How I got 30 new students without running Facebook ads

As you know, I love me some Facebook ads. 

But just because I know a lot about ads doesn’t mean that I’m constantly running them for my own business.

In November 2017, I was in a place where I wanted to launch a Facebook ads training course, but I wasn’t ready to spend any money on advertising.

I didn’t have much of a budget to spend because I’d had a couple of rocky months previously. And I didn’t want to advertise and do a huge launch for a course that was so new.

I wanted to test out my course first and make sure that people liked it. And then I could use their feedback and testimonials (and the income I earned from a small launch) to do a bigger launch later that included Facebook ads.

I launched my very first Facebook ads course and had 30 students join within a week. Ironically, I didn't do any of my own Facebook ads to get these students signed up! Learn about the free strategies that I used on my blog! 

Here’s a little back story…

I created a Facebook ads program as a part of a collaboration with another entrepreneur in August. And I was just sitting on this course for a couple of months. I was not sure how I wanted to launch it and start getting more students to join.

When I sat down to create a sales page, I realized that I wanted to rework the whole course!

I spun my wheels for a few weeks (can you relate?) and then I decided that I needed to launch the course and THEN fix the issues that I wanted to change.

Which leads me to…

Tip #1: Start launching and selling the program BEFORE you have all the content ready. 

I called this a beta test phase. I offered the course at a lower price to have students go through and give me feedback.  

I made a sales page for the course, even though I hadn’t recorded all of the videos yet. And I started getting students enrolled. The students knew that they the course was still in creation mode and they wouldn’t have access to everything from day one.

This was extremely motivating for me to finally make the changes and re-record some of the videos in order to get the new course finalized and deliver what I promised.

Tip #2: Start with your personal network.

After I made a sales page, I thought about all the people who I’ve met in person and on social media who might be interested in my offer.

I made 2 lists:

List 1 = People who I thought would be interested in joining the course.

This was really easy to get started. I’d had a lot of people talk with me about Facebook ads in some capacity. So, I added their names to my list. I also thought about other people who I was friends with or knew through Facebook groups and put them on my list too.

List 2 = People who I thought would be good referral partners.

These people were my ad management clients or ad coaching clients. I knew that they weren’t beginners and wouldn’t really benefit from or be interested in my course. But I also knew that they were well-connected and might have people in their networks who would be interested.

I wrote personal emails to all the people on these two lists. 

For list 1, I told them about my new course and invited them to join. 

For list 2, I asked them to share my new course with anyone in their network who might benefit.

Tip #3: Post on social media.

I mostly focused on posting on my personal page and in a Facebook group where I’ve been an active member for 3 years. Both of these Facebook areas were places where a lot of my ideal students were hanging out.

I’m not going to give you too many details about what I posted and when. Because Facebook has rolled out some big algorithm changes since I did the launch. And I don’t know how effective the types of posts that I did then would be now.

My overall advice here is to deliver value first. Don’t go spam a bunch of groups and your own friends with salesy, “Buy Now” posts. 

Tell the story of why you created your new offer. Talk about how it’s different than your other offers. Give some tips about your topic and invite them to join your program if they want more information.

My Results

As you already know, I got 30 people enrolled in my brand new FB ads course. I’ll break it down a little more.

I sat down on a Sunday afternoon and started reaching out to people on my lists. I didn’t hear much back for the first day or two.

I did have one friend sign up early on. She’s a friend who I have known for years and I had talked to multiple times about Facebook ads. When she joined, I felt happy but I didn’t know if that meant that I had a winning offer. [Big time limiting belief = This is a fluke. No one else will want this. Just because she signed up doesn’t mean that anyone else will, etc.]

Then, on Wednesday of that week, my phone started to go off with alerts from Paypal! Every entrepreneur’s dream!

I discovered that one of my former coaching clients (someone from List 2) had posted my offer and a link to my sales page inside her Facebook groups.

And people were running over to sign up! I couldn’t believe it!

I actually didn’t expect people who didn’t know me at all to want to join this thing! But there they were.

I ended up getting 10 of my first 30 students from my client sharing my program with her community.

