Your Guide to a Monthly Marketing Plan With Your Virtual Assistant

At Trusty Oak, marketing services are one of the most requested areas where clients ask for support. Therefore, we have virtual assistants versed in content creation, social media marketing, email marketing, website content strategy, and target market analysis. So you may be wondering, “where do I start?”

One of our best practices is to set up some marketing goals via our Trusty Oak inbound marketing strategies. Ideally, you would want to lay the groundwork of finding your target audience or developing your buyer personas before creating content.

However, if you already have your goals and buyer personas set or maybe you just need some basic implementation of regular marketing tasks, our virtual assistants have the tools and knowledge to help. 

So, whether you’re just starting out in our Growth Starter Pack or subscribed to a monthly plan, what does a month of marketing tasks look like?

Here is your guide to a monthly marketing plan with your virtual assistant.

Website Content

To begin implementing your monthly marketing plan, you should always start with the main source that converts leads into new customers: your website. Your website should have informative content that will help nurture your lead throughout the buyer’s journey.

Before we discuss the monthly tasks for the website, let’s begin with the basics:

1. Your website should have clear and consistent website copy, especially on the homepage. i.e. your company tagline, a short description, your company mission statement, and company values. Your messaging should answer the question, “what does this company provide?”
2. Check for content balance on all other pages. Is there too much or too little copy on your Services page? Is your About page overwhelming? Your virtual assistant can help condense or elaborate on these pages so the messaging to the buyer is clear. 
3. Create or edit all CTAs (call-to-action). These CTAs should be strategically placed on your homepage and throughout the website to create an intuitive experience for the buyer.

Related: The Relationship Between SEO and SEM in Digital Marketing

After completing the website basics, you can now focus on the monthly tasks:

1. Create regular blog content. In order to drive business to your website, your leads will need to see that you’re the expert. Therefore, in collaboration with your virtual assistant, you should brainstorm monthly content specific to your industry. Think of several topics you can discuss within the first 90 days, and ask your virtual assistant to research, outline, and/or write these blogs. It is a general best practice to write at least two blog posts per month, with a minimum of 500 words per post.

2. Add internal and external links to your blogs. Make your blog content shine by referencing your research in external links. You can also add internal links to your other blogs, which will guide the user to read more of your content and stay informed in the buyer’s journey.
3. Add categories to your blogs. Your virtual assistant can help you categorize your blogs so that your readers can easily find a topic on your website.
4. Add tags to your blogs. For SEO purposes, it is best to tag your blogs with specific keywords from the blog content.
5. Add CTAs at the end of each blog post. As part of the buyer’s journey, your readers will need to know what to do next. Your virtual assistant would make sure your blogs have a call-to-action that leads to your contact page or to a downloadable content offer that provides more information.
6. Monitor your traffic and leads. Once you have your CTAs set up, monitor the clicks on your CTA buttons. If you have an email form set up on your contact page, check your messages regularly throughout the month. Depending on your website design tool, you can check the analytics to see all of the website traffic and how users are finding your website. You can also take it a step further by integrating Google Analytics into your site. 

Social Media Content

The next batch of monthly tasks that your virtual assistant can tackle are your social media content ideas. Social media not only supplements your online presence, but also nurtures those leads in your target audience and shows consistency in your brand. A strong social media presence also helps your buyers to verify the legitimacy of your company or organization. 

Therefore, a virtual assistant would be instrumental in performing these monthly tasks:

1. Brainstorm and create content. This is definitely where you can get creative with your virtual assistant when collaborating!

• If your blog content is already published for the month, for example, pull the images and illustrations from those blogs and ask your virtual assistant to convert them into graphics. You can also create quote graphics or short videos based on those blogs.
• Perhaps you have a YouTube video included in one of your blogs. Take a clip of that YouTube video and publish it on your social media platforms. Also, Instagram Reels and TikTok videos are always great and trendy new ways to capture your audience. 

2. Create and fill out a monthly content calendar. Once these ideas are fleshed out, your virtual assistant would fill out your content calendar, ideally with two weeks to a month fully planned out ahead of time. You can create this calendar in a spreadsheet or in a social media scheduling tool like Sprout Social, Hootsuite, Canva, or HubSpot.
3. Schedule all social media posts. Depending on your industry, your target audience, and the amount of content that you have planned with your virtual assistant, decide on the number of times per week you would schedule your social media posts.

• Let’s say you are promoting your latest blog post, and you have a quote graphic, a short video, and a photo ready to post. You could post those three pieces of content on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
• You could take your week a step further and post other content about your industry in between on Tuesday and Thursday. Over time, your content will expand as you generate more ideas to promote your business.

4. Monitor, engage, and analyze. Your virtual assistant can monitor your posts throughout the week and the month as well as engage with your audience. Then, at the end of the month, you can both see how your posts are performing and what times work best to publish those posts. 

• Most social media scheduling tools have a reports feature where you can see this information. It is a best practice to keep a spreadsheet of your analytics so you can create more content based on those top-performing posts. 

Email Marketing Content

Just as your blog content informs your leads and shows your expertise in long-form, your email marketing should do the same. Your virtual assistant would help create engaging monthly email content that is focused, nurtures the leads, but is also concise enough to not overwhelm your subscribers.

Therefore, a virtual assistant would be a valuable asset when performing these monthly tasks:

1. Create a monthly newsletter. Have your virtual assistant create a monthly newsletter template using an email marketing software, such as Mailchimp, Constant Contact, or HubSpot. Depending on how much content you have to share and your target audience, it is a best practice to send out a newsletter one to two times a month.

• Any email software you use should have a tracking feature to see how many subscribers open your emails and how many clicks on your links and CTAs. Then, you can decide on a regular schedule for sending out your newsletters as well as how to format your content accordingly.
• There are several valuable reasons to start a newsletter, whether it’s educating your clients and loyal followers or promoting an upcoming event. Going back to your newly published blog, you could link the blog in your newsletter and add the cover photo and short description next to it.
• On your website, you could add a “Subscribe to Our Newsletter” section in the footer, so that you can get regular new subscribers. Then, you can create an automated newsletter to welcome them to the email list. 

2. Create a nurture program for your new leads. Let’s say you have a downloadable content offer on your website. Have your virtual assistant add an email address entry to the CTA so that you can generate an email list of those new leads. Then, you can create an email campaign to nurture those prospects.

• This may not be a monthly task for your virtual assistant, but you can certainly make sure all information is up to date with your current services and offers each month.

3. Create blast emails with special offers and announcements. This email would be similar to a newsletter but with fewer sections. You could announce a new service or offer a special discount to your subscribers.

While this list is just scratching the surface, you now have a general breakdown of all the monthly tasks you can expect when collaborating and partnering with your virtual assistant! While getting a marketing plan together and delegating the tasks can seem overwhelming, your virtual assistant would be there to project manage this every step of the way.

Ready to start delegating?

Lauren Lyman

Lauren Lyman is an experienced freelancer in administration and social media management. Lauren originally began her career in academia, aspiring to work as a university professor in music history and classical flute while holding several customer service and office coordinator jobs along the way. In January 2019, Lauren began working for Trusty Oak as a virtual assistant. She loves helping her clients build their social media brands, and she also assists with project management, email marketing, and blogging. Lauren has also worked as the Trusty Oak Social Media Manager from March 2020 to March 2021, and she currently handles a monthly newsletter for the team. In her spare time, Lauren writes her own music and plays her flute for her partner’s studio sessions as well as for other independent musicians and producers.

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