Selling on Facebook (A Plan for Facebook Group Managers)

If you're planning to market your online courses, then you're bound to need an audience. In the ideal scenario, you won't have to wait until when the course has been created before you begin to build that crowd. One thing I've learned in my time being an entrepreneur is that building the product, then seeking out the right audience to sell the product to is similar to making the cart go before the horse. Better is to create a community first. Then, you need to know exactly what they are looking for, then sell them this.

Creating a is a great way to build an audience for your online courses. It will help you create a network of customers and leads that will provide you with an insight into what they're looking for, require and are likely to purchase. Through a Facebook Group you can watch posts and learn about the needs of your customers, their preferences for language, and gaps where they aren't being served and provide them with preciselywhat they need, and with less effort than doing it by yourself.

In this piece, I will teach you how to establish communities using Facebook Groups. Facebook Group, tap into the group to find out what people need, and then before you create it.

  An error that is fatal to avoid  

As I've worked for years doing consulting and online course launches I've witnessed one deadly oversight that I'd like guide you away from. That mistake is launching courses before having the community.

Perhaps you've witnessed this happening, or worse yet, you've witnessed it for yourself. You spend countless hours building your course. You're psyched to make sales and serve and you labor over your course online with awe-inspiring passion - and then you make it available for the world to see and...

... crickets.

There is no need to buy.

It's sad. And unfortunately it happens much more frequently than the course creators are willing to admit.

Instead of focusing on what might or might not be a good idea it is recommended to put that focus into building your community first. If you are the head of your community, you'll find it's very simple to market and earn money from courses, coaching, and whatever else you wish to provide.

As I was beginning to develop my own business, I was struggling to find a solid way to build a community around the business. Fortunately, I put my focus more on my Facebook group than just about anything else, which includes podcasting. When I think back what helped me sell the online class with incredible force - it was definitely my Facebook community. The group was a powerful leader for networking, contacts socializing and tapping to what an existing audience wanted.

  Form A Community around Your Course Subject  

If you want to sell your course online to the members who are members of the Facebook Group, you first must create a group that is highly relevant to your niche and.

As for me I've set up various groups. One of the ones with the highest returns for me is my Secret Weapon for Podcasters group as well as the Pay2Podcast groups (the latter is one that is paid for). The existence of a group specifically that is specifically for podcasters has enabled me to market to those who are in the niche of podcasting.

If I'd created groups dedicated to fasting, weightlifting, dieting or anything else unrelated to my niche - I'd have a community comprised of individuals who would not want to take my online classes on podcasting.

If you don't yet, I suggest you log into Facebook and set up a new Facebook Group. Once you do this, you'll be asked to come up with a title for the group. This brings us to my next idea:

  Make Your Facebook Group Name To Improve SEO  

If many people form an organization, they are trying to make catchy titles. For Facebook this doesn't go so well. If you consider Facebook as a sort of search engine, then you'll realize that it's not super savvy in crawling for details - instead it uses words that are more literal.

If, for instance, you named your group "Fantastic Beasts" and your group is specifically for those who love gyms, Facebook doesn't know that. Make your group's name, "The Weight Room" or "Gym Enthusiasts - Who Want To Get Ripped." Use the when searching for your topic for your group's name.

If you're a group specifically for Instagram or digital marketing users, then put these keywords into the title of your group. The only reason you'd do well to get fancy with titles is if you've have a loyal following and have a large stream of people to the group. If you've got a solid foundation with a significant following (like Lewis Howes or Hal Elrod as an example) it's well to use your name as the title. But if you don't have a lot of fans that are likely to search for your name in Facebook or contact via advertisements, emails, your podcast and other mediums Use the words that correspond to your topic in the name of your group.

  Have A Clear Focus On The Facebook Group  

In the same way as my initial suggestion of creating a group that is niche-specific and pertinent to the target students for your online course, your group also needs to be able to serve a reason.

Your group's purpose isn't to market products (including the online course) for its members. You'll use this group to build leads to your business, gain customers, and also make more courses available, but don't position it that the way.

One great illustration of a community that has an important goal is The Order Of Man Facebook Group. With over forty thousand highly active members, Ryan Michler's group has grown into an online community which is unique to other online communities. Many posts in that group range from fifty comments and more typically in the hundreds. Men who are focused on their work can connect, discuss an issue that is clear: being a man and how to improve as a man.

When you create a Facebook Group to build a community of your target audience Make sure that your Facebook Group is focused. If you've noticed by now that all of the groups I've mentioned are highly targeted and are driven by a specific goal. A strong and focused focus will assist you when you decide to sell your course to your community.

  Ask People To Sign Up To Your Facebook Group  

The process of building your community can be a difficult work. When you don't have an already existing community elsewhere, you'll have work hard at this - but in the end, the effort will pay off. Like Arne Giske is one of the Facebook Group Growth Hacker told me on my Thriving Launch Podcast: "At first it'll require a lot of effort. If you're new you're going to put some effort into the process. Once you've built the community, you'll be able to be able to sell your products. Not only that, you'll have a community that tells you what they'd like and you can just build it and market to them."

The initial work involved is worth the time and effort for the end result.

One of the best ways you can build this community is simply posting Facebook posts. It's how my customer Tim Hoover did with his Elite Fitness Group. There was no list of email addresses and a community that was not yet established the group was set up by Tim Hoover by posting to his Facebook page inviting his followers to join his fitness group. He's has over 500 extremely involved members. Similar to what I did at first, but after a short amount of time, I stopped asking people to join because my group members started to suggest and invite their friends.

