If you’re handling routine marketing activities yourself, you might be spending $500 of your time – or insert your own ‘hourly rate’ – on $50 tasks, preventing you from focusing on high-impact activities that drive real growth.
So, how do you know if you're caught in this costly cycle? Let’s break it down.
Signs You’ve Demoted Yourself to ‘Marketing Assistant:’
1. You’re Creating Social Media Content Yourself
Scrolling through stock photos, writing captions, and scheduling posts may seem like small tasks, but they add up quickly.
If you’re spending hours every week curating your social media, ask yourself:
-
- Are you actually driving leads and sales with your social media—or just posting to keep your social media feed alive?
- Are you reviewing data to improve results—or praying that a random like/share is a good thing?
- Are you leveraging engagement insights to refine conversion pathways—or just hoping your audience does what you want?
Leader's Time Cost: If you spend 5 hours per week on social media management and your hourly rate is $500, that’s $2,500.
Fractional Marketing Assistant Cost: A Marketing Assistant handling this task typically charges between $30-$75 per hour. So, the same work would cost you about $150-$375.
2. You’re Managing Email Campaigns Instead of Leading Strategy
Email marketing is essential, but writing newsletters, segmenting lists, and tracking performance are time-consuming tasks.
If you’re personally crafting every email and manually reviewing metrics, you’re not leveraging your time effectively. Instead, you should be reviewing high-level reports and making data-driven decisions.
Leader's Time Cost: Managing email campaigns for 4 hours per week at $500/hour would cost you $2,000.
Fractional Marketing Assistant Cost: A Marketing Assistant specializing in email marketing usually charges $30-$75 per hour, bringing the cost of this task to around $120-$300.
3. You’re Still Updating Your Own Website and Blog
SEO and content marketing are crucial for brand visibility, but that doesn’t mean you should be the one writing blog posts, optimizing pages, or making backend website updates.
These tasks require specialized expertise, and spending your time tweaking web pages means you’re not focused on scaling your business.
Leader's Time Cost: If you’re spending 8 hours per week on content updates and website management at $500/hour, that adds up to $4,000.
Fractional Marketing Assistant Cost: A skilled Marketing Assistant can handle website updates and content management for $30-$75 per hour, reducing your costs to $240 - $600.
4. You’re Running Paid Ads Without an Expert’s Help
If you’re manually setting up Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn ads without expert knowledge, you could be throwing money away.
PPC campaigns require strategic targeting, A/B testing, and ongoing optimization—something a professional can handle more efficiently than you can on your own.
Leader's Time Cost: Running ads for 5 hours per week at your hourly rate of $500 would cost you $2,500.
Fractional Marketing Assistant Cost: A Marketing Assistant with PPC experience typically charges $30-$75 per hour, reducing your cost to $150-$375.
5. You’re Answering Every Marketing-Related Email and Inquiry
Responding to DMs, answering marketing-related customer inquiries, and coordinating partnerships take up valuable time.
While engagement is important, a marketing assistant can handle most of this communication, allowing you to focus on bigger-picture initiatives.
Leader's Time Cost: If you spend 6 hours per week managing customer inquiries at $500/hour, that costs you $3,000.
Fractional Marketing Assistant Cost: A Marketing Assistant could handle this for $30-$75 per hour, reducing the cost to $180-$450.
What You Could Be Doing Instead
If you weren’t bogged down with these marketing tasks, what high-impact activities could you focus on?
🚀 Defining the Future, Not Managing the Day-to-Day: You should be a leader who sets the vision and strategy, while your EA ensures every task, meeting, and project aligns with your goals. Instead of getting lost in execution, you could be charting the course for growth, making bold moves, and leading with confidence.
🤝 Strengthening Your Influence, Not Just Your Inbox: You should be a leader who walks into high-stakes meetings fully prepared, knowing your EA has handled the scheduling, research, and follow-ups. Instead of worrying about the small stuff, you could be building key relationships, closing major deals, and expanding your reach.
📈 Driving Profit, Not Tracking Expenses: You should be a leader who sets revenue goals and makes high-impact financial decisions, while your Accounting Professional ensures you have real-time insights to act with confidence. Instead of manually tracking cash flow or reviewing invoices, you could be seizing new opportunities, maximizing profitability, and scaling with precision.
🎤 Owning the Room, Not the Admin Work: You should be a leader who steps onto stages, into boardrooms, and in front of clients without distraction, while your EA keeps operations running flawlessly behind the scenes. Instead of being stuck in scheduling or logistics, you could be pitching investors, rallying your team, and making the kind of impact only you can make.
👉 You don’t just need more help—you need to step fully into the role you were meant to lead.
The Real Cost of DIY Marketing
Let’s put this in perspective:
- If, for example, your hourly rate as a leader is $500 and you spend 10 hours per week on these tasks, that’s $5,000 of your time every week—on work that could be outsourced for a fraction of that cost.
- By delegating to a Marketing Assistant, you could reclaim those hours and redirect your energy into business growth.
Just remember: If you don’t have a Marketing Assistant, you are the Marketing Assistant. And can you afford your own hourly rate?
Stop Wasting Your Time. Let Us Help You Focus on Growth.
If you recognize yourself in these scenarios, it’s time to delegate – not drown – in marketing tasks.
At BELAY, we connect busy leaders with experienced Marketing Assistants who handle the execution while you focus on high-level strategy.
Ready to stop spending $500 of your time on $50 tasks? Click here and we’ll personally match you with an elite U.S. Marketing Assistant who can take over your marketing – as early as next week.