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Virtual Assistants

10 Tasks a Mailchimp Virtual Assistant Can Take Off Your Plate

 

Are you on the lookout for a Mailchimp virtual assistant? 

What is Mailchimp, anyway?

Well, Mailchimp is an email marketing solutions platform that gives small businesses the tools they need to engage with their followers and grow. It combines the power of data and AI to improve your marketing strategies. The technology includes audience management features, automations, creative tools, and reporting and analytics for data supported business moves. Whether email, social media, landing pages or other advertising, they help you get in front of customers to boost engagement and conversions. 

So how does a Mailchimp virtual assistant fit into the picture? Let’s find out.

What Is a Mailchimp Virtual Assistant?

Now that we know what Mailchimp is, we can more easily define what a Mailchimp VA does. These individuals are people who have specialized expertise of the Mailchimp platform. These means they know how to navigate the platform, how all their features work and what their pricing plans include. These individuals also have email marketing experience, meaning they know both in theory and practice what these solutions can do for your business. 

So, what specific tasks can these VAs accomplish?

10 Tasks a Mailchimp VA Can Take Off Your Plate

Mailchimp Account Setup 

Off the bat, you can hire a Mailchimp virtual assistant to help you get up and running on the platform as quick as possible. They know the platform inside and out and have likely helped other clients set up their accounts and go through the process. You can even ask them for recommendations on which pricing tier to subscribe to based on your needs. 

Creating Email Lists and Segmenting Audiences 

Your virtual assistant can do the data entry work of taking your contacts and inputting their email addresses onto a spreadsheet. They also take information from any sign up forms on your website or through your contact email on your social media. From there, they can also help you identify which of your contacts are potential leads and they can sort them into specific categories that you, the business owner, have set. 

Choosing the Right Email Templates 

Mailchimp has hundreds of campaign templates to choose from, and your Mailchimp virtual assistant can certainly choose from among those options. Selecting the right email template takes experience and knowledge of what layouts are the most attractive to your customer base. Because their templates are also customizable, your VA can also edit the templates for you and create an email that both conveys the message and represents and promotes your brand effectively. 

Write Captivating Subject Lines and Preview Text 

Aside from the name of the sender, these are the first things your recipients see when they get an email from you. Your email marketing virtual assistant will likely have some content creation or copywriting knowledge. With that, they can write these lines to be both concise and captivating, and blend in cohesively with your brand tone. Some of the best people at this are those who can write preview text that both hooks attention but also leaves readers on a little cliffhanger so they are enticed to open the email. 

Mailing 

Not only can your virtual assistant help you with scheduling when emails are sent, they can also send the email for you. Because the average person already spends more than 2 and 1/2 hours answering emails, you can definitely save time by delegating the task of sending your marketing emails to someone else. 

Add Images to Emails

Well-written copy can get you places, but a well-picked-out graphic can really help break up chunks of test on an email. A good VA will know which visuals to complement your copy, drive your point home, and drive your customers to your pages. 

Manage Email Automation 

Your email marketing VA can make use of the efficient automation features of the Mailchimp platform to streamline your email campaigns. After you give them the go signal, they can create customizable triggers that activate an automation when a subscriber performs an action. Their classic automation triggers include:

  • Campaign activity – sends an email when a subscriber interacts with an email campaign like when they are added to a campaign, open it, not open it, click a link, or not click any links
  • Audience management – sends an email when you add someone to a campaign, when they meet the criteria to join a particular audience category, or if you add a tag to them 
  • Workflow activity – target people who’ve already received emails
  • Ecommerce – includes Abandoned Carts, Email Retargeting, or emails sent after purchases are made 
  • Integrations – email based on custom API integrations 
  • Date-based – send emails that are date specific like on birthdays 

Campaign Tracking, Reporting, and Analysis

In order to gauge the effectiveness of an email campaign, you need to know certain metrics like your open rates, click-through rates, conversion rates, unsubscribes, forwarding rates, etc. It’s a good thing Mailchimp has analytics features that your email marketing virtual assistant will know how to use to the fullest. With the help of this tool, your VA can collect metric data, create reports, and send them to you. 

