Top Mistakes People Make with Facebook Group Lead Gen

Facebook Groups are hot right now, and almost every marketing guru out there is incorporating Facebook Groups into the strategies and tactics they're teaching their clients.

But the problem is that when it comes to lead gen with Facebook Groups, so many people are going about it in the entirely wrong way—either because they haven't been taught properly or just don't know better.

In this episode I talk about the biggest mistakes people make with Facebook Group lead gen, including...

• What kinds of posts get the best engagement (hint: it's not your value posts or sales posts)
• How not to come across as a self-righteous know-it-all
• How to connect with ideal clients without spamming them 

Today, we are going to be talking about Facebook groups, specifically how you're using Facebook groups to generate leads and attract clients, because Facebook groups are hot right now, not just for people who are trying to attract clients, but for Facebook users in general. And that's not changing, because Facebook is continuing to pump a ton of resources into their groups feature, and some analysts have even said that groups will likely take over, at some point, the traditional news feed. That means that most of the posts you see will likely eventually be from groups, not just your friends. 

When we're talking about Facebook groups in relation to client attraction and lead generation, almost every lead generation and marketing guru out there is, in some way, incorporating Facebook groups into the strategies and tactics that they teach their clients, but so many people are going about it the entirely wrong way. Sometimes, that's just because they weren't taught well or properly by these marketing gurus. Sometimes it's just that they really don't know any better, and what happens as a result is that it turns into this really spammy approach that does the exact opposite of getting new clients. 

In fact, it repels prospective clients. So it's not just keeping them from getting clients. It's in some ways actively harming their reputation, and that's why today I want to talk about the six biggest mistakes that I see over and over again with coaches who are really trying to generate leads and attract clients using Facebook groups. In general, there are several main components of any Facebook group lead gen strategy involving posting, commenting, and connecting with the people in that group. 

The first mistake is about what you're posting. A lot of coaches, if they're doing this, just because that's what they've been taught, are really focusing on posting sales posts and value posts in these groups. They're either posting things that are just to the effect of “Hey, here's who I am. Here's what I do. Here's how awesome I am. Come work with me,” or they're making value posts, which are, “Hey, I'm going to educate you on this topic, and I'm just going to give you a bunch of ‘value.’” That is maybe a little bit helpful, but really, I'm just trying to boost my authority more than anything else. 

They're taking that approach of doing these sales and value posts, which are honestly pretty one-sided—they don't actually create a lot of space for engagement—and when they do that, they're really sacrificing the opportunity to actually connect with their ideal clients. When you post a sales post or value post—and these posts aren't inherently bad, they're just overused—your ideal client is likelier to read the first line and then just keep scrolling, rather than to read the entire post and actually engage in that conversation. 

The easy fix to that is to try question posts. Try to post questions in the group and focus on starting engagement and getting a conversation going, rather than just submitting a short blog article as a value post. When you make those question posts, you actually really open the door for conversation and engagement with your ideal clients. 

The second mistake is sending cold DMs to every group member to try and start a conversation, and this doesn't work for several reasons. First, it's annoying. Second, it'll probably get you kicked out of the group, and it has that kind of same effect as that first mistake of just harming your reputation and showing up as someone who is spamming people. Now, obviously, direct messages should play a really big role in this lead generation strategy, and so instead of just sending out these cold messages, you really want to be tying it in with your group posts and comments, so that really, you're only ever messaging people who you've had some sort of prior public engagement with—an exchange in the comments, for example

The third mistake is adding value in the comments, when it really just looks like unsolicited advice. A lot of these marketing gurus out there are teaching you to add value in the comments, and what they're not teaching you is that the best way to do that is when someone actually asks a question and is actually seeking help. You don't want to just go on someone's post, who's not asking for help, and say, “Okay, I want to provide value here,” and then just give some unsolicited advice. It's also worth noting that you can add value without giving advice in the first place. So make sure you're not conflating giving value with unsolicited advice. 

The fourth is in that same vein, which is being a self-righteous jerk, because a lot of these big coaching programs out there, these big marketing gurus, part of this attitude that they're trying to get you to embrace is that you have to show up as being full of yourself and, honestly, being a self-righteous jerk. Again, that has the same effect of just harming your reputation and making you seem not a nice person. 

The fifth mistake is getting super active in a group for a few weeks, and then ghosting, and then completely disappearing from the group, not posting, not engaging, not commenting, whatever. You build up this momentum for a couple of weeks, and then you just stop. And that's a huge mistake, because part of what makes Facebook groups work so well for lead gen is the process of becoming a celebrity in that group, or at least becoming a really well-known name in that group. If you aren't consistent, or if you show up for a few weeks and then disappear, you're not going to achieve that at all. 

The sixth and final mistake I'll share with you before we wrap up today is when you are having conversations in the DMs. So you've started a conversation in Messenger with a prospective client that you met in a group, trying to make that conversation linear. What I mean by that is trying to map out a formula onto that conversation, that usually, at least from what a lot of gurus are teaching, looks like sending them a message, trying to build some initial report, identifying their pain points, and saying, “Hey, I can help you with that? Do you want to get on a call?” That linear approach, specifically on Facebook, does not work, because conversations on Facebook Messenger just don't happen in that way. They're a lot more free-flowing and have a lot less structure, and when you try to force that structure onto a Facebook Messenger conversation, it feels unnatural to you. And if it feels unnatural to you, it's going to feel unnatural to the person on the other end.