HOW TO PROMOTE TO FACEBOOK GROUPS
4 phases to success
Facebook Groups has proven to be one of my favourite ways of connecting with my ideal audience. Not only can they be a great source of market research but if done correctly, they can be a huge generator of business for you.
When I first started my business, I wasn’t able to take on many clients as I was just about to have a baby. So I didn’t create any official services or systems. I didn’t create any packages. I didn’t even have a Work with Me page. However, I knew it was really important to start connecting with my target market as early as possible. Facebook Groups were the perfect means to do this.
What happened next surprised me.
Out of the blue, I started getting enquiries – Could you help me with X? Do I provide Y as a service? Can you give me a quote?
At first, I was shocked (and of course totally unprepared) but it quickly dawned on me why this was the case.
People were eager for help and they wanted to get it from someone they had some form of a relationship with. Someone they could trust. Someone they could see knew what they were talking about.
So now Facebook Groups has become a core part of my business growth strategy, so much so that I created my own.
BUT there is an art to how you should go about it and that’s what I want to teach you here – The 4 Phases of Getting Business from a Facebook Group
HOW TO PROMOTE TO FACEBOOK GROUPS phase 1: get prepared
There are a few things that you really want to make sure that you do here because this is what lays the groundwork so that you can make it really easy for people to find your business from Facebook groups.
The first thing and the most important thing that you can do is to go into your personal profile and add your Facebook business page as your workplace, and make sure that information is public.
This is important because if I’m just chatting with you in a Facebook group and I think, “Oh, I wonder what that person does, they’re really helpful,” you can go in, click on your profile picture, and then I see straight away, blogger at X or maker at Y, then I can click straight through to your business page, see what you’re about, like your page, start interacting and getting to know you better.
Now, to get even better benefit from that, I actually recommend that on your business page itself you change your cover photo to be a billboard because this is the first piece of real estate on your site apart from your profile picture that people will see.
Here, you can use this space as either just a quick preview of what you do and how you can help people or it could be a really great place to put an ad for your opt-in freebie or an entry level service or your bestselling product.
Not necessarily, explicitly “Buy me now,” but just like, “Hey, this is what I can do,” or “If you want to claim this offer, just click the Learn More button”. So people will instantly get an idea of what you’re about.
The third thing in this phase about getting prepared is to use a recognisable profile picture. Stick with something consistent and maybe a little memorable. People are much more likely to recognise your face/picture than just your name.
Another useful trick is to make sure you use that same profile picture across your different platforms. If you use your picture of yourself on Instagram, use that same image, so that when people see you across platforms, you become recognisable and people begin to associate your business with you as a person.
HOW TO PROMOTE TO FACEBOOK GROUPS PHASE 2: QUALIFY YOUR GROUPS
You will likely be involved in a range of different Facebook groups – ones where you are getting support and others where your target audience hangs out. They are the ones that I really want you to qualify here.
Once you have a good target market profile, try to select a handful of groups where they are likely to be hanging out. Try to stick with just a few as I’m not talking about going in and posting and dumping here. It’s going to take some time, so you want to make sure you’re doing it in the right groups.
To qualify a group first get familiar with who is in there and what people are talking about. You can do a quick search up the top for some keywords to do with your business to see if people are asking questions about what you do.
You can just have a general scan, read through the most recent posts, note down what all the daily prompts are, and of course, very importantly, read the rules. Know where you stand on promotion, how they want you to deal with links and all of that. You don’t want to be seen as a”spammer”.
Seriously, it’s important. Removing group members has become far too commonplace. A recent example of what not to do is one group member who came in and posted an introduction post, and they said interesting stuff, but they posted links and it was all a pure sales pitch. I just removed the post and I sent them a private message, and I said, “Look, I love what you do, happy for you to introduce yourself, but I do have to remove it because we don’t allow promotions in here except for the daily threads, but please come back in and reintroduce yourself.” They replied, “Yep, no worries,” and I didn’t hear anything from them at all. They came back two weeks later, and promoted the exact same thing to the wall.
This is not the way to get business. It’s not that we want to be mean. It’s about creating a community where people don’t feel like they’re being sold to the whole time, so many groups hate that approach because they want it to be more about the support. And I guarantee the group members themselves notice so it has the exact OPPOSITE effect.
Once you have determined the group vibe, the second way is to introduce yourself. Again, check the rules on this one. Most groups allow an introduction post, some even with links, but again, don’t just go in there with a “Hey, this is what I do, this is wonderful because …”.
You actually want to start your introduction with the common ground.
For example, if you’re in a group with other non-business owners, maybe introduce yourself first, just “Hey, I’m a mum to two. I have my business as well. I struggle with these things.” You find the common ground first, and then you go “By the way, this is my business.”
Then include a link in there if they allow, but I actually recommend including a picture instead of the clickable link, because it makes you stand out a lot more. It also means that people aren’t instantly ignoring you because they think it’s just another link. It could be just a picture of you saying hey. This isn’t the place to pitch.
