Have you ever thought about hosting a challenge for your business?

Challengers are a great way to build your email list and dip your toe into virtual events.

In this article, I’ll share how I personally hosted my own challenge and how you can do it, too!

Enjoy!

So, what’s a challenge anyway?

Challenges are like mini events you invite your community and ideal customers to participate in.

They can be run anywhere from 3 days, to 5 days, 7 days or even 21 days. It all depends on your audience and the transformation you are wanting them to achieve.

Challenges are all about results and quick wins for those participating.

A challenge can focus on a specific solution you provide through your business, or on how you help people through your expertise, knowledge and experience.

The goal is to help people see things differently either through a mindset shift, or showing people a way to do something differently. Show them what’s possible.

You have the opportunity to change people’s lives during a challenge, and grow your community while doing it.

Paid vs. Free
Hosting a paid or free challenge depends on your goals.

Free challenges are great because even if people register but don’t show up you still get their email address and begin reaching out to them through a targeted campaign.

The question is, do you really want to work with someone who’s going to flake out on you?

Okay, chances are they initially signed up because they like what you have to offer, but for some reason or another weren’t able to participate – they forgot, or something more important came up.

If you don’t want to waste your time, then a paid challenge might be a better option for you.

When people take the time to invest in themselves and in your service, even for a small fee, they’ve got some skin in the game and are more likely to show up. Which is ultimately what you want.

If they don’t show up, they don’t get the transformation, and they don’t get to see how you can truly support them in their journey.

When people pay they are more likely to commit to participating.

Why run a challenge for your business?

The number one reason to host a challenge is to grow your email list and generate some leads!

Once people join your challenge and experience a transformation or a quick win from you, they begin to trust you a little bit more.

They want results, and you can help them get there with your challenge.

Challenges give you the opportunity to connect with multiple ideal clients at one time so you can show them what you can do, how you work, and more importantly how you can help them achieve their goals, or at least take them one step closer to where they want to be.

The idea is to give them a taste of what it looks like to work with you to get the results they want immediately.

What should my challenge be about?

Think about your challenge as part of your sales funnel.

Don’t have one, no problem.

Just ask yourself, “where do I want everyone who participates in the challenge to go next?”

• Do you have a program that you’re wanting to fill?
• Do you have an upcoming event that you want to invite them to?
• Is there a service you offer that you want them to consider signing up for?

Here’s a personal example:

I hosted a 7 Day Event Planning Challenge with the promise that challengers would learn how to plan their next event and gather all the important elements they need to take action during our time together.

Essentially, at the end of 7 days they came away with a plan to host their next or first event.

My call to action after the challenge was to invite them to an event strategy session with me at a special rate.

What is something you can help your challengers achieve in a short amount of time?

To help you decide…
1. Think about how a challenge will fit into what you’re currently working on, or what you want to create.

2. Ask yourself what is the one thing people need to start working with you, or what is the number question people ask you?

3. What does your client or ideal client need right now that you can easily help them with? What have they been struggling with? If you’re not sure, just ask.

Got it? Now, form a theme or a simple topic out of that one outcome you want them to achieve.

Keep in mind, a successful challenge is one that inspires people to take action and garners at least one completed result.

You might be thinking, just one?

Well, one result is better than no result.

And all you need is one to make an impact.

Create your amazing challenge content

Take a moment to outline the main points you want to deliver to your challengers.
Break them out into the amount of days you’re going to host your challenge.
Be sure to create any workbooks and have them ready to go before your challenge begins. Canva or Google Docs is a great place to create these.

My personal advice for hosting a challenge is 3-5 days.

Although my challenge was 7 days, I felt it was a bit too long for me and my challengers. But to each his own.

There are a few things you’ll want to think about as you plan your content for your challengers

• What are the expectations?
• Set the stage for why this transformation is important.
• What is the promise, transformation, result, or benefit they’re going to experience?
• What’s the commitment they need to be successful?
• What are your best tips, strategies, and stories that will best drive your point across?

During the challenge, share your best content, but don’t share all of it. Leave them wanting and begging for more.

