Selling on Facebook (A Strategy for Facebook Group Managers)

If you want to sell your online courses, you're likely need to have an audience. It's best to not wait until when the creation of your course to start building that crowd. If there's one thing I've learned from my experience being an entrepreneur is that building the product, then in search of a community to promote it to is like putting the cart before the horse. A better approach is to build a community first. Find out what they want, and then market to them the product.

Making a course is an excellent method to create an audience to your course online. Even better, it could help to build a community of customers and leads that will provide you with a window into what they want, need and are likely to purchase. Through the context of a Facebook Group you can watch posts and learn about the needs of your customers, their preferences for language, and gaps where they're not getting what they want and offer them the exactwhat they're looking for, without the hassle of doing it on your own.

In this post I'll teach you how to establish a community using Facebook Groups. Facebook Group, tap into this group for the things they need, and then before you create it.

  A grave error to avoid  

As I've worked for years doing consulting as well as online course launches I've observed one fatal oversight that I'd like help you avoid. This is the mistake of launching a course before you have an online community.

Perhaps you've witnessed this happening in the past, or perhaps you've witnessed it for yourself. It takes you a long time to create your course. You're psyched to serve and sell, and you labor over your course online with awe-inspiring enthusiasm - only to release that course open to the general public...

... crickets.

There is no need to buy.

It's hard to believe, but it's true. And unfortunately it happens more than most course creators are willing to admit.

Instead of focusing on what might or might not be a good idea it is recommended to invest your energy in building your community first. Once you're the leader of a community, you'll find it's very easy to make money from courses, coaching, and whatever else you wish to provide.

When I began to build my company, I had to struggle for a viable way to build a community around the business. It was a blessing that I decided to put the focus on my Facebook group more than anything else, including and podcasting. When I think back how I was able to sell the online class with a tremendous impact, it's my Facebook network. This group has become a solid leader for networking, contacts, socializing, and tapping into what an already-built audience wanted.

  Create A Community Around Your Theme  

If you are planning to market your online course to participants of the Facebook Group, you first have to create a group that is highly relevant to your and niche.

For me, I've built many groups. One that has been the most successful for me is my Podcasters Secret Weapon group, as well as the Pay2Podcast group (the latter is an paid group). Having a group for podcasters has allowed me to make sales to individuals who are in the niche of podcasting.

Had I built communities that were dedicated to fasting weightlifting, dieting or anything else unrelated to my niche I'd be able to build a community comprised of individuals who would not want to take my online classes on podcasting.

If you don't yet, I suggest you sign up to Facebook and start a brand fresh Facebook Group. When you've completed this process you'll need to choose a title for the group. That leads me to my second tip:

  Create Your Facebook Group for SEO  

If many people form a group, they try to make catchy titles. On Facebook it doesn't always work well. If you imagine Facebook as a sort of search engine, then you'll realize that it's not super savvy in crawling for information - rather, it employs more literal phrases.

As an example, if you have named your group "Fantastic Beasts" and your group is specifically for those who love gyms, Facebook doesn't know that. Instead, name your group, "The Weight Room" or "Gym Enthusiasts - Who Want to be Ripped." Use the when searching for your topic in your group name.

If your group is specifically for Instagram or digital marketing users, then put these keywords at the start of the title of your group. The only way you'd be better to think about fancy titles is if you've have a loyal following and have a large flow of fans into the group. If you've got a solid foundation with a significant following (like Lewis Howes or Hal Elrod such as) it's well to use your name in the name. However, if you don't have a lot of fans who are likely to look up your name on Facebook or contact via ads, email, your podcast or any other means Use the words that correspond to your topic in the name of your group.

  Have A Clear Goal for Your Facebook Group  

Akin to my first idea of forming an online group with a niche and relevant to your target people for your online class The group must also to be able to serve a reason.

The goal of your group isn't to sell stuff (including on-line courses) for its members. Yes, you'll want to use your group to create leads to your business, gain clients, and offer more courses, but don't position it that the way.

An excellent instance of a group with a solid mission is The Order Of Man Facebook Group. With more than forty thousand active members and climbing Ryan Michler's page has become an online community unlike most groups online. There are many posts within the group that are between fifty and often in the hundreds. A clear goal helps men connect, discuss the topic of what it means to be a man as well as how to improve as a man.

When you start your own Facebook Group to build a community for your audience ensure that the group has a clear focus. As you've seen, all the groups I've listed are focused and have a strong goal. Having this strong focus will also help you later when you decide to sell your course to your community.

  Invite People to join the Facebook Group  

The process of building your community can be a laborious. If you don't have a already-established community, you'll need to put some effort into this - but in the end, the effort will pay off. According to Arne Giske is an experienced Facebook Group Growth Hacker told me in the Thriving launch Podcast: "At first it'll require a lot of effort. If you're just starting out, you'll need to put some effort into the process. However, once you've established that community you'll have a group that buys what you have. And not only that, but you'll be able to have a community who will tell you what they'd like and you'll just have to create it and sell them that."

The work required upfront is well worth the effort in the long run.

One of the best ways to create the community you want is to start by making Facebook posts. It's what my client Tim Hoover did with his Elite Fitness Group. With practically no email list and a community that was not yet established, he used this method by posting to his Facebook page and asking his community to join his fitness group, and now he's got over 500 highly involved members. This is exactly the way I approached it at first, but within a brief period of time I stopped requesting people to join because my group members started to refer and join their friends.

