Lessons from a Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant who actually does the work:
I like to nerd out on techie tools and new ways of doing online marketing. But when it comes to my business, it wasn’t hard to come up with my can’t-live-without, best tools for virtual assistants. These are five tools I use EVERY DAY in my freelance business for ME AND FOR MY CLIENT WORK.
Of course, I could go on and on with tons of other cool hacks and tricks of the trade, but these are the essential tools to know.
Whether you’re starting out as a new service provider OR you’ve been doing the freelance thing for some time, I love to help a friend and help you look smart so you book the clients, get paid, gain freedom and change your life.
It’s quite simple, ay?
So let’s dive in!
*Some of these links are referral links. If you purchase or upgrade to the paid plans I could make a small commission. I only recommend products, platforms and programs that I use and love. I appreciate your support.
My Five Most-Used *Free* Tools
1. LastPass
Keeping track of logins and passwords is not my thing. I’m terrible at it in my own personal life. If you offered me $1 million for my Apple ID, I would hang my head in shame, and my bank account would stay the same.
(Same when it comes to that 5-digit code for Verizon’s on-demand movies. I’ll probably just have to reset it next time I want to rent a movie that’s not on Netflix.)
But when it comes to keeping track of clients’ passwords and logins, you cannot be like me. It’s extremely unprofessional if you can keep track of it. And quite often, my clients are the creative types who aren’t good at it either.
The best solution is LastPass. (But there are a couple of other password managers that are popular with virtual assistants. Get the list here.)
Perks of LastPass Password Manager
- Saves time – no more hunting for or guessing wrong passwords … or mistyping … LastPass can fill in forms for you.
- Secure – no more notepad, Google Docs – and it generates secure passwords for you
- You can grant or revoke access to teammates, contractors, etc.
I highly recommend having your own account for your business.
Premium is only $36 a month and allows your clients to share folders and access. Your clients should add you to their accounts. Then you’ll spend less time hassling them for passwords AND when they change their password without telling you, you won’t be taken by surprise. You may need to set this whole thing up for your client!
If you ever have to let a teammate go or a temporary contractor is done with their work, you can revoke their access instead of having to change ALL the passwords you ever shared.
BONUS: Use the Google Chrome extension for faster access! Read more about LastPass here.
2. Canva
Canva may be old news to some of you, but hands down, my business would not be where it is today without Canva – a free design platform.
Gone are the days when a small business owner hires a $200/hr graphic designer to do the work. Gone are the days when a virtual assistant needed to know Photoshop. (I mean that was 2013 when I had no good options)
Canva makes it possible for everyone to be a designer.
I’ve used canva to design: Pinterest pins, media kits, Facebook cover photos, YouTube thumbnails, infographics, workbooks, PDFs, slide decks, email signatures, invitations, Facebook ads, feature images, podcast cover art and the list goes on.
Sign up for Canva for free here.* And consider upgrading for the $10/month ($120/year) work version down the road. The bells and whistles are worth it – tons of extra graphics, images, branding, fonts, etc.
I was an early user and I’ve just seen it get better and better over the years with more design capability and sharing, templates, pre-fab designs.
If you have time, I recommend joining my free Facebook group to get access to this free 10 Hacks for Canva tutorial by my designer and friend Aino Horsma from the Daily Creative.
3. Google Drive
Google Drive is an everyday part of my life … and now my virtual school mom life! My kids are starting to get better at finding their own documents than my clients! (Sorry, Wendy!)
I highly recommend getting familiar with Google Drive and having a Gmail account if you’re going to be working with clients.
Sure there are other options like Dropbox for storing and saving large files.
But I like the ability to have live working documents and sheets. You can give access to your teammates, copywriters, and students.
The key is in giving the right people access and the roles to either edit or view. You’ll look super smart if you get this right the first time. Instead of clients having to “request access”
I am constantly using that COPY LINK function, after I have switched the settings to “Anyone with the link.”
4. One Tab
Shout out to my mentor Sage Polaris for sharing this one with me.
I am the classic girl who has one too many tabs open. But yet when I’m working on a certain client’s project, I may need 10 tabs open just to reference and do the work!
Enter OneTab – a Chrome extension tool that organizes your tabs into “projects” so you can close and reopen.
This is perfect for the VA who is always context switching. It’s ideal to organize your work by client or by project. When it’s time to resume work, I can bring up everything I was working on with a click of the “Restore All” button.
Magic!
- It saves so much time.
- It saves computer memory.
