When Should You Choose a Marketing Expert versus a Virtual Assistant?

When it comes to a CMO/Marketing Coach or a Virtual Assistant, you may need both, and sometimes at the same time.

I’m sharing the biggest differences between the two, and the exact questions that you need to be answering for yourself to understand which will work best for you, with where you are in your business right now.

Why You Need a Marketing Expert

The biggest difference can boil down to the fact that a Chief Marketing Officer, Fractional CMO, Marketing Strategist, or Marketing Coach, helps you set the overall direction for your marketing, including a lot of aspects that are designed to help you be able to scale and grow your business. Virtual Assistants usually handle marketing implementation, such as posting on social media.

Virtual Assistants usually have much less overall experience than you will find with a CMO, marketing strategist, or marketing coach (we’re using those terms interchangeably in this article). For the most part, those job titles by their usual and customary definition would be someone with at least 10 years of marketing experience, and in the case of a CMO you will regularly see 15 or more, plus a college degree in the field, at a minimum for these positions. When a VA gets to the level with that kind of experience, for the most part they are no longer calling themselves a VA.

That’s why we actually provide marketing packages with both – the strategy and vision of a CMO or marketing coach, combined with the lower-priced implementation of a VA. It lets you get a lot more bang for your marketing budget since not only is your marketing done efficiently on your budget, but it’s done strategically as well.

Our marketing packages are a done-for-you approach. For those who want a bit more of a do-it-yourself marketing option, our Fractional CMO meetings are the best option because you get expert-level guidance for marketing you perform yourself.

Questions to ask – do you need a marketing expert or a VA?

Do you already have set marketing goals and KPIs?

And are they the right ones to take your business to where you want it to go? If not, you need a marketing coach or CMO.

Have you already outlined your target audience?

Are you comfortable with the selected demographics and traits for your target audience? If not, you need the marketing coach.

Do you already have a solid understanding of your branding?

Branding isn’t just the logo and colors to use, but also the overall visual direction, and most importantly the brand communication. What to say, how to say it, when to say it. If not, you need the CMO level.

Do you know which marketing strategies you should be using?

This goes beyond just selecting the marketing strategy that you saw someone else use. Do you understand the marketing strategies that would be most effective and efficient for your target audience and your goals? If not, you need the marketing strategist level.

Have you developed a comprehensive written marketing plan?

While not all businesses need a full written plan, those applying for any type of funding will, and in that case you need a CMO or Marketing Director level expertise to help.

Do you have all of your data analysis tools set up?

Do you know for sure that you’re using the right ones, and that they are set up properly, so that you can regularly be tracking effectiveness of any marketing campaign? If not, you need the focus and direction of a CMO or strategist.

Are all of your marketing systems integrated?

Are all of your systems already set up to talk to one another as much as possible, with automations tied in and functioning properly, so that your onboarding and follow up is flowing smoothly? If not, you need the the level of a CMO.

What’s the Difference Between a CMO, Marketing Director, Marketing Manager, Marketing Assistant and Marketing VA?

One of the biggest mistakes I see entrepreneurs make is hiring for execution before they have someone responsible for strategy.

A Virtual Assistant or Marketing Assistant can be incredibly helpful, but they should not be expected to decide what your marketing strategy should be, which channels deserve priority, how your budget should be allocated, or whether the work being done is actually producing business results. Those decisions belong at a higher level.

A CMO or Fractional CMO sits at the strategic level. They look at the business as a whole, connect marketing decisions to revenue and growth goals, set priorities, evaluate what is and is not working, guide the budget, and make sure all of the moving pieces are working together instead of operating as disconnected tactics.

A Marketing Director usually sits between strategy and execution. They take the broader direction and turn it into coordinated marketing plans, manage the team or vendors, and make sure the work gets implemented properly.

A Marketing Manager is generally more focused on managing campaigns, channels, projects, timelines, and day-to-day execution. They may contribute strategically, but they are usually not responsible for setting the overall marketing direction of the company.

A Marketing Assistant or Marketing VA is primarily an execution role. They can schedule content, build emails, update websites, create reports, organize assets, handle research, and complete many of the tasks that keep marketing moving. What they need, though, is clear direction.

That is why hiring a VA first can be backwards. The problem is not the VA. The problem is asking someone hired to execute marketing to also determine what the marketing should be.