It might sound daunting or time consuming to build an audience if you don't already have an audience However, everyone have started from scratch. Take Arne Giske as an example. When he first started his group, at the age of 23, he was old, living in his parent's basement without a job and brand new to the online marketing world. He stuck to this approach of continually inviting members of his intended members to join the group, and today his group is home to over fifty thousand active members. If you're one of the Millennial business owner, join and see how he's working so you can copy his tactics for your own group.

  Here are a few alternatives to tell your friends about your neighborhood:  

• Videos are available on Facebook (if you're just beginning to learn about advertising on the internet, take it easy with this)
• Send an email to your followers as well as friends and anyone else who you think might be interested
• Private Facebook message requesting people whom you believe might be interested in joining the page and its contents
• Link to your group in your menu bar or content on your website
• Posts on social media with hyperlinks to your organization
• Your podcast should be shouting out on behalf of your group
• Requesting your friends to share the news with their friends and post on social media about your group

  Enhance Group Membership by The Giving of Incentives to Join  

You can incentivize membership by giving away giveaways or offering exclusive pieces of training, videos, and content that you don't release elsewhere.

Also, you can offer a little extra time to you through the group - - time that isn't available anywhere else. This kind of specialness and exclusivity will also help in establishing you and your team as the best place to go for exceptional service and knowledge in your field.

  Here are some concepts for giveaways:  

• Special PDF reports
• Hacks you haven't seen or are sought-after by others that usually only provide to clients
• Videos for training and walkthroughs are what users are looking for.
• Free online courses

This is the kind of stuff that makes people want to give their emails, time, attention as well as support. And it's exactly the reason people choose to be part of a group.

Giveaways and special gifts is exactly what Ryan Levesque did when the group was being built. Next Level Mastermind group (it's part of a paid-for course, but nonetheless he exemplifies this type of example to perfection). When he was launching his group he offered a slew of tantalizing giveaways. He gave gifts to the individuals who made the top posts in his group (which inspired members to contribute and they did!). In addition, he gave affiliate prizes for those who joined the most people.

This strategy Ryan Stewman utilized to grow his, sales talk with sales Professionals Group to become the biggest and most active sales community on Facebook. Incentivize individuals to join. Make use of whatever you can. It may initially appear like you're distributing everything in your artillery, but when you grow an army of loyal and thankful members - it'll result in dividends.

Giving so much value for a group that is free may seem tiring, but it's the way you're attracting the attention of others. That's the way you're earning supporters. If you're tired of it and not used to give to get attention think about the words Gary Vaynerchuck is saying in the video: "I Day Give Up Attention." When it comes to the sales world, attention is essential. This is the reason Coca-Cola, TMobile, and every giant corporation spends millions of dollars on advertising and capturing your attention.

The value you are trading to gain attention and trust - and later that will help you have an entire community of loyal customers and loyal supporters.

Utilize your Facebook Group to conduct Market Research

The moment is now when we're closer selling, however we're not at the point of being there. Right now you have the group. It's focused, it's going up and users are joining. It's a great way to build trust and engagement.

The next step is to begin asking the people you know about their issues. Discuss their concerns with them. Dig into what they're at and find out the details of them in order to design an online course that's exactly what they want. It will ensure that when you to offer them something, they'll purchase.

Keep track of their comments as well as their struggles, points of pain as well as all the necessary details to sell an educational course.

  Here are some methods for conducting market research within your company:  

• Conducting polls within your group ( here's how to go about it)
• Asking questions about pains
• Inviting discussions
• commenting on the statuses of others and provoking deeper conversations

The market needn't be hard, it's straightforward as just asking. Note what's being spoken about and what the people are looking for.

  Use The Data To Promote Your course  

I'm not a huge fan of the old-fashioned adage "build it and they'll come." I would rather let them arrive, gather, and then make them buy what they want.

Like Russell Brunson has said in his book Dotcom Secrets in which people meet, there's a chance to make money. In the past, it was difficult to locate communities that you could join and legally use them to sell to make sales Facebook Groups allow you to do this all by yourself with a minimal investment.

When you've tapped into a community you know the things they're looking for You're trusted by them and they will gladly purchase from them.

The process of pre-selling doesn't have to be difficult since you've done the legwork to build trust, create communications, and draw the attention of your customers.

Now you'll have to start talking about your plans to develop an online course that meets the interests of your customers (which the time you spent with them and research has helped you get the info). With posts and content you'll be able to figure out how to develop an online course to assist them in resolving these problems.

Instead of building the course, only to have it fail when no sales happen it is possible to sell the course to a group of beta members. As your course is still in beta and is live this means it's less expensive, live and offers specialties which will not be made available until in the future. If you've done your research thoroughly, you'll know exactly what the requirements would be for the online courses and it shouldn't be a problem to figure out.

Since you've built trust and awe-inspiring attention, people are going to read your blog and curious about what you're up to (which is essential to sales). Because you've provided free value there's no reason to doubt that your pay-per-view content can be even better and worth it.

In my case I've achieved this using the help of my Paid2Podcast course as well as my ProfitFromFB course. The two courses have been validated via real sales which made it logical to create a proper way of promoting this course to anyone outside of my Facebook Group.

  Make Your Community a Reality Before You Create Your Course  

If you stick to the guidelines I've offered in this post, there is nothing to stop you from being able to build a community of highly involved people who is interested in your topic. By doing this you'll avoid creating a course that nobody buys, by confirming the information they're looking to acquire prior to creating a course that teaches them exactly what they want to know.

Luis Congdon is a digital marketing expert for business. He's been featured and quoted by the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, JP Morgan, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Huffington Post, Huff Live, Elephant Journal, and many other publications. For online marketing education for free to increase your sales online go to ThrivingLaunch.com