Since I have a decent-sized and successful FB group (ranging from 4k to 8k members in the past couple of years, with 50-100 new requests to join every week), I often get questions asking if I sell services or a course about how to build a group the way I’ve done it.
The answer is “no” – because the “how” is so simple that I can tell you in one post. đŸ˜‰
I’m going to lay it out in this post, so hang tight for a second.
HOWEVER – there are some details underneath the simplicity that almost everyone (and I mean really almost everyone I’ve ever seen who has a group) misses.
Those details mostly relate to communication and wording of things.
(which won’t surprise anyone who knows anything about my work đŸ˜‰ )
I’m going to address that too in this post.
We’re first going to look at the strategy, and then we’re going to look at the communication/wording details that almost everyone misses.
This post is going to be EPIC đŸ˜‰
Okay, so let’s start with the strategy.
I’m actually going to link you to a previous post that I wrote on this – but, to save you effort, I’m then going to summarize what that post says.
Here’s basically what that post says. Three things:
One: Send 50 friend requests per day.
Two: Make the occasional post on your profile telling your friends about specific video trainings or resources in the group.
Three: Have group policies that encourage a lot of posting and commenting.
That’s it!
If you execute the DETAILS of these three steps in a smart way and avoid the pitfalls I’m about to describe, here’s what will happen:
1) You’ll get a steady stream of group join requests from your FB friends list, because they want to see the specific video training or resource that you talked about in one of your profile posts.
2) Your existing group members will tell their friends and acquaintances about your group because they find the trainings and resources so valuable. Those people will request to join.
3) Facebook will promote the group FOR you for free (yep, that’s right!) by showing it in people’s sidebars as a “suggested group.” It does that for groups that are highly engaged (lots of posts, lots of comments, lots of people requesting to join).
That’s how I’ve gotten 50-100 requests to join my group every single week since it’s been open (nearly three years).
(Some might notice that if they do that math, it doesn’t add up to the current number of members in my group. That’s because I’ve recently begun the practice of deleting people who don’t engage regularly.)
It’s so simple, right?
Except most people make some mistakes in their communication when they try to execute this.
So let’s talk about what the biggest mistakes can be.
There are THREE main ones that I see.
1. Not having pinned down the very specific “Point A to Point B” problem that your main high-ticket offer solves.
In order to attract the right people to your group and to the trainings and resources contained therein, the way you describe both the group and the trainings has to be reverse-engineered from your offer and ideal client.
Right?
I mean, unless you’re not looking to use your group to get more clients for your high-ticket offer.
In that case, you can safely stop reading this post – as you’ll need to seek out another expert who builds groups for whatever your purpose is.
Very few people have actually pinned down the “Point A” and “Point B” of their offer in Strong Methodâ„¢ style (that’s my method for those who are new here).
Your group’s name is likely going to be drawn in some way from the wording of your Point A and Point B, so this is really important.
For example: my ideal client is an experienced coach/expert who has settled into a niche. My Point A is that they get fewer than 4-8 clients per month for their high-ticket offer from organic (non-paid) Facebook strategies. Point B is that they get at least 4-8.
(It’s all actually even more specific than that, but I’m trying to hit the most important highlights for you here)
So my group name is “Organic High Ticket Sales for Coaches and Experts.”
I’ve always looked at that name in awe (it was a divine download) because it says SO much in such a few words.
It doesn’t give every single detail of the ideal client/Point A/Point B – but it does manage to include what type of business I serve, the fact that I help them get more sales, the type of offer I help them to sell, and how I help them to sell it.
That’s a lot to incorporate in a name! Yet it works. I love it. So cool.
Another example would be groups for single women about finding love.
There are a lot of these out there, and most have very generic names – not at all in Strong Methodâ„¢ Point A-to-B style.
So many are called “Magnetize Your Man” or “Calling In The One” or variations. Not very specific.
A lot of dating/love coaches think their Point A and B is “go from single to in a committed relationship” (and if that were true, all the synonyms for “find love” would make sense as group names) but in the Strong Methodâ„¢ we get much more specific than that.
Discerning the Point A and B for a love coach is all about putting words to the REASON why someone is not in a committed relationship, despite wanting to be.
