I had this exact conversation with a business owner this week, and I want to walk you through it, because I have this conversation more than almost any other in my sessions.
The business had grown. Fast. And like most businesses that grow fast, marketing had become “everyone’s job a little bit and no one’s job properly.” One person was doing video content because they’d always done it. Another was helping with client onboarding and somehow also became the person who half-remembered to post on Google. Nobody owned the outcome. Everybody owned a task.
So the question on the table was the one I get asked constantly: do we hire a dedicated marketing VA, or can we build this out of the team we already have?
Here’s the answer nobody wants, and the one I gave them: it depends on capacity and skill, not on how badly you want an easy answer.
Hire a Marketing VA or Use Your Team? The Two Paths (and Why Most People Pick the Wrong One First)
When a business hits this crossroads, there are only two real options.
Option one: hire a dedicated marketing VA. One person, dedicated hours, one role, owning the whole outcome.
Option two: distribute the tactics across your existing team, based on who already has the capacity and the natural skill for each piece, with one person owning the coordination so nothing falls through the cracks.
Most business owners jump straight to “we need to hire someone” because it feels like the fastest fix. But hiring before you understand your own marketing function is how you end up with a new person, no system for them to plug into, and the exact same chaos, just now with a wage attached to it.
The better first move, every time, is to get clear on what marketing actually requires, then look at who you’ve already got.
The Six Tactics Every Marketing VA or Team Member Needs to Cover
Before you can decide who does what, you need to know what “marketing” is actually made of. I break it into six tactics, with examples of what may apply for you:
- Website — SEO, GEO, customer journey, broken links, mobile responsiveness, service updates
- Google — Business listing, reviews, reputation management, Search Console, Analytics, Google Merchant, YouTube
- Social Media — The know-like-trust content: video, reels, repurposed long-form
- Lead Generation — Sales-focused activity: webinars, events, appointment setting, Facebook group marketing, CRM management
- Email Marketing — Automations (onboarding, nurture, reminders) plus newsletters
- Partnership Marketing — Networking, podcasts, speaking, referral relationships
Layered over the top of those six tactics are what I call the 6 S’s for Success: Strategy, Skills, Systems, Software, Support and Soul. Someone needs to own strategy sessions. Someone needs to spot skill gaps and get them trained. Someone needs to keep the SOPs updated. And somebody, usually you, needs to make sure the person doing the work actually enjoys it. Soul matters more than people think.
Once you can see marketing broken into these pieces instead of one big scary blob, the hiring question gets a lot easier to answer.
How to Actually Make the Decision
Here’s the process, step by step.
Step 1: Run a time audit before you do anything else. Get every team member to track their time for a week or two, colour-coded by task. This alone tells you more than any org chart. I’ve had clients avoid replacing a departing VA entirely because a proper time audit showed the capacity already existed, just buried under inefficient tasks that AI could now handle in a fraction of the time.
Step 2: Match tactics to existing skills, not existing job titles. Somebody on your team already leans creative or analytical. The automations and CRM person should be your analytical brain. The newsletter and content person should be your creative one. Don’t force a spreadsheet-lover into writing your brand voice, and don’t hand your numbers person a blog deadline.
Step 3: Bundle by hours, not by headcount. If each of the six tactics only needs two or three hours a week, that’s not six new hires, or even one. That might be eighteen hours spread across two people who already have capacity. I have clients running all six tactics on one twenty-hour-a-week VA. It is not about how many people touch marketing, it’s about whether the hours and the skill exist somewhere in the business already.
Step 4: Give one person ownership of the outcome, not just the tasks. This is the part people skip. A project management system doesn’t fix a lack of ownership. Somebody needs to be the one chasing, coordinating and making sure the handoffs happen without the classic “I thought you did it, no I thought you didn’t.”
Step 5: Start with one person, not the whole plan at once. Pick whoever has the most capacity right now, hand them one or two tactics, build the SOP, and let the system prove itself before you bundle on more. Every session gets recorded and transcribed, so nothing lives in someone’s head. If they move on, the next person gets the recording, the transcript and the SOP, and picks up without missing a beat.
FAQ
Can my existing team manage marketing, or do I need to hire a dedicated VA? Often, yes, your team can manage it, if the capacity and the right-brain/left-brain skill match exists somewhere in your business already. Run a time audit first. You may find the hours were always there, just poorly allocated.
How do I know if I should hire instead of restructure? If your time audit shows everyone is already at capacity with no room to shift tasks, or nobody on the team has the skill set for a given tactic (nobody creative, nobody analytical), that’s your signal to hire rather than force a bad fit.
How many hours does a full marketing function actually take? Less than most owners assume. Some businesses run all six tactics on around twenty hours a week once the system, templates and AI support are in place. It scales with your content cadence, not with the number of tactics. A full-time, dedicated marketing role is 40 hours a week.
What’s the biggest mistake business owners make here? Deciding who does what based on who’s willing, rather than who’s actually skilled and has the capacity. The right person for a task will usually put their hand up for it, because they genuinely enjoy it. If nobody’s raising their hand, that’s information too.
Do I need six different people for the six tactics? No. Most businesses run this with two or three people, sometimes fewer, because several tactics naturally bundle together (the CRM person often owns lead gen and email automation; the content person often owns social, blog and newsletter).
What happens after we decide who owns what? Every task needs an SOP, a rhythm (a set day of the week it happens), and someone with oversight of the outcome. Structure without rhythm falls apart within a month.
Can you find or supply the VA for us? We’re not a VA agency, so we don’t place or supply staff ourselves. What we do is build the framework, the roles and the systems so you know exactly what you need. If you decide a dedicated hire is the right call, email us and we’ll introduce you to one of the VA agencies or recruitment partners we know and trust.
Want the full framework for building a marketing function that runs without you standing over it? Watch the free Unicorn Masterclass.