Campaign Setup, A/B Testing and Monitoring

Your VA can set up your email campaigns for you. They can input all the approved copy and graphics, match them to your email list and send them out. If you’re A/B testing, they can also monitor the performance of each and report back what they find. 

Marketing Advice

The more experienced your VA, the more they can help you make sense of your data and come up with new strategies and courses of action to target specific metrics that you want to improve. Years of experience in the space with different clients and methods gives them a level of expertise that you can take advantage of. They can tell you what has and has not worked in their experience. Then they can use this to optimize your campaigns and save you valuable time and resources.

How Much Does a Mailchimp VA Cost?

A Mailchimp virtual assistant working on a laptop and phone.

As we always say, there are multiple different factors that affect the cost of outsourcing VA tasks. You need to consider the scope of work, skill level, level of experience and education. The country where they live is also a factor. Additionally, you also need to consider that a Mailchimp virtual assistant has specialized knowledge. This includes platform knowledge, email marketing knowledge, and knowledge needed to perform regular virtual assistant tasks. 

All that being said, from what we’ve seen across freelance marketplaces, the cost to hire a Mailchimp VA based on country are as follows 

  • America $15-$50/hr
  • Philippines $8-$40/hr
  • India: $8 – $30/hr

Is It Safe to Give a Virtual Assistant Access to Mailchimp?

Some people have some reservations letting someone else manage their data, and there are some possible risks involved. 

Reputation 

Letting someone else manage your marketing or respond to emails means you are giving them the keys to your brand. If that person misrepresents your brand, that could spell trouble for your business partnerships or the way customers perceive you. 

Data security 

Anyone that needs your inbox to do their job, whether an inbox management VA or an email marketing VA, you’re giving them access to your emails. Not only that, but Mailchimp also has other data such as billing information that you may not just want anyone to have access to. 

While apprehension of the above risks is understandable, there are measures in place to mitigate them. For instance, you can hire from reputable freelance marketplaces that vet their freelancers beforehand to ensure their quality and legitimacy. You can also check their ratings and reviews on those sites to see their reputation and success rate. 

You may be concerned with the security of your account. If you are, you can set your VAs access to the Manager or Author setting. Manager limits their ability to view billing info, export audiences, or close the account. An Author can only create, edit, and delete campaigns and templates, and view reports. You can also revoke account access when your working relationship comes to a close.

Where Can You Find a Mailchimp VA?

A man typing on a laptop.

What Is Outsource School?

outsource school

Outsource School helps you to unlock the potential of virtual assistants and accelerate your business growth.

This is the exact system Outsource School’s founders, Nathan Hirsch and Connor Gillivan, used to go from zero to 8 figures and 40+ virtual assistants with an exit in 2019.

Since being founded in 2020, Outsource School has helped 1,000+ business owners hire 2,000+ virtual assistants for their companies.

Schedule a free sales call to learn more

Free resources you might like: 

Conclusion

There you have it. You can start to level up your email marketing today with a Mailchimp virtual assistant. Save time, save money, make better campaigns, engage more, and meet your profit goals!

 

Categories
Virtual Assistants

20 Projects for a Graphic Design Virtual Assistant

 

Want to learn more about how a graphic design virtual assistant can help your business? You’ve come to the right place!

No matter what type of business you have, you are going to use graphics sooner or later in one way or another. Whether used for advertising, branding, or engagement, graphics are a great way to hook attention and communicate your message. I mean, could you imagine if all marketing were done through text? That could get very old, very quickly. 

So, you need to create these graphics but are either not skilled in that area or don’t have enough time to spend on it. That’s where a graphic design virtual assistant comes in.

