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Your 2023 Guide to Hiring a Virtual Marketing Assistant

Posted on February 3, 2023February 23, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Whether you are an entrepreneur, a small business owner, or a marketing leader, a suboptimal digital marketing strategy can be your Achilles’ heel. According to the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report, 86% of marketers have increased their brand awareness by leveraging one or more digital marketing channels.

However, when you are just starting out or cash-strapped, the prospect of recruiting an army of marketing mavericks can seem daunting. In these circumstances, hiring a talented virtual marketing assistant to manage your end-to-end online marketing needs can be your best bet.

In this blog, we spill the tea on how to hire the best virtual marketing assistant for your company and leverage them to scale your business.

Who Exactly Is a Virtual Marketing Assistant?

A virtual marketing assistant is a remote professional who can shoulder the burden of your complete digital marketing requirements. These professionals have expertise across multiple facets of digital marketing- be it website management, SEO, or content creation. You can hire them at subsidized rates and they are available to work your schedule.

But the first step is to determine if you really need a marketing virtual assistant. Let’s find out!

3 Signs You Need a Virtual Marketing Assistant

Creating your brand identity from scratch is an uphill battle. With a laundry list of critical marketing priorities, trying to do it all can often have a catastrophic impact on your bottom line.

1. Overwhelmed by Day-to-Day Coordination

Like most functions, digital marketing runs on incessant coordination between various internal and external stakeholders. Although crucial and unavoidable, the daily grind can leave you too exhausted to focus on mission-critical tasks.

2. Struggling with Creative Block

According to the latest research, companies who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to experience a YoY increase in ROI. However, the creative process demands frequent periods of downtime. Digital marketers often struggle with ever-growing to-do lists that can block the creative flow.

3. Technical Challenges

Today’s dynamic marketing trends and social media algorithms can keep you on your toes. To stay relevant, you must keep pace with the latest marketing tools and technology. This creates the pressure to constantly upskill yourself whilst balancing everyday marketing commitments.

If you are struggling with any of these factors, you might want to start looking for a virtual marketing assistant.

What Skills to Look for in a Virtual Marketing Assistant?

From basic clerical work to optimizing your web experience, a marketing virtual assistant can perform an array of tasks. When exploring hiring options, you can either look for someone adept at a few critical marketing skills or someone who can handle your end-to-end marketing needs.

Administrative

Back-end chores are often the most repetitive and hence sought-after tasks you can outsource to marketing virtual assistants. Delegating these can help you get back hours in your day and find time for what’s more urgent.

Prepare presentations, reports, templates, etc.
Liaise with stakeholders like graphic designers, photo editors, and software developers
Transcribe meetings and calls
Data entry and management
Document conversion
CRM assistance
Keep track of marketing deadlines
Manage email responses and calendar
Schedule appointments and reminders
Miscellaneous marketing support

Strategy

It is not unusual to seek complete control over your marketing strategy and its execution. However, there are many ways a virtual assistant can help you conceptualize your plan and accomplish your goals faster.

Competitive analysis
Study industry trends
Target market research
Manage marketing budget
Analyze ROI
Track and implement the latest marketing tools

Content Marketing

Content marketing has increasingly become the most crucial aspect of every digital marketer’s agenda. By 2026, global content marketing revenue is expected to reach USD 137 billion dollars, as illustrated in the graph below.

Source: Statista

Virtual assistants with a background in content creation and marketing can help you with a series of tasks to stay ahead of the curve.

Content research based on the target market and industry
Plan content calendar
Create and manage content for websites, blogs, ebooks, guides, newsletters, social media posts, videos, etc.
Content editing and proofreading
Manage CMS platforms

Search Engine Optimization

The race to the top of the SERPs is the biggest conundrum for any company with an online presence. This is mostly because ranking at the top for your target keywords is a tried and tested method to generate a steady stream of traffic and increase business visibility.

Most qualified virtual SEO assistants can help you with the basics like keyword research, SEO fixes, pay-per-click management, and analyzing metrics like backlinks, page views, bounce rates, etc.

Social Media Management

As of this year, there are 4.9 billion social media users worldwide and this number is projected to increase to 5.85 billion by 2027. This highlights how important it is to optimize your brand's social media presence.

But, building brand recognition and generating leads via social media channels involves a number of moving pieces. Hiring a social media marketing assistant will relieve you of the groundwork so you can focus more on nurturing client relationships. Your virtual assistant can help -

Develop, edit, publish, and share content on various social channels
Manage your social media calendar
Managing and execute social media campaigns
Build your social media visibility with page optimization techniques on various social media and search networks
Research and configure various social media software and platforms
Address customer queries on social platforms
Track social media metrics

Also Read: What You Need to Know About Social Media Virtual Assistants

Website Management

Regularly updating and optimizing your website is a sure shot way of converting those web visits into paying customers. Yet it requires detailed research and technical know-how which can be outsourced to a virtual marketing assistant.

Website review and analysis
Web hosting
Website helpdesk
Webpage tweaking
Updating plugins
Designing forms, landing pages, etc.

Demand Generation and Customer Acquisition

Demand generation relies on the symbiotic relationship between sales and marketing. A talented marketing virtual assistant can act as a crucial resource to help your sales team reach its quota.

Nurture web visits into paying customers with targeted content
Optimize and manage email marketing campaigns
Engage with relevant groups on LinkedIn
Connect with Influencers for affiliate marketing

Why Hire a Virtual Marketing Assistant?

Now that we have clarified what to look for in your virtual marketing assistant, let’s explore the benefits of choosing a remote marketing assistant over an in-house employee.

Heightened Productivity

Most business owners and marketing managers wear too many hats, often leading to burnout and decreased overall efficiency. A virtual marketing assistant can handle the most mundane and repetitive tasks. You now have more bandwidth to invest in marketing strategy, connecting with customers, and driving growth.

Premium Service

When running a small business, it becomes difficult to compete with the service quality offered by huge MNCs with larger teams, team leads, and quality analysts. However, when you plan to outsource your VA from a company like Office Beacon, you get team leads, QA support, IT support and HR Support. You also get regular updates n your VAs progress and chances to share feedback.

Topical Authority

A competent digital marketer comes with in-depth domain knowledge like SEO expertise or familiarity with the latest marketing tools. If you opt for full-time marketing professionals with premium skill sets, you would end up shelling out big bucks. Reliable outsourcing partners like Office Beacon offer experienced virtual marketing assistants with domain expertise at affordable prices.

Ease of Access

Working with virtual assistants ensures that your business does not face downtime, even during weekends or holidays. You can hire digital marketing assistants from around the world who can work based on your schedule. Moreover, allocating resources across multiple time zones comes in handy when catering to a global audience.

Reduced Overheads

Along with hefty salaries, hiring a full-fledged in-house team incurs additional expenses. You end up paying for employee benefits, insurance coverage, transportation allowance, food coupons, office supplies, and so on. Whereas virtual assistants come at a flat fee and can be charged per project or by the number of hours.

No Workforce Management Hassles

A full-time digital marketing team imposes high costs and time commitments. On the other hand managing remote resources or freelancers located thousands of miles away comes with certain uncertainties. Partnering with legacy virtual assistant providers like Office Beacon eliminates the hassles of hiring, onboarding, and managing your remote staff.

In house employee vs OB marketing assistant

How to Hire a Virtual Assistant for Digital Marketing?

In the last section, we took you through an exhaustive list of benefits a virtual marketing assistant can bring to the table. Curious about the process? Let’s break it down for you.

Evaluate

The first step is to conduct an audit and identify the daily time sinkers that prevent you from achieving your marketing KPIs. Analyze and create a list of -

The most time-consuming tasks, like content writing and customer support
Technical tasks that you don’t prefer or lack the skills for, such as SEO, graphic designing, web development, etc.
Training material like video tutorials for navigating your CRM, customer response scripts, and so on.

Write a Killer Job Description

Drafting an accurate job description is key to hiring the most suitable candidate for your virtual marketing needs. Include your company intro and information about your products/services, the level of education required, and a list of skills you want the marketing VA to possess.

Find Your Virtual Marketing Assistant

There are two predominant methods to find your virtual marketing assistant. You can go old school and post your requirement on an online job board or virtual assistant marketplace. You will get various options to choose from based on your VA’s experience, skills set, and charge sheet. You could also review some work samples to get a close look at their capabilities.

However, this entire process needs a certain level of time commitment from your end. You need to ensure you select someone with the right skills and work ethic, which usually requires a background check. As these professionals work remotely, you will need proper procedures in place to assign work and monitor their progress.

Another easier and more cost-effective option is to partner with trusted virtual assistant providers like Office Beacon. For a flat monthly rate, we source the perfect fit, handle the onboarding and training process and share regular updates on your virtual assistant’s progress.

Delegate to Eliminate Your Marketing Hassles

If you are used to doing it all on your own, letting go of the reins can be nerve-racking. However, at some point, you need to choose between delegating or losing out on customers due to a high workload. Choose the first option.

What are your thoughts on choosing a virtual marketing assistant over an in-house resource? Let us know in the comments.

5 Tips To Write Your Virtual Assistant Job Description In No Time

Posted on February 2, 2023June 9, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Businesses found that using a virtual assistant instead of a full-time employee is more beneficial. Startups, in particular, have discovered the importance of VAs for sporadic projects and time-consuming, tedious administrative tasks.

Image Source: Statista

In the US, there were approximately 67 million independent contractors in 2021. By 2028, this figure will surpass 90 million. Thus the market for independent virtual assistants will increase by $4 billion between 2021 and 2025, growing at a CAGR of 12%.

How a Perfect Job Description Can Aid in Attracting Qualified VAs

Companies struggle to bring the best virtual assistants onboard mainly due to poorly-written job descriptions. About 76% say that recruiting qualified virtual assistants is their biggest issue.

A well-written job description:

1. Attracts the Right VA

By creating a compelling job description, businesses may locate the best virtual assistant to fit their needs. Thus, businesses can save substantial time during the hiring process and improve the quality of virtual assistant applications.

2. Aids Adequate Training

A qualified virtual assistant is usually well-trained. However, businesses need their virtual assistants well-versed in their work culture. With the perfect job description, companies can pinpoint where virtual assistants’ skill sets are lacking and create specialized training to fill those gaps.

3. Helps Gauge Performance

A thorough job description serves as a tool to gauge the performance of the virtual assistant by taking job competencies and responsibilities outlined in the description as guidelines.

What Skills & Experience Do Virtual Assistants Require?