It might sound daunting or time-consuming to create an online community, especially if you do not already have an audience however, we all started with nothing. Consider Arne Giske, for example. When he founded his group he was just 23 years old, still living in his parent's basement without a job and brand not yet a part of the internet marketing industry. He adhered to his strategy of consistently inviting members of his intended audience to join his group, and today his group is home to more than fifty thousand active members. If you're a Millennial or entrepreneur, you should join the group and check out what he's doing so you can replicate his methods for your own group.

  Here are a few other ways you can tell the world about your community  

• Video ads are available on Facebook (if you're just beginning to learn about online advertising, don't get too excited with this)
• Email to your audience as well as friends and anyone else who you think might be interested
• A private Facebook post inviting those whom you believe might be interested in joining the page and its contents
• Link to your group's page via your main menu the content of your site
• Posts on social media with hyperlinks to your organization
• Shout outs on your podcast regarding your organization
• Inviting friends to inform them about your group and to create posts on your group

  Increase Group Membership By The Giving of Incentives to Join  

You can incentivize membership by hosting giveaways, or by offering unique pieces of training, videos or other content that you don't release in other areas.

Also, you can give a bit of extra time with you via the group - time that you won't be giving anywhere else. The specialness and exclusivity will also help to establish you and your group as an authority for top-quality service and knowledge on your subject.

  Here are some suggestions for giveaways  

• Special PDF-based reports
• Unseen or coveted hacks that you typically only give to clients
• Video training and walkthroughs that customers are looking for.
• Courses online for free

This is the kind of things that make people want to give their emails the time, consideration as well as support. This is exactly why people are drawn to join a community.

Giveaways and special gifts precisely the kind of thing Ryan Levesque did when creating his Next Level Mastermind group (it's an online course that is paid for However, he still exemplifies this example the best). As he launched his group, he gave away a slew of tantalizing giveaways. He gave gifts to the people that contributed the best post in the group (which encouraged members to contribute and they actually did!). In addition, he gave affiliate prizes to people who signed up the most members.

This is a tactic Ryan Stewman utilized to grow his, Sales Talk With Sales Professionals, group to become the biggest and most active sales group on Facebook. Incentivize people to sign up. Use whatever you can. In the beginning, you'll appear like you're distributing all the artillery you have however, as you build a community of devoted and grateful members, it will yield dividends.

Offering so much to a free group may be exhausting, but that's how you're winning interest. It's how you're winning supporters. If you're tired of it and you're not used to giving to get attention, consider what Gary Vaynerchuck says in his video: "I Day Give Up Attention." Within the business of selling the importance of attention is paramount. That's the reason why Coca-Cola, TMobile, and all the major corporations spend billions on running ads as well as grabbing the attention of customers.

It is a trade for attention and loyalty which can help you build an entire community of loyal clients and loyal fans.

Join your Facebook Group to conduct Market Research

We're now getting closer to selling, however we're not at the point of being there. Right now you have a group. It's focused, it's going up and people are joining. It's a great way to build loyalty and engagement.

It is next time to ask individuals about their concerns. Find out what they need. Find out what they're doing and get to know the details of them so you can create an online course that's precisely what they need. This ensures when you go make an offer - they'll buy.

Take note of their words and struggles, their pain points as well as all the necessary details to sell a course.

  Here are a few ways to conduct market research in your organization:  

• Taking polls inside the group ( here's how you can do it)
• Asking questions about pains
• Inviting discussions
• Commenting on statuses and inciting more dialogue

Markets don't need to be difficult, it's just as simple as asking. Keep track of the things that are said and what people want.

  Make Use of The Data Promote Your course  

I'm not the biggest fan of the old-fashioned adage "build it, and they'll arrive." I prefer to let them arrive, gather, and then sell them what they want.

According to Russell Brunson has said in his book, Dotcom Secrets, where people gather there's a chance to make money. It was difficult to locate communities that you could join and legally use them to sell to make sales Facebook Groups let you do this all on your own with little cost.

When you've tapped into an audience that knows the things they're looking for You're trusted by them and they will gladly purchase from you.

The process of pre-selling doesn't have to be difficult as you've put in the effort to build trust, create the right impression, and get people's attention.

Now you'll have to start talking about your plans to develop an online course that meets the interests of your customers (which your time with them and research has helped you get the info). With posts and content you can how you're going develop an online training course to assist them in resolving these issues.

Instead of putting together your course only to fail when no sales happen - you can pre-sell your course to a set of beta participants. Since the course is currently still in beta and is live the cost isn't as high as it is live, and also offers perks which won't be offered in the future. If you've conducted your research thoroughly, you'll know exactly what the requirements might be looking for from the online courses and your pricing shouldn't be difficult to calculate.

Because you've earned trust and attention - people will be reading your content and curious about what you're up to (which is essential to sales). Because you've provided free value it's only rational that your premium content is even superior and more worth the investment.

In my case I've achieved this using my paid2podcast program and my ProfitFromFB class. Both of these courses were validated by actual sales. This has justified building proper to promote this course to anyone outside members of my Facebook Group.

  Make Your Community a Reality Before You Build Your Course  

If you stick to the guidelines I've shared with you in this article If you follow these suggestions, there's nothing to stop you from being able to develop a network of engaged people that are interested in your course area. In doing so you'll be able to avoid developing a course nobody buys, by confirming the information they're looking to acquire up front, and then making a course that will teach them exactly what they want to know.

Luis Congdon is a digital marketing specialist for businesses. His work has been featured as well as quoted by the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, JP Morgan, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Huffington Post, Huff Live, Elephant Journal, and numerous others. To get online marketing education for free and make more sales online visit ThrivingLaunch.com