If you’ve hired a General VA, here’s a few examples of where the line is between General VA duties, and specialty or OBM responsibilities:
Sales Person
A general VA is not a salesperson. It takes relationship-building skills and advanced communication skills to meet a brand new person, build trust, and convince them your product or service is the cat’s pajamas. It also takes quite a bit of research and hands-on experience to know your brand inside and out to speak to it the way you intended it to be perceived.
Marketing Strategist
This goes hand in hand with the salesperson. Your general VA probably does not have years of experience in marketing and understand the complex strategies to take you from 150 followers to 2.5K in 30 days. They do not have the ability to analyze the data and adjust your marketing plan to output better results in big ways. A general VA’s number one goal is to create consistency in marketing by making sure your content is posted regularly and looks generally cohesive. Their experience can lead them to ask if you wanted to try something they’ve seen work for your market, but the background isn’t there to make the decisions and guarantees you’d get with a specialist. If you are looking for more in-depth marketing responsibilities, you will need a Marketing Speciality VA. The good news is Marketing/Social Media is the #1 specialty most VA’s dive into.
Content Creator / Copywriter
Any general admin is expected to have some proficiency in written communication. Taking care of emails, meeting minutes, or any other general admin task requires some writing. Writing blogs, email marketing campaigns, higher-end social media posts, etc. are more complex and need a combination of technical and artistic skill. Just like sales, your VA has to embody your brand voice and ensure the message is interpreted by your target audience the way you expect it to. A VA who has taken the deep dive into content/copywriting has the advanced skill to accomplish this and has a specialized skill.
Leaders and/or Decision Makers
A General VA is the best support character you could ever have on your team. If you are leading the way, they’ve got your back the entire journey. A General VA should never own the responsibility of leading other team members or making big decisions without your knowledge. Addressing team conflicts, making financial decisions, or any other management level task is not a good fit for a general VA. If you need this leadership type of support, an OBM has the skill and practice with this and will be a better fit.
Hopefully this provides some guidance as to what you can expect from a virtual assistant, but if you’re still not sure, we’re happy to talk through your needs and point you in the right direction!