How to Become the Spartacus of the Internet: Market Like You’re a Gladiator.

When we’re working online we need to accept that things change and evolve constantly. What used to work, no longer does, what used to be seen as an excellent marketing technique is now seen as a ‘tactic’ to lure people in, and why is this? Well several people will have their own theories, you may have yours, but mine is because I believe people abuse the online world in such a way that things which clearly did work at some point were saturated, misused, and became just another method of spamming people.

Many years ago I lived in Italy, which happens to be a very famous country for its gladiators in times past. Gladiators were slaves obtained for sport, but not only that, entertainment. In order to be seen as an all round excellent gladiator they needed to be able to kill people, but that of course is not the point of this post, it's that they needed to also be able to “win the crowd,” and the best gladiators would have a relationship with the audience that all of the others didn’t. This relationship is how they created a fan base, had that fan base all cheering for them to win, and often times this won their freedom, as they became so well known for their abilities, almost like celebrities. We have seen similar theories from Chris Guillebeau with regard to building an ‘army’ or Seth Godin, with creating a ‘tribe’.

#1 WIN THE CROWD

Working online is similar, in that you need to be different, to “win the crowd” or you’ll blend in and become just another player in the arena. I think if something works it continues to have the potential to work if the way we go about it changes.

I recall a long while back I read a post on Virtual Business Lifestyle about the number of unsubscribes Chris Ducker received one week from his mailing list. Many people commented saying that they didn’t like the pop up which appeared on his site, giving away a free audio and ebook. This was one potential cause of the unsubscribes, because the people subscribing were only after a freebie, which of course could be true, but what if everyone that subscribed to your mailing list got a personal email thanking them, which had something personal to them in it - for example, mentioning THEIR free eBook you've just downloaded, or THEIR blog you subscribed to, or perhaps you can make a comment on THEIR blog, or perhaps you could find THEM on Facebook and Twitter and connect that way... Would those unsubscribes still have happened had they had a personal interest reciprocated?

I appreciate if you're getting hundreds of subscribers a day this may not be possible, but virtual assistants don’t necessarily need hundreds of subscribers a day, because we don’t need hundreds of clients a day, so consider taking an interest in the people who are taking an interest in you - it’s internet marketing combined with customer service, and it works!

Internet marketers will say over and over that “The money is in the list.” Virtual assistants, especially solo-VAs, don’t need huge lists in terms of numbers, or volumes (unless of course they're attempting to sell digital products or anything e-commerce related), because as I said, we don’t need thousands of clients signing up daily for our services, but I do firmly believe we need a mailing list of “real” interested parties.

#2 POP UP

If you’re a VA and you're going to use something like a pop up, and you can’t decide if it’s right for you, first of all I believe you should treat others as you would like to be treated yourself, so if you absolutely hate pop ups, then don’t turn it on, although if you don’t mind them as long as they're offering something of particular value, then use it as you see fit, but offer something of quality, very high value to the subscriber, then try turning it on and off, for example 1 month on, one month off.

If you're going to use the pop up, make it very simple to read, and attractive - no tacky hype, be honest, and keep in mind the gladiator... to win the crowd you have to be different, appear taller, stronger and more human, so if you're going to use a pop up as a VA for list building, make sure you contact every subscriber who could be a potential client with a personal message. If you don’t have time to do this, then I don’t think you need to use a pop up or rather instead use a list building strategy for acquiring solidly interested potential clients from it.

#3 HUMAN CONNECTION

Working online in the service industry poses all sorts of hurdles we need to overcome, and connecting on a human level with automated, electronic and digital tools is one of them. You may lose a few subscribers or visitors with your pop up, because some people don’t like them, you may also lose some because of your prices, because some people will see them as too high or too low, or because your brand isn’t what they're looking for - they may hate your colours, or dislike your logo.

The fact is, you will win people in the crowd and lose people in the crowd every day for different reasons, but keep in mind that the more people you win, the more popular you become overall, therefore, the more people you will lose too, but you will only ever hear bits and pieces or speculations as to why this might be, so it’s important to take on board all feedback, but also measure results on a larger scale rather than by the individual alone.

You can do a survey, or ask people on your list or around you what they think, or if the issue is significant, do a post to ask your audience what they think, see if you can find a work around that’s good for you and your potential subscribers. As long as you're different, you provide personal interaction - not just when people contact you, but by going out of your way to interact on their territory, you should find that your unsubscribes will be limited to those people who simply don’t have an interest in what you're doing or maybe have alternative means of connecting with you. If you notice a particular fan or follower who could have been potential client material giving you a thumbs down, it’s well worth asking why, perhaps with something like this:

"Hi NAME,

I noticed that you unsubscribed from my social media / mailing list. I am very sorry to see you go. Your comments and feedback and very important to me and I was wondering if you would take a moment to let me know why you decided to opt-out?

Thanks so much for your time, it's very much appreciated & I hope to connect again soon!

Best wishes,

YOUR NAME"

#4 ANALYSIS PARALYSIS

Being a service provider online, I have found, is a 2 way street. As virtual assistants we can go into ‘analysis paralysis,’ wondering why people unsubscribe, don’t contact us, or engage with us, measuring figures and statistics until we're blue in the face, but from my experience it comes down to one simple thing...

👉 If you want the right kind of people to give you their individual attention, somehow, in some way, no matter how small, you need to give them yours too.