Your Tasks & Projects FAQs

You can read more about the tasks Virtalent can support you with here.

Our VAs generally fall into 3 “categories”.

1. Some of our VAs come from a PA or Executive Assistant background. They will have supported senior business leaders (CEOs, VPs etc.) or have worked with the Director of a small business before.

As such, they can comfortably handle a variety of administrative support tasks, however complex!

EXECUTIVE PA SUPPORT AT VIRTALENT >

2. Others come from a marketing background and work as Virtual Marketing Assistants at Virtalent. They will have usually worked in senior Marketing roles (e.g. Marketing Manager) or as an independent Marketing Consultant before. Marketing VAs support clients with a range of (usually digital) marketing tasks and projects.

They could help you by managing your social media, email marketing, content writing, relationship building and much more.

MARKETING SUPPORT AT VIRTALENT >

3. Others then fit into the “all-rounder” category. They have solid experience in both EA and marketing roles, and may also have additional skills in customer service (replying to customer enquiries, taking payments, etc.), financial admin, website maintenance and more.

These VAs are usually from a small business background so are used to completing a wide range of tasks.

OTHER SUPPORT AT VIRTALENT >

Not very much! As you work with a VA on a 1:1 basis, the one main responsibility we can’t take on for you is answering live chat messages or call answering throughout the day, though we can recommend some great providers that many of our clients use in tandem with their Virtalent VA. Everything we do is task or project focused, as opposed to operating a contact centre or pooling our availability, where tasks or calls are split between whoever is available at that second. We also can’t help with tasks that would need a license or professional accreditation to carry out or are highly specialised: – We generally can’t help with highly complex marketing campaigns involving SEO/SEM, PPC or affiliate marketing campaigns. Your Marketing VA may be able to implement aspects of these projects, but we are not a digital marketing agency or consultancy. – We can certainly help with financial admin tasks (sending out invoices, managing bill payments, etc.) but it is important to point out that we don’t offer bookkeeping, payroll or accountancy services. We can’t act as your agent with HMRC or submit a VAT return, for example. We also generally don’t help with: – Sending bulk cold email campaigns (i.e. to a list that hasn’t explicitly agreed to hear from you) – we don’t do spam. – Cold calling campaigns. Our team don’t come from this type of sales-driven environment – we prefer digital or online campaigns. – Anything both very small and short-term in nature. We aren’t a temp agency and we don’t help with small one-off projects or tasks. We support our clients on a long-term, ongoing basis, building trusting and long-lived business relationships. – Anything that would reasonably make a member of our team feel uncomfortable (or break the law). We reserve the right to reject any task assigned to us. Still not sure? The best way to see if we can support you is to speak to us! GET IN TOUCH >

Yes, we do have bilingual VAs on our team and they support a number of international clients.

However, Virtalent have no resources to quality check or verify any VA’s language skills, as we only offer VA support in English as a “standard” part of our service.

In practice, that means you’ll need to check you’re happy with their level of fluency when you speak to them as part of our matching process. Remember, this is before you pay us a penny.

We generally recommend that your Virtalent VA “logs in” to work on your account 1 to 3 times a day (depending on your Support Plan and quantity of emails to be answered). This is when they will be actioning any tasks, responding to any emails you have received which they need to respond to, as well as returning any calls (if you have a call answering service in place) at that point.

This works very well and is fast enough in the vast majority of cases. You’ll work with one Virtual Assistant on a 1:1 basis. We don’t operate a contact centre environment where we pool our team, picking up tasks or emails as they come in and assigning them to anyone available. If you’re concerned about how quickly your emails or tasks will be dealt with, please discuss this with a senior member of our team on a consultation call. BOOK A FREE CONSULTATION >

Unfortunately not. As you work with a VA on a 1:1 basis, the one main task we can’t help with is all-day call answering, though we can recommend some great providers who our clients work with in tandem with their Virtalent VA! Everything we do is centred around completing tasks and managing ongoing projects, as opposed to operating a contact centre environment where tasks or calls are split between whoever is available at that exact moment. If you work with a Virtalent VA, we can recommend a number of companies to take care of your calls for you. Your VA can then return those calls and carry out any other related tasks you need support with (e.g. logging the call to your CRM or taking a payment). This partnership works very well for our clients! GET IN TOUCH >

Our VAs have not generally worked in a sales-oriented environment before.

They are happy to make calls on your behalf, but we would not be the best partner for you if you are looking to hire someone to call hundreds of people per day, especially if they have not heard of your business before.

If you have a large database and a sales target in mind, you would be better hiring a telesales or telemarketing supplier.

Still not sure? The best way to find out if we can help is to chat to us.

GET IN TOUCH >

Yes, if the subscribers have opted in. No, if they have not. If you have a mailing list full of people that want to hear from you (or you need help building that list), we can certainly help you. If you’ve bought a database of email addresses from somewhere shady on the internet and now want to send them all your latest sales brochure, unfortunately we’re not the provider for you. Still not sure? The easiest way to find out if we can help is to talk with our team. GET IN TOUCH >

This is a tricky one. “SEO” is a term covering many different tasks and skills. We know – Virtalent is ranked at the top of Google for a number of competitive search terms.

If you’re looking for a VA to devise and then implement an entire SEO strategy, we’re not going to be able to help you. You should put your faith in an SEO agency. If you have an existing strategy in place or have an SEO strategist to work on the “bigger picture”, we can likely help with content writing or with time-consuming, repetitive tasks you don’t have time to do. So, “get my site to no. 1 on Google”? No. But, “write an engaging weekly blog post, manage my social media channels to drive social signals to my site and keep an eye on my current search rankings”? Most definitely! Still not sure? Let’s discuss the projects you need support with in more detail on a call. GET IN TOUCH >

We’re not qualified or licensed to offer bookkeeping or accountancy services. We can certainly help you out with financial admin tasks such as paying invoices, filing your expenses in Receiptbank or sending your accountant the information they need to file your next VAT return. It does not mean, however, that we can act as your authorised agent to HMRC or file any company administration on your behalf – anything usually completed by a Company Director, Company Secretary or your clever accountant. Still not sure? Let’s get a call scheduled to discuss the specific finance tasks you need help with. GET IN TOUCH >

None of our Virtual Assistants are qualified web designers or developers however, because they have often worked in marketing roles in the past, simple changes to your website are usually fine. So if you’re looking for your VA to code a website from scratch or carry out highly technical work on your server, we’re not likely to be the service for you. If you just need someone to change a little text or replace a few images (or even to use a “drag and drop” page builder – think Wix or Squarespace), we can help you. Still not sure? It might be easier to discuss this directly. GET IN TOUCH >