How to Sell On Facebook (A Strategy for Facebook Group Managers)

If you want to sell your online courses, then you're bound to need an audience. And ideally, you don't have to wait until the moment the creation of your course to start building that crowd. There's something I've learned from my experience being an entrepreneur is that building a product and then going in search of a community to promote the product to is similar to making the cart go before the horse. A better approach is to establish a network first. Then, you need to know exactly what they want, and then sell them that.

Creating a is a great method to create an audience for your online courses. It can help you build a community of potential customers and leads who can provide a window into what they are looking for, want and want to buy. In a Facebook Group you can watch posts and gain insight into your audience's desires, the language they speak, as well as gaps in which they aren't being served - and then you can offer them exactlywhat they need, and in less time than having to work out the details by yourself.

In this post I'll show you how to build an online community with a Facebook Group, tap into the group to find out what people would like, before you create the group.

  An error that is fatal to stay clear of  

As I've worked for years doing consulting as well as online course launches I've witnessed one deadly oversight that I'd like guide you away from. The mistake you make is to launch courses before having the community.

Maybe you've seen this happen in the past, or perhaps you've been there. You put in a lot of time and effort to build your online course. Your heart is set to make sales and serve and you labor over your online course with incredible enthusiasm - only to make it available for the world to see and...

... crickets.

There is no need to buy.

It's sad. Unfortunately, it's happening far more often than course designers want to admit.

Instead of laboring to that could or won't sell it is recommended to put that focus into developing your community first. Once you're the head of your community then you'll be able to find it simple to market and earn money from courses, coaching, and whatever else you want to offer.

As I was beginning to develop my business, I struggled to figure out a strategy to establish a social network around it. Fortunately, I put my focus more on my Facebook group than just about 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. The group was a powerful source of contacts, networking socializing and tapping to what an existing audience wanted.

  Form A Community Around Your Course Theme  

If you want to sell your online course to members of your Facebook Group, you first need to build a group that is highly relevant to your niche and.

For me I've set up several groups, one of the ones with the highest returns for me has been my Secret Weapon for Podcasters group, as well as the Pay2Podcast groups (the latter of which is an paid group). Having a group for podcasters has allowed me to sell to people in the podcasting niche.

Had I built groups dedicated to fasting, weightlifting, diets or something other than my specialty I'd be able to build a community comprised of individuals who would not be interested in my on-line courses about podcasting.

If you don't already, I recommend you log into Facebook and start a brand fresh Facebook Group. After you've done this, you'll be asked to choose the name of the group. This leads me to my second tip:

  Make Your Facebook Group Name for SEO  

If a lot of people join groups, they attempt to come up with catchy names. However, on Facebook that doesn't work so well. If you think of Facebook like a search engine, you'll notice that it's very adept at crawling for specifics - it instead uses terms that have more meaning.

If, for instance, you named your group "Fantastic Beasts" and it's a group for gym enthusiasts, Facebook doesn't know that. Make your group's name, "The Weight Room" or "Gym Enthusiasts - Who Want To Get Ripped." You can use the name search term "Gymnasium" within your group's name.

If your group is intended for social media marketers or users, put the keywords in the beginning of your group title. The only time you'd do better to think about fancy names is if you've got a strong following and can direct a good number of followers to join your group. If you've established a strong following with a significant following (like Lewis Howes or Hal Elrod, for example) it's good to include your name as the name. But if you don't have a lot of fans that are likely to search for your name in Facebook or send to your group via mailers, ads, podcast and other mediums make sure you use keywords which reflect the subject of your class in your group name.

  You Have A Focus for Your Facebook Group  

In the same way as my initial idea of forming groups that are niche-specific and pertinent to the target people for your online class, your group also needs to have a purpose.

Your group's purpose isn't offer products (including on-line courses) for its members. Sure, you'll be using the group to generate leads, acquire customers, and also make more courses available, but do not frame it this in a way that isn't logical.

An excellent illustration of a community that has an important purpose is the Order Of Man Facebook Group. With more than 40 thousand active members and climbing Ryan Michler's Facebook group is now a community on the internet which is unique to other online communities. There are many posts within the group that range from fifty comments and more typically in the hundreds. Men who are focused on their work can gather, talk about a clear topic: the manhood of a man, and ways to become a better man.

When you create your own Facebook Group to build a community for your audience ensure that the group is focused. 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 it comes time to promote your training course to your local community.

  Ask People To Join the Facebook Group  

It's hard work. In the event that you do not already have a community, you'll need to put some effort into it, but in the end, the effort will pay off. As Arne Giske is a Facebook Group Growth Hacker told me on my Thriving Launch Podcast: "At first it'll take a lot of work. If you're a newbie, you'll have spend some time and effort on it. Once you've built this community, you'll get a community that will buy the things you've got. Not only that, you'll be able to have a community who will tell you the things they'd like to hear and you'll be able to build it and sell them that."

The effort required in the beginning is worth the time and effort for the end result.

One of the first ways you can build this community is simply creating Facebook posts. That's exactly what my friend 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 of posting posts inviting his followers to join his fitness group. He's got over 500 highly involved members. Similar to what I did at first, but in a short period of time I stopped requesting for people to join my group because my friends began to refer and join their friends.