For example, for some dating coaches, they are helping professionally successful women who have not been in a relationship for many years, and believe that there aren’t many men out there who are “at their level,” so they rarely even try to date.
These coaches help women to open their eyes to what type of man is truly a match for them.
For other dating coaches, they are helping women who have actually been in a TON of relationships, but none ever “stick” because they have self-worth issues.
These coaches help women to build their self-worth so that they are able to recognize when they’re about to get into a relationship with an unhealthy dynamic – or stop sabotaging relationships that are actually healthy. (Say, that might actually be two DIFFERENT Point As/Bs!)
So, depending on what Point A/B the dating coach is actually working with, some more appropriate FB group names might be:
Finding a Partner Who’s At Your Level – for Successful Women
or
Find the One Relationship That Lasts – for Women
I could go on and on with these examples – but just so this post doesn’t take all day to read, I’m going to direct you to further reading on the topic of how to really (like, really, truly, specifically) define your outcome (also known as Point A to B).
Check out this post.
I’m also going to let you know that in my 30-day 1:1 intensive, I help you define this Point A and B for yourself – AND make sure it is appropriately woven into everything you’re saying and doing in your business, particularly for your offer posts and value posts (and you’ll learn my detailed Strong Methodâ„¢ framework for those two posting styles too), and for any video trainings you’re going to create to grow your FB group using my strategy.
I’ll also let you know that I do group workshops a couple of times per month on defining and articulating the outcome you provide. Just that clarity alone makes a huge difference for people.
AND, in my upcoming Strong Methodâ„¢ Certification Program, I will be teaching how to help YOUR clients get Point-A-to-B clarity using my method.
You can DM me on Facebook if you’re interested in any of these offers.
Now, I also want to point something else out.
Knowing the Point A to B is also important for the titles/topics of the videos, posts, and resources that you put into your group (and, of course, talk about on your personal profile to attract people to join the group).
It’s important in the sense that you’ll need to pick the RIGHT topics to cover for this particular Point A to B journey.
For example, I will never have a training video in my group entitled “How to Figure Out What Kind of Coaching Business to Start,” because that topic falls outside of my ideal client’s A-to-B journey. Specifically, it falls prior to their Point A.
My ideal client has developed a real expertise over many years in some aspect of coaching or expert services, and they have either been in business for a long time, or have been doing the work in another context for a long time – so they already know exactly what kind of coaching business would align with them.
Another example would be for the dating coach who helps the successful independent women who’s never in a relationship.
That coach would not have a video or training entitled “How to Stop Being Needy in Every Relationship” because that topic is outside of this ideal client’s Point A-to-B journey. She doesn’t date or form relationships very often, remember? It’s a different problem from the person who constantly gets into relationships and then sabotages them.
Her journey is to go from never dating/being in a relationship at all (or hardly at all) to opening up to possibilities of relationships where she currently is not seeing the possibility.
A more appropriate topic might be, “The One Thing That Actually Makes a Man Right for You – and Why You’re Not Noticing Potential Prospects in Your Daily Life.”
Now, let’s get to the second mistake that people tend to make when executing my group-growth strategy:
2. Not having in mind the right wording of the problems that occur for your ideal clients when they’re trying to go from Point A to Point B.
(“Right” wording means how the ideal client would word it – and with the exact level of specificity that they’re experiencing)
I already started alluding to this one in the prior section, actually!
In the Strong Methodâ„¢, the topics of your videos/posts/resources in your group come from these problems that your ideal client encounters on their A-to-B journey.
So, of course, once you know the A-to-B, picking the right topics will be easier.
You’ve still got to WORD those topics the way your ideal client would phrase the problem, though.
A huge amount of copy (maybe even most) out there commits this error – we might call it the “not-using-your-client’s-language” error.
Here are some examples of titles of video trainings that I’ve seen lately:
“How to Use Your Podcast to Grow Your Authority”
(hmm. Does your ideal client really go around thinking to themselves “I want to grow my authority,” or do they say things more like “I’d love it if my podcast got me at least 20 sales per year of my high-ticket offer?)