What Is a Graphic Design Virtual Assistant?

A graphic design VA is essentially a freelancer that does graphic design work remotely. They aren’t tied to a specific brand or company. This means that they tend to work on multiple different projects for multiple clients at the same time. They are artists who sell their skills to help make all sorts of images, graphics, and even animations for companies and businesses to use for branding, advertising, or for commercial sales like on products. 

From clothing to wall decor, art can be used in so many different ways. The sky is the limit for what a graphic designer can do for you. A virtual graphic designer can be industry specific with their skills. For example, one might specialize in graphics related to food. They might also have specialized tech knowledge or a specific art style. One set of skills will usually fit your brand tone more consistently than another. So, depending on your field, industry, and business-specific needs, graphic design virtual assistants can have specialties as niche as you need them to be.

20 Projects for Graphic Design Virtual Assistants

While the sky may be the limit, we’ve decided to bring it a little down to earth. We narrowed it down to 20 projects that we know a graphic designer can help you with. 

Logos 

Every company needs a logo that is eye-catching, non-generic, and recognizable. When outsourcing a logo designer, you need to make sure the person you’re hiring knows how to communicate your brand’s name and tone.

Infographics 

Infographics are a great way to summarize and communicate information visually. You can use these in report format to show investors how much your business has grown and helped customers over the years. 

Presentations 

Similar to infographics, a graphic designer can help you make presentations using PowerPoint, Canva, Google Slides, etc. Communicate your points aesthetically and engagingly. 

Web Design 

Arguably one of the most popular projects to outsource to a graphic designer, everyone wants their website to be beautiful and intuitive. This includes user interface, colors, layouts, and other graphics you might want on your site pages. When you hire, make sure your graphic designer has some experience working with a web developer so they won’t create designs that aren’t feasible or too expensive to pull off.

App Design 

This goes hand in hand with web design as more and more consumers perform actions on their mobile devices. UI design is key in a market that is stuffed with applications that essentially perform the same function. 

Email Templates and Newsletters 

Layouts are essential when working with a limited space such as email. A designer can help you get your messages across to your subscribers in a punchy way. 

Social Media Graphics 

Your social media presence is vital for, exposure, growth, and lead generation. Your designer can help you create images and graphics needed to hook the attention of the habitual “scroller”. 

Brand Mascot 

All of the iconic brand characters like Chester Cheetah, the Kool-Aid Man or Mr. Peanut all needed to be designed. You may already have an idea in your head for your brand but a designer can bring that fantasy into real life.

Animated Images 

While animators are typically considered separate jobs, you can outsource limited animation needs to your designer. These can include a short loading animation for your site or a transition animation.

Editing 

Maybe you’re happy with the graphics you or a previous designer you’ve worked with have done but want to tweak a few things. If you have the assets, your designer can edit these for you. 

Product Packaging and Labels 

I know they say don’t judge a book by its cover however, the way that a product’s label or packaging is designed is so important to draw consumer attention. This is especially true when you are placed in an aisle with tens of other products in the same category. Aside from aesthetics, a graphic design VA can also help you with the layout of the information on the packaging.

Books 

Speaking of books, covers are actually quite important to convey information and tell you what a book is about while, yes, being pretty. Authors of any type of genre including guides or learning resources, or those who offer e-book formats should hire a graphic designer.

Ecommerce Store Front 

Why stop at a well-designed package when you can make your storefront page look just as appealing to purchase from? You can do this for your store on your site or online marketplaces to a degree. 

Art for Work Spaces 

If you need something designed to decorate your office or retail spaces, whether wall or floor art, a graphic designer can help you create visuals you can boldly display for workers or customers to see. 

Flyers and Brochures 

These are effective ways to advertise an event or summarize your offerings as a business in a concise, optimized, attractive format. Even universities use brochures to advertise their schools to students. 

Cards 

From business cards to thank you cards, and membership cards. You can promote your business, lend a personal touch, and improve customer loyalty all while being stylish and brand consistent. 