This may seem daunting or time-consuming to establish an online community, especially if you do not already have one However, everyone started with nothing. Consider Arne Giske as an example. When he started his group when he first started it, he was only 23 years old, still living in his parent's basement, unemployed and new to the online marketing industry. He stuck to this method of constantly inviting members of his intended public to join his group, and today his group has over fifty thousand members who are attentive. If you're one of the Millennial entrepreneur, go join and see what he's doing so you can mimic his strategies for your own group.

  Here are some alternatives to tell people about your community:  

• Video ads appear on Facebook (if you're just beginning to learn about advertising on the internet, take it easy on this)
• Your audience via email as well as friends and anyone else who you think might be interested
• Private Facebook message requesting people you believe would like the page and its contents
• Link to your Group from your main menu or information on your website
• Social media posts with hyperlinks to your organization
• Your podcast should be shouting out about your group
• Requesting your friends to share the news with them about your group and to post on social media about your group

  Enhance Group Membership by Offering People Rewards To Join  

It is possible to encourage membership through giving away giveaways or offering exclusive content, such as videos, and content that you don't release in other places.

Also, you can give a bit of extra time for you and your group - time that you won't be giving any other time. 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 ideas for giveaways:  

• Special PDF reports
• Unseen or coveted hacks that usually only provide to clients
• Walkthroughs and video training that customers are looking for.
• Online courses for free

This is the kind of things that make people want to give their emails the time, consideration and even support. It's precisely what makes people want to be part of a group.

Offering giveaways and exclusive gifts are exactly what Ryan Levesque did when the group was being built. Next Level Mastermind group (it's part of a paid-for course However, he still exemplifies this type of example to perfection). In the beginning of his group, he gave away a slew of tantalizing giveaways. He gave gifts to the members who contributed the most posts in his group (which made members want to write and post, which they actually did!). Then he offered affiliate prizes for those who joined the most members.

This strategy Ryan Stewman utilized to grow his sales talk with sales Pros group to be the largest and most active sales group on Facebook. Incentivize members to sign up. Utilize whatever resources you have. It may initially appear like you're distributing every piece of artillery in your arsenal However, once you've built a community of devoted and happy members - it'll result in dividends.

Offering so much to an unpaid group might seem tiring, but it's the way you're attracting the attention of others. It's how you're winning fans. If you think it's tiring and not used to give the attention you deserve take a look at what Gary Vaynerchuck is saying in his video: "I Day Give Up Attention." When it comes to 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 and capturing your attention.

It is a trade for attention and loyalty which helps you create the support of loyal clients and loyal fans.

Use Your Facebook Group To Conduct Market Research

Now, we're getting closer selling, but we're not at the point of being there. You're currently in a group. It's focused, it's going with activity and increasing numbers of users are joining. You're providing value and building 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 learn more about them - all in order to design an online program that's specifically what they're looking for. It will ensure that when you to offer them something, they'll purchase.

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

  Here are some ways for conducting market research within your group:  

• Conducting polls within your group ( here's how you can do it)
• Asking questions about pains
• Inviting discussions
• Commenting on statuses and inciting more conversations

The market needn't be difficult, it's just easy as simply asking. Keep track of the things that are stated and what's being asked for.

  Utilize The Data to Sell Your Course  

I'm not a huge fan of the old saying "build it and they will come." I prefer to have them come in, gather and sell them what they want.

As Russell Brunson has said in his book Dotcom Secrets In the places where people congregate, there are business opportunities. In the past, it was difficult to find groups that you could join and use them ethically for selling to make sales Facebook Groups enable you to do this all on your own with little cost.

If you've connected to a community you know what they want You're trusted by them and they will gladly purchase from your.

The process of pre-selling doesn't have to be difficult because you've already done your homework to create trust, establish communication, and capture the attention of your customers.

To you'll now need to begin discussing your desire to build courses that meet the interests of your customers (which your time with them as well as your research have helped you get the info). With posts and content you can how you're going to develop an online course to help them solve these issues.

Instead of creating your course only to fail when no sales happen - you can pre-sell the course to a small group of beta users. Since your course is still in beta and is live, it's not as expensive as it is live, and also offers perks which won't be offered at a later date. If you've conducted your research thoroughly, you'll know exactly what the requirements would be for an online course and so your pricing shouldn't be difficult to figure out.

Since you've built trust and attention - people will be reading your content and curious about what you're working on (which is vital to sales). Because you've provided free value there's no reason to doubt that your premium content is better and worth it.

In my case, I've done this with my paid2podcast program and also my ProfitFromFB class. These courses were validated by real sales which justifies the need to market this course to anyone outside members of my Facebook Group.

  Build Your Community Before You Create Your Course  

If you stick to the guidelines I've shared with you in this piece There's nothing to stop you from being able to build a community of highly engaged people that are interested in your course topic. In doing so, you'll save yourself from creating a course that isn't bought by anyone, simply by checking the information they're looking to acquire upfront, then creating a course that teaches the students precisely what they would like to understand.

Luis Congdon is a digital marketing expert for business. He's been featured and quoted on the Chicago Tribune, Forbes, JP Morgan, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Huffington Post, Huff Live, Elephant Journal, and numerous others. For the free training in digital marketing to increase your sales online visit ThrivingLaunch.com