When it comes to connecting with your audience and driving meaningful results, the humble email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

With 99% of email users checking their inbox daily—and 58% doing so before anything else online—it’s clear that email is still the preferred channel for staying in touch. In fact, 60% of consumers say they prefer email for promotions and updates from businesses, and it’s 40 times more effective at customer acquisition than Facebook and X combined.

But here’s the catch: while email marketing is highly effective, it’s also incredibly time-consuming. With so many moving parts involved in bringing quality e-newsletters, press releases, or promotional emails to life, you could easily find your whole day swallowed up by email tasks.

So, do you pour all this time into email marketing and sacrifice other priorities, or let its huge potential go untapped?

The answer doesn’t have to be either-or. Fortunately, there’s a way to avoid this dilemma.

Partnering with a virtual assistant (VA) can be the game-changer you need to maintain a strong connection with your audience, without those never-ending hours of repetitive work.

What is a virtual assistant?

A virtual assistant is a remote professional who provides various types of support, often administrative or creative, to entrepreneurs and businesses. Skilled VAs can handle a wide range of tasks depending on their experience and expertise, making them highly versatile resources.

What’s especially great about virtual assistants is their flexibility. Unlike traditional employees, they typically work as independent contractors, meaning you can access high-quality support without the long-term commitment and extra costs associated with in-house staff.

Here's the best part: you can start as small as you like. Need just 10 hours a month of email marketing support? No problem. Want to scale up as you grow? Easy. Unlike hiring an employee, there's no commitment to a full salary or benefits. You invest in exactly what you need, when you need it, making expert email marketing support accessible for businesses of any size.

It’s the best of both worlds: the freedom and flexibility of remote help and the reliable support of a trusted ally.

How a virtual assistant can help with email marketing

From crafting just the right message to keeping an eye on those all-important numbers, it takes a careful mix of creativity, consistency, organization, and focus to make each campaign shine. But despite our best intentions, it’s easy for these things to slip through the cracks or for the quality to dip when we’re stretched too thin. That’s where an extra pair of hands can make all the difference.

Here are seven specific email tasks a VA can take off your plate to help keep your campaigns running smoothly and give them the best chance to succeed.

1. Creating emails

A well-crafted email doesn’t just happen by accident—it’s the result of thoughtful copy, visually appealing design, and an understanding of the complex functionality within different email marketing platforms.

Fortunately, experienced virtual assistants often come equipped with these skills, making them valuable partners in elevating your email marketing.

• Writing on-brand copy: Writing emails that convert takes more than just putting words on a page. Whether it’s a promotional email, an announcement, or a nurturing newsletter, a skilled VA can write content that aligns with your brand voice and resonates with your audience.
• Designing visual elements: Good email marketing isn’t just about words. With the ability to add images, GIFs, icons, or other graphics, a VA can enhance the aesthetic of your emails to make sure they look polished and professional. They can even add on-brand design elements that align with your company’s style, reinforcing brand recognition with every email.
• Building emails in email marketing platforms: Platforms like Mailchimp, Brevo, and Constant Contact each have their own nuances, templates, and design options, and navigating them can be time-consuming for the uninitiated. From formatting text to uploading images and designing mobile-friendly layouts, an experienced VA can streamline the process, making sure every email is functional, accessible, and visually appealing for any reader, whether they’re on a smartphone or a desktop.

When you have a VA handling the creative and technical aspects of email creation, you gain peace of mind knowing that every email is crafted to be impactful, visually appealing, and consistent with your brand’s message. This not only saves you time but also ensures your emails are optimized for results, helping you build stronger connections with your audience.

2. Curating content

Finding and sharing valuable content can be time-consuming, especially when you're managing multiple priorities. That’s where a virtual assistant comes in—helping you deliver content that engages your audience without adding to your workload.

Your VA can dive into the latest industry news, tips, and trends to find content that speaks directly to your audience. Whether it’s educational blog posts, insightful articles, or trending topics, they can gather and curate it all into polished newsletters or email digests that add real value to your communications.

With a keen eye on your brand’s tone and your audience’s needs, a virtual assistant can carefully organize content to make sure it aligns perfectly with your message. They can categorize topics, prioritize relevance, and even craft short summaries or engaging captions to highlight key takeaways, so your readers get the most value out of each piece.

3. Scheduling emails

When it comes to email marketing, timing really is everything. Sending out messages at just the right moment can mean the difference between a high open rate and an email that gets buried in the inbox.

It’s likely that you or your team have already pinpointed the best times for your audience to receive emails based on the results you’re aiming for, but sticking to this schedule can often be a lot easier said than done when you’ve got so many other things to keep track of.

With a VA handling the scheduling, your email marketing becomes a smooth, worry-free process. Every message goes out on time, tailored to the subscriber’s journey, and ready to engage them wherever they are—helping your brand stay connected, no matter what’s happening behind the scenes.

4. Maintaining your subscriber lists

By now, you’ve probably heard that your email list is one of your business’s most valuable assets—but only when it’s done properly! A messy list filled with inactive subscribers isn't just ineffective, it actively drags your deliverability rates down.

When you outsource to a virtual assistant, they'll keep your list clean, active, and primed for success.

