Every business must do marketing if they want their customers to know who they are and what they offer. Every business plan includes a marketing plan that outlines how the business will do this marketing. The challenge is that most business people are so busy doing the business that they do not have time to do the marketing.

Wouldn't it be a great idea to have someone who could do the marketing for you and who wouldn't charge you an arm and a leg to do it? This is where your Virtual Marketing Assistant (VMA) can come in.

A VMA is a person who works with you to get your business moving and out in front of customers in the way you want. This is someone who works from their own office and contacts you via email and/or phone. They are there to be your marketing guru to carry out your plan without you having to do it.

Running your own business can be time consuming and it can be difficult to balance all of the pieces that you need to do to keep it moving smoothly. Marketing is always the place that falls short because you only have so much time in the day and marketing doesn't seem to be as important as running payroll.

Instead of stressing on it, you can hire a VMA to get those things done according to your needs. A VMA usually will work on the Internet to get your name out and to get your business buzzing around the social network. Here are some things that a VMA can do for you:

• Help with blogs -- they can actually do your blog for you so that you have a presence without doing the work. There are many people who specialize in just writing blog posts.
• Getting your name out in the social media environment -- there are thousands of places for your information to go in the social media environment. A good VMA can help you identify those that are most important for your business and create your presence in each one.
• Article writing -- your VMA can not only write the articles for you but get them into the directories so that people get to know you as an expert in your field of business. This is one way to get your branding going.
• Website updates -- they can do regular updates to your website so that you don't have to worry about that task either.
• Podcasts and videos -- they can help you create both podcasts and videos and then take them out on the web.

A good VMA knows exactly where to place them for the best results.

Most virtual marketing assistant charge according to the project and it could be anywhere from $15 to $1500 depending on the project, how much time it will take and the experience of the VMA in the category you are seeking. The cost will be less than having an in-house marketing program and you will have more peace of mind.