Then, in the next few days, my personal contacts started joining as well. I’m not sure of the breakdown of who I contacted personally vs. who joined from seeing my posts on social media, but the other 20 students came from both of those places.

So, I got my first 30 students enrolled in my course. I got feedback and then when I decided to invest in some ads, I got 15 more students by spending less than $40! But that story is a whole different blog post.

All of these students enrolled in the span of about a week. I didn’t have any deadlines or special prices or anything fancy like that. And I didn’t spend ANY money on advertising!

Do you feel like a launch like this is something that you could do to increase momentum and buzz for your business?

I bet you could!

And that’s why I have a 60 minute workshop inside my marketing program, Attract Your Tribe - How to Launch…for Free!

In this training, I’ll take a deep dive into this strategy. You’ll get…

Inspiration for writing personal emails to your contacts. 

I’m NOT going to give you scripts or templates to use for this. Unlike some marketers out there, I don’t believe that you’re going to get the results that I got just by copying my words. So, I’ll show you some real examples of the emails that I sent, but I won’t encourage you to use them as a script for your own emails. 

Instead, I’ll help you focus on taking my inspiration and then executing the emails in a way that feels authentically you. That’s the only way to get great results.

Strategies + examples of social media posts that get people interested in your offer. 

There’s no perfect formula for this. But I can give you some ideas, examples and strategies for you to test to see what works best for you and your social connections. I’ll even include an example of how I got results from doing an Instagram story!

Energy clearing + alignment. 

Instead of obsessing over the perfect words for your emails and social media posts, it’s more important to get your emotions in alignment with your goals. From there, you’ll write effective copy for your launch. 

During the training, we’ll work through some limiting beliefs that are holding you back from taking action and get you moving forward. And we’ll clear them away so that you can move forward to bigger and better!

Sound good?

How to Launch...for free! shows you how to do all of this and more.

When you join Attract Your Tribe Marketing Membership, you'll not only get this in-depth training on how to launch for free, you'll also get awesome Facebook ads training to help you get even more results!

And lots of magical mindset resources that you won't hear from any other marketing expert.

Join Attract Your Tribe and get instant access to the training -- How to Launch for Free

Pssst...if read this post and you noticed yourself thinking thoughts like -- "Well that worked for her but it could never work for me" or "My offer isn't good enough to get those kind of results" or "I'm too shy to reach out to people over email" -- then, you'll definitely want to join me for this live training so we can clear those limiting beliefs out for good!

Want to Learn How to Launch for Free?

Join Attract Your Tribe Marketing Membership and get instant access to this 60-minute workshop!

The Surprising Key to Marketing Success

Have you ever had an experience in your business where you do everything right?

You follow the perfect "launch formula."

You use email templates or Facebook ad swipe files because you know they work.

You take a course by a well-respected expert and implement their entire strategy.

And yet, your results are lackluckster at best. Or worse, you get no results at all. Just crickets and a sad trombone.

This has happened to me. Multiple times.

When I was launching my program about Angels in 2016, I took a great course about marketing and launching by Amy Porterfield. I followed everything. And I got a few sales but nothing like what I expected. 

I got down on myself and felt so frustrated because I knew that I was doing everything right. So why wasn't I getting the results?

It wasn't Amy Porterfield's fault. Her course was great and I still refer back to it!

So, what was the problem?

Marketing mindset | Digital marketing | Online marketing | Business success | Success mindset #mindsetiseverything | #marketingmindset | #successmindset | #contentmarketing | #emailmarketing

Now, looking back, I can see that I was missing the X Factor....Mindset.

I had a lot of bad beliefs that were standing in the way of my success with my Angels course. 

Beliefs like....

No one will pay the price that I need to charge for this.
I'm not good at selling.
I'm not a good enough writer.
I'm going to bother people with my emails.
I'll offend people by asking them to pay to join my course instead of giving it away for free.

You can see why beliefs like this would be problematic to business success!

For the last few years, I've been working on my mindset around business, money, marketing and success.

I'm not claiming to be a perfect expert. At all. But I can definitely see a difference in how I feel and my results!

When I launched my first Facebook ads program in the fall of 2017, I didn't do a fancy launch or send out perfect marketing emails. I let it feel easy and didn't have huge expectations. And I had 45 people join my program! Way more than I had expected or imagined!

