education and training, he or she will still need to gain a lot of experience in order to be able to do the job properly. Experience is obviously good, but you also need to make sure that you’re getting the best experience from someone who has sufficient understanding of the field. This is why it’s necessary to have a look at their previous work and determine how much experience they actually have. The more experience they have, the more mature their approach will be, and the more capable they will be of doing the job. The key is to find someone who has the required experience but is also hungry to learn new things and continue gaining new skills.
Ability To Work Unsupervised
Working unsupervised is not only important because you want to give your virtual assistant the freedom to get the job done without having to ask for help every step of the way. It is also essential that you are looking for a self-starter who can take initiative and be autonomous in getting the job done. This could mean that you will not always be around to give them instructions or feedback, but they will be able to figure out what is needed. Supervision is important, but so is being able to work independently and be able to handle unforeseen situations that may arise while performing the tasks necessary for a successful campaign. Make sure that you are not just getting someone who needs constant supervision in order to do the job.
Cognitive Dissonance
This one is important when hiring someone to help with SEO or web design, in particular. When someone is performing these tasks for you, it is necessary that they have the ability to approach each project with a fresh set of eyes and a clear head. To put it simply, you need someone who can think outside of the box and come up with new ideas and approaches, but you don’t want to overload them with too much unnecessary work. Finding the best possible virtual assistant for your needs is not an easy task, which is why it’s so important that you take the time to find someone who is a good fit for the position but may also have some conflict of interest issues which you need to be aware of. Conflicting interests can arise when one of your employees has a personal or professional relationship with a vendor, partner, or client of your company. In these cases, it is usually best to terminate the relationship or, at the very least, restrict the scope of the work performed by the person in question. It is also advisable to hire an employment attorney to help navigate these legal issues and to develop a business continuity plan.
Flexibility
Flexibility is important because you don’t want to hire someone who is not willing to bend or adapt to your needs. Even though you may have a clear idea of what you need, there are usually unforeseen circumstances that arise during the course of a campaign that require additional adaptability from the assistant. The key is to find someone who is willing to make reasonable changes to meet your needs and who will not be disheartened when problems arise. Adaptability is an important quality in any case, but especially in an employee who will be carrying out tasks that are rather routine in nature. These tasks may require a certain degree of flexibility, especially if there are certain deadlines that need to be met.
Of course, all of this assumes that you actually found someone who met all of your prerequisites. Even then, you may need to do some additional due diligence to make sure that this will actually be the case. After all, you don’t want to end up with someone who does not have the skills necessary to do the job or who has an obvious conflict of interest. Hiring the right person is, therefore, quite an important decision, both for your business and for the individual who will be carrying out the tasks involved in the campaign. Make sure that you do your research before committing, but also keep in mind that this is a person you’re going to be working with for the foreseeable future, so it is important to find someone who you can trust and who will be easy to work with.