5 Ways to Sell More Courses Using Facebook: A Simple Guide to Online Course Marketing on Facebook.

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Did you know that you can sell more courses using Facebook? If you’re looking for a platform to market and sell your online course, you don’t need to look much further than Facebook.

It’s no secret that nearly one third of people on the planet use Facebook, making it the biggest consumer database ever created.

The question is: how do you find your people in amongst the crowd?

In this guide on how to sell more courses using Facebook, we’ll be covering everything you need to know so that you can attract the right people for your course, and stand out from the competition.

Build a community with a Facebook group

Selling an online course is all about getting people to Know, Like, and Trust you (also known as the KLT factor). And one of the best ways to get an uber-high KLT factor is to build a thriving, vibrant Facebook Group.

Instead of simply building an audience for your content, you’re building a tribe. A tribe who can reach out and ask you questions, share their thoughts and opinions, and hear your feedback in a way that builds your KLT factor, as well as a dedicated following who wants to learn more from you.

To build a great Facebook group, you will want to keep these things in mind.

Moderate your group

This may sound excessive, you may think that your field won’t attract a bad crowd, but anyone who has run a successful Facebook group will tell you that moderating for poor behavior is essential. This is the internet, after all.

You will want to make rules and guidelines, and a basic application process so that you can vet new members, and let them know what the group’s expectations are.

This can sometimes feel like being a baby-sitter, but ultimately, your group will thank you for creating a positive group culture where everybody can share their opinions freely without that guy making snarky comments, or being overly critical.

Post content that fosters engagement

You want to get people talking, sharing, and asking questions, so posting content that gets people involved is going to be the best way to do it.

You’ll want to share polls, ask questions and find to get people talking with each other. The difference between a community and any other page is that it’s primarily about communication and less about simply reacting to the content you produce.

If you establish your group culture as one where people feel comfortable to share their thoughts, feelings and questions, they may even follow your lead and post their own questions, which will take some of the pressure off of you to always initiate, and lead to even more engagement.

Don’t TRY to sell your course

If you’re trying too hard to sell your course, your community can smell it. A Facebook Group is a space for your tribe to connect with like-minded individuals, and not a place for you to constantly “remind” them about your course.

Building a Facebook group is soft-selling at its finest.

Its OK to mention your online course from time to time, but you need to trust that people in your community will Know, Like, and Trust you enough to seek it out if they come to value what you have to offer.

For more info on how to build a successful Facebook group, check out this guide here.

Create a Facebook Business Page

Having a Facebook page makes it easy for potential students to find you, and what you’re offering. It is a basic necessity for selling your online course on Facebook.

First, you will want to sign up and fill out your business page and make it as detailed as you can. This will make your page more searchable, as well as give your page visitors as good of an idea about you, and your course as possible.

For a guide on how to do this, check out this guide.

Next, you will want to plan and commit to a content strategy so that you can attract the right people. By now, you should have a good idea of who your target audience is, what they are interested in, and so a good mix of video and text-based content related to your course subject is going to be your best approach.

For a guide to creating content your audience will love, check out this guide here.

Run Facebook Ads

There’s a lot to consider here, and this step will take considerable time to figure out.

From writing the copy to creating the video or image in your ad right through to selecting the correct population demographics. You’ll also want to figure out what exactly you’re advertising. Do you want to advertise the course itself, your Facebook group, or another lead magnet? If you’re new to running Facebook ads, the chances are there you will spend considerable time and money in trial and error before you start to get results.

For this reason, it is always best to go with a professional, but if you are planning on DIYing your Facebook ad, here are some tips to get your started.

Start off small

You’re not likely to be getting great results upfront, and so at first, you’ll want to treat your first few campaigns as an experiment. We recommend setting a small daily budget at first, and trying out a few different targeting options.

It may be appealing to try to go big early and try to get the word out about your online course to as many people as possible, but not so fast!