A virtual assistant can perform different tasks, including managing several clients and ensuring that business owners get the best assistance possible. Therefore, before hiring a virtual assistant, it’s critical to understand their roles and their wide range of skills.

Here are the top virtual assistant skills:

1. Communication Skills

Excellent communication skills are essential in any industry where there is interaction with customers, employees, and other parties. In this sense, whether or not virtual assistants have years of expertise, they should possess excellent communication skills.

2. Project Management

A VA may need to have abilities in project management to develop and implement specific strategies, support firm projects, write emails and other marketing material for projects, or provide online support like website maintenance.

3. Time Management

A virtual assistant needs to handle several tasks at once as a virtual assistant, and good time management skills are a prerequisite. The ability to prioritize their workload to meet business needs is a quality trait in a virtual assistant (VA).

4. Attention to Detail

A virtual assistant’s main task is not only to complete tasks but to meet the high-quality standards of businesses. For this, a virtual assistant needs to be attentive to detail.

5. Tech Savviness

Virtual tools enable virtual assistants to function quickly and effectively. For this, virtual assistants must keep up with technological advancements and get practical expertise with tools such as Asana, Hubstaff, Trello, and others.

6. Customer Service

Virtual assistants must be able to deal with clients directly. Thus they must possess strong customer service abilities. VAs must maintain composure in all circumstances and perform well under pressure. Additionally, providing excellent customer service will strengthen client relationships and enhance brand reputation.

7. Data Entry

Data entry is the essential skill of a virtual assistant. A VA does document formatting, file organization, research, transcription work, and data presentation. A fantastic talent is also being able to type swiftly, especially if you require a virtual assistant for data entry tasks.

8. Subject Matter Expertise

A virtual assistant needs not to be a jack of all trades. They need to be good at two or three areas of expertise that give them an edge and a focused job search plus experience level.

9. A Learning Mindset

The desire to learn new things is the top attribute of a virtual assistant. Also, virtual assistants should be open to criticism and look for innovative ways to structure or streamline their work to fulfill business needs or KPIs.

10. Reliability

Finding trustworthy virtual assistants who can quickly put their expertise to use is difficult for businesses. A reliable virtual assistant assists businesses with crucial activities that raise production and efficiency.

Why You Need a Job Description for Your Virtual Assistant

Contrary to popular belief, companies should still create a job description for virtual assistants just like they would for full-time employees. Organizations typically designate an HR team to hire a candidate when employing a full-time internal employee.

Businesses usually don’t prefer and sometimes cannot afford to hire a dedicated workforce for the hiring process when it comes to a virtual assistant. A well-written job description may be sufficient for firms instead of a devoted team. To successfully hire a virtual assistant, a company must have a convincing job description.

Also read: Top 10 ways to Boost Business Growth by 10x

1. A Job Description Outlines Business Expectations

The objective of the job description is to attract the right virtual assistant by emphasizing the business needs, goals, and expectations.

For this reason, businesses need to write about candidates’ qualifications, experiences, and desired traits in an easy-to-understand manner.

Further, businesses can better control their expectations when they write job descriptions. It can become challenging if a company is hiring unaware of what they want the virtual assistant to handle. A thorough job description ensures that organizations are aware of their hiring goals.

2. A Job Description Aids In Narrowing The Job Search

A compelling job description can aid companies in sorting through competent candidates so they can schedule interviews that result in recruiting the right candidate who adds value to the team.

For instance, a PR firm would want someone knowledgeable about the subtleties of the PR sector and who can match their skill set to fulfill organizational objectives.

3. A Job Description Aids In Finding Individuals With The Same Interest

A well-written job description acts as a tool for applicants to analyze whether or not their skills match up with business needs. However, it won’t dissuade every unqualified person from applying.

A qualified virtual assistant will be committed to achieving the company’s objectives, sharing your interests, and caring about building long-term relationships with clients.

How to Write the Perfect Virtual Assistant Job Description

Any company wants to avoid wasting time writing ineffective job descriptions that don’t add value. There are a lot of virtual assistants available; you want to choose one that complements your business and has the talents you require.

The following are the steps in writing the perfect job description:

Step 1: Understand the Target Audience

Zig Ziglar, a legendary sales trainer, once said, “People buy on emotion and justify on logic.”

It is accurate since people make emotionally charged decisions while looking for jobs. Therefore, when creating job descriptions, organizations must appeal to the target audience’s emotions (i.e., the qualified virtual assistant you want to hire). Recognize the candidates’ expectations and professional aspirations.

Example:

Create a persona for your virtual assistant that describes the traits, outlook, aspirations, and requirements. These profiles can help businesses better customize and target their hiring process to find the right virtual assistant.

Image Source: UXPressia

The image shows a sample employee persona demonstrating the employee’s skills, accomplishments, and objectives.

For instance , if a business wants to hire a social media virtual assistant, look for:

What are the virtual assistants career goals?
What are the strengths of the virtual assistants?
What are the challenges of virtual assistants?

These are sample questions. Businesses can create a corresponding job description to guarantee that possible applicants would fit in with their firm both professionally and culturally.

2. Optimize the Job Title with Keywords

Millions of job seekers use the Internet every day to conduct keyword searches. Now, companies must optimize the job title with keywords to reach out to potential candidates.

Include the keyword ‘virtual assistant’ including the specialization you are looking for. Here are some examples:

Virtual Assistant Needed for Busy Entrepreneur
Tech-Savvy Virtual Assistant with Excellent Communication Skills
Real Estate Virtual Assistant
Sales & Marketing Virtual Assistant

Instead of merely entering the headline, specify what assistance you require. It will make it easier for those who are qualified to find you. Furthermore, it will save you time by preventing ineligible individuals from clicking the job description.

3. Include Company Summary

The next step is to have a short blip about the company, including the company name, what the company specializes in, how fast the company is growing, what the candidate can expect from the company, and more.

Here is a perfect example from a KodeKloud job posting.

Through this job description, a virtual assistant can discover more about the company, what it does, the company’s growth, goals, and more. It is an excellent way to find a skilled virtual assistant with similar ideals.

3. Get into the Details

An outline of the job description is crucial to attracting top personnel. Businesses must accomplish this by briefly stating what the position entails.

In the job description, the employer can briefly outline the duties, team members, and other specifics of the role.

4. List Responsibilities

A fantastic job description should include a list of the virtual assistant’s responsibilities.

After reading this part, the candidate will understand their responsibilities. As a result, the virtual assistant would find it simple to start working after hiring because they are already aware of their duties.

The following are just a few examples of duties that a general virtual assistant might have:

Schedule meetings
Answer calls
Organize calendar
Book tickets
Manage contacts
Provide customer service

5. Explain the Application Process

The CTA, which includes instructions on the application for the position, must be in the job description following the job description overview, responsibilities, duties, and competencies.

If a business uses a job board, instruct the applicants to apply by clicking the link in the job description. Employers should clearly state how potential applicants can access their website.

Conclusion

Hiring a virtual assistant is one of the best ways for businesses to get back their productive hours. For this, businesses shouldn’t spend too much time hunting for the best virtual assistant. With a perfect job description, companies can hire top talent.

Virtual Assistant Cost: 4 Crucial Factors to Keep in Mind

Posted on January 30, 2023December 17, 2024 by admin@officebeacon.com

Virtual assistants handle routine and taxing back-office tasks. Busy executives and founders hire them to perform both general and niche services so they can focus on core business functions and accomplish more in less time. If you want to hire a VA but are unsure about typical rates, read on. We share four major factors to help you gauge the virtual assistant cost accurately.

But first …

Is a Virtual Assistant Worth It?

Virtual assistants are incredibly beneficial for growing businesses. They boost productivity, improve work-life balance, and offer an affordable way to work with best-in-class talent. Virtual assistants also help you save on additional expenses incurred on full-time hires. But unless you have set up proper systems, they may not be the best solution for your needs.

Before hiring a virtual assistant, ask yourself these four questions:

Have you prepared clear guidelines and step-by-step instructions for the hire?
Do you need help with admin tasks or a specialized virtual assistant service?
How much time can you invest in training and giving feedback?
What level of technical expertise do you need?

Virtual assistants don’t have access to insider knowledge and company resources. If you haven’t devised protocols to help them seamlessly collaborate with your in-house employees, consider a virtual assistant provider that not only finds the perfect fit but also has seasoned project managers to train and supervise talent to ensure your virtual assistants work efficiently.

With that covered, let’s get down to the factors that impact virtual assistant costs.

Factors Determining Virtual Assistant Cost

Unlike in-house employees, virtual assistants don’t expect clients to pay hefty compensation. You don’t need to provide health and life insurance, travel allowances, competitive 401K matches, paid time off, and learning reimbursement to hire and retain top-notch talent.

But the following key factors can help you accurately estimate the cost of hiring a virtual assistant for business:

1. Scope

A virtual assistant can perform various tasks for your business. They can book meetings, manage social media, create websites, and design creatives.

You can club services into categories like marketing, customer support, sales, financial planning, or administrative work when planning what to outsource. The day-to-day virtual assistant tasks and the hours required constitute scope - a major factor determining the cost of hiring virtual assistants.

2. Location

Virtual assistants work remotely which lets you hire talent from anywhere in the world. You may be in California and hire an independent worker from New York. Or you could delegate tasks to an assistant located in the Philippines or India.

The cost of living is different for all three areas. A virtual assistant in New York will cost more than their Indian counterpart and may also bill for the time spent on discovery calls and meetings.

CTA to SPEAK WITH US with Office Beacon team

3. Expertise & Experience

The core skills possessed by independent talent help them stand out. While some are beginners, others command substantial knowledge from previous in-house roles which lets them perform demanding work without supervision or detailed instructions. Expert virtual assistants know their worth and charge as per the complexity of the work.

4. Frequency

Virtual assistants can work full-time or part-time. They may come aboard for a specific project or dedicate a fixed number of hours each week. Depending on the arrangement and how hands-on you want the virtual assistant to be, the independent contractor may charge different rates.

For example, an assistant working on a one-off email campaign will charge less than a more involved consultant helping out with a business strategy.

infographic detailing the four factors determining virtual assistant cost

Other Key Considerations

Besides the above factors, virtual assistant skills and pricing options can also impact costs. Seasoned contractors can be picky about work and may charge monthly retainers. Whereas, beginners looking to build their portfolio may be happy to take up one-off projects and invoice hourly.

Growing startups that don’t have the budget to build an in-house team outsource their back-office tasks precisely because of the flexibility to hire talent as per business needs. As you calculate the virtual assistant cost and budget to hire independent talent, factor in:

1. Virtual Assistant Skills

A virtual assistant may be a generalist or offer niche services. In-depth knowledge, experience, and familiarity with industry best practices also influence virtual assistant costs.

