What Is a Virtual Research Assistant?

A Virtual Research Assistant provides research services for businesses, executives, or other individuals from a remote location. Their responsibilities vary depending on the industry the hiring company is in but generally include conducting market research, presenting research information, and analyzing statistical data and business opportunities.

The biggest benefit of hiring a Virtual Research Assistant is that business owners and executives can focus on business-critical, revenue-generating tasks instead of conducting the research themselves or micromanaging the process. This task can easily be outsourced to a Virtual Assistant who has the required skills and experience. 

Another advantage of hiring a VA is that you have access to a global talent pool of remote contractors, which allows you to find an experienced professional from anywhere in the world, at an affordable price. For example—you can find top-performing Virtual Assistants on popular hiring platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork.

Regardless of the specifics, research is often a one-off task that can be performed within a specified timeframe. You wouldn’t hire a full-time employee to do research alone, but taking on research yourself on top of an already full plate isn’t the ideal option either. 

Virtual Research Assistants are an ideal choice for the job because they’re typically paid by the hour or upon competition of the project, which is by far the most cost-effective option for the vast majority of businesses.

What Does a Virtual Research Assistant Do?

The specific tasks of Virtual Research Assistants  vary depending on the company that hires them, but some of the services they can provide typically include: 

• Data research—A Virtual Research Assistant is skilled in drawing insights from data and abstract statistics to provide actionable advice that will help streamline operations and maximize work efficiency for a business

• Business opportunity research—A Virtual Assistant can help find business opportunities for your company by communicating with prospects, thought leaders, subject matter experts, and other businesses. They do this by leveraging both networking and digital analytics tools
• Market research—A Virtual Research Assistant helps you discover information on products, competitors, and market demand, to ensure you make better, more informed business decisions. A VA will gather and analyze research data to help you build up your brand

How Much Does It Cost To Hire a Virtual Research Assistant?

The salary of a Virtual Assistant depends on a multitude of factors, such as their experience, knowledge, level of education, qualifications, specialization, the current market rate, and their geographical location. 

According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary of a Virtual Research Assistant in the U.S. is $42,811, which amounts to about $21 per hour. The lowest salary is $18,000, and only about 3% of Virtual Research Assistants earn $67,500 per year.

The most important thing to understand when it comes to the cost of hiring a Virtual Assistant is that you only pay for the work done. In other words, you’re only paying their hourly rate and don’t have to worry about expensive benefits regular full-time employees are entitled to by law, such as:

• PTO days
• Health insurance
• Monthly and yearly employee bonuses
• Free in-house employee meals

By outsourcing time-consuming tasks to a Virtual Assistant, companies improve work performance, save time on online communication with clients, and retain customers much more efficiently. 

Though a business owner can perform research independently, this will only add to their endless list of duties.This is where a VA comes in handy. A Virtual Research Assistant can devote their full attention to the smallest details of their research, getting the job done promptly and flawlessly while giving you room to focus on more important, revenue-generating activities.

Expert Tips on Hiring a Virtual Research Assistant

Hiring a Virtual Assistant has many benefits, and their services can often eliminated the need for hiring a full-time employee. Still, you first need to consider a few factors before extending an offer to a Virtual Assistant.

Here are some tips and tricks we can offer for hiring a Virtual Research Assistant: 

• Be specific and in-depth in your ad—It’s crucial to specify the necessary experience, level of education, job credentials, industry-specific knowledge, and technical skills required to perform the job well. A vague job ad will lead to hundreds of applications from candidates who aren’t suited for the job. An in-depth job description, on the other hand, will drastically increase your odds of attracting a qualified professional with the right knowledge and experience

• Don’t make a decision without first interviewing as many applicants as possible— It is important to test, evaluate, and interview dozens of candidates before concluding who is the best person for the job. It could be tempting to hire the first one you come across, but it’s better to wait until you have a reliable base for comparison. You should make your decision only once you have pinpointed a candidate who has all the qualities you were looking for in a Virtual Research Assistant

• Don’t base your decision on low rates—It’s unwise to make your choice based solely on a Virtual Assistant’s low pay rate. They could be inexperienced and lack the vital skills necessary to perform the job well. You may even have to constantly micromanage them, which defeats the purpose of outsourcing the word to a VA in the first place—saving time. That’s why it’s better to pay a slightly steeper price if it means you’ll get a top-notch professional in the field

• Use an optimized hiring funnel instead of going through applications manually—While it’s important to interview as many applicants as possible, doing it manually is too inefficient and time-consuming. To avoid spending invaluable resources while your business slows down to a crawl, you should use Workello to automate every stage of your hiring funnel and find a perfect Virtual Research Assistant faster

Hire a Reliable Virtual Research Assistant, Faster

You can think of Workello as the perfect virtual hiring assistant. Our fully automated hiring funnel is the product of countless hours, over $100,000, and dozens of iterations. With Workello, you can automate testing, scheduling, and email correspondence with candidates so you can focus on scaling your business and maximizing revenue.

Here’s how Workello makes hiring a Virtual Research Assistant a breeze:

1. Sign up for a free Workello account and launch your automated, pre-configured hiring funnel in less than 3 minutes
2. Post your job ads across LinkedIn, Monster, Facebook, Indeed, and all your other hiring channels and link to your Workello job ad
3. See all your candidates in a single, unified Workello dashboard, regardless of which hiring channel they applied from
4. Reject, test, interview, and send offers to Virtual Research Assistants with a single click
5. Filter out unqualified candidates with Workello’s built-in testing feature
6. Trigger automated emails and move candidates through your hiring funnel simply by changing their status from a drop-down menu
7. Minimize transactional questions by enabling candidates to see a live status page that tells them exactly which stage of your hiring funnel they are in

Don’t waste hundreds of hours looking for a perfect Virtual Research Assistant that’s supposed to save you valuable time. Set up a fully automated hiring funnel with Workello, cut your hiring costs by 50%, and start accepting ideal candidates today!

Sign up now and review 5 Virtual Research Assistant tests for free.