this is a very contrarian approach
BUT if it works for - i’m burning the boats and going all in the sample size so far from personal experience is small
but it’s proving to be a great way to solve a “low traffic” problem
earlier this week i was listening to a skool stories episode from feb
did a short 12 min episode with ted at the end, ted dropped a bomb
it’s about how he’d promote his free community
(it’s also in the teaser for this upcoming episode Matt shared the other day)
what made it such a bomb was …
… ted said he wouldn’t promote his free community
and it made complete sense
people don’t want a free community
they want value
they want an outcome
they want a big, bold, promise
so that’s what ted suggested doing instead
and then just driving them to the free community to get it
what does this look like?
let’s say you created a youtube video and it rips
you want to drive people who consume it to your skool community
instead of wording the C2A as “go check out my free skool community for more XYZ”, you frame it like this …
… I just created this XYZ that dives even deeper into [topic discussed]. It’s yours free, go here to get it [link to your community]
the framing is the thing that is key here
when people hear or read the second C2A their focus is on the freebie
that’s a REALLY low barrier of entry action
they’ve likely done it hundreds of times before
it’s a natural, everyday thing for them
they get something of value (your YT video)
they’re promised something with MORE value
they go get it
when people hear or read a C2A with “free community” in it - there’s more friction
they have a completely different relationship with “free community” than they do with “free guide” or “free course” or “training”, etc
absolute BANGER (thanks @ted carr)
now, you might be asking “but if they expect a free resource and land on my free community about page, won’t they be a little pissed?”
maybe
but not if you’ve framed your about page the right way
if you’ve nailed the messaging in your description it’d make complete and total sense
they’d see the free resource they were promised in an image and higher in the description copy …
… and they’d see all this additional free value that’s exactly for someone like them
this plays into their “commitment and consistency” bias
they’ve taken action and landed on your page
they see the thing they wanted
AND they see all these additional freebies too
if anything there’s MORE reason for them to act now it’s even more powerful if you don’t call your community a community this way, when they land on your about page, they see it as a place where you have all of your best stuff in the one place that they can access anytime
… and they get new stuff when it drops?
… and there’s people like them inside?
… and they get access to you?
that’s EVEN BETTER than just consuming your YouTube videos
it’s more valuable as it:
- increases their perceived likelihood of xyz (because of everything you’ve got there for them)
- decreases the perceived time they’ll think it takes to achieved xyz (because of everything you’ve got there for them)
- decreases the effort they need to put in (because of everything you’ve got there for them)
TL;DR - don’t promote your free community
instead promote a free training, course, guide, PDF, mini-series, etc …
make it something incredibly valuable for them
and just tell them they can “get it here”, and link to your skool
test it for yourself and see what happens
hope you found this educational content valuable
Nick