A good rule of thumb to go by is this - the greater the skillset, complexity, and expertise required for the job, the higher the pricing. For example, specialized virtual assistants would cost more than a back-office specialist handling data entry and billing111.

CTA to download Office Beacon's virtual assistants' service guide

2. Pricing Options

Virtual assistants do hourly, project, or retainer pricing depending on scope. If you need part-time help, you can pay by the hour or on a project basis. But a sabbatical leave may require you to hire talent full-time and pay a fixed retainer.

Freelance marketplaces and gig-based job boards are pocket-friendly options to find independent contractors but they require significant HR work. A dedicated virtual assistant provider like Office Beacon can match you fit the right fit and mitigate HR concerns and overheads on office upkeep.

How to Pay a Virtual Assistant?

Virtual assistants often work with multiple clients and use invoicing software for billing. Before hiring an independent contractor, ask them about their payment method.

While many still prefer the good old direct deposits, the rise of platforms like Stripe, PayPal, and Wise has changed the way virtual assistants accept payments and manage their finances. And that’s a wrap! Do you plan to hire a virtual assistant in 2023? Let us know in the comments below.

The Ultimate List of Virtual Assistant Software To Make Virtual Assistant Life Easy

Posted on January 26, 2023February 23, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Businesses go above and beyond to maintain productivity since low productivity leads to a cascade of issues.

Image Source: Clockify

The above graphical image showcases perceived time spent on repetitive tasks across countries.

Thus businesses confined to repetitive and monotonous chores make it difficult for organizations to concentrate on their top priorities.

Studies reveal that lost productivity costs employers $1.8 trillion each year.

To enhance productivity and leverage their resources, companies turn to virtual assistants.

A virtual assistant (VA) is a skilled individual who can manage your schedule, organize your files, answer customer queries, and more.

In essence, using a VA is all about time and money savings.

A Virtual Assistant with the right software tools can effectively manage your daily tasks. They can free up your time so you can focus on your top priorities.

What Makes Virtual Assistants Productive?

Virtual assistants are a pathway to a higher rate of productivity for organizations. They increase the efficiency of tasks thus improving productivity.

A study shows that 72% of small business owners feel overburdened by their responsibilities and the volume of work at hand. 64% of business owners believe they need to delegate more duties to experience less stress.

Thus delegating tasks to a virtual assistant can increase the efficiency and productivity of any business. And a great way to understand productivity is to define KPIs and goals. Clocking in and out is the wrong way to measure productivity because it doesn’t tell you if work happened.

While working with a virtual assistant, the biggest roadblocks to productivity are poor communication and a lack of the right productivity tools.

Also read: 7 wonders a virtual assistant can bring to your world

What is Virtual Assistant Software?

There are modern technology and software tools developed for virtual assistants to complete tasks faster. The following are the best virtual assistant software tools accessible online. These tools can help virtual assistants finish their work in managing appointments, social media management, time tracking, communicating with clients, and more.

1. Time Tracking Virtual Assistant Software

Virtual assistants live in different parts of the world and work at different time zones. And, it becomes difficult to time track and run payroll smoothly.

To this extent, businesses need a reliable time tracking tool to calculate the number of hours a virtual assistant works.

A good time tracking tool not only calculates the number of hours a virtual assistant works but also gives the time utilized protecting businesses from time theft.

For every dollar a company makes, time theft can cost them up to 20%.

a. Time Doctor

Time Doctor is a time-tracking and employee productivity management tool. From big to small organizations, use Time Doctor to enhance employee productivity.

The tool allows businesses to:

Find out how much time your VAs spent working
Record the time spent on each project and with clients.
Check out the programs and websites the VA used while at work.
Utilize precise reports to analyze VAs productivity

b. Hubstaff

Hubstaff aids businesses in monitoring the efficiency and output of virtual assistants. It enables organizations to automate timesheets for virtual assistants without the hassle of manually tracking hours.

The tool provides in-depth information that makes it evident how VA operates. Businesses can monitor data like activity levels and the amount of time spent on particular websites and apps.

Organizations may acquire thorough reports on the virtual assistant work and track their performance using a dashboard.

2. File Sharing/Storage Virtual Assistant Software

Working with a virtual assistant involves plenty of file sharing and document management. Emailing files is outdated and time-consuming.

Businesses can use file-sharing tools to streamline document storage, sharing, and work collaboration. Some software even lets organizations edit and organize files in real-time.

Here are some of the best tools for file sharing and storing with virtual assistants:

Dropbox

Over 500,000 companies utilize Dropbox, a reputable file-sharing service. It allows businesses to streamline the work of virtual assistants.

Businesses may draft documents, make modifications, and maintain files from one site. The tool is designed for enterprises and has many admin features suitable for businesses of any size.

Pricing

Professional: $19.99 per month (for individuals)
Standard: $15 per user/month (for small teams)
Advanced: $25 per user/month (for larger teams)

Box

The Box allows limitless storage and document management when employing virtual assistants. Along with excellent security safeguards, the tool has 256-bit encryption.

Using Box, businesses can lock data and limit access only to an individual virtual assistant. Therefore, organizations can utilize Box to limit their virtual assistant’s access to only particular files and data.

3. Social Media Management Tools

Businesses utilize virtual assistants for social media management. Virtual assistants need social media management solutions to handle social networks effectively.

An effective social media management tool allows businesses to:

Schedule social media posts
Connect with the target audience
Conduct social media campaigns
Analyze the performance of social media campaigns

The following tools can make managing social media for virtual assistants simpler:

a. Buffer

Buffer consolidates all social media accounts under one roof. As a result, virtual assistants don’t need to log on to their social media accounts like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.

Virtual assistants can handle all the company’s social media accounts by connecting their social media profiles to Buffer.

Additionally, Buffer offers a feature that permits multiple users to access the account. Thus, it makes it easy for companies to monitor virtual assistants’ performance while they work on it.

b. Hootsuite

Image Source: Hootsuite

Hootsuite is a popular social media tool that allows businesses to schedule and manage content on all their social media pages.

Using Hootsuite’s inbox feature enables virtual assistants to track, view, and respond to followers’ messages across all social media platforms from a single place.

Businesses can assign work to virtual assistants and keep an eye on them with the help of advanced team collaboration tools from Hootsuite.

Additionally, utilize the courses available on Hootsuite to train their virtual assistants to improve their social media skills and gain certifications to demonstrate to potential clients.

4. Operations & Process Documentation Tools

Virtual assistants can do their work with the help of precise documentation.

These document-based tools help virtual assistants become proficient in their work. As business practices change, the virtual assistant also assists businesses in keeping their paperwork current.

Here are the tools listed to help businesses to organize their business operations.

a. Process Street

Businesses can design checklists and procedures to direct virtual assistants through their work using Process Street, a workflow management platform.

Businesses can maintain accuracy and consistency in their work using this effective tool. Additionally, Process Street makes task execution simpler by streamlining onboarding and removing uncertainty.

b. Trainual

Trainual allows businesses for procedural documentation. It eases the onboarding of virtual assistants. For virtual assistants to understand corporate procedures, it saves company regulations and produces playbooks to direct each stage of a work process.

The tool empowers businesses to turn their business procedures into training programs. Companies can even use built-in templates to create their personalized company policies.

5. Online Meeting Tool

Meeting with virtual assistants or allowing them to plan concurrent sessions with clients can be difficult. Video conferencing is a great way to collaborate with virtual assistants to have business conversations.

Use these tools to make working with virtual assistants easy:

a. ezTalks Cloud Meeting

ezTalks Cloud Meeting is a versatile business video and web conferencing tool that lets businesses host virtual meetings with virtual assistants.

An interactive whiteboard, screen sharing, cross-platform discussion, and online meeting scheduling all contribute to the efficiency of business meetings.

b. Zoom

Zoom is a video conferencing tool widely used to collaborate, hold meetings, and host virtual events.

The tool features group chat, video webinars, virtual conference rooms, and a business phone system, making them ideal virtual assistant software.

Zoom has advanced privacy and security features ensuring business data protection while working with virtual assistants.

Other Virtual Assistant Software

Virtual assistants relieve enterprises of the administrative strain that clogs entrepreneurs’ workdays. Companies may utilize virtual assistants’ full potential, save time, and maximize their investment with the help of the appropriate software solutions.

An effective virtual assistant tool can:

Aid organizations in completing tasks more effectively
Automate boring and repetitive jobs
Track the virtual assistants’ work time, activity, and progress
Maintain open lines of communication with a virtual assistant.

Here are some more tools to help businesses make the most of virtual assistants.

Project Management

A good project management tool can help businesses to:

Allocate work to virtual assistants
Analyze data to oversee projects
Identify how virtual assistants can become more productive

Consider your current and future needs while choosing the best tool for your team. To avoid wasting time transferring data during growth, pick a technology that can scale with you.

a. Asana

Image Source: Asana

Asana helps companies manage their projects effectively. It offers a team management feature that enables enterprises to set up teams in the tool with their virtual assistants.

Businesses using Asana can safeguard their sensitive data by only providing virtual assistants access to the data they need.

Organizations can easily delegate tasks to their virtual assistants, follow them, share projects with them, or make notes of them in task comments.

Additionally, its extensive workspace features let businesses organize teams, projects, and tasks and get informed of progress, eliminating the need for time-consuming back-and-forth email threads.

b. Basecamp

Basecamp is a simple project management tool designed to help organizations work remotely. It enables businesses to organize projects in a single place eliminating the need to go back and forth over small details or look for important files.

With Basecamp, it’s simple to stay connected with virtual assistants. Businesses can access this virtual assistant software on the web and even on their iOS or Android smartphones and tablets.

Essential CRM Virtual Assistant Software

CRM plays a critical role in any business as it consists of crucial information about customer data. It provides a complete understanding of any business.

These CRM tools are vital for a virtual assistant to maintain client data and increase sales.

Salesforce has this feature to set up to do and record anything a sales team wants, which is its greatest attribute.

It helps virtual assistants in sales with:

Contact record management
Deal tracking for sales planning
Sales pipeline management
Integrate email marketing
Tasks allocation
Campaigns and outreach analytics

b. Hubspot

With the help of Hubspot, businesses can combine meetings, automated templates, and sales processes.

Even better, companies may combine Hubspot’s CRM with their marketing automation software.

Using Hubspot, businesses can build email campaigns and qualify and score leads.

