How to Create Content for Free Groups & Paid Memberships – Episode 126

Molly: Hi guys, I launched my membership last week or week before, I guess it was, and then it closed. And it went really well. It's on Instagram and I had the goal to get 10 people in and I ended up at 62, so it was really congratulations. 

So now I would love to hear like your thoughts and philosophy on how do I serve my free group while I have my membership running, because I'm really struggling with like, I don't want them to feel like I built this group to then sell to them and then neglect them. You know, like I want to still serve them.

I don't want the people in my membership to be like, Hey, why are you telling them that I paid to get your advice? You know? Like I'm struggling with like what content goes, where and how to like give pieces away, not giving away. You know everything. So any advice you have on that?

Paul: Yeah. Does anybody have any input for Molly? ' cause you know, I'll say something. So I'm leaving it up to you guys. Belinda. 

Belinda: So can you just fill us in a little bit, what's in the membership and like what's the purpose of it and what are they getting in? 

Molly: Yeah, my, my niche has Instagram growth for business for small business owners.

And so it's for female business owners and we do like a deep dive each month on Instagram on a topics like we're doing Instagram reels this month. Cause those are really hot right now I do office hours and hot seat calls. So that's what my membership is. And then my group, I kind of talk about social media in general, but still really Instagram is my sweet spot, but it's the same thing.

It's a group of female business owners looking to grow their business through Instagram. 

Belinda: So I I'll go quick. What comes to mind is how do you give them like short tips? Like a little bit of the what? So not the office hours, not the hot seats, like not the deep dives. You could do: posts lives, tips, memes kind of like what you would post in your, I think the question that I always get a little is like, what's the difference between what goes on your page and what goes in your group, but we often put stuff on the page and then we'll reshare it in the group, you know, and maybe with a question that brings some engagement potentially to it.

Right. But to me they're pretty different because you don't have the office hours, you don't have the hot seats, you don't have that personal touch. So I just wouldn't start doing too much of that inside the free group. Otherwise they'll feel like they're already getting it. They don't need to pay.

Molly: Okay. Yeah. 

Paul: Yeah. That's great. Any other advice? go ahead, Dan. 

Dan: So what comes to mind too, is Corinne Crabtree does this, she has like weekly podcast. She has like the lives that become her podcast and she does a really great job. In her lives of acknowledging her members and like taking their questions. They'll kind of creating like a VIP experience even in the free content. So they always feel elevated and like insiders. That's a good idea to,

Paul: yeah, I was waiting Heather. I was waiting. I love it. That's what this is all about. 

Heather: One of my coaching clients that has a membership, one of the things that we work on in her membership is she will do some conversation starters that are geared towards her overarching message, which she has absolutely nailed at this point. And so when she does these conversations, starters will go back.

She categorizes her responses and then she figures out like a live stream in her content for the free group and her page from those responses so that she is speaking the language of her people, but she's always seeding for the paid membership in these lives, in these posts. She's always taking it back to, Hey, like here's the principle and we dive deep in the membership and that's why you need to join.

Right. And it's not that she doesn't ever, she obviously gives enough free value in a lot of these posts or live streams that people can still move the needle forward. They're just not going to be able to. You know, it's like Melinda was saying about it. It's just, it's not the deep dive. But they feel valued and heard when you derive it from those responses and you're able to hit their pain points more directly, I think.

And keep it, keep it in the arc of that overarching message. And that's worked really well for her. Like that's where all of her free content comes from. 

Molly: Oh, good. 

Paul: Does anybody else have any input. Do you have any? 

Melissa: Yeah, it's all about level of access where you still can give like, super awesome value in that free group, but they're just not going to get that back and forth, like with the office hours conversation, but you still can deliver like awesome value through pre batched pre-written posts even taking maybe some of the conversations that you're having inside of the membership and turning that into written content or clips of content.

Like if, if you ever record any of those calls, like if you have little snippets to I'm all about keeping things easy too. So if there's ways that you can repurpose that content that would be really great too. If you know, again, it, I know sometimes with something conversations, you might want to keep more in the membership, but there's something that could be like a really good value nugget.

You could take that, clip it posted in the free group. And then that does two things. It gives them value. And it also seeds the next level to work with you too. 