• Adding new subscribers: As you gain new leads, customers, or subscribers, a VA can swiftly add them to your list, ensuring it remains fresh and relevant.
• Removing inactive or duplicate contacts: Over time, some subscribers may become inactive, lose interest, or even forget they signed up, leading to unopened emails that weigh down your metrics. By removing these inactive subscribers, a VA helps to improve your open and click-through rates. They can also eliminate duplicates to avoid sending multiple emails to the same person, which enhances your brand’s professionalism.

The result? Higher open rates, better deliverability, and an audience that actually wants to hear from you. This targeted approach not only increases your campaigns’ effectiveness but also helps you save on email marketing costs by focusing on subscribers who are truly engaged.

5. Creating segments in your lists

Segmentation, or dividing your audience into targeted groups, can transform the effectiveness of your email campaigns by making them more relevant and personalized. When you segment your list, you’re speaking directly to the specific needs and interests of each group, rather than sending a one-size-fits-all message.

And the best part? An experienced virtual assistant can take the reins on this process, saving you time while making sure that each subscriber gets the most relevant content. Here’s how:

• Grouping subscribers by demographics or behavior: A skilled VA can sort your audience based on criteria like geographic location, age, purchase history, or engagement level. For example, loyal customers might receive exclusive offers, while new subscribers could get a welcome series introducing them to your brand. This approach lets you build a deeper connection with your audience by speaking directly to their unique needs and preferences.
• Creating custom tags or labels: Your assistant can add specific tags to certain subscribers, based on factors like interests, purchase behavior, or past interactions with your campaigns. This way, you can deliver hyper-targeted content to each group—such as recommending similar products based on past purchases or sending event invitations to subscribers in a certain region.
• Regularly updating segments: As your audience grows and changes, so will your segments, and your virtual assistant can keep them fresh by regularly reviewing and updating subscriber groups based on the latest interactions and behavior patterns. This proactive approach can lead to higher engagement, as subscribers feel your emails reflect their current needs and interests.

By letting a VA manage these segmentation tasks, you make sure that your email marketing remains dynamic, relevant, and personalized. This can lead to increased open rates, stronger customer loyalty, and ultimately, better overall performance for your campaigns.

6. A/B testing

The difference between good and great email marketing often comes down to A/B testing. Through careful A/B testing, you can pinpoint which elements resonate most, whether it's the subject lines that spark curiosity, the images that draw attention, or the calls to action that prompt clicks.

The good news is that running these tests doesn’t have to be a time-consuming process for you. A skilled virtual assistant can help manage every step of the process based on your criteria and guidelines.

With a VA overseeing your A/B testing, you’ll benefit from a constant flow of data-driven insights. Rather than relying on guesswork, your email marketing strategy can evolve based on real-world performance, adapting to trends and preferences as they emerge. This continuous improvement process helps make sure that each campaign is more effective than the last, helping you maintain a strong connection with your audience and drive better results over time.

7. Monitoring analytics

Tracking and analyzing your email marketing metrics is key to understanding what’s working and what isn’t. But let’s be honest, digging into those numbers may not always be at the top of your list of priorities when you have a million other things to do.

This is where an experienced virtual assistant can make all the difference. They can pull all the important data on your behalf, giving you clear insights into how your campaigns are performing without needing to spend time deep-diving into the details yourself. Here’s what they can track for you:

• Open rates: How many subscribers are opening your emails? This metric gives you a pulse on your subject line’s effectiveness and your audience’s initial interest.
• Click-through rates (CTR): Is your content intriguing enough for readers to click through to your website or product pages? Your CTR tells you just that.
• Conversion rates: Conversion rates measure how well your emails inspire action, whether that’s making a purchase, signing up for an event, or joining a waitlist—whatever you’re hoping for.

What’s the bottom line?

There’s no denying that email marketing is still one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience. When done right, it builds loyalty, boosts conversions, and keeps your brand front and center.

But as a business owner, you’ll be well aware that getting the full value from email marketing is more than just hitting “send” every so often, and keeping all the gears turning in a successful email campaign is no small feat.

Crafting content that speaks to your audience, timing your messages just right, staying on top of an ever-evolving email list, and digging into performance metrics to continually fine-tune your approach—it’s a complex process that needs regular attention and effort across multiple areas.

That’s a lot to keep on top of, especially when you’ve got so much else demanding your attention, too.

But while these tasks need to be done, they don’t need to be done by you.

With a virtual assistant in your corner, you can step back from the nitty-gritty, time-consuming details without sacrificing the results. You can relax knowing that your campaigns are running smoothly in the background, safe in the hands of a skilled and dedicated professional.

But the truth is, offloading your email marketing tasks is about more than just efficiency—it’s about creating the space to focus on what really matters to you. So, take a moment to think about which of these tasks you’re ready to offload, and let Time etc handle the rest.

Since 2007, we’ve helped over 22,000 business owners save between three to six weeks of searching for an assistant, up to 90% of the costs of hiring, and a whole lot of headaches!

So, ready to see the difference for yourself?

Want $150 off your first month of virtual assistant support with Time etc?

Head over to our task wizard and answer a few simple questions to get your discount.

Then, speak to our expert team and we’ll find you a qualified and capable individual matching the skills and experience you need.

Get in touch today!