Giving too much can actually overwhelm challengers and lead to people dropping off.

Focus on one theme or tip that will make a difference quickly..

The best challenges are the ones that people can finish! Make it fun and keep it simple.

*Bonus tip: if you plan on doing video training, keep it anywhere between 5-20 minutes. If you’re going live you can go 30-60 minutes, but consider those who are watching the replay. Shorter is best.

Decide how you’re going to deliver your challenge

Now that you’ve got a solid idea for your challenge and you’ve completed your content, you want to decide how you’re going to deliver the goods!

Email is the best way to stay in touch with people because you’re going directly into their inbox.

Another addition is to include a community component like a Facebook group.

You can create a new group for the challenge, or use an existing one. I chose to use my existing group to host live trainings and share updates because 1) I didn’t want to create and manage a new group, and 2) it got other non-challengers interested and learning.

If you want to simplify, or don’t like going live, yet consider pre-recording videos and send them via email or schedule them to go live in your group.

If you’re like me and you like going live, then go live. Going live has its advantages, too. You might put a little more work in, but you also get to connect with your challengers and have the opportunity to answer any questions they have on the spot. If you go live you can always record it, too.

I personally used both email and my Facebook group to host my challenge.

I used email for daily updates and reminders, and the group to host live trainings. I went the extra mile and shared replays of the trainings via email for those who missed it. This isn’t necessary, but I wanted to make sure everyone was successful and had every chance to get the information they needed. Especially since nowadays, not everyone is on Facebook (gasp!).

Promote your challenge!

Now it’s time to share your challenge with the world.

Remember to talk about it even when you get tired of talking about it. Shut out those limiting beliefs and remember you have something amazing to offer. Chances are people still didn’t hear about it, yet.

Talk about it to your network, your community, and send an email announcement to your list.

Post to your favorite social media platforms and own your movement.

Share why your challenge is so important, why you believe in it so much and how passionate you are to help others through it. Your light and love will shine through. You totally got this.

*Bonus Tip: Ask people to help you share it. Yes, you heard me right! There’s no shame or blame in that. You’ll have your chance to support others, too. Send them a link and ask if they, or anyone they know might be interested in taking the challenge. If anything, ask them to reshare your post on social media and link to it in your request. It’s super easy to do, and gives you some more street cred.

Here are other things you’ll want to set up as you prep for your challenge…
If this is your first challenge, you’re going to have a little more frontloading work.

But the good news is, after you do it once you’ll have a framework and sample templates to use as you create your next one.

Invite or landing page. Take time to write an invitation, or landing page where people can sign up quickly. Include the promise of the challenge, the duration, and how to sign up. Be sure to capture emails or lead them to where to pay.

Emails campaign. Once people sign up they need confirmation so check in with your email service provider and create an automated email campaign to keep challengers in the loop.

Let them know if they need to do any pre-work or join your Facebook group.

Let them know all the details and then send them reminders leading up to the challenge start date.

You’ll also want to send emails daily during the challenge to remind them where to go, what to do and perhaps to share their insights with the community or on social media using a special hashtag.

*Bonus Tip: Don’t forget to send an email announcement and invite your existing community!

Social Media. Use your favorite social media channels to promote your event.

If you’re into ads, do that too. If not, don’t panic, go organic!

To make things easy, repurpose that same copy from your landing page and email announcement to quickly shoot out your social content.

5 Bonus Tips for Success

• Short, sweet and simple for the win!
• Make sure it’s doable – less is more. People will be amazed at what they can do in a short amount of time with YOUR help.
• Deliver your best content – don’t hold back. Chances are they won’t be able to take the next step without you support so they’ll reach out when they need to.
• Include a celebration – let them know you care about their success! Plus, it makes the challenge more fun when you end on a happy note.
• Ask for testimonials from your challengers – use these later to share on social media and to help promote your next challenge or similar program.

You Turn

Now, go host your challenge and send me an invite.

I’d love to hear all about it and help you share it with the world.

What challenge will you host or what challenges have you already hosted? Let me know in the comments below.