During your marketing, you’ll find two types of prospective mastermind group members. One prospective member is ready to join right away! They’re super excited to join your group and can’t wait to jump in and get started. They are your “hottest” prospects.

There’s another type who has to think about it. Perhaps the timing isn’t right for their schedule. Or they need to work on their financial budgets so they can join in the future. Maybe they’re just getting to know you and aren’t ready to work with you yet. They are your “warm” prospects.

Which ones do you market to?

Ideally, you market to both your hot and warm prospects.

I know — you want to fill your mastermind group now! You’re eager to jump ahead and have your first meeting with your new group, so you want to nudge people into joining today.

But not everyone is ready to become a member during your marketing campaign, and it’s foolish to ignore those people who are interested but not ready to join. I’ve had people join my mastermind groups after being on my mailing list for 3 years. They waited until the time was right for them.

And I have had some mastermind group members join when they visited my website yesterday and have never been on my mailing list. They saw the offer on my site, liked it, and contacted me to join.

Take a moment to think about a “split marketing plan” — with one path for those who want to join quickly, and a separate path for those who want to join later.

Get them while they’re hot

A portion of your audience will be ready to join immediately. Depending on your existing relationship with them and how much they trust you, I would estimate this to be 5% to 20% of your entire audience. If they’ve just completed another program with you, like a training program, then they’re ready to take the next step after working with you over several weeks or months.

When marketing to this group, test the waters to see if they’re ready to join. Tell them about your mastermind group and offer to set up some time to talk together about whether your mastermind group is a good fit for them based on their goals and needs. If they don’t take you up on that offer, then put them in the warm prospects audience.

If they are ready, then they’re in the hot prospects group, and you’ll move forward with the sales process and onboarding them as new members.

Get them when they’re ready

But what do you do with the other 80% who aren’t ready?

Some people say, “Just ignore them, only go for the people who are ready to join.”

That’s crazy!

You are building a relationship with these people. They might join one of your mastermind groups later, and since your next mastermind group won’t be your final mastermind group, you need a pipeline of people for future membership.

When marketing to this not-ready-to-join group, the focus is on sharing valuable ideas and content that help them feel that you are someone they can trust around your topic. Through your blog posts, podcasts, webinars, etc., you keep them in the loop. When it’s the right time for them to join a mastermind group, yours is the first they’ll think of joining.

Move them to a different part of your marketing campaign where you communicate with them regularly (but less often than you’re communicating with your hot prospects). From time to time, test the waters by announcing you have available seats in your mastermind group.

Every prospective member moves forward at their own pace. It’s your job to walk alongside them as they journey through your world.

But whatever you do, don’t treat them like they’re all the same when it comes to your marketing campaigns!

Mastermind Group Facilitator Training begins May 6, 2024. Are you are ready to sharpen your facilitation skills and learn powerful group techniques for running thriving mastermind groups? Join me for Mastermind Group Facilitator Training. In this live virtual workshop, we focus on learning new facilitation skills so you can run awesome mastermind group meetings and help your members be successful. Click here to learn more about the Facilitator Training virtual workshop.