I'm positive that I'm not the only business owner who has gotten tripped up by negative, limiting beliefs.

As healers, coaches and leaders, our biggest challenge is working through our own fears and limitations so that we can market and sell our programs and services to the people who really need them.

So, that's why I have a special guest interview for my blog today.

In the video below, I have a conversation with mindset coach, yogi and soul purpose expert, Alexis Pierce. We both share the incredible transformations that we've experienced in the last few months by working through some of our biggest, deepest, scariest limiting belief.

I had this belief that was holding me back in every area of my life. Love, family, money, business, friends. Probably even from being the best pet owner to Gus and Penny.

Want to know how I broke free from my biggest limiting belief? Watch the video below.

Alexis and I would love to hear from you.

Can you identify a limiting belief that's holding you back reaching your business goals?

Let us know in the comments below.

Are you ready for change in your life?

I can tell you from experience -- freedom from a bad belief feels SO good!

The next Breaking Bad Belief Challenge starts on Monday, March 26, 2018. And the price goes up on Friday, March 23. Learn more and join us for the challenge!

Breaking Bad Beliefs Challenge Blog

Break Free from Bad Beliefs

Join the 30 Day Challenge!

The Most Common Facebook Ad Mistakes (And How to Fix Them)

This week I did a Facebook Live interview with my friend Gael Wood.

Gael is a very successful massage therapist who now teaches other wellness professionals how to be awesome through her business, Massage and Spa Success.

And, she's also one of my Facebook ads management clients!

In this video, she talks about common Facebook ad mistakes that she hears from wellness professionals in her community. And I give all the answers on how to fix those mistakes.

You'll learn why...

  • Facebook advertising is so different from the ads that you're used to seeing on TV
  • You MUST get that pixel installed on your website!
  • It's worth having a Facebook page for your business, even if you don't intend to advertise
  • We're using Instagram even more right now
  • We love paying for advertising!
Facebook ads tips | Facebook ads strategy | Awesome Facebook ads | Facebook ads | Facebook marketing | Facebook for business | #facebookmarketing | #contentmarketing | #facebookmarketingtips | #facebookadstips

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How I Spent $37 and Made $693 with Facebook Ads

How I Spent $37 and Made $693 with Facebook Ads

I know you're probably used to hearing about these HUGE success stories with Facebook advertising. Today, I want to share a small but mighty success. Because this might be closer to where you're at in your business. And it’s a great practice to celebrate small wins in business and life!

The Best Type Facebook Ad Campaign to Grow Your Business

If you’re wanting to try Facebook ads for your business but aren’t sure where to start, I feel ya!

There are SO many options inside of Facebook! Where do you begin?

Do you start advertising to get more views for your videos? Or most post engagement for your best content?

Or do you dive right in with a special promo to get more sales?

Or just do some simple awareness ads to let people know that you exist?

All of these types of ads can help your business if you have a proper strategy in place.

But I think that the best type of ad that you can run as you’re getting started is an email list building campaign.

I’m talking about creating something valuable (like a video series or ebook) and then giving it away for free in exchange for someone’s name and email address.

Then you set up your Facebook ads to promote this freebie and get more sign ups.

Why should you care about growing your email list? So many reasons.

When it comes to Facebook ads, there are so many choices! But here’s the campaign that I think is most worth your time and money investment. | Facebook ads tips | Facebook ads examples | Facebook marketing | Awesome Facebook ads | Content marketing …

Email helps you build relationships. Once someone opts in and joins your list, you can send them great, helpful content about your topic and deliver a lot of value. I’ll admit, I’ve gone through different phases in my business where I consistently emailed my list and where I didn’t. And I noticed a HUGE difference in my results for flash sales, launches and promotions. Which leads me to my next reason.

People are WAY more likely to buy from a sales email than a social media post. Your peeps are much more in a buying frame of mind while reading their email than while browsing social media. Plus, the algorithms on Facebook and Instagram don’t give promotional posts very much organic reach. Which means, that if you want more of your followers to know about your offer, you’ll have to do ads to reach them. 

