For a long time, Facebook™ did not allow pages to join or create groups. Now they can do both. But what is the advantage of dabbing into Facebook™ groups? Apart from the extra work, does a group help you with your social media marketing effort?
The answer is yes. A Facebook™ group is a very useful lead generation tool. Just think about people’s motivation to join a group. They are genuinely interested in the core topic of the group. They want to learn new things and share their own knowledge. They are looking for recommendations for products and services they can trust from their peers.
How Can Businesses Make the Most of a Facebook™ Groups?
There are many reasons why you should invest time in creating and moderating a Facebook™ group. First of all, groups are great to create and maintain conversations. There are no distractions, such as news feed posts from friends and other pages.
Also, by careful monitoring of the threads, you can identify valuable opportunities to develop new products or add new features and functions to existing ones. In groups, people discuss their interests and needs on the specific topic quite freely and describe their pain points in detail, hoping for a solution.
And there is one more advantage of having your own business Facebook™ group: you can boost your lead generation efforts by collecting email leads.
Here are a few simple ways of doing it:
1. Ask Prospective Group Members for Their Email Address in Onboarding Questions
Many group administrators create onboarding questions that help them filter potential members. The fact is that many people get invited to groups by their friends even if they do not have an interest in the topic. And many would follow through with the invite, just because they don’t want to antagonise their friends.
The onboarding questions help administrators select those members who are genuinely interested in the group topic. Of course, you cannot simply ask Facebook™ users to give email address as a prerequisite condition for joining a group. Instead, you can promise them a welcome freebie to be delivered to their email address. This freebie (a lead magnet) will help group members build trust in your business and warm up to the idea of buying from you.
2. Include a Link to a Lead Magnet in the Group Cover Photo
Just like Facebook™ pages, groups also have a cover photo that helps prospective members understand what it is about. The cover photo has to meet the same size requirements as the cover photo of your page.
For some time now, all cover pages can be made clickable, by adding a link in the “Add a description” section. This link should take your Facebook™ group members to a landing page created specially for them. Here, you invite them to download a freebie, start a free trial of your products, subscribe to your newsletter, etc.
3. Add Links to a Landing Page in Threads
As group administrator, you should be an active participant to discussions by creating new threads. In between helpful and thought provoking posts, you should post links to a landing page that offers a freebie (delivered to the email address).
Another way in which you can get email leads is by answering members’ questions with links pointing to tutorials or how-to videos which they can download once they provide an email address.
4. Pin a Landing Page Link at the Top of the Group News Feed
Just like on your business page, as an administrator you can pin a post at the top of the Facebook™ group news feed. The landing page should offer a lead magnet that answers some of the most common questions/ problems of your new group members.
As a general rule, people browse the first posts in a group before they decide to join it. Thus, it is a good idea to make this post public, even if the group is closed or hidden.
5. Include a Link in the Group Description
The group description is public by default even for closed groups. Thus, if you do not want to make any post public (see above), adding the link to the landing page in this section solves your problem.
Please remember that people who share their email address with you in a Facebook™ group are not qualified leads by default. You still have to win them over with a careful email sequence and other lead nurturing efforts.