The invention of the internet has changed the world of research. Mobile e-commerce accounted for 67.2 % of digital sales worldwide a few years ago. Today the percentage must have increased, which shows that people use the internet for research. It demonstrates that the internet has become a much more powerful tool than it was a few years ago.  

Today, all you need is a word to search for and find information about that word. Before we delve into online research tools, let’s understand online research. Online research is a research method that encompasses gathering information from the internet.

Who Is A Virtual Research Assistant?

When a company, business, organization, or startup decides to start a new business, it must thoroughly investigate data to grow its business and compete with the other company. They can obtain various types of information by conducting research, such as statistical data on a niche product, background knowledge about a firm, contact details of leads, or any government-related information. Gathering all of this information allows them to make the best decision for the growth of their business.

A Research Virtual Assistant, as the name implies, functions remotely and performs internet-based research and data summary for various client objectives. Businesses must delegate the task to industry experts because you cannot exaggerate the impotence of online research for business growth. However, hiring an employee for the job has its own set of disadvantages. This is why a virtual research assistant comes in handy. Clients can get all their research efficiently with minimal guidelines and stay up to date on the ever-changing business trends.

Online Research Tools Your Virtual Research Assistant Can Use

1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a simple research tool. It searches directories of publishers, universities, or scholarly websites rather than all the searchable information on the web. This is a smaller portion of the pool that Google scans. Although it is all done automatically, the overall results of a search seem to be dependable sources.

Google Scholar makes it simple to search for anything. Google Scholar searches the entire globe of research to find relevant work. Google Scholar aims to rank documents in the same way that researchers do by considering the complete transcript of each work.

Features :

• You can search all literature in one location.
• Investigate similar works, citations, authors, and publications.
• Find the complete document on the web.
• Keep up with the latest developments in any field.
• Check who is citing your work and create a public author profile.

Pricing – Google scholar is a free-to-use research tool. However, some results might require payment to access the complete information.

2. Todoist

Todoist is a popular task management software option. Todoist allows you to manage and access all of your work from any platform, including your computer, laptop, or mobile devices. Todoist assures you that everything is in order and that you are making steady progress on the things significant to you.

You can assign work and collaborate with others. Another feature is awarding karma points to users who successfully allocate tasks to projects. While the app has limitations, such as limited collaboration features, it can be used for personal to-do lists and simple, small-scale business projects.

Features :

• Get a clear picture of everything you have on your plate.
• Never lose sight of a critical task.
• Todoist surfaces relevant tasks, so you always know what to prioritize next.
• Connect to your email, calendar, and files to streamline your workflow.
• Visualize the trends in your productivity.

3. Endnote X9

EndNote X9 is a multi-functional research tool that allows you to search online sources based on abstracts and maintain and auto-complete all of your references. If you prefer working solo, you can do so by saving, managing, and annotating your research findings.

EndNote is mainly for research collaborations: you can share, save, tag, and search for sources, organize and create bibliographies, grant teammates editing permissions, and track project activity.

Features :

• Store, organize, and manage references all in one location.
• Discover full-text articles.
• Generate and format bibliographies in your preferred style.
• Discuss your library or a small group of researchers.
• Create a citation report based on Web of Science references.

Pricing: EndNote X9 has three pricing plans. The upgrade license costs $99, and the full license costs $249. Apart from that, the student license is $115.

4. Zotero

Zotero is a free and simple tool for collecting, organizing, citing, and sharing research. Zotero is a software that detects web research automatically. Zotero allows you to organize your research however you want. Zotero automatically generates citations and bibliographies for any word processor, including Word, LibreOffice, and Google Docs. Zotero can optionally sync your data across devices, ensuring that your documents, files, and bibliographic documents are always up to date.

Zotero integrates into your browser and uses its ability to recognize content for you. After that takes a single click to save it to your private, fully searchable library. It can play video, audio, PDF documents, and most image formats.

Features :

• Use the Zotero Connector to save and create items automatically.
• Create collections based on the research topic.
• Make citations and bibliographies for your items.
• Create group libraries to allow coworkers, teams, or other research teams to share their work.
• Create a bibliography manually by dragging and dropping objects into a word processing application.

Pricing: Zotero charges you depending on the storage space required for your files. It offers 300Mb storage for free. It charges $20 for 2Gb, $60 for 6Gb, and $120 for Unlimited storage space.