Hubspot CRM features:

Contact Management
Call and email logs
Pipeline management
Integration with Gmail and Slack
Customer chat

Conclusion

Organizations need to hire virtual assistants to handle their administrative needs. Although hiring a virtual assistant is easy, managing them can be difficult. The specialized virtual assistant software discussed here can help you get the most out of your virtual resource.

Top 10 Virtual Assistant Skills to Look Out for in 2023

Posted on January 23, 2023February 23, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Virtual assistants add incredible value to the lives of busy business owners. Besides boosting productivity and improving work-life balance, virtual assistants help you cut overhead costs and optimize resources. But here’s the thing.

Though remote workers are immensely valuable for growing companies, you may end up with a bad fit due to a lack of clarity on the virtual assistant skills you should look for.

In this post, we highlight ten basic (but vital!) virtual assistant skills. These may vary as per role and job requirements but nonetheless are a good referential point for your next hire.

Whether you source talent directly through company channels or rely on referrals, industry networks, or managed marketplaces, ensure your virtual assistants possess the following skills to enjoy a long-term and smooth working relationship with them.

1. Domain Expertise

Subject matter expertise is the top virtual assistant skill to test. Your virtual assistant must have a strong grasp of industry trends and best practices to ace their job.

Freelance marketplaces and communities have both emerging and seasoned talent. Depending on business priorities and budget, you can hire beginners, intermediate, or experienced professionals to manage your tasks.

Firms hire independent workers for many duties, but the most in-demand virtual assistant services include:

Bookkeeping

Different from accounting, virtual assistants offer invoicing, data entry, billing, reimbursement, reporting, payroll, and reconciliation as part of virtual bookkeeping services. They help you manage day-to-day company finances and ensure your accounts are accurate and up-to-date.

Email Management

A virtual assistant handles your personal or company email to review and resolve customer queries. They check all incoming emails, send follow-ups, and flag emails that need your attention. You can also entrust them with email marketing and reporting.

Content Writing

Content writers create short and long-form content for both digital and print publications. They write blogs, email newsletters, brochures, ebooks, guides, digital ads, and website copy to strengthen your digital marketing.

Social Media Management

It includes tasks like creating and managing social media profiles, creating strategies, and posting and curating user-generated content to build a brand online. A social media virtual assistant also runs paid campaigns and collects user feedback via polls.

bookkeeping, email management, and content writing represented as the three most in-demand virtual assistant services

Back-office Administration

Virtual assistants handle non-core tasks that don’t add to the bottom line directly. An umbrella term for inessential activities, a back-office specialist helps you maintain employee records, prepare reports, and manage office equipment infrastructure, and supplies.

Audio & Video Editing

You can hire virtual assistants to remove unwanted background voices, synchronize audio and video tracks, add special effects, adjust color balance, and create soundtracks to enhance the quality of your multimedia assets.

Web Development & SEO

Independent website and app developers deploy leading technology and best practices to build intuitive websites and apps. Whereas SEO specialists offer on-page, off-page, and technical SEO audits to improve your platforms’ visibility on search engines and app stores.

Customer Service

Businesses rely on customer service reps to answer customer questions, provide information, and solve complaints. They trust reps to deliver exceptional customer experience and ensure complete satisfaction by processing returns, exchanges, and refunds.

2. Technical Acumen

Website and software developers need high technical prowess to create scalable world-class digital solutions for your business. But even for non-tech roles, basic IT knowledge is essential for day-to-day tasks.

Your virtual assistant must be able to collaborate seamlessly over modern communication and project management tools and track new updates, without needing daily reminders from your team.

Likewise, good command over marketing technology comes in handy when you need your virtual assistant to create excel reports, presentations, design collaterals, or manage CRMs like Salesforce or HubSpot.

Computer literacy and comfort with trying new tools would make it easy for them to be on your software stack.

3. Communication

Virtual assistants often have to context switch and multitask while collaborating with clients. Being remote, they collaborate on project management software and attend video meetings in real-time to brainstorm and discuss ideas.

When hiring, check your potential candidate’s experience with sync and async communication tools and if they can communicate effectively.

4. Attention to Detail

Detail orientation is a critical skill for virtual assistants handling administrative tasks like payroll, scheduling, or managing projects. They should be sharp-eyed and active listeners, able to distill complex ideas into handy notes for reference.

Businesses rely on virtual assistants to create error-free content, emails, and presentations. Whatever the role, ensure your virtual assistant can minimize distractions and turn in the best quality work on time.

5. Team Collaboration

You may be looking for a personal assistant to plan and manage your calendar. Or your marketing team may need a designer to create graphics and videos for social media. Either way, both roles require a virtual assistant to collaborate with your team to understand priorities and act proactively on them.

Probe into shortlisted candidates' work experience in a global and remote team setting. Do they come from a background of collaborative culture and are skilled in the practice of collaboration?

Glean their responses for awareness of, as Harvard Business Review puts it, “appreciating others, being able to engage in purposeful conversations, productively and creatively resolving conflicts, and project management” for team performance.

A pro tip on working style. Some thrive in groups, others prefer to be one-person teams.

6. Time Management

Nothing kills productivity like procrastination. And with the rise of the digital era, it’s almost impossible to ward off distractions, with our devices constantly lighting up with the latest news and the next big breakthrough.

Virtual assistants are not immune to this sensory assault. Add multiple clients into the mix and the ability to manage time effectively to maximize productivity and hit deadlines is apparent.

Top-rated contractors are masters of the art of effective time management and know how to manage their schedules to get more done in less time. To test for time management skills, ask candidates to run you through their approach to handling big-ticket projects and high-priority tasks all due around the same week.

7. Organization

Organization and time management go together. It’s hard to be organized without effective time management and vice-versa. Many independent contractors are solopreneurs who juggle multiple clients at once and chase competing deadlines.

If your virtual assistant doesn’t have strong organizational skills, they’d struggle to prioritize deliverables and likely miss deadlines.

Ask prospective hires open-ended questions about their daily workflow and preferred style of working. Do they schedule tasks and create to-do lists? What systems and tools do they use to streamline administrative duties and manage projects? Check answers for insights into their working style and if it fits yours.

A pro tip that freelance marketplaces are a pocket-friendly option for SMBs but finding the right fit needs a lot of effort. A better option is a virtual assistant provider like Office Beacon.

8. Self-Motivation

In-house employees trade full-time jobs with alternative opportunities to work on their terms. The freedom to pick flexible working hours, clients, and projects is a strong incentive. According to a 2021 Upwork survey, American freelancers contributed $1.3 trillion in annual earnings to the US economy and more than half of non-freelance respondents expressed an interest in freelancing in the future.

But freelancers also go in-house in search of a steady and predictable income.

Image Source: Superpath

Independent work is appealing but it also has its fair share of challenges. To successfully navigate the ins and outs of a virtual work environment, your hire must have solid self-motivation and concentration skills. Screen the resumes for the potential hires' experience in a virtual environment and the client history.

Their work experience on LinkedIn can also hold clues to reliability and credibility.

9. Analytical Bent

One common element between successful businesses is the will to measure performance and pursue effective strategies. Unless you hire a virtual assistant who’s comfortable with data and can interpret it to discover what’s working and not, you’d face difficulty identifying the right channels and tactics to focus on.

Let’s take an example.

Social media is a powerful channel for SMBs to find traction with new audiences online. If you are a B2B company, LinkedIn paid ads may work for your business. Whereas for a B2C firm, Instagram may turn in good results. But without data to support either of these decisions, your virtual assistant may undertake social media activities that don’t yield any results and waste resources in the process.

10. Creativity

Creativity is not a hard skill for most jobs - unless you are hiring for a creative role. Think writing, design making, or audio and video editing. But beyond these functions, creativity is also necessary to discover novel solutions to complex business challenges.

If you don’t have the time to share detailed briefs or offer constant supervision, your virtual assistant must be able to test and run with unique ideas that solve on-the-job setbacks.

Bottom Line

Virtual assistants are an indispensable part of the post-pandemic workforce. Before hiring independent talent, identify skill gaps on your team and determine whether your business needs a full-time or part-time virtual assistant.

Get in touch to learn how Office Beacon empowers emerging businesses to build flexible teams and hit their goals.

Virtual Administrative Assistant: A Definitive Guide for Entrepreneurs

Posted on January 19, 2023January 20, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Administrative tasks are often tiresome, consume valuable organizational resources, limit productivity, and harm businesses. In-house workforce administration typically costs businesses more than per person annually.

Consequently, businesses fail to devote enough time to focus on their clientele since 72% say they spend most of their time in tiresome administrative activities.

A virtual administrative assistant can be what you need if you want to make the most of the time to expand your company rather than keep it afloat.

What Is a Virtual Administrative Assistant?

A virtual administrative assistant offers administrative support services such as database upkeep and organization, calendar management, appointment scheduling, email management, and more.

They work remotely by offering businesses a robust menu of assistance and handling the day-to-day tasks they don’t have the time to do.

10 Tasks A Virtual Administrative Assistant Can Handle

A virtual administrative assistant helps businesses to keep their administrative efficiency in an optimal state 24/7. They handle administrative areas of your business, saving you time and money. Their tasks include:

1. Appointment Setting

As an entrepreneur, umpteen priorities vying for your attention, often make it hard to schedule appointments. A virtual administrative assistant sets meetings with prospective customers so that your best closers can seal the deal through personalized communications.

2. Document Formatting

A virtual administrative assistant ensures that your documents are formatted correctly and according to your specifications. Along with fonts, indentation, and margins, they check to see if the formatting components are correct. A virtual assistant can manage your document format requirements for both legal and corporate documents.

3. Transcription

If you want to get away from manual transcription or planning to swap traditional transcription methods, it’s time to embrace virtual administrative assistant service. Virtual administrative assistant services have certified transcriptionists who can work as an extension of your team, transforming the content from voice format to written records within the stipulated time.

4. List Management

It might be difficult for an entrepreneur to keep relationships with every client when they have a vast consumer base. A dedicated virtual assistant manages your contact list and can furnish an up-to-date contact list without duplicates or outdated contact information.

5. Custom Reports

A virtual administrative assistant can provide tailored reports for each recipient at every level of the hierarchy if your in-house team is overburdened with report creation. To make reports to your specifications, a virtual administrative assistant also handles the presentation elements.

6. Data Entry

Businesses must frequently manage their data, which takes time. For e-commerce, bookkeeping, CRM, or simply a simple spreadsheet, a virtual administrative assistant provides virtual data entry, maintenance, cleaning, deduplication, or manipulation.

