Lessons from a Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant who actually does the work:
So you’re an online business owner who is ready to hire your first teammate, someone who can wear multiple hats as a unicorn digital marketing assistant. And you’re starting to think about what that could actually look like, right? To help you get started, here is my quick list of three tasks you’ll be able to hand off first to your brand new virtual assistant!
Keep in mind that it takes time to learn your business, but the more you can involve your assistant and get off your plate, the better off you’ll be in your business.
The goal is to hand off tasks that are sucking up your time so you can get out of the weeds and be working on the high-level tasks in your business.
First things first
There is a price difference between admin tasks and digital marketing tasks. Fortunately a unicorn digital marketing assistant can help with both but it’s important to know that for long-term in your business you will want to hire admin help to keep costs down and keep your unicorn in their zone of genius.
$15-20/hour tasks are admin tasks — calendar and inbox support, client experience help, data management
$25-$55/hour tasks are digital marketing tasks — email marketing, social media, content marketing, tech, web design, graphic design, video editing
$75+/hour specialized marketing projects — copywriting, web design, tech, Facebook ads, usually charged per project
I break down the rates for you because I see business coaches saying “hire out the $10/hour tasks” so you can work on the “$1,000/hr tasks”
But there are no $10/hr tasks!
Be smart about where you are in business, who you’re hiring and what they’re charging.
Not everyone can afford a team of 10 specialists right off the bat, which is why I train unicorn digital marketing assistants to hit that sweet spot of marketing-savvy and well-roundedness.
Tasks to Hand off to your New Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant
Now let’s get on with what to hand off to your versatile unicorn digital marketing assistant (UDMA).
Here I focus on the weekly ongoing digital marketing work so you can free up your time to take on my clients, build digital products, and do your visibility gigs.
The goal is to get your new teammate embedded on your team and the best way is to start operating your business like you’re already at your dream business.
So let’s say you’ve reach that pinnacle and you’er at capacity, what are you NOT doing in your business anymore? What will you need help with?
1) Weekly Emails
I always recommend unloading with the weekly emails! It’s a great place for your new teammate to get familiar with your brand, audience, and voice. And it will quickly take a big stress off your plate.
Eventually you want to pull out of your emails, right? In a launch you’d like to say, “schedule these emails at this time to these people” and not have to do the work. It’s soooo time consuming and you’ll want one main chef in the kitchen … aka not you because you own the restaurant.
So get your unicorn familiar with your ESP (email service provider) right away. Think of the time it will free up!
You’ll want to set up a system for emails with your new UDMA so this workflow is occurring ritually every week.
Then give your unicorn your weekly email copy written out in a shared google doc.
Let them load it, format it, segment it, tag it with all of those clicks and automations. You know, get it all set up — locked and loaded.
Then you QC it. Make sure it’s right and tweak it if needed. Hit send/schedule.
Within no time you can pass on building opt-ins and reporting on stats to your UDMA also.
Maybe if you have a unicorn with copywriting skills she can help you write them right away! Otherwise, that’s a task you can plan to develop over time with feedback and slowly letting go of the reigns. You’ll have to discuss to your UDMA to see where their strengths are and how they can help
2) Formatting & publishing blogs
The next easy hand-off task is blog content.
Get out of the WordPress weeds already! Get your UDMA familiar with your posting process, your brand voice and helping your generate organic traffic. Who cares if she’s not a WordPress “expert” — this will be the best, safe place to learn inside the posts.
Plus blogging and guest blogging is one of those tasks we always intend to do as online business owners but always run out of time for. So hand it off!
You’ll want to set up a system for blogging with your new UDMA so this workflow is occurring ritually every week.
Each week, give your UDMA your new blog post written in a google doc.
Repeat the process just like the email for your blog posts.
Your unicorn can work on the formatting, supporting graphics, related offers and email captures.
AND THEN HAND OFF THE SEO. Your unicorn can optimize for top search words.
That will open doors to new tasks that you can hand off to your virtual assistant: making copy changes, taking over your press page and maybe building new landing pages.
And you can pretty much hand off the entire SEO process if you have a unicorn on your team. This also opens doors to affiliate marketing and strategizing about content.
Not to mention repurposing the content you’ve already created elsewhere.
