Out of all of the above benefits, this is the most impactful one out of all of them. At the end of the day you want to grow a group for your business and when you do it correctly, you get to seriously step your game up and reap the rewards of influence.
As you grow your group, you'll naturally attract more leads and clients. There will be a point where you get so much work, you're forced to reevaluate your business model and raise your prices. This helps you work the same amount or less, and make more money.
My favorite part about growing a group earlier on and hitting this tipping point was that I completely stopped chasing clients and never had to really prospect. My content, group, and brand did all of that for me and I started getting a lot of requests to work with me.
The same will happen to you as you become the go to person in your space. The more engaged your community is and the more focused you are on serving them, the faster this will happen.
More importantly, having an engaged group eliminates your competitors from your member's radar. When people learn from you consistently and follow your advice, they trust you and want to invest in you to reciprocate for all that they've learned so far for free!
This happened with me when I got started learning about podcasting. I got a bunch of free resources, watched all the webinars, joined all the groups, but I only invested in the program from the person who had the most active group that helped me in my journey the most.
If you can earn people's attention around a certain topic, they will be loyal and invest in your products and services without hesitation. So if you want to eliminate the fear of your competitors taking your potential customers or clients, be consistent and grow your group!