If people start responding it is a good sign that the group is the right fit for you.
HOW TO PROMOTE TO FACEBOOK GROUPS phase 3: becoming recognisable
The first step in becoming recognisable in a group is to be helpful.
Start responding to people’s questions even if it’s nothing to do with your business. Now, this is where people think they go wrong, because they think the question doesn’t relate to what they do, but if you’ve done similar for your own business and you have some sort of tip you can offer or you know some tool that could be really useful to them, just throw it in there. You don’t only have to only talk about your speciality.
Another thing that’s often overlooked is when people celebrate their wins or they’re having a bad day and they vent about it, get in on those ones and say, “Oh, you’ve got this.” Just give them a bit of encouragement or give them a high five. Celebrate their wins with them, because people will really appreciate that, and they’ll know that, “Okay, well, this person is not trying to sell to me, they’re literally just getting to know me.” You just get in there and help, whether it’s to do with your expertise or not.
Next, you also want to start participating in the daily threads. But not just the promotion ones: the goal ones, the win ones and the shout-out ones. The idea is to get on people’s radar, to be active.
Also be sure not to “dump and run” Make sure that if you post something in one of the daily prompts, you go back through and either comment or like or do something with a good amount of other people in there.
Next, you will try to move the conversation off Facebook. So for example in a social media profile sharing thread, where you’re sharing Instagram links, and you think, “Okay, a few of these people will be my ideal customer,” start following them, liking their Instagram feed and start commenting on some of their stuff there.
Finally, start getting to know people and what they do. When you see something pop up and you go, “Oh, that person is an expert in that,” or “That person will be able to help, that person does that sort of product,” start tagging them and recommending them in other threads when people asks for tips and advice and say, “Look, this person can help,” because people will really value you for that.
The whole idea behind all of this is for people to wonder who you are and what you do.
They might get a little bit of an insight if they follow you on Instagram and stuff like that, but people will start to be intrigued, and because you’ve got that link in your profile, they’ll see what you do and what you’re about, and they will start interacting back. In fact, you might even find that you end up building a little community of a few little business besties online that you really start helping each other out. That just comes organically.
If you’ve become recognisable in the group, you will start becoming that go-to person for your topic. You will find that over time either people will start contacting you or they will start tagging you in things.
Imagine that recognition. If someone posts asking for help in a certain area it is so much more impactful if someone else tags you in that and says that you can help versus you going, “Hey, here’s my website”.
All of a sudden, you’ve got recognition and you’ve got credibility.
HOW TO PROMOTE TO FACEBOOK GROUPS phase 4: the offer
Hopefully, from just doing the above you already have some enquiries, but you can step it up a level by making an offer. Stick with the group rules of course…
Now, there are some groups that allow promotions, so that’s totally fine, but I still recommend this approach, because unless it’s a pure buy and sell group, you shouldn’t just put a promotion up just because you can. People will still think you are just trying to sell to them, but if you built the relationships first, then you get so much more credibility. Once you’ve got some credibility and you say, “Look, I’ve got this great freebie,” people will respond. They won’t take it as that you’re trying to pitch them. They’ll take it as you’re trying to help them, because that is what you have been doing. That’s what they know you for.
In the groups that allow promotions, still be smart in the way you approach it. Don’t just say “I make X, here’s my website link” and just leave it at that and hope that someone will come along. Instead, you need to frame it in a way that focuses on the benefit you offer your ideal customer first. Concentrating on connecting with them and how you fulfil a need or desire.
This is the same approach I actually recommend you use when participating in the daily prompt sharing threads. Lead with who you help and what you help with or why you do it. People will respond and connect with this so much more than just what you do.
For the other groups there are a few ways you can make an offer. First, by proactively offering free help. So you can create a general post where you offer a tip or an insight or a story to the wall, or you ask for some feedback on something. This will mostly be link free. You don’t even need to say anything, but people get an idea by what you talk about the area of business you’re involved in. That is a great little way to make an offer in a group that doesn’t allow promotions exclusively.
Finally, if the group allows it, you can outright offer free help. This is particularly useful for those of you providing services.
You can just post something like “Hey, I’m hanging out in here for the next hour, if anyone has any questions on X topic, I’m going to answer them freely.” If you’ve become recognisable as an expert in that topic people will be eager to go in and start responding. Out of those threads, a couple of people will probably contact you and say, “Oh, your advice is really helpful, how can you help me more?”
the wrap up
Overall, you can see here that I’ve not gone in and said, “Oh, you have to pitch, pitch, pitch,” because getting business from Facebook Groups is about building relationships, trust and credibility. Yes it can take a little while but over time people will begin to know you. They will stalk you and click through to your Facebook page, or they will private message you, or they will start tagging you in things.
Choose one or two groups to check in with daily. Focus on quality rather than quantity. And it will happen.