When you grow an email list, you own that list and the ability to contact those people. Unless they unsubscribe of course. You don’t have to panic about the latest changes to the Facebook algorithm because you can contact your tribe through email.

You can automate email sequences. This gives your subscribers a great experience. And it gives you the chance to step back from your business and take a break. It’s one of those things where you can set it up and then test, monitor and tweak. When you get it dialed in, you get to sit back and chill while it builds your business on autopilot. Pretty awesome, right?

You’re setting yourself up for long term success. Some people will stay on your list for YEARS! As long as you stay in business. So, investing in some ads today can pay off way down the line in your biz.

Have I convinced you?

Running Facebook ads to build your list is truly a worthy investment for your business. 

So, how do you get started?

Glad you asked!

I’ve got a free checklist for you. It’s got everything you need to prepare to start planning your first email list building ad campaign. You can grab your free List Building Facebook Ads Checklist here.

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Start building your email list with Facebook ads

Download my free List Building Ad Strategy Checklist

The #1 Secret to Writing Killer Facebook Ad Copy

As I talk with more entrepreneurs about their struggles with Facebook ads, I’m discovering that writing the copy for the ad is one of the biggest challenges.

And I can understand why! It’s not easy!

Since I started doing Facebook ads 2 years ago, the rules about how to write the copy for your ads have changed more than any other part of ad creation.

However, I believe that the secret I’m going to share with you here is a foundational principle to writing good Facebook ads. 

Facebook’s specific policies will continue to change and evolve, but if you keep this secret in the front of your mind, you’ll always be successful with your Facebook ads copy.

Ok, so are you ready to know the secret?

Stop your Facebook ad writing struggles with this secret! Facebook ads copy | Facebook ads tips | Facebook ads examples | Facebook marketing | Awesome Facebook ads | Content marketing | #facebookadscopy | #facebookadstips | #facebookmarketing | #fac…

Keep your Facebook ad copy positive.

Seems simple, right? But it’s actually counter-intuitive to a lot of marketers and copywriters.

If you’ve studied copywriting for your business, then you’ve probably learned about hitting on customers’ pain points. I’ve heard phrases from marketing experts like “get them into pain” or “make them really aware of their problem so that you can offer a solution.”

So, people dive into writing their Facebook ad copy with this type of strategy in mind.

And this type of “pain point” copy does generally work pretty well! It gets people moving and taking action.

But it doesn't work for Facebook ads! Why?

Most of the time, it’s against Facebook policy. And when you try to advertise, the ad gets disapproved so you're left wondering what went wrong and what to do next.

Let’s look at an example.

Pretend you’re a health coach. And you’ve noticed that most of your clients are hoping to losing weight. You’ve got a free ebook about healthy weight loss that you want to advertise on Facebook to grow your email list. So, you might write some copy like this for your ad:


Bummer Facebook Ad Copy

Are you struggling to lose weight? 

You’ve tried every diet out there and nothing is working. You’ve tried every exercise regimen you can find but just can’t stick with it.

Well, I know how you feel. I work with clients every day who have had similar struggles.

That’s why I created a free ebook for people just like you. 

Grab your free copy here >>> [link to sign up for ebook]


This type of ad copy would almost certainly get disapproved by Facebook and you’d be back to the drawing board.

Why?

This copy hits WAY too hard on people’s pain points.

If you were struggling to lose weight and feeling bad about it, how would you like to be reminded of that every time you get on Facebook?

Basically, this ad copy is implying that the reader is fat and out of shape and helpless to do anything about it themselves.

Facebook doesn’t want their users to have this experience of feeling bad about themselves after they read ads. Facebook wants people to have a great experience with all aspects of the platform so they’ll keep coming back and spending time there.

So, they try to build their ad policy around protecting their users from feeling triggered and crappy after they see ads on Facebook.

So, what should you do instead?

Write copy for your ad that is benefit-drive, positive and inspiring.

Something like this would be a much more effective Facebook ad.


Killer Facebook Ad Copy

Ready to look and feel your best in 2018?

I know how hard it can be to stick with your New Year’s resolutions. I made so many promises to myself over the years and I struggled to follow through.