7. Secretary Services

Administrative tasks may quickly take up most of your working day, neglecting more key duties. A virtual administrative assistant can perform different activities, including editing and formatting reports, setting up mail merges, and creating tables, images, and charts.

8. Market Research

While it takes time, market research is essential to any organization. A virtual administrative assistant conducts interviews, creates and analyzes surveys, and researches target audiences online.

9. Email Management

Every firm deals with a barrage of emails every day. Managing these emails can take a lot of time, which causes you to get behind on projects and end up working longer hours to catch up. A virtual administrative assistant can relieve your workload by ensuring you don’t have to sift through spam and send out quotes and bills on your behalf.

10. Answering Calls

Businesses rely on a virtual administrative assistant to handle calls, qualify prospects, and address client issues. A virtual assistant ensures that your company’s operations operate smoothly, providing more time to concentrate on business growth.

Why Hire a Virtual Administrative Assistant?

Often businesses remain in a dilemma of whether to hire a virtual assistant. So why exactly do you need a virtual assistant? Take a look at some powerful benefits of hiring a virtual administrative assistant.

Save Time

Every business owner wants more hours in their day. However, clerical tasks eat up their time. To this end, a virtual administrative assistant handles a gamut of recurring duties, leaving you with more hours in a day.

Reduced Operational Costs

Entrepreneurs spend oodles of money on administrative operations that include office space, office supplies, and more. By hiring a virtual assistant, you can substantially reduce your capital needs.

Studies reveal that virtual administrative assistants can save a business up to 78% of operating costs.

Preserves Entrepreneurial Sanity

Mindset is everything for an entrepreneur. When administrative work gets piled up, entrepreneurs become overwhelmed, which affects their work. A skilled and reliable virtual assistant can take the burden off your shoulders by handling all the administrative work.

Press For Attention’s founder, Greg Simpson, is aware that his strengths “are in invention and text.” He claimed that when he concentrates on his core competencies, he is “much more productive as a business owner and far more innovative as a consultant.” Considering it a win-win, he outsources all administrative work in his company.

Access to Skilled Staff

A virtual assistant understands your business. They are adept at fulfilling administrative tasks, enhancing productivity, and helping you meet your business goals. Office Beacon offers vetted virtual assistants with experience in catering to the unique needs of businesses.

Also read: 7 Unbeatable Reasons Why You Need a Virtual Assistant

5 Signs You Need a Virtual Administrative Assistant

Entrepreneurs often encounter this thought “When do I need a virtual assistant?” How can you tell whether you’ll get enough productivity from a virtual administrative assistant? Here are some signs that you may already need one and didn’t know.

1. The Exorbitant Costs of Hiring Employees

If you’ve been stressed out and burned out doing work. And, you often realize that you need assistance, but cannot afford to have a full-time employee. In such situations hiring virtual assistants can be more cost-effective than hiring a full-time employee.

When it comes to the in-house employee, you have to manage long-term payroll with employee benefits irrespective of workload. In contrast, when you engage a virtual assistant, you only pay for the tasks or hours needed without paying for any additional advantages.

2. You Lack Time to Commit to the Important Tasks

After addressing all the administrative responsibilities, business owners have no time left for work related to making money or pursuing their passions. Administrative tasks are necessary, but if you want to boost sales and revenue, you should focus on your areas of expertise.

If you don’t have enough time to handle your essential and high-impact activities, hiring a virtual assistant is the best decision.

84.4% of business owners claimed that hiring a VA has improved their operations.

3. You Lack the Skills to Handle Certain Tasks

Another reason for hiring a virtual assistant, you might not have any specific understanding of your field or business tool. You might take a while to perform research, leaving you with less time for important tasks. A good decision in these circumstances is to hire a virtual assistant.

4. You Often Miss Out on Business Opportunities

Making business decisions won’t be possible with your skills alone. Additionally, administrative work takes up much of your day. You can use the extra time a virtual assistant gives you to pursue your professional goals and do the research to create a better business plan.

5. You’re Failing at Customer Retention

It is difficult for businesses to achieve goals when they are short on time. You might have more time to devote to improving customer retention with help from a virtual assistant. Using a virtual assistant could make creating new plans and executing them easier.

12 Essential Skills to Look for in a Top Virtual Administrative Assistant

How can VAs become skilled administrators? What qualifications should entrepreneurs look for in a VA? The following are the twelve administrative support skills that make the best virtual assistants stand out:

Technical Skills

Software competency
Well-versed with online tools
Filing & records management
Research skills

Conceptualization

Time management
Problem solving
Organization
Resourcefulness

Interpersonal Skills

Communication
Negotiations
Emotional Intelligence
Adaptability

How to Get Started with A Virtual Administrative Assistant?

These are some reasons why you might need to work with a virtual administrative assistant. It’s more productive, saves money, and guarantees that you can have a skilled staff without taking on the risks of hiring a full-time employee.

Then what are the steps to hire a virtual assistant today? Here are the key steps:

Choose a trusted outsourcing partner, like Office Beacon.
- Over 22 years of experience & expertise
- Trusted by 4000+ clients
- 5,500+ staff offering 150+ operational support services

SPEAK WITH US: Schedule a day and time that works best for you to learn more about the Office Beacon services.
Relax.
Office Beacon’s team will analyze your business goals and identify your staffing and software needs.
Office Beacon will source the perfect virtual assistant/s who can meet your specific requirements.
The team lead sets KPI expectations, trains and monitors your staff, and oversees your project.
They share weekly quality reports and bi-weekly feedback emails on your staff’s progress.

Conclusion

A skilled virtual administrative assistant can be an asset to your business. They save you a lot of time and money. Many entrepreneurs presume that they can manage alone. However, instead of wasting time on trivial tasks, you can hire a virtual administrative assistant to help you scale your business without exhausting your budget.

7 Unbeatable Reasons Why You Need a Virtual Assistant

Posted on January 16, 2023February 6, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

The pandemic transformed the way businesses operate, causing them to adjust and adapt to the ‘new reality.’ They realized the need to outsource back-office tasks to meet business needs and goals. As they laid off full-time staff and went remote, they explored budget-friendly options, which led to a 41% hike in hiring virtual assistants through offshore agencies.

Find that unbelievable? The below graph highlights the increase in inbound poll queries for virtual assistant services between 2019 and 2020. Check it out! Virtual assistants possess valuable skills and perform many in-demand services that add incredible value to the lives of busy business owners.

A piechart, with the breakdown of data trends on inbound queries to virtual assistants between 2019 and 2020

Image Source: NanoGlobals

In this post, we highlight the top seven reasons why you should hire a virtual assistant for your business. If you are on the fence about onboarding virtual assistant(s), read on. But remember, successful collaboration depends on well-defined tasks and goals. A mismatch in expectations could lead to a mutually unsatisfying relationship later.

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Before discussing the benefits of hiring virtual assistants, let’s start with the question - what is a virtual assistant? Virtual assistants are remote workers who handle your non-core operations.

They may offer generalized services or hold expertise in tasks like accounting, marketing, or social media management. A virtual assistant may source clients on a freelance basis, on managed marketplaces, or work in-house for a BPO, helping you with:

1. Lower Overhead Costs

In-house employee hiring requires you to create hefty packages and benefits. Besides a base salary, organizations are responsible for health insurance, 401K plans, accidental coverages, workspace allowances, team offsites, and paid time off. Emerging businesses don’t have the resources to meet these demands.

Virtual assistants help you cut these overhead costs and focus on scaling.

2. Domain Expertise

Virtual assistants are subject matter experts who are constantly perfecting their craft. You can find the expertise you need and leverage it to build your business. The more seasoned the virtual assistant, the higher the value they bring to the table.

You can work with top talent without adding a permanent position to the payroll.

3. Quality Work

Unlike most in-house employees, independent contractors compete for projects and constantly upskill themselves to remain in demand and attract premium clients. High-quality work helps them build a reputation and collect testimonials.

When hiring a virtual assistant, you can check their portfolio and determine if their skills and expertise match your quality standards and needs.

4. Quick Delivery

This one is no brainer! Virtual assistants balance quality with timelines. Full-time employees often juggle multiple priorities and struggle to prioritize effectively, which leads to delays and missed deadlines. But since most virtual assistants focus on one project at a time or operate within shorter timeframes, they share deliverables comparatively faster.

5. Diverse Talentpool

DE&I initiatives are as important as ever. Most SMB businesses can’t afford to hire global talent due to logistics concerns. But hiring virtual assistants is a great option to engage with a larger talent pool without confining yourself to local areas.

Besides cost savings, a diverse team - comprising individuals from different cultural and educational backgrounds - leads to better business ideas and outcomes.

6. Lower Company Risk

Hiring someone in-house means investing in their career growth at your company. You invest time and resources in onboarding and training them to be successful in their role. But it can go to waste if the employee decides to leave. With independent contractors, you don’t run that risk.

You can build contracts with clear deliverables and payment terms, without affecting your internal processes. The absence of a long-term commitment lets you optimize resources.

7. High Flexibility

Often, virtual assistants work flexible hours to serve clients in different time zones. While in-house employees are available only during specified working hours, independent contractors may also be available for last-minute emergencies.

Their flexible work schedules enable them to step up and offer support as and when necessary.

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Virtual Assistant Skills to Check

Besides core competencies, virtual assistants need soft skills to win at their jobs. Soft skills are a mix of people skills, emotional intelligence, personality traits, and social qualities that help them collaborate effectively and hit KPIs, especially when working in groups.

Whether you are hiring virtual assistant services to directly engage with you or in a team, check for these five crucial virtual assistant skills:

Communication: Your virtual assistant must be familiar with the latest online collaboration tools like Slack, Trello, Airtable, and Notion for async updates and should know how to communicate efficiently over video meetings in real-time.
Time Management: Seasoned virtual assistants stay on top of the schedule and know how to prioritize efficiently. Your contractor must have solid time management skills and a realistic understanding of how much they can complete in a day without getting burned out or missing deadlines.
Organization: Without a well-organized virtual assistant, it’d be hard to follow project timelines. Project management is a valuable and in-demand soft skill. If you are a busy executive and hiring a personal virtual assistant, check if they can work independently with minimal supervision.

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Self-motivation: The freedom to work from anywhere and on their own terms leads many to leave their full-time jobs and become independent contractors. But a virtual environment can get dispiriting quickly. When hiring, check your virtual assistant’s experience with remote work.
Reliability: Trust is a big consideration factor when working with virtual assistants. Regardless of whether they charge hourly, by project, or a monthly retainer, they must be available during the agreed hours for any updates and catch-ups and take new assignments as per business needs.