Shirt Designs 

Whether employee shirts or merchandise, a graphic design virtual assistant can help you create clothing that builds recognition, community, and sells well. 

Instructions and Manuals 

Someone has to design those inserts you get with your phone, new TV, or fridge, that you never look at twice. And hey, maybe they can help you design one that makes people more inclined to read them!

Branded Stationery 

This is more on the niche side but you’d be surprised how many companies have branded pens they use in their physical locations for employees or patrons to use. A local bank where I’m from went a step further and even changed the shape of the pen. It may not have been the most ergonomic design, but props for the brand consistency!

Other Brand Identity Stuff 

Anything from mugs to mouse pads, welcome mats, and cars – whatever floats your boat – a graphic designer can help you create brand-specific graphics you can plaster on pretty much anything.

How Much Does a Graphic Design VA Cost?

A woman handing US dollar bills..

What affects graphic designer cost? 

  • Type of graphic/scope of work
  • Level of skill
  • Level of experience
  • Basis of work (per hour, per project, set rate)
  • Specialized knowledge of design tools
  • Country of living 
  • Number of revisions 

When it comes to design you get what you pay for and generally around $15/hr is the lowest rate for entry-level designers. While the average range is between $15 to $50, some designers with more extensive portfolios could charge more than that. You can expect to receive decent quality results around the $40 to $45 mark. 

Those who charge flat rates or fixed prices can charge hundreds to thousands of dollars for a single project depending on what it is. For instance, a logo can cost about $150 whereas a basic custom website can cost upwards of $5000. 

When it comes to graphic designer cost, you need to determine which plan of payment makes the most sense for your business based on the above factors. 

Can You Hire a Graphic Design VA Part Time?

As with any profession, there are advantages and disadvantages of hiring full-time and part-time. 

Full-time Pros

  • Work closer with your graphic design virtual assistant 
  • Maintain a greater amount of control
  • Make more revisions 
  • Their focus is not split between multiple clients 

Full-time Cons

  • More costly
  • If you’re not making graphics constantly, they will be left with little to do at times

Part-time Pros

  • Less expensive
  • Makes more sense if you don’t generate a lot of graphics to warrant a full-time salary or rate 
  • More efficient because there is greater pressure to produce great results in less time as a freelancer who is likely working on other projects

Cons Part-time 

  • You need to communicate complete brand information accurately and completely which can be difficult if they are only working part-time
  • Fewer chances for revisions and will likely cost more if many changes are made
  • More difficult to form long-term partnerships because there’s no guarantee they will be available to do future design work for you

What Are the Best Sites to Hire a Graphic Designer?

A graphic design virtual assistant working at his computer.

Once you’ve made up your mind that you need a graphic design virtual assistant, the next step is knowing where to find one. 

Here’s a short list of 5 sites. 

How Do I Assign Projects to My Graphic Designer?

Getting your communication and collaboration tools sorted out as soon as possible will make the whole process so much smoother down the line. Using project management software like Asana or Trello to help you keep everything in order. You can track your projects, plan, schedule, organize team members, automate certain tasks, and much more. 

If you’re interested in how an Asana VA can get you more organized, head on over to that post after you’re done with this one of course!

What Is Outsource School?

outsource school

Outsource School helps you to unlock the potential of virtual assistants and accelerate your business growth.

This is the exact system Outsource School’s founders, Nathan Hirsch and Connor Gillivan, used to go from zero to 8 figures and 40+ virtual assistants with an exit in 2019.

Since being founded in 2020, Outsource School has helped 1,000+ business owners hire 2,000+ virtual assistants for their companies.

Schedule a free sales call to learn more

Free resources you might like: 

Conclusion

Brand color, fonts, images, graphs, websites, and more – all are things you need to consider when building your identity as a brand. These are what a graphic design virtual assistant can help you with.