How to Sell on Facebook (A Plan for Facebook Group Owners)

If you're looking to promote your online courses, you're likely need to have an audience. In the ideal scenario, you won't have to wait until the moment the course has been created to begin building your crowd. There's something I've learned in my time as an entrepreneur - building an item and then in search of a community to promote the product to is similar to putting the cart before the horse. The best approach is to build a community first. Find out the needs of their members, then sell them this.

The creation of a blog is a fantastic way to build an audience to your course online. Even better, it could help build a community of leads and customers who can provide an insight into what they want, need and are likely to purchase. Within Facebook Groups, Facebook Group you can watch posts and tap into your audience's desires, languages, and areas where they're not being met and offer them exactlywhat they want, with less effort than having to work out the details on your own.

In this piece, I will teach you how to establish communities using the Facebook Group, tap into the group to find out what people want, and before creating the group.

  A fatal mistake to avoid  

As I've worked for years doing consulting as well as online course launches, I've seen one fatal error that I'd like guide you away from. This is the mistake of launching courses before having the community.

Perhaps you've witnessed this happening and, perhaps, you've witnessed it for yourself. You put in a lot of time and effort to build your online course. You're excited to make sales and serve and you work on your course online with awe-inspiring excitement - then make it available to the public and...

... crickets.

No one buys.

It's hard to believe, but it's true. It's also true that it's much more frequently than the course creators would like to admit.

Instead of trying to figure out what may or may not sell, I recommend you invest your energy in building your community first. Once you're the community's leader then you'll be able to find it easy to make income from coaching, courses, and whatever else you wish to provide.

When I began to build my own business, I was struggling to figure out a method to create a community around the business. Happily, I placed my focus more on the Facebook group than just about anything other than podcasting. As I look back on the factors that helped me promote my online course with a tremendous force - it was definitely my Facebook network. This group has become a solid lead for contacts, networking, socializing, and tapping into what an already-built audience was looking for.

  Form A Community Around Your Subject  

If you are planning to market your online course to members who are members of the Facebook Group, you first need to build the group in a way that's pertinent to your business and its niche.

As for me I've set up many groups. One of the ones with the highest returns to me was my Secret Weapon for Podcasters group along with my Pay2Podcast groups (the latter is a paid group). A group that is specifically designed with podcasters allows me to sell to people in the podcasting niche.

If I'd created communities that were dedicated to fasting weightlifting, diets or something that was not related to my field I'd create a group of folks who wouldn't be interested in my on-line classes on podcasting.

If you're not previously done so, log into Facebook and create a newly created Facebook Group. When you've completed this process you'll need to think of a title for the group. This brings us to my next suggestion:

  Name Your Facebook Group For SEO  

When many people create groups, they attempt to come up with catchy names. For Facebook this doesn't go so well. If you consider 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.

As an example, if you have named your group "Fantastic Beasts" and your group is dedicated to gym lovers, Facebook doesn't know that. You can instead name your group, "The Weight Room" or "Gym Enthusiasts - Who Want To Get Ripped." Make use of the option search term "Gymnasium" within your group's name.

If the group you're in is one intended for social media marketers or users - put those keywords at the start of the title of your group. The only time you'd do good to be fancy with titles is when you've already established a following that is strong and can direct a good flow of fans into the group. If you've got a solid foundation and large 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 many followers that are likely to search for your name in Facebook or send to your group via mailers, ads, podcast and other mediums - use the keywords that correspond to your topic in your group name.

  Have A Clear Focus for your Facebook Group  

In the same way as my initial suggestion of creating a group that is niche-specific and pertinent to the target audience for your online course Your group should also be able to have a purpose.

The goal of your group isn't to sell stuff (including on-line courses) to members. Sure, you'll be using the group to generate leads to your business, gain clients and to make more courses available, but don't position it that way.

An excellent illustration of a community that has strong goal can be found in A great example of a community with a strong purpose is the Order Of Man Facebook Group. With more than forty thousand active members and climbing, Ryan Michler's group has become an online community that is different from other groups on the internet. There are many posts within the group that have a range of 50 comments, and often in the hundreds. Men who are focused on their work can to gather and discuss an issue that is clear: what it means to be a man as well as how to grow as a man.

When you create an Facebook Group to build a group of people Make sure that your Facebook Group is focused. If you've noticed by now these groups, they all have mentioned are highly focused and have a strong intention. A strong and focused focus will also help you later in the event that you want to market your course to your community.

  Invite People to Sign Up To Your Facebook Group  

Building your community is difficult work. In the event that you do not already have a community elsewhere, you'll have invest some time and effort in it, but in the end, it'll pay off. According to Arne Giske, a Facebook Group Growth Hacker told me during the 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. But once you have this community, you'll have a group that buys what you have. Not only that, you'll also have a group which will let you know what they want and then you can just build it, and then sell it to them."

The effort required in the beginning will be worth it in the long run.

One of the first methods to build the community you want is to start by creating Facebook posts. This is what my customer Tim Hoover did with his Elite Fitness Group. Without an email address and a community that was not yet established, he used this method of just making posts and asking his community to join his group. Now, he's got over 500 highly active members. Similarly, this is what I did at first, but in a short period of time I stopped requesting people to join because my members began to refer and join their friends.