Tips to Find the Right Virtual Assistant

Organizations have always been privy to the drawbacks of traditional staffing solutions. But the pandemic brought them to the forefront once again as remote work and flexible workforces - distributed teams and independent talent - became the norm. Onboarding virtual assistants is a great way to cut exorbitant recruitment costs and employee churn. Virtual personal assistants can also play a role to equip large team managers with a helping hand in many scenarios.

But to enjoy a fruitful long-term collaboration with contractors, consider these tips:

1. Spot Skill Gaps

Unless you have identified business needs, it’d be difficult to find the right fit for the job. Do you need help with marketing, programming, design, or something else? Hard skills require job-specific and measurable competencies.

Let’s take an example.

A programmer turned writer can create highly technical product documentation but a content marketer may not have the coding expertise to write authoritatively on the subject. Once you identify the role and skills, determine if it’s an addition to the existing team or to support a new business unit or department launch.

2. Assess Goals

A well thought-out hiring strategy takes long-term and short-term staffing needs into account. Before you hire a virtual assistant, consider which roles require full-time help and which are better suited for a one-off project or hourly contract.

That way, you can fill skill gaps quickly and scale or downsize your team as needed.

3. Created Detailed JDs

Develop a job description featuring the role’s core duties and responsibilities. It’s easy to work off templates but ensure you tailor them before sharing them in your networks.

A detailed JD is key to attracting the right talent and saving hours on combing through a high volume of irrelevant CVs. Don’t forget to add the soft skills and an “About Us” section - highlighting your company values and mission - to help potential candidates check the mutual fit.

4. Perform Extensive Research

Freelance websites, gig-based job boards, and outsourcing companies are all great options to hire virtual assistants. But in-depth research is necessary to steer clear of potential hiccups like misalignment on job requirements or hidden fees.

A trusted virtual staffing provider like Office Beacon sources top candidates and takes full charge of employee training and management, without levying any additional charges.

tips on finding the right virtual assistant

Take the Leap

The Pandemic pushed the frontiers of what the business world thought possible. No longer restricted to traditional hiring channels or strategies, companies can now access top talent and build scalable and flexible teams quickly. Hire a virtual assistant today and stay ahead of the competition curve!

Did this article answer your questions about why hire a virtual assistant? Tell us your challenges and goals below.

Real Estate Virtual Assistants: Why Do You Need Them?

Posted on January 12, 2023May 8, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Real estate is surging with growing demand for industrial and commercial infrastructure. Studies reveal that by 2030, the real estate industry will reach 14.6 billion U.S. dollars.

Image Source: Statista

In such a cutthroat competition, realtors struggle to mark their presence. The major concern for real estate owners is to fit all the crucial tasks into their day.

If you own a real estate company, you would probably recognize these time sinks.

Responding to emails, texts, and phone calls
Processing real estate documents, agreements, and lease records
Coordinating appointments, showings, open houses, and meetings
Creating and distributing flyers, newsletters, listings, and more
Creating budgets for monthly, quarterly, and annual operations
Developing marketing plans for listings
Updating client databases
Researching listings to develop comparative market analysis (CMA) reports
Updating websites and social media profiles

What Is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

A real estate virtual assistant (VA) employs their knowledge to manage daily jobs that are crucial to your organization but don’t require direct supervision. They are specialized personnel who take care of business tasks, including cold calling, lead generation, financial tracking, website building, marketing, and database maintenance.

They serve as virtual allies by handling all the administrative work. Thus by hiring a real estate virtual assistant, you can free up your time to concentrate on business-strategy tasks that drive growth and boost income.

What Does a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Do?

Are you, like most real estate agents, thinking about how to leverage the skills of a virtual assistant?

Let us delve deeper into the tasks you can outsource to a virtual real estate assistant.

Administrative Task Assistance

As a busy real estate entrepreneur, you might be inundated with an unending list of administrative tasks. While you don’t have the time to separate the wheat from the chaff, a real estate virtual assistant can help you. Virtual assistants handle back-office tasks, phone calls, data entry, scheduling, and office management.

Email Management: Sort or filter emails, respond to questions from prospects, send follow-up emails, and keep the inbox clean.

Research: Real estate assistant keeps up with real estate trends. They can conduct initial research to prepare dossiers and marketing collateral for your properties.

Data Entry: Enters and updates real estate information – email address, phone number, mailing address, and more.

Calendar Management: Calendar management is vital to ensure things are on track. A real estate assistant tracks tasks, meetings, and other commitments for you.

CRM: Every realtor needs to track leads and manage sales pipelines. A virtual assistant ensures prospects stay engaged and sales opportunities don’t fall through the cracks.

Transaction Management: Real estate agents must coordinate their transactions and deals. A qualified virtual assistant can handle all the minute details of real estate transactions.

Marketing Assistance

A virtual assistant can aid real estate businesses in getting the most relevant leads. They bear the burden of implementing marketing insights and taking care of email and social media marketing campaigns, greatly expanding your reach.

Website Maintenance: A virtual assistant ensures uniformity and coordination throughout your website to present a unified front that your customers can trust.

Social Media Marketing: Real estate assistants update your social media pages to keep your target customers informed and interested.
Digital Marketing: Virtual assistant plans successful digital marketing strategies. They update your social media pages and create flyers, videos, etc.

Listings Management

A qualified virtual real estate assistant can handle all your real estate listing needs, allowing you to focus on core competencies.

Update Listings: People can only learn about a property’s availability through listings. A virtual assistant creates and maintains your listing for prospective clients.

Organize Listings: A real estate virtual assistant organizes listings while you persuade the clients to buy the property.

Customer Support

Virtual assistants are skilled communicators who can converse with clients, respond to their questions, and keep them informed of new postings.

Handling Customer Queries: Handling customer queries can be a daunting task. A real estate assistant addresses customer concerns and replies to emails while you tackle big deals.

Marketing Collaterals: It can be challenging to design a new presentation for each pitch you make to a potential client. A real estate virtual assistant creates presentations and designs brochures for your open house.

Why Is a Real Estate Virtual Assistant Necessary to Promote Business Growth?

According to Technavio’s industry analysis, the size of the worldwide virtual assistant market will increase by USD 4.12 billion, at a CAGR of 11.79%, during the forecasted period.

Image Source: PR Newswire

Your daily grunt work might wear you out both psychologically and physically. Hiring a VA could change everything. Here are a few reasons why:

Cost Efficient

As an entrepreneur, you always look for ways to save money. However, cutting costs could potentially result in hiring individuals who are not competent. Hiring a skilled virtual assistant is cost-efficient. You will only have to cover the cost of your VA’s work hours; you are not responsible for paying for insurance, paid time off, or holiday bonuses. It means you can save money to further invest in expanding your business.

Access to Global Talent

When you hire an in-house employee, you are limited to hiring candidates from your geographical region. In such situations, you sometimes end up hiring underqualified candidates.

Utilizing virtual assistants opens up a world of possibilities. You can hire people from around the world depending on your requirements.

You are not bound to work in the same office premises when outsourcing virtual real estate. As a result, business owners can collaborate and hire people globally without spending excessive money.

Flexibility

The real estate industry demands the knack for swift closures. You will often face unforeseen circumstances. Moreover, in-house employees have a set schedule. They might not always be able to meet your needs. A virtual assistant, on the other hand, works around your schedule to cater to your business requirements.

No Training Headaches

Hiring an in-house employee involves training and onboarding. After the training, it would take weeks for them to get started. With virtual assistants, you don’t have to worry about training and onboarding. A qualified outsourcing company like Office Beacon screens, vets, and trains virtual assistants who can start working immediately.

How Do Real Estate Virtual Assistants Drive Business Growth?

Real estate assistants are very resourceful, dependable, and well-organized. They can assist you in effectively managing your workload and reclaiming your time for activities that promote business growth.

1. Enhanced Efficiency: Real estate business owners have a lot on their plate. And it becomes hard to handle all the tasks alone. To this end, a virtual assistant comes to the rescue by taking a load off your shoulders. As a VA handles other aspects of your business, you’ll be able to meet more clients, close more sales, and make more money. In this way, the company will prosper.

2. Better Productivity: Productivity is an essential driver for business growth. As a realtor, you deal with too many tasks that hamper productivity and leave you exhausted. A VA can assist you by taking on some of the chores you don’t have time to complete. You’ll have more energy to concentrate on your company’s operations and other responsibilities. A VA can also assist you with time management so that you work more efficiently rather than harder.

3. New Ideas: The real estate industry is ever-changing. To outshine, a realtor should bring a fresh perspective to the business. A virtual assistant is well-versed in real estate trends and offers a fresh understanding of your business. They bring new ideas to the table so you can make the necessary changes to move your business forward.

There are some common misconceptions you will come across when planning to hire a real estate virtual assistant.

❌ Not Trustworthy: Not correct. VAs from Office Beacon are reliable and exhibit the utmost professionalism with clients.

❌ Difficult to Work Virtually: Not anymore. Office Beacon offers software for seamless communication between the VA and the client.

❌ VAs are Expensive: Not necessarily. Virtual assistants do not demand employee benefits and only charge for the amount of work they do.

❌ VAs are Not Productive: Virtual assistants are highly skilled and guarantee to do the assignment within the allotted time.

Challenges Real Estate Companies Face

Overwhelmed with administrative and clerical responsibilities, real estate businesses face many challenges. Here are the top challenges a real estate agent faces every day.

1. Customer Service: Reaching out to potential customers and addressing their concerns is time-consuming and tiring. Moreover, today’s digital-savvy customers demand a high sense of attention and detail. With many tasks, real estate owners struggle with customer service and initial sales.

2. Scheduling: Getting to every appointment right is an eternal struggle for a realtor. For many real estate owners, this leads to bad scheduling. Due to poor calendar management, real estate owners run the risk of missing out on crucial business opportunities.

3. Never-Ending Administrative Tasks: The administrative work in the real estate sector frequently piles up. Further, real estate companies fail to carry out administrative responsibilities impeding productivity and hampering workflow.

The numerous time-consuming tasks involved in real estate could harm your revenue and growth opportunities. Hiring a virtual assistant for real estate can allow you to focus on the most significant areas of your business while handling all of these additional obligations.

What are the Best Practices for Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant?

Before hiring a real estate virtual assistant, set clear goals – your expectations from the virtual assistant.

Once you set your expectations right, it will become easy for you to review deliverables and make sure every task you hand your VA is executed with precision on point.