This will be a HUGE time saver for you and will make it much easier to be strategic and intentional about feeding the content machine in the future.
3) Social Media Scheduling & Repurposing & Engaging
Repeat the system and hand off your social media tasks to your new UDMA.
Social media is a beast for business owners! As much as I love it, I know it can also turn into drudgery and sap your creative energy.
So get ready to hand over your social media tasks and develop a workflow with your UDMA.
Start with one platform like Instagram.
Repeat the same process.
You do the writing. Let your Unicorn do the hashtag research and scheduling.
And if you really aren’t a fan of IG, let her start taking over some engagement tactics too.
Then do the same for FB, TikTok, LinkedIn, etc.
You’ll still have to show up on your own social media because it needs to feel authentic and real. Your fans want to connect with you, not your UDMA (even if they are fabulous!).
But a unicorn digital marketing assistant can make that much easier and repurpose your old content or other content into social posts too.
And when it stops feeling like a tedious chore every week, you will be a lot more inspired, spontaneous, and authentically engaged when you do show up.
BONUS - Community Management
Free and paid/student Facebook group can be a lot of repetitive work but as the core of your business not something you want to hand off to just anyone. I highly recommend using your UDMA to help you moderate, manage and engage your groups.
Again if you’re operating at a level where you’re maxed out, you just wouldn’t have the time. So get someone on board NOW to help schedule posts, events, collect testimonials and gather pain points to use in your copywriting.
Related Podcast Alert: The first three tasks to hand off to your new unicorn virtual assistant
Take a break from all the reading and listen to these tips on audio on my recent podcast episode!
The Takeaway: Hiring a new virtual assistant can be intimidating, but giving these tasks to your unicorn digital marketing assistant will be an easy way to get started together.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone on your team know your brand voice? Maybe crank out a social media post or email when you’re totally overwhelmed or vacationing in Hawaii?
Having your unicorn start with these three tasks may seem TOO simple. But she’s reading your words, soaking up your tone & voice, and LEARNING YOUR BUSINESS.
She’s becoming a part of your team and it starts slow.
You’ll develop your workflow. She’ll be able to take on more. You’ll never look back.
Unless you’re a control freak.😉
(Yeah, honestly that’s one of the big mistakes business owners often make when hiring their first unicorn.)
Where Can I hire a Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant?
Fill out this form here and I’ll share your job with my freelancers and UDMAs inside my membership.
Got a teammate you’d like to uplevel with their digital marketing skills?
My online business owner peers are known to send their teammate through my trainings. This is a sure-fire way to take your growth-mindset VA to the next level in their digital marketing understanding and execution:
- My Digital Marketing Workgroup is only $47/month and we cover advanced trainings and tactics for helping clients like you grow their email list, social media presence and launch digital products and education programs. . There’s an entire resource library of advanced trainings, a community for support and troubleshooting and brainstorming. This is perfect for the up-and–coming admin VA who is already doing some of the digital marketing tasks.
- My Quickstart to Facebook Community Management Workshop $197 will teach your VA how to be an all-star community manager in your free or paid Facebook groups. We go above and beyond the basic group settings with how to collect voice of customer data and testimonials, engagement tactics, etc.
- The Unicorn Digital Marketing Assistant School opens twice a year and covers the spectrum of digital marketing implementation and mechanics. This is the best place to s tart if you have a teammate who has never worked with an online business before. I cover: email marketing, affiliate marketing, funnel building, SEO and blogging, and social media.
Start with the easy tasks that you can hand off, but keep your focus on the long-term goals. ”
Further Reading:
Wanna hire a unicorn digital marketing assistant of your own? If you’re ready to take that step, just fill out my form at hireaunicorn.com and I’ll share your job description with my exclusive network of top-notch unicorn digital marketing assistants.
>>> Then download my discovery call questions to ask during your next interview.
This will help you hire a teammate with the growth mindset and wright work ethic.
Still have questions? Make sure you’re a member of my Facebook community where we discuss all things about online marketing Head over and start a discussion or connect with virtual assistants and freelancers!
-Emily, Digital Marketing Consultant and Implementer
“I help smart women learn the in-demand digital marketing strategies and tech skills to get hired as a unicorn virtual assistant.“