It may sound intimidating or time-consuming to establish an audience if you don't already have an audience However, everyone have started from scratch. For instance, take Arne Giske as an example. When he first started his group, at the age of 23, he was old and living in his parent's basement in a jobless state, and completely new to the online market. He stuck to this method of constantly asking members of his target members to join the group. Today, the group is home to nearly fifty thousand attentive members. If you're a Millennial entrepreneur, go join his group to see the strategies he's using so that you can copy his tactics for your own group.

  Here are some other ways you can tell your friends about your neighborhood:  

• Videos on Facebook (if you're new to online ads, go easy on this)
• Your audience via email, friends, and people you think would be interested
• Private Facebook message requesting people who you think would be interested in the group and content
• Link to your Group via your main menu content on your website
• Social media posts with hyperlinks to your organization
• Make a shout-out on your podcast on behalf of your group
• Requesting your friends to share the news with their circle of friends, and then create posts on your group

  To Increase Membership In Groups By Giving People Incentives To Join  

You can incentivize membership by doing giveaways, offering special content, such as videos as well as content aren't released in other places.

It is also possible to offer a little extra time with you via the group - time that isn't available elsewhere. The specialness and exclusivity will also help to establish you and your team as an authority for top-quality treatment and insight within your area.

  Here are a few suggestions for giveaways  

• Special PDF reports
• Hacks you haven't seen or are sought-after by others that you typically only give to customers
• Videos for training and walkthroughs are what people want
• Online courses for free

This is the kind of stuff that makes people wish to offer their email addresses the time, consideration as well as help. It's precisely the reason people choose to be part of a group.

Giving away exclusive prizes and giveaways precisely the kind of thing Ryan Levesque was doing when he was building his Next Level Mastermind group (it's part of a paid course, but nonetheless he exemplifies this example the best). In the beginning of the group, he provided a slew of tantalizing giveaways. He gave gifts to the individuals who made the top content to his group (which encouraged members to contribute and they actually did!). Then he offered affiliate prizes to people who signed up the most people.

This is a tactic Ryan Stewman utilized to grow his sales talk with sales Pros Group to be the largest and most active sales group on Facebook. Incentivize people to join. Utilize whatever resources you have. It may initially seem like you're giving away everything in your artillery However, once you've built into a group of dedicated and thankful members - it'll result in dividends.

Offering so much for a group that is free may seem tiring, but it's what you're doing to attract the attention of others. That's the way you're earning admirers. If you're tired of it and unaccustomed to offering to get attention take a look at what Gary Vaynerchuck has to say in the video: "I Day trade for Attention." When it comes to the sales world the importance of attention is paramount. This is the reason Coca-Cola, TMobile, and every giant corporation spends billions on running ads and capturing your attention.

The value you are trading to gain attention and trust which can help you build a community of committed customers and steadfast fans.

Join Your Facebook Group To Conduct Market Research

We're now getting closer to selling, but we're not at the point of being there. Right now you have an account. It's a targeted group, and it's moving up and people are joining. You're providing value and building loyalty and involvement.

It is next time to ask individuals about their concerns. Discuss their concerns with them. Dig into what they're at and learn more about them - all in order to design an online program that's precisely what they need. That way, when you to offer them something, they'll purchase.

Note their thoughts and struggles, their pain points as well as all the necessary information to selling an educational course.

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

• Participating in polls with the members of your organization ( here's how to do that)
• Asking questions about pains
• Inviting discussions
• Inciting more dialogue

Markets don't need to be hard, it's easy as simply asking. Take note of what's stated and what's being asked for.

  Make Use of The Data Promote Your course  

I'm not a huge fan of the old saying "build it, and they'll show up." I'd rather let them arrive in, gather and make them buy what they want.

According to Russell Brunson has said in his book, Dotcom Secrets, where people gather there are business opportunities. It was hard to find communities that you could join and ethically use them to sell - Facebook Groups let you do this all by yourself with a minimal expense.

If you've connected to the community, you're aware of the things they're looking for You're trusted by them and they will be happy to purchase from you.

It's not that difficult since you've done the legwork to create trust, establish communication, and capture the attention of your customers.

To you'll now need to begin discussing your plans to develop an online course that meets the requirements of your target audience (which the time you spent with them and research has helped you get the info). Through posts and articles, it is possible to plan how to develop an online course that helps them resolve these problems.

Instead of putting together your course only to fail with no revenue it is possible to sell the course to a small group of beta members. Because the course is currently live and in beta the cost isn't as high as it is live, and also offers perks that won't be available at a later date. If you've conducted your research thoroughly, you'll know exactly what the requirements might be looking for from the online courses and it shouldn't be a problem to determine.

As you've gained trust and awe-inspiring attention, people will be reading your content and interested in what you're up to (which is crucial to the sales). As you've offered value free of charge, it's only rational that your paid content will be even better and worth it.

In my instance I've achieved this using the help of my Paid2Podcast course and my ProfitFromFB course. Both of these courses have been validated via real sales which justifies the need to market the courses to those who are not part of my Facebook Group.

  Create Your Community Prior to You Build Your Course  

If you stick to the guidelines I've offered in this article There's no reason to not develop a network of involved people who have an interest in your course subject. In doing so you'll avoid making a course that nobody buys, by confirming their needs upfront, then developing a course to teach the students precisely what they would like to learn.

Luis Congdon is a digital marketing specialist for businesses. His work has been featured as well as quoted in Chicago Tribune, Forbes, JP Morgan, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Huffington Post, Huff Live, Elephant Journal, and many others. To get the free training in digital marketing to increase your sales online, head over to ThrivingLaunch.com