The following are the best practices that businesses need to follow while hiring a real estate virtual assistant:

Identify: First and foremost, identify the areas of your business that need assistance. Then set how much time you need these tasks finished.

Set: Set the goals and the tasks for the real estate VA clear right from the beginning. From this, build a thorough job description highlighting the scope of the work.

Communicate: Now, communicate your requirements, work ethic, and schedule that works for you. Specify the deadline for the VA to complete the task.

Wait: Once you give inputs and set goals, let the VAs do the rest. Clear the doubts the VAs have and provide feedback. And wait and watch the VAs perform.

You can utilize a virtual staffing provider like Office Beacon to get quality real estate virtual assistants at a fraction of the costs.

At Office Beacon:

You get handpicked, vetted, and trained staff in all tools and software used by businesses across the globe.
Virtual assistants with multilingual capabilities give you an edge over your global competitors.
Virtual assistants operate across various time zones (EST to PST) to suit your business needs.
Complete redundancy with fully operational delivery centers across 4 locations.
Backup resources at no additional cost.
Complementary software to eliminate costs incurred on third-party software.

Hiring a Real Estate Virtual Assistant

It is essential to thoroughly weigh your options before deciding whether or not to engage a virtual assistant for your real estate business. Before assigning duties to a remote worker, look at the benefits and costs.

Cost-Benefit

The first step is to decide if the virtual assistant is worth the financial investment. For this, weigh the potential cost of a virtual assistant against the potential benefits.

There is a wide price range for real estate virtual assistant services.

Image Source: Payscale

A virtual real estate assistant’s costs depend on who, what, and where you are looking. As you can see from the above image, the average hourly pay for a real estate assistant is $15.58.

Before deciding on the virtual assistant, weigh the expense against your company’s needs and the return on investment.

Location

The costs of a virtual assistant may vary from location to location. However, there is a common misconception that overseas virtual assistants are expensive.

Image Source: Best of Budgets

According to a study, the Philippines has the lowest average virtual assistant salary of $400 per month, and Australia has the highest average virtual staff salary of $5,600 per month.

Overseas outsourcing is affordable. There are talented VAs all over the globe who are skilled in various aspects of the real estate business. Some virtual assistants are comfortable delivering results across time zones.

There is also a place for local talent, especially in the real estate industry.

For instance, if you need to outsource a lot of client-facing work, it might be beneficial to choose a US-based or even locally-based provider who is more familiar with the specifics of your market. When you require full-time, client-facing assistance or plan to meet with this person in person, doing so usually makes the most sense.

Experience & Expertise

While choosing a virtual assistant, look for the right experience and expertise. Choose a real-estate-specific expert who has a demonstrated history of performance.

Check whether the VA is capable of dealing with your list of outcomes and expectations.

With over two decades of experience, Office Beacon houses vetted virtual assistants with expertise in the real estate industry.

Office Beacon’s real estate virtual assistants are adept at performing the following tasks:

Market research
Data collection (listing information)
Open house management
Conducting market analysis
Preparation of property cards
Scheduling and confirmation of appointments
Follow-up calls to buyers
Transaction coordination
Bookkeeping
Data entry for real estate
Correspondence management
Call screening and answering services

The virtual assistants at Office Beacon can manage different administrative tasks, marketing responsibilities, and even real estate transaction coordinator responsibilities.

Closing Points

Being a real estate agent is quite hard. You have to deal with properties, clientele, and prospecting. Remember that you don’t have to do anything alone if it starts to feel overwhelming. Real estate virtual assistants handle time-consuming, repetitive duties crucial to your business. Hire a capable virtual assistant for real estate to put the emphasis back on building your company.

What You Need to Know About Social Media Virtual Assistants

Posted on January 10, 2023February 6, 2025 by admin@officebeacon.com

Social media is a lucrative avenue for companies to hit their revenue targets. Over 4.59 billion people worldwide used social media in 2022 and that number is predicted to reach almost six billion in 2027. Leading players allocate big budgets to social media marketing and hire top talent. But what kind of expertise does a social media virtual assistant possess?

A virtual assistant for social media is a remote worker who takes charge of your social accounts and undertakes activities to meet business goals. These could include brand awareness, generating leads, collecting customer feedback, or organic engagement to build relationships.

In this article, we discuss the tasks a social media virtual assistant performs to hit these goals and the skills they must possess to succeed in their role.

CTA banner to SPEAK WITH US with the Office Beacon team.

Check out this graph on the leading benefits of using social media for marketing purposes. Published by Statista, it identifies ‘increased exposure’ as the top reason why marketers use it, followed by ‘increased traffic’ and ‘generated leads.’

The study looks at businesses that have been using social media for more than five years and those for less than twelve months, and differentiates between ‘passive social media marketing’ and ‘active social media marketing.’

The former depends on user-generated content (UGC) and involves natural communication between customers, while the latter “requires deliberate employment of tactics/and or teams focused on creating and executing actual marketing campaigns.” A virtual social media manager can help with both and suggest new ways to reach your target audience online.

Source: Statista

Besides that, a talented social media virtual assistant can provide incredible business value by:

1. Improving Customer Service

Unlike emails or phone calls, using social media for customer service is fast and direct. It allows you to have forward-facing conversations and tap into UGC to uncover customer feedback. A virtual assistant responds to questions and concerns and enables you to have positive customer interaction and serve people better.

2. Developing Positioning Power

Social media virtual assistants publish and manage content on your social media profiles which develop positioning power. This active engagement on social signals that you are active and open to new customers.

A social media virtual assistant also uses your social accounts to build online leverage on SERPs, which may well be the first touchpoint for buyers when they look up your brand on Google.

3. Building a Better Search Engine Presence

The industry is ripe with debate on the relationship between social media and SEO. Without a direct correlation between the two, it’s easy to dismiss the impact of traffic from social on SEO. But with linkless backlinks, the shares and click-throughs from social can send positive search signals to Google, helping your site rank.

A social media assistant posts content that drives engagement and significant referral traffic. See how our LinkedIn shows up on Google for the search query ‘Office Beacon’?

4. Humanizing Your Brand

Social media experts know that the hyper-professional “suit and tie” approach doesn’t work anymore. People want genuine and authentic content and engage with brands whose values align with theirs. A social media virtual assistant brainstorms methods to help you connect with people and build meaningful relationships on leading social channels.

Social media assistants are responsible for understanding your audience and crafting a social media strategy that caters to their behavior in line with your business goals.

To be successful in their role, you must hire a virtual assistant for social media who possesses the following five core competencies:

Communication: Engagement lies at the heart of social media, which requires genuine and transparent communication. Ensure your assistant can communicate with your audience, and not at your audience, since – as Amy Jo Martin put it, social media is a “dialogue, not a monologue.”
Creativity: Social media engagement is all about providing value. Your content should feel native to the platform and feel relatable to your audience. The potential hire should possess a creative steak and be willing to experiment until they discover what sticks and why with followers.
Copywriting: This skill forms the backbone of others. Without a captivating copy for your creatives, ads, or posts, it will be difficult to drive engagement. Check your assistant’s portfolio to understand their writing style or test their copywriting skills by sharing a short assignment.
Design: Social media algorithms have veered away from simple text-based updates to visual content like photos and videos. Your accounts should offer variety and cater to all demographics of your target audience. Ensure your assistant has design chops and can create appealing assets that spark interest and drive business goals.

Analytical Bent: Social media efforts are as good as the results. Unless you measure performance, it’d be hard to decide which channels to prioritize and where to direct resources. For eg, if your virtual assistant uses both organic and paid approaches on multiple social networks, they must know which tactic is working where and tailor their strategy for maximum results.

Next, let’s look at the tasks you can expect a virtual social media assistant to perform.

social media virtual assistant service guide

Social media offers a ton of opportunities to reach more customers and drive business growth. But depending on whether you are an established company or a rising SMB, the goals and results from social media marketing differ as per the scale and maturity of social media operations.

Recently, Joe Zappa shared the following post on the value of social media marketing on LinkedIn and how it generated over $200K in revenue for his business.

Impressive, isn’t it?

Image Source: LinkedIn

A social media expert sizes up your current efforts and performs the following tasks to hit business goals:

Create and manage your social media profiles
Build a social media strategy and monthly calendars, with KPIs
Undertake customer research to understand user behavior
Perform market research to identify content trends
Curate, share, and moderate UGC
Reply to DMs and user comments on posts
Repurpose collaterals for social media profiles
Run paid campaigns and track performance
Run surveys and collect user feedback
Discover opportunities for paid partnerships

The above tasks are only a brief glimpse into what a social media manager does. Depending on the role, experience, and expertise, you can hire a niche social media virtual assistant to establish your brand as an industry thought leader, promote website content, and strengthen your employer branding.

Ultimately, a clear idea of business goals is the key to finding the right fit for your social media marketing efforts.

An incorrect understanding of social media marketing often causes businesses to hire social media marketers without any concrete objectives. Unlike other channels, social media doesn’t generate (or guarantee) measurable results instantly.

Instead, it’s more about social listening, branding, community building, and forming long-term customer relationships to keep them engaged and interested in your offerings.

Even if you plan to use social media for paid campaigns, it requires a lot of upfront work on building and nurturing relationships to get meaningful results.

A solid understanding of how social media works and tracks performance is necessary for creating a JD that speaks to potential candidates and encourages them to apply for the opening.

Likewise, factors like company size, goals, and marketing maturity help them assess the right fit.

If you have the budget, you can advertise the role on your website and LinkedIn profile. But if you are an SMB that is just getting started and can’t hire in-house employees, try freelance platforms like Fiverr and Upwork.

Though economical, these platforms need you to spend considerable time on screening and training virtual assistants.

A better option is to outsource your social media marketing needs to a virtual assistant provider like Office Beacon, which takes care of the sourcing, onboarding, screening, and training.

Job boards, slack communities like Superpath, and Reddit are also a few other options.

Over to You

Big brands hold a monopoly over Google SERPs which makes it difficult for emerging names to compete with them. Social media is a cost-effective alternative and offers a comparatively level playing field.

If you take a story-telling approach and create a value-rich experience through quality content, your business stands an equal chance of winning buyers. What goals do you have for your social media? Let us know in the comments below.

The Ultimate A-Z Guide To Outsourcing Logistics Services

Posted on October 6, 2022January 18, 2023 by admin@officebeacon.com

Are you looking for logistics services that increase customer satisfaction and reduce costs while giving you a competitive edge? Choosing remote outsourcing can help you reach these goals.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about logistics outsourcing services. It’ll dive into how outsourcing can help optimize your supply chain, lower costs, and improve efficiency.

