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Over time, creating an open and free online community could be a great way to generate all of the top of funnel leads you'll ever need. Sounds too good to be real? This could be true. It's an issue that's not easy to resolve because you want to avoid putting to provide so much value through the community for free that non-paying participants have no incentive to become members of your paid community.
And if there is already a thriving, free community within your field Are you able to offer your own unique selling point to attract people from the community they're currently participating in - where they have friends and have an established reputation to become part of yours?
If so, power to you. If not, you should think about ways to join this vibrant community to become a valued participant. We'll discuss that in a moment. Two popular platforms to create communities for free are Facebook Groups and discussion forums. If you decide to go with Facebook it is recommended to create an exclusive Facebook Group where non participants can see that there is a group however they aren't able to join without being approved by the leader of the group. If you've got an open group, the conversations that happen often revolve about the least common denominator and devolve quickly. It is important to establish a welcoming, friendly environment that people are able to take part, similar to the paid-for subscription. Facebook has also hidden "secret", invite only group, however, you shouldn't require this because you're using it as an upper-end source and absolutely need to be discoverable.
The biggest pitfall that comes with Facebook is that you're being a part of the sandbox of someone else. If they change their rules, which they've previously done, your community can vanish overnight. Having more control and assuming lesser risk is crucial, given the amount of time and energy that is required to establish an effective community. An open discussion forum is also a viable community option. See if the forum software that you're using in your membership allows you to create an independent community outside of the wall.
In any case, be sure to clearly state community rules and be prepared to moderate discussion as needed. If you have moderators inside the paid community, you can expand their territory to include patrolling the community that is free as well.
In conclusion, I would strongly recommend creating a formalized free vs. paid-for content strategy. Once you have one, you may start a discussions in your community using your free content and thereby increase the value of your membership without being pushy.
No matter where you run a community for free, you're going to need to devote a considerable amount of time into participating there at the very beginning. You must make yourself the head of the community and also the expert in your field. Give a lot of value in the beginning, as well as answer any questions promptly. But as time passes on, assuming you have the necessary number of people and you are able to do so, then pull your participation in the group for free. In particular, you should inform the group know that the times you'll be available on Tuesdays and Fridays to answer questions and participate. If they'd prefer to talk with you earlier, there's always a person available to talk with them on your membership paid community forum.
You also need to leave some less specific responses to questions as time goes on. Give answers by all means, but don't divulge the entire information as you would members who pay. Try a small sample, and then guide the member of your community toward your paid membership where they'll find the full solution to this question as well as other questions. Also, it's helpful if you can point to content within your membership that addresses specific questions asked in your group for free. As with any acquisition channel it is essential to have a method to capture leads and get prospects into your marketing funnel. This means downloading your lead magnet. Once you have it, they will begin receiving your email nurture sequence. Don't skip this step.
Make sure that you're consistently marketing your paid membership to your free community. Don't be pushy, obnoxious, or in-your-face about it, but putting links to all your free content (which naturally include lead magnets for opt-ins across the content) Podcast episodes and announcements about the addition of your paid membership, and special promotions to help drive sales.
Make sure you create a free community with careful thought of your own. It's a long-term investment similar to hosting your own podcast, however, if you're able to gain momentum, it's off to race to get an annual membership fee!
Become a leader in the existing communities
If there is several communities online that focus on the area you are interested in You can join them and contribute regularly, aid others, and contribute the value rather than making a fresh start by creating your own competitive community.
The idea of this could be thought of as an extension of your existing social strategy , and should form an element of your daily routine. That is it is important to keep a list of the your social media activities you want to have over the course of a week. Include participation in these community sites one of the primary things on the list. Get it on your calendar and commit to it since if you're participation isn't consistent, you'll be losing your time since you'll not be seen or get noticed significantly.
If you're persistent in this manner, you'll build up a reputation as an authority that people will pay attention to and look out for in those free communities. Please don't believe that you shouldn't bombard someone else's community with salesy, snarky emails. It's an unintentional ticket to exit courtesy of the community's coordinator. Follow their rules, only promote your membership as allowed and, as part of your natural influencer plan the first priority is to become a helpful person that adds a lot worth to the group.
Reddit and Quora
Reddit and Quora are two of the most often ignored gems that serve as a catch-all for anyone seeking information online. I'd be astonished when you scoured these two sites and found nothing relevant to your topic.
Answering questions in Quora as well as Reddit relevant to your membership space creates the gift that keeps on gifting. If you're a useful source on these sites users will see your responses over and over again.
It is possible to add participation on these sites in your social media strategies checklist as well. Even if you only check these websites once per month , or even once per quarter, make sure you have some sort of visibility if your area is mentioned on either site. You should spend an hour looking through these websites for queries you could respond to or threads where you can add something of value to. If you are able to write more than a dozen responses within that period of time, you've planted seeds which will soon bear results as the threads are referred to repeatedly in the future.
If you're visiting these websites keep in mind that one of the most important rules of marketing: be first useful, and then even more helpful, then be extremely helpful, giving so much value there's no other option but for your target audience to give you money to get additional delicious, sweet value.