(this also kinda commits another error: attempting to solve the entire Point A-to-B problem in one video, which doesn’t get into the specificity of how the client is experiencing the problems on a moment-by-moment basis, which can be fixed by truly taking a micro-problem such as “How to Phrase Your Podcast CTAs to Get More Sales Calls Booked for Your High-Ticket Offer from Your Listeners”)
“How to Create a Successful Course”
(your ideal client will have a particular idea of what “successful” means – which goes back to the Point A and B, of course – do they currently have a 1-on-1 program that gets great client results and now they want to turn the material into a 6-figure course income stream?)
(this one actually also commits the “try to solve the entire problem in one video” error – something like “How to Narrow the Topic of Your Course So It’s Niched Enough to Sound Compelling” would be just a piece of solving the problem, and would be more along the lines of the Strong Methodâ„¢)
“How to Attract Aligned Clients”
(do your ideal clients want to attract “aligned” clients, or do they want to attract “clients who agree with their methods”? or “clients who will pay $5k or more”? or something else? how does your ideal client define “aligned”?)
(and this also sounds like it’s trying to solve the entire problem – I assume there are many aspects to attracting aligned clients so how about just addressing one aspect here? – like “A Breakdown of the Type of Facebook Post That Attracts $5K Clients”)
If you want further reading on wording things the way clients would word them in their day-to-day experience of their Point A-to-B journey, I have many more posts on this.
Buuuut, if you want to actually hit on the right wording and concepts for the videos/posts/resources in your FB group (or anyplace you’re putting content, really) my best suggestion is to work with me 1:1 in my 30-day program.
In just a few sessions, I take a deep dive into your unique business and ideal client, and we figure all of this out so quickly, and you’ll know exactly what topics (and what kind of wording) to pull from when you create content for years to come.
And in my Strong Methodâ„¢ Certification Program, I will be teaching you how to help your clients to do this discernment of proper topics and proper wording for their ideal clients using my own proprietary method.
Now let’s touch on a third (and final) common mistake that people tend to make when trying to execute my group-growth strategy.
3. Not understanding who is likely to buy a high-ticket offer.
This one isn’t necessarily about your wording of things, but it needs to be mentioned anyway.
This one affects who you send your friend requests to.
And it affects more non-business coaches/experts than business coaches/experts.
Those who have an expertise that helps businesses can generally just friend-request people who have a business (or the type of business they help).
But those who have a non-business expertise will often try to find their potential friends in FB groups that relate to the problem they solve (like groups about how to find love or how to lose weight), and I believe this is generally a mistake.
Busy and successful (high-earning) entrepreneurs and career folk are a very easy sell for most high-ticket offers as long as they have a desire to advance in the topic area that you’re coaching/serving in, and as long as they view your offer as being designed with their particular Point A and desired Point B in mind, AND as long as they believe that you’re a true expert in helping people just like them to get from their specific Point A to their specific Point B.
So I believe if you solve a non-business problem, that “busy and high-earning entrepreneurs and career folk” is what you should be looking for when you’re sending those friend requests.
This doesn’t mean you can never look in the topic-specific groups, but make sure their profile ALSO shows evidence of being a successful entrepreneur or career person.
And also look in groups that are about business or career related issues with no mention of your topic – because many prospects for high-ticket offers in non-business areas will never join a group about how to lose weight or how to find love.
Either because they’re too busy to try to DIY the problem, or because they’re seen by everyone around them as so successful and they don’t want to publicly admit they struggle with these very personal things.
A quick note: I realize that I might seem to be contradicting myself here, because I’m actually giving advice on what non-business coaches should title their groups and group resources, yet I’m also saying that high-paying clients tend not to join such groups. đŸ˜‰
So, what gives?
I think what’s actually true is that high-paying clients tend not to join GENERAL groups that give GENERAL advice.
(which, again, is a huge percentage of groups out there, as far as I can tell)
As a high-paying client myself, the last thing I’d want is to join a group with a generic name about “losing weight,” for example.
Especially if it talked all about free events/challenges/ebooks etc. in the group, since I don’t have time or desire to do those.
It’d be totally different if the group followed the Strong Methodâ„¢ way of thinking – like let’s say the group was about “reversing autoimmune symptoms” and there were specific videos, posts or resources shifting my understanding of what it takes to reverse those symptoms.