But then I discovered that it doesn’t have to be this way! When I shifted my mindset, I was finally able to stick with my healthy resolutions and meet my goals.

And I believe that you can learn to do the same.

That’s why I wrote this ebook. I'll tell you my story of struggling to meet my health goals. I'll share with you how I turned things around. And show you how you can too.

Grab your free copy here >>> [link to ebook landing page]


I like this ad copy because it empathizes with the reader and shares a little bit about you. Instead of harping on the reader’s pain points about their weight, if you share about YOUR journey and struggle in your copy, then you’re building an authentic connection with your reader. And you'll be flying through the Facebook policy filters with no problem at all.

If you set an intention for your ad copy to inspire, encourage and authentically connect with the reader, then you’re going to have a killer Facebook ad.

Now that you’ve got a plan for your Facebook ad copy, what about all the other pieces that you need in place?

Download my free Facebook Ads Strategy Checklist to plan out your entire campaign to build your email list and increase your sales.

Facebook Ads Strategy Checklist

Grow your Email List with Facebook Ads!

Grab my FREE Ad Strategy Checklist!

3 Steps to Thrive with the New Facebook Algorithm

Facebook is changing their algorithm. Again! They’ve come right out and said that they will be focusing on showing more posts from friends and family and fewer posts from businesses in user news feeds.

But don't panic! Facebook is still a great place to build your business online. Here are my 3 steps to thrive with the new Facebook algorithm.

6 Tips for Awesome Facebook Ads in 2018

It's 2018! And it's time to revamp and refresh your Facebook ads for the new year. The Facebook algorithm is forever changing (mostly to improve things for everyone), but these tips should be helpful for you through 2018 and beyond.

3 Free Ways to Get More Likes for your Business Facebook Page Today!

Why should you spend your precious time growing a following on your Facebook business page?

I used to feel like it just wasn't worth the time because the posts that I make on my biz page don't reach all of my followers anyway. And I know a lot of other entrepreneurs who feel the same way.

Look, nobody is telling you that you HAVE to do anything. However, a thriving Facebook business page is a real asset to your business and your online presence.

Learn 3 free ways to quickly grow you Facebook business page following! Facebook business page | Facebook likes | Facebook marketing tips | Facebook for Business | More Facebook followers | #Facebookmarketing | #Facebookmarketingtips 

Here are 3 reasons why it's worthwhile to spend a little time building up your Facebook business page:

1. Social proof. People who see a lot of likes on your page will automatically assume that you know what you're doing. You've probably heard about the "know, like and trust factor" in business. Well, having more likes on your biz page bumps you up the know, like and trust-o-meter much faster!

2. Engagement for your content. The more likes you have, the more chances you have to get FREE engagement, video views, likes and shares when you post content to your page.

3. Find more fans. When you have 100+ likes you on your page, then you can create a Lookalike audience based on your Facebook fans. Then, you can then use that audience in some strategic Facebook ads to in order to build even more fans, followers and likes for your page! 

Ok, so now that you're clear on why you should bother, here are 3 ways to quickly get more likes for your biz page today!

Watch the video below for all the details.

To recap, the 3 ways to quickly get more likes are...

1. Invite people who've liked your posts to like your page.

2. Invite your friends to like your page.

3. Invite your email list to like your page.

Now, if you'd like to know exactly how to do these 3 steps inside of your Facebook business page dashboard, you can grab my 3-video tutorial for free!

3 Video Tutorial: How to Get More Likes For Your Facebook Page

3 Video Tutorial Series:

 

How to Get More Likes for Your Facebook Page

“Learn
Learn 3 free ways to quickly grow you Facebook business page following! Facebook business page | Facebook likes | Facebook marketing tips | Facebook for Business | More Facebook followers | #Facebookmarketing | #Facebookmarketingtips
Learn 3 free ways to quickly grow you Facebook business page following! Facebook business page | Facebook likes | Facebook marketing tips | Facebook for Business | More Facebook followers | #Facebookmarketing | #Facebookmarketingtips
Learn 3 free ways to quickly grow you Facebook business page following! Facebook business page | Facebook likes | Facebook marketing tips | Facebook for Business | More Facebook followers | #Facebookmarketing | #Facebookmarketingtips