- It makes me feel a little less crazy, because while writing this blog I do have 15 tabs opens … and NONE of my other projects are open right now.
- It also keeps me on track with my work. No unnecessary tabs and I can bounce between tabs quicker.
OneTab is a game-changer and it’s totally free!
5. Facebook Pixel Helper
Wow, don’t we look smart using “Facebook for Developers” but this is a tool I check once a day to make sure the Facebook Pixel is working for my client’s website and landing pages.
It’s a free Chrome extension tool that shows you what data is being collected.
You know how Facebook and Instagram show you ads from those sites you’ve been visiting? Maybe you put something in your shopping cart and didn’t actually buy it. Maybe you were just perusing someone’s program or took their webinar and now you’re seeing all their ads?
That’s the Pixel.
This tool lets you know if it’s working and makes my job so much simpler when things do go sideways.
Here the Pixel helper showed all the page views and button clicks when I was using Canva. Pretty creepy, but oh so magical when you’re a digital marketer and helping your clients.
I go into depth about the Pixel and how to do the work in my Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School– the only course that trains digital marketing specialists to have a solid online marketing background to get hired (and be totally coveted) by online biz owners. Get on the waitlist here because enrollment for the LIVE version only happens once a year.
Well, now that I have 22 tabs open, it’s time to wrap up this blog and maybe figure out my Apple ID for my kids’ iPad… again.
Not a course. A collective for marketers already doing the work.
Our Digital Marketer’s Workgroup is a vetted peer community where marketing specialists get real business support and talk shop with people who actually get it. Applications are open now ⬇️
⚡Related Podcast: 8 Things to Start Your Virtual Assistant Business
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify
5 Tech Skills Business Owners Need Right Now | In-demand Virtual Assistant Skills
You’ll also want to check out:
4 LMS Platforms a VA Should Know for Course Creation
4 Time Tracking Tools for Virtual Assistants
Every VA Needs to Know These IG Scheduler Tools
If you love this techie stuff…
Grab my Digital Marketing Assistant’s Tool Kit for just $7.99
Snag the best tech tools and recommended software to use in your marketing services, all in one easy place. You’ll get Business Tools, AI Tools, Marketing Tools, and more in one massive Google sheet. BONUS: Emily’s Recommended Tech Stack for New Service Providers.
The Virtual Assistant Tools Takeaway:
There are tons of cool tools out there for freelancers, virtual assistants and contractors. The more you know, the better you can serve your clients and cement yourself to recurring billable hours.
Aka you’ll be indispensable to your client with these tools and insider knowledge. I have a bigger list of tools, resources, courses and books here.
-Emily, Digital Marketing Consultant and Implementer
Emily Reagan is a mom of four, board game pro, freelance digital marketer and Marketing Assistant Mentor who has helped over 450 go-getters, including military spouses, stay-at-home moms, and professional women learn in-demand skills and find flexible remote work as digital marketing assistants and specialists. She’s shared 3,000+ job leads with her freelancer community The Digital Marketer’s Workgroup.
Ask her any questions over on IG @emilyreaganpr
“I help smart women learn the in-demand digital marketing strategies and profitable tech skills to get hired as a unicorn digital marketing assistant.“
3 ways we can work together:
1. Join the Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School. My signature course on digital marketing implementation will give you the confidence and teach you HOW to do the work that’s in demand and highly marketable. This is the secret weapon to getting booked out. Start learning digital marketing services and building your digital service business right now.
2. Already doing marketing work and have a few clients? Want a stronger referral network? Apply for our Digital Marketer’s Workgroup—a tight-knit community of freelancers just like you. Inside, you’ll get behind-the-scenes support, advanced trainings, and troubleshooting that every solo marketer needs. Plus, I’ve shared over 3,000 job opportunities with this group—exclusive leads you won’t find anywhere else. If you’re ready to grow your business and connect with a supportive network, join us here!
3. Looking to hire a Digital Marketing Assistant? If you want to expand your team & grow your business, submit your job opportunity here. I’ll share it with the skilled unicorn marketing assistants inside my workgroup totally free.
Yes, you really can work online.
Feeling overwhelmed about how to start working from home or build your own digital marketing business? Take a deep breath — you can do this!
Start with my list of 10 in-demand tasks that online business owners are constantly asking for help with. These are the exact skills clients look for when hiring a virtual assistant. Grab your free download now, update your VA toolkit, and see where you might want to grow next as you build your freelance business with confidence and purpose.