So whether you’re starting out or are ready to take your company to new heights, read on for essentials on outsourcing your logistics!

Let’s kick things off with a definition to clear things up, shall we?

What is outsourced logistics, and does your business need it?

Logistics outsourcing involves contracting your business’s supply chain activities and functions to a third-party logistics provider (3PL). It means the 3PL partner runs and manages its own warehouse and can offer essential logistics services to your company.

Here are several relevant logistics services you can outsource to a 3PL.

Do you need to outsource any of the above services? According to Gartner’s 2021 survey of logistics professionals: “74% of logistics leaders expect their logistics outsourcing budget to increase in the next 2 years.”

The report also mentioned that logistics leaders have three top priorities.

Improve or update technology (37%)
Cost reduction/cost optimization (31%)
Increase customer satisfaction (29%)

Partnering with the right logistics service providers will help you reach the following-

Outsourcing your logistics back-office support allows you to focus on your core competencies.
By outsourcing order fulfillment, you can save money and enhance your efficiency.
Also, logistics outsourcing services can help you expand into new markets and grow your operations at lightning speed.

But you may wonder if there’s a difference between logistics and supply chain management. Let’s explore the two functions.

Logistics vs. Supply chain management (SCM): What’s the difference?

“Logistics is a process of moving and handling goods and materials, from the beginning to the end of the production, sale process and waste disposal, to satisfy customers and add business competitiveness.” -Researchgate.net

SCM involves planning, executing, and controlling supply chain operations. It aims to provide maximum customer value and minimize waste.

The supply chain includes all activities from procurement to delivery. And logistics management is a vital part of your SCM.

Identifying the two is easy with the following points.

Logistics and SCM: What are the similarities?

They deal with goods, services, and information.
They ensure your company gains a competitive edge.
They support your efforts to satisfy customer needs.
They handle the same flow of goods from the supplier or producer to the final user.

How does logistics outsourcing work?

Logistics business process outsourcing (BPO) services ensure efficient management and movement of your goods and services in the supply chain. Here’s how.

Information

Logistics outsourcing provides you with critical details to help you know the status of each product and supply chain activities. It improves your inventory management.

Storage

It ensures you do not overstock or understock merchandise by ensuring you have the right quantity at the right location. You can maintain the correct balance between demand and supply.

Warehousing

3PLs have their own warehouses to offer services like receiving, packing, and shipping goods.

Handling materials

It covers the storage, safety, and movement of goods from suppliers to distributors and end-users.

Packaging

It’s a vital logistics function that ensures your products reach customers undamaged and at a minimal cost.

Unitization

Material handling equipment ensures the logistics partner transfers your goods efficiently without causing damage.

Inventory control

By using storage and warehousing methods, you can store goods in a specific location to maximize their quality and quantity. Inventory management formulas can help you determine and manage demand.

Transportation

As part of logistics, you can move your goods along the supply chain using several modes of transportation.

What are the three types of logistics?

Logistics services are largely divided into three main types.

Inbound logistics
Outbound logistics
Reverse logistics

Inbound logistics

Source

Inbound logistics involves taking in and handling materials arriving at your company. It can include tasks like receiving, inspecting, and storing incoming resources on time for production.

Procurement plays a significant part in inbound logistics. That’s because it’s concerned with sourcing and transferring raw materials from your supplier to your factory.

You must partner with a logistics outsourcing provider to minimize risks and enhance inbound logistics.

Office Beacon specializes in logistics management by offering you back-office support. It can provide services such as processing and auditing your inbound logistics bills. As a result, you’ll have more freedom to focus on other critical tasks in your business.

Outbound logistics

Source

Outbound logistics includes all activities that aid the movement of finished goods from the factory to your final consumer. It involves warehousing, transportation, and distribution.

Distribution is significant in outbound logistics, sales logistics, or order fulfillment. It ensures you deliver the right product at the right time to your end-user at a low cost. And its objective is customer satisfaction.

For example, e-commerce stores like Amazon invest heavily in outbound logistics to accelerate the last-mile or same-day delivery to their buyers.

Outsourcing Office Beacon back-office support involves taking care of your outbound logistics expenses. Examples include warehouse costs, docking charges, and insurance fees. You won’t burden yourself with handling these petty costs.

Reverse logistics

Reverse logistics is the process of returning goods to their point of origin. It can occur due to product recalls and damaged or defective stock.

Sometimes, the product may need repairs or refurbishment before you can resell it. Regardless, reverse logistics is an essential part of the supply chain.

Outsourcing to a third-party logistics (3PL) provider is the best way to handle your reverse logistics. A 3PL has the necessary resources and infrastructure to manage the return of goods efficiently. As a result, it can help enhance customer satisfaction and reduce costs.

You can also avoid the hassle and expense of managing returns by outsourcing Office Beacon back-office support.

Source

What are some reasons your firm might outsource logistics?

Logistics BPO services result in massive cost savings for your company.

Lessens overall logistics expenses

Businesses that use 3PLs say that they have enjoyed slashed logistics costs, according to the 2021 State of Outsourcing Logistics Report.

As your logistics partner, Office Beacon will monitor your costs and timeliness. It’ll ensure your cargo gets to your customer at the right time at a lower cost.

Eliminates the need for additional infrastructure

You don’t have to invest in storage facilities when you outsource logistics. 3PLs have the resources to cater to your needs. And if you’ve got a win-win relationship with a logistics outsourcing firm, they can build the infrastructure for you.

Removes hassles of establishing your own logistic systems

Effective logistics needs up-to-date warehousing and transportation management processes. They include buying and maintaining software like warehouse or inventory management applications.

Office Beacon is well-equipped with state-of-the-art logistics software to manage your supply chain operations.

Helps you avoid investing in a fleet

A 3PL with dedicated contract carriage can offer you a private fleet. As a result, there’s no need to own and manage trucks. Owning a fleet involves hiring drivers, meeting legal requirements, and compliance. You can avoid all these challenges.

Enables you to cash in on freight purchasing power

Outsourcing logistics services can significantly reduce your operating costs per load. These companies usually leverage their total freight to bargain for lower carriage costs from transporters

Helps you enjoy shared freight expenses

3PLs can combine your load with other shippers going to the same location. For example, a truckload can contain goods for multiple shippers. As a result, it can trim freight costs by a large margin, leading to cost savings for you.

Passes freight liability on to other parties

Your logistics carrier is responsible for the driver’s pay, physical damage of goods, and liability for incidents. So you’re free from this burden when you outsource logistics.

You can also elevate your customer service when you partner with Office Beacon Logistics Outsourcing Services. Here’s why.

Boosts your last mile delivery

The 2022 State of Logistics Report says that last-mile delivery is on the rise, with e-commerce stores accounting for 10% of the growth. A logistics outsourcing company can use its vast resources to deliver your products faster and at the right time to meet consumer demand.

Keeps your customers updated

Office Beacon uses tech-savvy software like shipper IT systems, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), and Warehouse Management Systems. As a result, it becomes easier to handle notice of exceptions and to keep your final user updated.

Finally, outsourcing to third-party logistics providers can upgrade your business’s performance. Here’s how your company benefits.

Broadens your understanding

Companies like Office Beacon work with multiple logistics leaders, shippers, and industries. Because of this, they know the ins and outs of the logistics sector and its trends. They can use this vital information to improve your processes and decisions.

Helps you zero in on your core competencies

Look, the SCM and logistics industries are complicated and involve a ton of systems that can overwhelm your business. You don’t have to carry this burden when outsourcing Office Beacon logistics services.

You can work with Office Beacon to get full back-office support to handle all your routine and repetitive logistics activities. One example is real-time tracking of your cargo or loads. You’ll stay up to date with your cargo movement along the supply chain.

However, a 3PL isn’t the ultimate solution to your logistics needs. It comes with its own challenges.

Challenges of outsourcing logistics services

You must transfer your customer relations and communication to a 3PL. It means you may lose a bit of control over these functions. And if an order arrives late for your client, they’ll blame you instead of your logistics partner.
So it’s crucial to carry out due diligence before you settle for a 3PL.
A shoddy service from a logistics provider can lead to higher costs, poor customer service, and supply chain bottlenecks.
It can be expensive to contract a 3PL if you ship orders or parcels of less than 1000 units per month. You won’t break even.

Choosing the right logistics outsourcing partner can eliminate these drawbacks. Office Beacon’s highly trained logistics professionals can help you become a market leader in your sector.

How to outsource logistics: What should you consider before you sign the contract?

Here are 3 critical considerations for your logistics company.

1. The logistics outsourcing company must match your business model

First, explain your company’s needs to the logistics partner. What services do you want? For example, Office Beacon offers complete back-office support for inbound, outbound, and reverse logistics.

2. You must receive a water-tight service guarantee

Your preferred logistics provider must provide you with a robust service agreement. It must guarantee a high error-free rate in meeting customer needs.

The contract needs the following crucial details:

Terms and conditions
Coverage for delays and breakages
Service charge details
Timelines
Backup plans

Office Beacon is trusted by global logistics companies due to its transparent service agreements. The company will ensure you understand all the terms and conditions of your logistics agreement.

3. The logistics partner must have the right technology

One of the top trends in logistics is the internet of things (IoT). It’s “a connection of physical devices that monitor and transfer data via the internet and without human intervention.”

The outsourced logistics company needs an IoT platform to enhance visibility throughout the supply chain. It can boost transparency, real-time visibility of products, and inventory management.

When you work with Office Beacon, you’ll be able to track your cargo until it reaches your customer.

Get started with Office Beacon logistics services

You’re not alone in the logistics industry—Office Beacon’s Logistics Outsourcing team can collaborate with you to achieve the following.

Cost reduction/cost optimization
Increasing customer satisfaction
Providing relevant data and analytics throughout the entire supply chain
Gaining a competitive edge
Designing, building, running, and measuring your logistics functions

If you choose to outsource Office Beacon’s logistics services, here are the services you can expect.

Overseeing supply chain operations
Managing inventory, storage, and transportation
Analyzing and optimizing logistical procedures
Reviewing, preparing, and routing purchase orders
Ensuring safe and timely delivery of shipments
Monitoring costs, timeliness, and productivity of shipments
Addressing shipment and inventory issues
Liaising with suppliers and retailers
Identifying process bottlenecks
Suggesting solutions for improvement
Coordinating with the logistics department
Tracking KPI
Generating and providing quotes to customers
Preparing customs and shipping documents
Updating retailer and customer systems

Stop burdening yourself with the complexities of managing your logistics services. Choose Office Beacon as your go-to remote logistics service provider today!