Such as a video called “Why Eating Animal Products Makes Your Fatigue Worse and What’s In Plants That Makes it Better,” so I could feel confident that I understand the group host’s philosophy and method for solving this problem and thus feel confident in hiring them for their coaching/services.
So, if you set up your group and topics in the way I suggest, the busy-and-successful type should be highly interested in joining.
They won’t always engage, though đŸ˜‰ They might just lurk, so keep that in mind.
Okay, I know I said I was going to talk about three common mistakes, but there’s one smaller mistake that matters too. So let’s do that one as a P.S.
4. Being vague about what’s allowed in the group and what isn’t.
I said earlier that an important part of my strategy is having group policies that encourage a lot of posting and commenting – so that FB sees your group is very active and promotes it for free.
My experience of being in groups in the past was that I was not sure what was allowed and what wasn’t – and the one or two times I did try to post, I got slapped down and told it was against the rules (even though I never could find a rule stated anywhere that applied to what I had said/done).
I believe this is a huge reason why a lot of groups don’t have a lot of activity – because people are scared of getting banned because they don’t know if the thing they want to post/comment is allowed or not.
So, part of what I’ve done in my group is to be extremely clear about what’s allowed and what isn’t.
(Saying “no promotions” doesn’t count as being clear, as different people have many different ideas of what constitutes a promo. In fact I have never, not once ever, seen group policies that I felt were clear about how they defined “promotion.”)
For the first couple of years of my group, I actually allowed people to post anything they wanted, with a few narrow and carefully defined exceptions.
Now, the rule is that any posts in the group must either: 1) follow the Strong Methodâ„¢; 2) create conversation about the Strong Methodâ„¢; or 3) create conversation about some aspect of organic high ticket sales (which is the name/topic of the group).
And, of course, I share detailed trainings with my group members so that they know what the Strong Methodâ„¢ is and how to follow it.
I also try to let the group know that they won’t be banned for unknowingly posting things that don’t follow the method – their post simply may not be approved (I have posting approval turned on).
So, you’ll want to be extremely clear about what’s allowed, and also be clear that you are not a tyrant who will ban people willy-nilly due to possible miscommunications about the rules, as long as they are acting in good faith.
Tyranny IS the norm in most FB groups, so even just these little differences in how you handle it will encourage the posts and comments to flow freely.
You’ll also want to work on your own personal development if you feel a need to be highly controlling of what people are saying even if they’re following your rules. đŸ˜‰ But that’s a topic for another post.
Annnd…. I just realized I need to mention ONE more common mistake that people make when executing this group-growth strategy.
5. Not making your group trainings and resources truly valuable.
If they aren’t truly valuable, then your existing group members won’t feel they’re worthy of sharing, and won’t invite their friends to the group.
What constitutes “valuable” vs. “not valuable” in the Strong Methodâ„¢ paradigm has a lot to do with the level of specificity of the info you share.
Most content “experts” out there teach that what you share should be very high-level – certainly nothing that your audience could actually use to get a result.
Like “5 steps to attracting premium clients” and then the steps are things like “solve the right problem for them,” (without giving any examples of details of what constitutes the “right problem,”) “run fb ads to a webinar” (without giving any details whatsoever about what kind of webinar works), etc.
This post itself that you’re reading right now is a good example of the right level of specificity.
I didn’t just tell you, “Make your group title something that would attract your ideal client.”
I actually gave examples of what that looks like and the formula I use to create titles.
It’s something you could actually use and test out, and see that it works and that more people are actually interested in your trainings, and feel comfortable hiring me for help with this because you can see that I have a real method and am not just blowing smoke.
Hitting the right level of specificity is something that I’ve written a ton on (probably enough to fill a book). If you want more on this, click here.
But, again, the best way to quickly see how this concept applies to your unique business, and know how to create your content forevermore with the right level of specificity, is to hire me for my 30-day 1 on 1 intensive.
I can so quickly spot what needs shifting and help you see it for yourself so that you can self-check any content you create in the future.
…And that’s my group-growth strategy in a nutshell, along with all the most common ways that people screw it up!
Comments? Questions? Let me know here.
Thorough, unusually smart, and effective!