For many growing businesses, the right order is:

Strategy and leadership → management → execution

You may not need a full-time person at every level. A Fractional CMO can provide the strategic leadership, while a manager, freelancer, agency, or VA handles execution. The important part is making sure someone qualified is deciding what should be done before you start paying people to do it.

When Are You Ready to Hire a Virtual Assistant?

Virtual Assistants, for the most part, have less marketing experience than someone focused on strategy and direction. When you hire a VA, you need to be able to provide clear guidance about what strategies to use, where, when, and how.

This is the whole reason we have packages that include both strategic marketing leadership and execution. We can provide the direction while VAs or other team members handle the pieces of your marketing they’re best equipped to execute.

Before You Hire a VA, You Need a Clearly Defined Brand Voice

And we’re not saying that you understand your brand in your own head. You need to be able to clearly communicate it to another person, effectively enough that they understand it too.

Often, reaching that level of focused branding requires some assistance, such as a Fractional CMO, marketing coach, or strategist who can help you define and document it.

Without being able to communicate your own vision and voice for your brand, you won’t be able to successfully hand over even the simplest marketing tasks. You’ll still be creating the graphics and writing the copy, with someone else simply posting what you prepare. That’s honestly only going to save you a few minutes a week, which, granted, is better than nothing.

But sometimes the management required in these cases takes just as much time, if not more, than doing it yourself.

The Goal Is Delegation Without Micromanagement

The real benefit comes from freeing up invaluable time so you can focus on the pieces of the business that only you can do. To accomplish that, you need to be able to hand projects to a VA without constantly supervising every detail.

One of the biggest pushbacks I hear about handing over marketing, and I know you’ve heard this too, is: “But I need to be in charge of the message” or “I need to be in control of my marketing so that I make sure it’s right.”

What this often means is that the business owner doesn’t yet have a solid enough understanding of their brand, goals, and marketing strategy to communicate those things to another person in a way that lets them execute successfully.

If this is you, you’re likely feeling some pushback right this second reading that statement. But there’s a solid business reason why you need the right kind of help.

Your Time Should Be Spent Where It Makes the Most Money

Unless you’re a marketing company, like we are, or perhaps a social media influencer, you don’t make money simply by doing marketing activities. Yes, advertising, lead generation, email, social media, and other marketing strategies are designed to help generate revenue. But you don’t make money because you personally did those activities. You make money by providing whatever service or product you’re selling.

With a product, once you have the specifications down, someone else may be able to help make the widgets so you can sell them. With a service, you may be the only person who can provide that service, or you may need to oversee its delivery to make sure it meets your standards. We probably can’t come in and do that for you.

Or perhaps you need to be the person, or one of the people, personally closing the sales. That’s something you need to do, and having more time means you’re able to do more of it.

Maybe you already have several people making the widgets or providing the service. Great. You still need to be the one providing direction and overseeing quality and customer relationships until you’ve grown large enough to delegate those responsibilities too. Freeing yourself from work someone else can handle allows you to make the biggest impact possible in your business.

Why Hiring a VA First Can Be (is Usually) Backwards

Most people make the mistake of starting with a Virtual Assistant before they’re actually ready for one.

A business owner thinks a few hours a week of a VA handling social media, emails, and other marketing tasks will free up their time. And that’s true.

But if all of those activities are directed toward the wrong goal, you likely aren’t getting as much benefit from that execution as you otherwise could.

It’s like the old saying:

If you climb a ladder, only to find when you get to the top that it’s been leaning against the wrong wall all this time, you’ve wasted a lot of resources: time, money, energy, and focus.

And if you don’t already have a solid understanding of the important marketing issues we’ve discussed, you’re probably going to spend more time managing the activities and results, possibly more than you would have spent doing the work yourself.

Strategy First. Execution Second.

The problem isn’t hiring a VA. It’s hiring someone to execute marketing before you’ve established the strategy they’re supposed to execute.

Once your goals, audience, positioning, brand voice, priorities, and marketing direction are clear, a good VA can become incredibly valuable. They can execute within that direction without requiring you to make every tiny marketing decision for them.

Directing your personal resources to the right place allows you to grow and scale faster. Your time stays focused on the work where you create the greatest value, while the right people handle the work that doesn’t require you.

Ready to take your marketing and your business to the next level?

Request a free marketing strategy consultation.