It's all about kind of just pre-framing them that yes. I'm going to give you lots of value. I'm going to help you here. And for those that want to go a little step further with me, we have this opportunity to go.

Molly: Yeah. Okay. All right. 

Paul: I think a lot of us also deal with the struggle. We go through a launch where you're going in that give mode, you know, like in, we're give, give, give value, value, value. We try to overcome limiting beliefs and objections and guide people into the buying decision. None of us want to be the consumer that didn't buy that first time around because when you feel dropped, you know what I mean?

Like you're like, oh, this person really loves me. We have the relationship equity buildup. And then it's like the influencer disappears 100% as if like they really didn't care all along. And I think we have to look at it from a consumer standpoint for a moment and make sure that we don't do that to our own audience because of the bulk of your future buyers are going to come from the people that were just not ready, willing, and able right now.

But they will be the next launch or the launch after that. And even if they're not perfectly aligned these people, because you've been influencing them, even if they're not a buyer, I made more money off of referrals in my life off of people have never bought from me, but have tagged me in things and shared and recommend it.

And I think a lot of us online, we forget that part, like the value of somebody that even isn't a direct buyer could still be exponentially so much more value to us than just they themselves. Right. So what I would do in, 

in combination of what everybody has already, you know, discussed because they hit like the nail right over the head is that I think a lot of us think that the content that we give to the people that pay, like their questions are suddenly different than the people that are in the free group still it's like, no, they have the same issues.

They have the same problems. So it's just that level of access. Definitely. Number one, like the level of access to you where it might be like this, like a zoom call, in your paid membership where it's a Facebook live inside of your free group or where it might be, you know, you going really in depth and sharing a technique or tool and your five steps to your paid members.

Cause somebody ask a question, you took the extra time where it might be you sharing one nugget and a reply to a comment inside of your free group, like giving some value. So that way, because I don't think any of us want to feel abandoned. And I think that's what hurts future launches is when you totally drop people, like, yeah.

Act like they were the most important people in the world, but then like you totally drop them when you go in to serve. And I think you have to make sure you carve out a little effort and time to still give a little bit. Now they, everybody already talked about it as well, but you, you notice we do it as well.

And there's no shame in it is that seeding is very important. So it just something like when we talk about another, you know these calls, the, how we look at the rings of our ecosystem. So our paid core members, you know, like our core membership, that's where we're going all in. And then when you go one ring out.

So if you gave the five tips inside of like, and it's very easy for us, like it would be like on this call saying, you know what, just a couple of minutes ago I came off of our "Inner Circle membership call that we had for the last couple of hours. And one of the members actually had this exact same question.

Now I gave them five tips, but let me at least give you just one of them real quick that I think will get you started on the right foot. And then you just give them the first tip. Now, what did I just do? I just seeded our " inner Circle" 

just said I was on a office hour call for two hours, you know, and showing value without selling.

Right. And then, but what I'm also doing is I'm saying, Hey, you're still important. Let me get you something to start you off. But in how I just frame that though, you also respect that, Hey, that person over there that just spent several hundred dollars a month to get this advice. I can't disrespect them by giving you all five tips right now.

Like that would be disrespectful to them. Right? So without me even saying that, so you're okay now with just getting the one nugget versus the whole system, because I'm being respectful to the person that made the investment, but it's like, you can still get value. But what I would do is when we go into the whole, like switching from promotion and we did a hard switch over into serving, I think you also, you have to keep in mind, there's a fork in the road at that decision-making point, and you have to carry both sides of those people forward in a journey.

And what happens a lot of times is a lot of people only carry forward the people that purchased, but the largest part of your future purchasers are in this other part of the group. You can't make that a dead end for them. Otherwise, they're just, they're going to see through your system. If you just, all of a sudden show up right before launch next time, you know?

So in that fork, in the road, you need to still have a, you know, delivery process. Just, it's going to be a little bit later. And as, Belinda and other share, there's very common share the what versus the, how, you know, type type thing. But just put it in . Your routine. now doesn't have to be an hour a day.

Maybe it's like 15 minutes a week. You go in, you drop some value and you get out. 

Molly: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's really helpful. 

Melissa: And congratulations again. 

Molly: That was exciting. I was not expecting that, so that's awesome.