How to Sell on Facebook (A Methodology for Facebook Group owners)

If you're planning to market the course online, you're going to need an audience. In the ideal scenario, you won't have to wait until the moment you've created your course to begin building your community. 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. The best approach is to establish a network first. Then, you need to know exactly what they are looking for, then sell them that.

Making a course is an excellent opportunity to gain a following for your online courses. Even better, it could help to build a community of potential customers and leads who can provide an insight into what they want, need and want to buy. Through Facebook Groups, Facebook Group you can watch posts and learn about the desires of your followers, their languages, and areas where they're not getting what they want - then provide them with preciselywhat they're looking for, in less time than doing it in your own.

In this article, I will teach you how to create communities using the Facebook Group, tap into that group for what they need, and then before creating it.

  An error that is fatal to steer clear  

Through my many years of consultation and launching online courses I've witnessed one deadly mistake that I'd like to assist you in avoiding. That mistake is launching a course before you have a community.

Perhaps you've witnessed this happening, or worse yet, you've experienced it yourself. You spend countless hours building your course. You're excited to make sales and serve and you process 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. It's also true that it's more than most course creators want to admit.

Instead of laboring to that may or may not sell the product, put that focus into creating your own community first. When you become the community's leader then you'll be able to find it easy to make income from coaching, courses, and whatever else you want to offer.

When I began to build my own business, I was struggling for a viable strategy to establish a social network around it. Happily, I placed my focus more on my Facebook group over everything else, including and podcasting. Looking back, I can see what helped me sell the online class with incredible impact, it's my Facebook group. This group has become a solid source of contacts, networking socializing and tapping the audience that already desired.

  Build A Community around Your Course Theme  

If you plan to offer your online course to members of your Facebook Group, you first must create a group that is highly pertinent to your business and its niche.

For me, I've built various groups. One that has been the most successful for me is my Secret Weapon for Podcasters group, as well as the Pay2Podcast groups (the latter being an paid group). Having a group that is specifically for podcasters has enabled me to sell to people in the podcasting niche.

If I had created groups that focused on fasting, dieting, weightlifting or something else unrelated to my niche - I'd have a community comprised of individuals who would not be interested in my online classes on podcasting.

If you're not already, I recommend you log into Facebook and create a new Facebook Group. Once you do this you'll need to think of the name of the group. That brings us to my next idea:

  Make Your Facebook Group Name To Improve SEO  

If a lot of people join a group, they try to create catchy titles. For Facebook it doesn't always work well. If you imagine Facebook as a sort of search engine, you'll notice that it's super savvy in crawling for specifics - it instead uses words that are more literal.

If, for instance, you have named your group "Fantastic Beasts" and your group is specifically for those who love gyms, Facebook doesn't know that. You can instead name your group, "The Weight Room" or "Gym Enthusiasts - Who Want to Get Rid." Make use of the option when searching for your topic in your group name.

If you're a group for digital marketers or Instagrams users, then put these keywords into your group title. The only reason you'd do well to get fancy with names is if you've have a loyal following and are able to direct a steady flow of fans into your group. If you've got a solid foundation and a large audience (like Lewis Howes or Hal Elrod, for example), then you'd do well to use your name in the title. But if you don't have a large number of followers who will likely search for your name in Facebook or email to your group through advertisements, emails, your podcast, or other media Use the words that correspond to your topic in the name of your group.

  Set A Specific Focus for your Facebook Group  

Similar to my previous tip about creating groups that are niche-specific and relevant to your target audience for your online course, your group also needs to have a purpose.

The purpose for your group isn't offer products (including the online course) to its members. Sure, you'll be using this group to build leads for your , get customers, and also sell more courses, - however, don't frame it in that the way.

One great example of a community with an important purpose is The Order Of Man Facebook Group. With more than 40 thousand active members, and growing, Ryan Michler's group has become an online community which is unique to other online communities. There are many posts within the group that have a range of 50 comments, and often in the hundreds. The clear focus helps men connect, discuss a clear topic: the manhood of a man, and ways to grow as a man.

When you create an Facebook Group to build a community for your audience, make sure your group is focused. As you've seen, all the groups I've mentioned are highly concentrated and possess a clear purpose. Having this strong focus will also help you later in the event that you want to market your program to the community you're in.

  Invite People to Sign Up To Your Facebook Group  

The process of building your community can be a laborious. When you don't already have a community elsewhere, you'll have invest some time and effort in this - but in the end, it'll pay off. According to Arne Giske, a Facebook Group Growth Hacker told me in my Thriving launch Podcast: "At first it'll take a lot of work. If you're a newbie, you'll have to put some effort into the process. But once you have the community, you'll be able to have a group that buys the things you've got. And not only that, but you'll be able to have a community who will tell you the things they'd like to hear and you'll just have to create it and sell them that."

The effort required in the beginning will be worth it for the end result.

One of the first ways to create that community is by simply making Facebook posts. That's exactly the method my friend Tim Hoover did with his Elite Fitness Group. There was no list of email addresses and no existing community, he used this method of posting posts and asking his community to join his group, and now he's had over 500 very involved members. Similar to my method when I first started and after a short amount of time I stopped inviting for people to join my group because my friends began to refer and join their friends.

