Top 7 types of jobs and tasks you can outsource

What jobs and tasks can you outsource?

You can outsource clerical work, e-commerce, real estate admin, social media, human resources, digital marketing, and design to a trusted BPO team.

• Start with repeatable, non-core tasks that pull time from your core work.
• Keep sensitive or complex work in-house, at least at first.
• Pick a proven partner, so quality stays high as you scale.

Sometimes, deciding which tasks to outsource feels tricky. This is true for startups and small or midsize firms. You have run everything yourself for a while. So handing tasks to others may seem like a risk to your system.

However, reality soon sets in. Doing every job and wearing many hats just will not scale. In short, a business cannot grow when its key people cannot delegate. That habit often stalls growth and makes the company slow to change. Many owners first test the waters with a virtual assistant who takes on daily tasks.

Reasons to outsource to a BPO company

Why do companies outsource in the first place? More than the cost savings, firms outsource to lift their work quality. After all, skilled global talent can often do non-core tasks better.

Besides this, outsourcing saves time and effort on routine work. As a result, leaders can spend more time on plans for growth. Still, you should be smart about which tasks to outsource. Not every job suits a provider, and some work best in a hybrid setup.

Top roles and tasks to outsource offshore

To help you spot the right jobs and tasks to outsource, here is a simple guide to delegating.

Clerical work

Clerical or administrative works are the usual office tasks that keep an office running. Most are repeat tasks from daily work. In addition, admin staff handle them, whether in-house or remote. Common clerical tasks include:

• Email management
• Chat support
• Appointment setting
• Inbound/outbound calls
• Transcribe audio voice
• Bookkeeping
• Creating reports
• Preparing meeting minutes
• Documentation updates
• Data entry
• Research
• Online shopping

Many firms move high-volume data entry and other routine back-office work first, because the gains show up fast.

E-commerce

On the other hand, e-commerce tasks cover the work behind online stores. An online store needs more care and tech skill than a physical one. After all, payment, shipping, and order tracking all happen online. So, as an e-commerce company, you can hand an outsourced team the following:

• Online listings
• Description writing
• Photo posting
• Review maintenance
• Price canvas
• Market research
• General advertising
• Bidding items
• Amazon ecommerce
• Fact-checking
• Reimbursements

Real estate

Modern real estate businesses now use online tools to manage listings and win clients. As a result, more agents hire virtual assistants or small teams for daily work. As a startup, you can lift profit, close more deals, and ease your load by outsourcing the following:

• List building
• Paperwork documentation
• Transaction coordination
• Database and property software management
• Property valuation
• Receptionist
• Fill-out questionnaires
• Appointment setting
• Create virtual tours
• Website maintenance

Social media

Nowadays, customers expect brands to be easy to reach. So you need to be where they are, including on social media. As your business grows, you will need help to watch and run your accounts. For this reason, many teams turn to outsourced social media support. Your team can do the following tasks for you:

• Set up social media accounts
• Post informative content and articles
• Uploading to YouTube
• Managing social media platforms
• Generate social content
• Social media analytics
• Monitor social media pages
• Maintain Hootsuite accounts
• Reposting and reblogging
• Answering to personal messages
• Replying to relevant comments
• Updating social media information

Human resources

A growing company needs more HR effort every month. So HR BPOs and PEOs can take on these tasks for you. For hiring at scale, many firms use recruitment process outsourcing. A provider can handle the following:

• Job postings
• Resume and profile screening
• Initial phone interviews
• Book office interviews
• Send work requirements and job contracts
• Facilitate onboarding process
• Facilitate payroll tracking
• Background checking
• Administer screening tests
• Employee attendance tracking
• Conflict resolution and documentation

Digital marketing

At first, you can run your own campaigns from one place. However, there comes a point when you need help with digital marketing. At that stage, outsourcing your digital marketing frees you to focus on the business. A delegated team can handle the following:

• Set-up Google Analytics
• Complete Website SEO Audit Report
• Social bookmarking
• On-page and Off-page site optimization
• Create landing pages
• Build quality content for users
• Utilize Pay-per-click ad campaigns
• General keyword research
• Register to directories and listings
• Repost popular blog posts

Design and creatives

Finally, you cannot handle all your creative work alone. Design needs staff who can focus on it well. What is more, outsourced design can lift the look of your site, pages, and products. So you can hand these jobs to an outsourced creative team:

• Logo creation
• Poster and ads creation
• Billboards design
• Designing collaterals
• T-shirt design
• Format of ebooks and white papers
• Online magazines
• Designing illustration for books
• Creating Canva presentations
• Branding campaigns
• Label and product packaging design
• 3D Rendering of Mockups

How to determine what to outsource

One key test is simple. Ask if a task can be done remotely. Next, check that the task is not too sensitive or too complex to hand off. Before you outsource, think about how to improve the task first. In short, make sure the move is worth it.

These jobs and tasks work best with a battle-tested partner in the industry. For example, Six Eleven has decades of work on outsourcing projects across many verticals. The company is reliable and effective, especially for inbound support and lead generation.

Frequently asked questions about tasks to outsource

Here are quick answers to common questions about jobs and tasks to outsource.

Which task should a small business outsource first?

Start with clerical work, such as email, scheduling, and data entry. These tasks are easy to define and low in risk. So they make a safe first step before you hand off bigger roles.

How do I know if a task is safe to outsource?

Ask three quick things. Can the task be done remotely? Is it free of very sensitive data? And is it simple enough to explain in clear steps? If yes to all three, the task is a good fit.

Is it cheaper to outsource or hire in-house?

For non-core work, outsourcing is often cheaper. You skip the cost of office space, tools, and benefits. Still, weigh quality and control, not just price, before you decide.

Can I outsource more than one function at once?

Yes, but it helps to start small. First, prove the setup with one function. Then add more roles once the quality and workflow feel steady.