Providing virtual admin support services to your business so that you can get on with what you do best.
Can a Virtual Assistant help you with online research?
YES, absolutely!!! A virtual assistant can do all sorts of online research, saving you time and money by undertaking research on your behalf, within your parameters and provide you with outcomes in an efficient, organised and user friendly way.
There are however some types of research that are more specialised in nature and will require a specialist virtual assistant to undertake, such as legal research, medical research and academic research. Market research also often requires you to have undergraduate qualifications.
Here are just 7 different types of online research a virtual assistant can do for you:
1. Gather information on service providers or suppliers
For example, you have an event coming up and you need to organise some promotional items. A virtual assistant can source suppliers and gather quotes from business locally or interstate on your behalf. Collate the information and present it to you so that you can make an informed decision.
2. Travel Research
Flights, accommodation, car rental and other transport options. They could also research activities to do while you are travelling and put together an itinerary for you.
3. Business and Event Planning
All events need some sort of information gathering undertaken – venues, catering, guest speakers. A virtual assistant can research all aspects of putting together an event and can source quotes and collate the information and present it to you so that you can make an informed decision.
4. Develop a contact or mailing list
For example, you might be developing a training program and you would like to engage with certain types of companies but not necessarily through social media. A virtual assistant can search online – Google, Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and websites to gather the information that you need to develop a contact or mailing list that can be imported into your favourite automated marketing and email platform such as Mailchimp, Mailerlite, Hubspot to name a few.
5. Background information
Perhaps you are about to meet with someone for the first time and you would like to know a bit more about them or their business so that you can be prepared for that meeting. A virtual assistant can pull together a profile for you prior to the meeting that gives you some useful background information.
6. SEO and keyword searching
Are you wanting to improve your online presence? A virtual assistant can help you build your keyword and hashtag lists for your SEO by researching what your competitors are doing online. They can also use these keywords and hashtags to inform you how you are tracking online. This information can then be used in your SEO across different platforms and online spaces.
7. Content Sourcing
Are you wanting to write an article or a blog on a particular subject and need to find out what other articles or blogs have been written on similar subjects? Perhaps you would like some images or statistics on a particular subject to accompany your article?
What are the abilities and tools that are needed?
Your virtual assistant will most likely have had years of experience in an administrative support role where research has been part of their day to day activities. Some of the skills that a virtual assistant will have honed over the years will be:
- Accurate data entry and attention to detail
- Formatting documents and spreadsheets so as to present information in a user friendly way
- Resourceful and thorough in the way that they source information online
- Able to think outside the square and approach the research activity from different points of view
- Able to use tools such as surveys, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, CRMs
Do you need something researched?
Click on this link to complete a brief of the research that you need done.