It might sound daunting or time consuming to build a community if you don't already have an audience - but all of us 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 and living in the basement of his parents without a job and brand new to the online marketing industry. He adhered to his approach of continually inviting members of his intended audience to join his group, and today his group has over fifty thousand attentive members. If you're one of the Millennial or entrepreneur, you should join his group to see how he's working so you can mimic his strategies for your own group.

  Here are a few other ways you can tell people about your community:  

• Video advertisements are available on Facebook (if you're just beginning to learn about online ads, go easy with this)
• Your audience via email or friends who you think might be interested
• Private Facebook message inviting people you believe would like the group and content
• Link to your group from your main menu or content on your website
• Social media posts that include hyperlinks to your organization
• Your podcast should be shouting out about your group
• Inviting friends to inform their friends and make posts about your group

  Increase Group Membership By Offering People Rewards To Join  

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

Also, you can provide a few minutes of additional time for you and your group - - time that isn't available anywhere else. This kind of specialness and exclusivity can help in establishing you and your group as a go-to-spot for outstanding service and knowledge within your area.

  Here are a few concepts for giveaways:  

• Special PDF documents
• Hidden or sought-after hacks are typically given to clients
• Videos for training and walkthroughs are what users want
• Courses online for free

This is the kind of things that make people desire to send their emails, time, attention and even support. This is exactly what makes people want to become part of a community.

Giveaways and special gifts is exactly what Ryan Levesque was doing when the group was being built. Next Level Mastermind group (it's an online course that is paid for, but nonetheless he exemplifies this model to the highest degree). When he was launching his group, he gave away a slew of tantalizing giveaways. He gave gifts to the members who contributed the most post in the group (which encouraged members to post and they did!). Then he offered affiliate prizes to those who had signed up the most members.

This strategy Ryan Stewman utilized to grow his, Sales Talk with Sales Pros, group to become the biggest and most active sales group on Facebook. Incentivize people to join. Utilize whatever resources you have. At first, it'll seem like you're giving away everything in your artillery, but when you grow an army of loyal and grateful members, it will result in dividends.

Giving so much value to a free group may be exhausting, but that's the way you're attracting interest. That's the way you're earning supporters. If you're thinking it's exhausting and you're not used to giving the attention you deserve think about the words Gary Vaynerchuck says in this video: "I Day Trade For Attention." Within the business of selling, attention is essential. It's the reason Coca-Cola, TMobile, and every giant corporation spends billions on running ads as well as grabbing the attention of customers.

The value you are trading in exchange for loyalty and attention and can help you build an entire community of loyal customers and loyal supporters.

Use the Facebook Group You're in to Conduct Market Research

The moment is now when we're closer selling, but we're not at the point of being there. Right now you have an account. It's focused, it's going up and people are joining. It's a great way to build loyalty and involvement.

The next step is to begin asking individuals about their concerns. Ask them about their needs. Learn about their needs and find out details about them, all so you can create an online program that's specifically what they're looking for. That way, when you present them with an offer, they'll take it.

Note their thoughts as well as their struggles, points of pain and the entire data needed to market an educational course.

  Here are a few ways you can conduct market research within your group:  

• Participating in polls with the members of your organization ( here's how you can do it)
• Asking questions about pains
• Inviting discussions
• commenting on the statuses of others and provoking deeper dialogue

Markets don't need to be difficult, it's just straightforward as just asking. Keep track of the things that are spoken about and what the people are looking for.

  Make Use of The Data Pre-Sell Your course  

I'm not a big advocate of the old saying "build it and they will arrive." I would rather have them come, gather, and then sell them what they want.

Like Russell Brunson has said in his book, Dotcom Secrets in which people meet, there are business opportunities. It was hard to find communities, tap into them, and legally use them for sales to make sales Facebook Groups let you do this all independently with minimal investment.

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

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

You'll need to start talking about your desire to build an online course that meets the needs of your audience (which you've spent time with and your studies have assisted you to get the info). By posting content and posts, it is possible to plan how develop an online training course that helps them resolve the issues.

Instead of creating your course only to fail when no sales happen it is possible to sell the course to a group of beta participants. As the course is currently still in beta and is live the cost isn't as high, live and offers specialties which will not be made available until later. If you've conducted your research well, you're aware of what your target audience might be looking for from an online course and so the pricing won't be hard to determine.

Since you've built confidence and trust, your audience are likely to be reading your posts and curious about the things you're doing (which is crucial to the sales). Since you've given value for free, you can only assume that the premium content is superior and more worth the investment.

For me I've achieved this using my paid2podcast program and my ProfitFromFB course. These courses were validated by real sales which made it logical to create a proper way of promoting these courses to people outside the confines 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 post, there is no reason why you can't build a community of highly active people who are interested in your course subject. If you do this you'll avoid creating a course that isn't bought by anyone, simply by checking their needs prior to making a course that will teach students exactly what they need to learn.

Luis Congdon is a digital marketing expert in business. He's been featured and quoted in Chicago Tribune, Forbes, JP Morgan, Entrepreneur Magazine, Inc. Magazine, Huffington Post, Huff Live, Elephant Journal, and several other publications. To get free digital marketing training to increase your sales online go to ThrivingLaunch.com