Treat your first few campaigns as research, and set a small budget. You’ll learn who your audience really is, and once you do, you’ll be able to double down on that audience. And eventually, sell more courses using Facebook.

Create eye-catching visuals

Have you ever seen a Facebook ad that was clearly targeted to you, but made you think less of the business that posted it? Many DIY Facebook advertisers will use visuals that simply won’t hit the mark. It’s either not the right visual for the target audience or it’s just plain limp, boring or unattractive.

If you’re not a professional designer, we recommend Canva templates to put together an attractive image that will get you the clicks you need.

We can guarantee, this is one of the best ways you can sell more courses using Facebook

Write attention-grabbing Copy

Remember that people scan through Facebook, and just because they see your ad doesn’t mean they’ll really notice it. You need copy that cuts through the noise and demands their attention, and while this is a professional skill that is hard to master, there are several things you can do to make your ad more effective to sell more courses using Facebook.

Include a strong call to action
Lead with benefits, not features
Use emotive language
Identify your student’s pain points, and offer solutions

For a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about Facebook ads check out this here.

Facebook Live

If you want people to buy your course, they will need to have an idea of what you’re like as a teacher. A student is going to be spending a significant amount of time with you, and before they spend any of their money, they will be looking for a kind of taste test for what you have to offer.

Facebook Live is a great way of introducing yourself, and your teaching style to potential students and giving them an opportunity to interact with you live and in the moment. By going live, you’re also leveraging people’s natural preference for video over text, as research has shown that over 72% of consumers prefer video to text-based content. You can sell more courses using Facebook by doing lives.

For a successful Facebook live session, you will want to have a clear idea of what kind of session you want to conduct, and so we recommend you check out this guide to get an idea of the different formats that are out there for some inspiration. For a course creator, you’ll want to give some of your material away, while being careful to not give away too much. The idea here is to pique your audience’s curiosity, so the format you choose should lend itself to this aim.

Facebook Messenger

If you’re scratching your head at this one, we get it, but used correctly, some direct outreach using Facebook Messenger can be an effective way of reaching new customers.

Of course, what you don’t want to do is become a kind of digital door-knocker who approaches anybody and everybody and asks if they’ve heard the good news about your course.

Effectively using Facebook messenger is about being subtle, targeted, and forming rapport with people who, preferably, are already aware of who you are, and what you do.

Think about it from the receiver’s perspective. Getting an unsolicited message from a stranger feels intrusive, much like a cold call from a telemarketer, or a visit from a door-to-door salesperson. Though if they have engaged with some of your content before, or have found something you’ve offered valuable, and they already Know, Like and Trust you, their response is going to be very different.

So if you have produced some content, whether you’ve done a Facebook Live, or made some social posts and you’ve noticed somebody positively reacting to you, these are the people you might consider reaching out to.

Of course, even if they do know you, you don’t want to be too sales-y or forward. And if it doesn’t feel right, don’t even mention your course. The fact that they have had this private interaction with you will make them more likely to be receptive to your course if you mention it elsewhere, later. This is another effective way to sell more courses using Facebook

Bonus: Link these strategies together!

On their own, you may see some success, but you’ll find that by combining different aspects of each of these strategies you’ll find that they’re better treated as tools in your Facebook marketing tool belt than individual strategies of their own.

For example, you might want to:

Run Facebook ads for your Facebook Group, or Live session
Announce a Facebook Live session for members of your Facebook group, only
Cover more ground by running both a Facebook Group and page
Message live session attendees after a successful session

You’ll cover much more ground by mixing these up and turning them into a comprehensive, holistic strategy rather than relying on one or two of them alone.

Now that you know everything you need to know about selling your online course on Facebook, you might be thinking this sounds like a lot. And you would be correct! It is a lot. So if you need a team of professional Facebook marketers who can help you focus on what you do best and help you drive top sales results for your online course, we’ve got your back!

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