5. Data Elixir

Finding a website that curates the latest science news, developments, and data weekly is one of the effective methods to stay up to date. Data Elixir is an ideal tool for this. A weekly newsletter from DataElixir keeps you updated on all of the recent data science news and developments. This carefully curated collection will teach you everything you need to understand the world of data science, which is crucial for any researcher.

You benefit from its weekly collection of all the best datasets and news, and you don’t have to do anything. All you have to do is sign up for their free weekly newsletter.

Features :

• Free access to a search platform
• Easy to find content from prior issues

Pricing: This software is free of cost.

6. RefWorks

RefWorks is a web tool that can assist students in locating relevant research data. It also aids in organizing, storing, and easily sharing it with colleagues and collaborators. You must reference all of your research findings. RefWorks automatically generates these, as well as bibliographies in all styles.

RefWorks users can access the program from any location without additional fees or synchronization hassles. Users can also write and format papers while offline using the WriteN-Cite feature. In addition, administrators can easily customize elements of their RefWorks execution using the Administrator Tool, such as selecting a favored link resolver or integrating with Blackboard.

Features:

• Easy to access from any device
• Collaborating with others is simple
• RefWorks regularly releases new features, enhancements, and upgrades
• Most updated features are free to use
• Variety of tutorials for understanding the tool

Pricing: This tool offers a free trial period before applying charges. The annual subscription charges for this tool are $70 for individual users and $1500 for institutions.

7. Paperpile

Paperpile is a reference management program that works as a browser extension. It makes it available to Windows, Mac OS, and Linux users. It can locate and transfer data from platforms such as Google Scholar, PubMed, and arXiv. Moreover, you can easily export all the PDF documents and data to Google Drive, allowing for collaborative editing of your papers.

You can integrate your citation monitoring into the Google Apps ecosystem, which is used daily by multitudes of researchers. For example, you can automatically repair references with missing data and remove duplicates. In addition, you can save references, PDFs, or supplementary data files by clicking the Paperpile button.

Features:

• Use the Chrome extension to save your preferences.
• Google Drive can help you organize your PDFs.
• In Google Docs, cite your sources.
• Using folders, labels, and stars, organize your papers.
• Make shared folders and work together to build your library.

Pricing: Paperpile offers a free 30-day trial period. After that, it charges $2.99 for its academic subscription and $9.99 for its business plan.

8. DeepDyve

DeepDyve provides one-stop access to academic, peer-reviewed journal articles. There is a monthly subscription fee, but it is still less than the price of purchasing individual articles or journal subscriptions. Furthermore, they allow you to save and store your searches so that you can easily find previous sources.

DeepDyve allows you to access entire articles for a limited time, just long enough to determine whether the article is what you’re looking for. In addition, DeepDyve Digital Library allows you to search and access over 100 million papers, organize your projects, and work collaboratively with your peers.

Features:

• A single platform to access and manage 100 million or more articles.
• Obtain a collection of free, rentable, and downloadable papers at the lowest possible cost.
• It does not require IT to set it up or maintain it.
• Feel confident in your copyright compliance.
• Locate and organize your internal and external documents.

Pricing: This tool offers a 14-day trial period before charging an annual subscription of $499.  

Types Of Research You Can Conduct With Your Virtual Research Assistant

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While the list is endless and can vary depending on needs, most successful organizations and startups rely on virtual research assistants to offload some of the following research-related tasks.

1. Lead Generation

Lead generation research could be as simple as characterizing your social media page followers based on their interests, location, and age and then tailoring your lead generation efforts to the data obtained. Your VA can also help you handle your leads and convey the content necessary to transform those leads into sales by utilizing lead generation tools such as Facebook lead generation, Linkedin lead generation, and various CRM tools.

2. Content Research

Having your VA assist you with your online market research efforts is a wise use of resources, given the amount of time this online research requires. One of the most practical research methods you and your virtual assistant can use to help you get credible data faster is to use online tools.

3. SEO Keyword Research

Making sure your website and content are enhanced for numerous types of search engines and that you’re using keywords relevant to you and your market is part of your marketing strategy. While your virtual assistant is not an SEO Specialist, they can still assist you with the nitty-gritty work of keyword research and determining what can help increase your visibility and ranking online.

Apart from these, there are other kinds of research a virtual research assistant can help you with. Some of them are,  

4. Travel Research

Your virtual research assistant can ransack online networking websites and avenues for new business opportunities, different target audiences, and other information. For example, you can research the most affordable and cheapest travel deals to travel the world.

