What to Put in a Free Facebook Group vs. a Paid Facebook Group

Hey Friend!

What’s the difference between a free Facebook group and a paid one? How are each one structured? Do you need both? Have you experienced confusion or found that a Facebook group didn’t work?

This post is from a conversation with Podcast to Profit graduate Juliana Page, of the God’s Vibes podcast. Juliana wants to support the members in her groups and keep engagement high. I offer Juliana an outline of the customer journey in our Facebook groups and what we offer in them.

Step One: The Beginning of the Customer Journey – The Free Facebook Group

What we offer in a Facebook group depends on where someone is on their journey. At what point do they land in these different places, and why are they there? 

In the free group, someone is either cold or hot and has probably never purchased from you. The first job in the free community is to engage. You want them to feel seen and cared for. They must believe that you have the solutions they need. The goal is to create enough trust and engagement for them to leap to the paid offers. 

Focus on value in the free community. It’s posting things that help them eliminate confusion. The posts offer to help with certain things, knowing they haven’t bought from us yet. If we can get people over their excuses and into the correct belief that this will be the answer for them, then they will buy. This part of the customer journey continues until they pull out their wallet. 

You are not doing things that should be paid for in this free group. What you are doing here is pointing to the free stuff you already have. You are inviting them to watch this free episode or attend that free workshop. You’re offering them a conversation about something that’s already free. It’s a lot of whys, it’s a lot of whats, but it’s not the how. 

The first goal of this group is to transfer belief. You are telling them, “You can do this. It’s time to do this. Let’s leap together. Here’s why you should do this. Here’s what you are going to do.” This is the first step to getting them to say, “Whoop, I’m in!”

Step Two: Keep Them on the Journey – How to Sell in a Free Facebook Group

I love the idea of offers like workshops and challenges in Facebook groups. But you want to use these strategically as a sales tool. They can be used to convert members over to the paid stuff. Instead of being a constant in a free group, these become something you do to drive traffic for a couple of months. This is where they see and experience working with you. They get a taste of what it’s like.

In our business, we have two live launches a year, along with urgency offers. From here, we nurture and engage to get them into either the workshops or the paid offers. Something like this might happen in its little entity, separate from your primary group.

For years, I tried running our launches and urgency offers in the big group and then tried a pop-up group. When we started the pop-up, we realized everyone was highly engaged, so the conversion rate skyrocketed.

TEASE YOUR FACEBOOK GROUP LISTENERS

The truth is, your listeners need to be teased. One cool thing my team and I do is take snippets of my Podcast to Profit coaching and tease people with the experience of what it’s like to be a part of the spotlights. It’s a fun strategy. We only give a taste of the program to encourage people to take the leap and join. Otherwise, they won’t invest or do the work.

They will sit in consumption mode forever, dreaming about what it would be like. The reality is that the time is NOW! You have to get them to believe they can and make the investment in themselves. That’s our entire job in the free communities. When they finally move into the paid community, we tell them, “We’ve got you. Let’s do this together.” 

Step Three: Continuing the Journey – Get Them the Outcome in Your Paid Facebook Group

The goal is different in the paid community. Instead of getting them to say yes and come into the program, the goal is now to get them an outcome. Accordingly, the posts and strategy are all about accountability. It’s about getting them unstuck, coming together in a community, and getting into power coaching.

I believe people get it wrong because they think you give more in paid groups. It’s less about new stuff and more about pointing back to what’s already available. It’s about getting them to do the work where you give them less but get them into the weeds of what you’ve already given them. 

Once they are in this group, you say, “Here’s how you will do it. Here’s the support you need to do it. And here is the group you’ll do it with. Here’s everything you need to get the outcome.” This is less about content creation and more about supporting the group. It points back to what has already been created.    

We have to transition people from “I’m excited because there is so much new to do and doing the work. Change your life. Get on it!”  It is less about how they feel in the paid group.

It’s about getting them the result. This will happen if they are not confused, make the time to do the work, and stop being distracted. That’s your entire job in a paid Facebook group.

Step Four: Support on the Journey – Cultivate the Facebook Team That is Helping You

When it comes to finding people to help you in your Facebook groups and your business as a whole, start by giving them something simple to do. We have interns who we offer one thing to do. I pay close attention to how they do that one thing. Are they going above and beyond? Am I having to micromanage? What does their work ethic look like?

Over time, we give people a little more, and their natural skill set begins to come through. We follow where they light up and we put them there. For example, they might crush admin-style work, killing every task they are given. Or they might be gifted at interpersonal skills and encouragement.

I created a role where one person did a hundred things. It was fine for a while. But we found little pockets where somebody with this skill set or that personality type shines. Now we’ll build that as its position for an intern or a volunteer. As people go through our six-month internship, we start to notice those who might be part of the team because they have something we need for that role. 

MANAGING YOUR FACEBOOK GROUP IS AN EVOLUTION

It’s been an evolution of overseeing people with what one of my friends calls “delighted detachment.” There is no forcing it, and it’s such a beautiful process. Before, when people would leave, I would freak out, but I didn’t need to. God already had the right person coming in. 

I’ve discovered that we used to have too many paid staff members on the team. We have learned that we only need four paid people. The other roles are learning opportunities for interns to come into. They do one part of the job and discover a beautiful skill set.

Then, because we built it so cleanly and clearly, the next person can run that job again. They can learn, grow, and be challenged. It allows us to cultivate people and help people. But we don’t need so many permanent people.  

Have fun with this. But keep an open heart, eyes, and a delightful detachment, as God is trying to hand you someone to come into the team. Don’t hire too fast. Hire slowly and intentionally. Hire them for a smaller position and let them show you that they can grow with you and be cultivated.

As I have shown, it’s better to bring one person on, get them where they need to be, and then bring the next, than having two or three people all at once. It’s a mess!

Step Live: Throughout the Journey, Borrow Our Mantra: How Do We Eliminate Confusion?

Lately, one of our mantras is, “How do we eliminate confusion?”

If we can eliminate confusion within our team, with our students, and anyone who follows us, we have cleared a pathway for people to move into what’s possible for them. Eliminate confusion, and they will have results. They will believe in themselves. They will step into confidence because confusion keeps them from doing the work. 

Come on a Journey with Me

If you’ve started your podcasting journey and want your questions answered, like Juliana did, you can get coached when you join my six-month group coaching mastermind program, Podcast to Profit. 

We offer power coaching and sit in a beautiful space where you can get strategies, get unstuck, and become super clear so that you can do the work. You can start making progress on monetizing your podcast, learning how to implement podcast SEO, and pitching your show.

We teach you everything inside the Podcast to Profit. I want you to join me!

I pray this blesses you!

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