5. Influencer Research

Have you researched to keep up to date on the trends of influencers in your field and continued collecting data relevant to your business with a virtual research assistant? A virtual research assistant can do it for you. For example, finding the right endorser for your brand is difficult. With so many people on the market, you can now keep up with the most popular influencers in your profession and find the best ones for you. Your virtual research assistant will search thousands of documents for you, saving you time and effort.

6. Web Research

A virtual research assistant can research and provide options before making the best decision. You can get product and service reviews, alternatives, and comparisons before purchasing to make the best decision. A virtual research assistant will scour all sites for data and conduct competitor research to determine the best plan for your business.

Best Online Research Techniques For Your Virtual Research Assistant

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These are some online research techniques that your virtual research can use.

1. Effective Keyword Search

Your virtual assistant can assist you in maximizing your marketing efforts by utilizing the keywords you specify. You can generate your relevant keywords by first making a list of seed keywords, followed by a list of key phrases. Next, you can instruct your VA to use keyword research tools, which can provide you with more information about the keywords you want to use, such as search volumes, keyword rankings, keyword difficulty, and more. Google Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Moz, and SEMRush are a few examples of keyword research tools.

2. Conducting Online Surveys

Nobody knows more about your goods and services than your customers. Your virtual research assistant can use online forms and surveys that give instant feedback from your viewer and can pre-screen and specifically target participants based on the market research you are conducting. Online Survey results are available so your virtual research assistant can use the information for your marketing strategy.

3. Using Various Research Tools

Using multiple research tools will help your assistant find the relevant information as quickly as possible. Search engines, CRMs, market research tools., keyword research tools, and analytics tools can assist your VA in gathering a ton load of information in a short period.

Why Do You Need A Virtual Research Assistant

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Understandably, every growing business organization needs a fair amount of research work done. Whether technical, marketing or surveying, research is an integral part of keeping a business moving along the upward curve of progress. However, researching while handling the other aspects of business is not a one-man job. Handling your business while conducting research is a recipe for chaos.

Thorough research can take hours of screen time and consume a good amount of your energy that you could have dedicated to other tasks. Hence, many businesses offload this task to virtual research assistants. When hiring a virtual research assistant, you can get your research work done and organized without worrying about a full-time employee.

If you are still debating whether or not to hire a virtual research assistant, check out some additional benefits of hiring a virtual research assistant.

• Cost-Effective – Hiring a virtual research assistant can save you money. You already know that virtual research assistants are adept at conducting research, but one thing you overlook is that they are much more affordable than a full-time employee. Having a virtual research assistant will allow you to reduce operational costs like rent and salaries.
• Professional Research Capabilities – You must know which sites to refer to or keywords to use while conducting research. A virtual research assistant is a professional who can research various topics while maintaining the quality and guarantee of the collected information.
• Business Growth – Having a virtual research assistant can save you a lot of time which you can utilize for growing your business. A virtual research assistant will also focus on growing your business and obtaining valuable feedback. Your VA will conduct surveys to learn more about your customers and build good relationships with your customers. It will help you understand your customers better.
• Productivity – Virtual research assistants can boost your productivity in many ways. Having a virtual assistant allows you to focus on your core business while enjoying flexibility. Also, virtual research assistants require zero training.

There are many more benefits of hiring a virtual research assistant. For example, a virtual research assistant will not only conduct research but also behave like a business partner and aid you in your work.

Final Note

In today’s world, online research is critical to the development and growth of a business. The information gleaned from research assists entrepreneurs in making decisions about all aspects of their business, including planning, strategizing, product development, staffing, and marketing. It’s even more valuable now that most companies operate online, and data about competitors and customers are readily available.

While tedious and time-consuming, research activities do not have to be a chore. You can ask your virtual research assistant to assist you with your internet research. VAs understand how to conduct online research and can use research techniques to obtain the information. There are also numerous research tools available online to help with the process.

Remember that when you hire a virtual assistant to assist you with research, be specific about what you want. Online research can be as simple as typing a few keywords into a search bar, but the web is a vast resource for information. So give clear instructions and limit the information you want your VA to search. Furthermore, set realistic deadlines — some research tasks take longer than others, depending on the subject, the type of research, and the amount of data required.

Knowing the importance of a virtual research assistant and hiring one are two different things. Traditionally you would have to post advertisements on social media before scanning through a library of resumes to find a perfect VA. However, Wishup is a leading virtual assistant agency that provides professional and experienced virtual assistants. Mail us at [email protected] for a free consultation, or click here to know more.