Last time I talked about the 7 biggest mistakes I see people make while running social challenges. Today, I wanted to offer up my TOP TIPS so that you can make your next (or first) challenge a complete success!
K.I.S.S. Keep it simple, sister! I can’t stress this enough. When I work with people on their challenges, their biggest roadblock is overthinking. Think of your challenge as Step 1 or Step 0 before your client works with you. What do they need to accomplish? What win or result do they have to experience. Break that down into 5-10 actionable steps and go with it.
Make it flow– If you’re using your challenge to promote or sell a product or service at the end, make sure the challenge has something to do directly with your product or service. You want there to be an easy transition and a clear path. Bonus points if you can name your challenge something that is similar to your program name. For example, in April, I ran the Get Gutsy, Make Green challenge and then promoted the launch of my Gutsy Girls Make Green program.
Get them excited– When you start promoting, make a big stinking deal! Get excited, go all out, let people know what to expect. The more excited you are, the more excited participants will be and they will be more likely to share the challenge and invite their friends. Bonus tip: make it easy for them to share by adding social share buttons on your thank you page.
Get ‘em where you want them– The whole point of the challenge is to really engage with your peeps. Make sure you are filtering them into a Facebook group or other private forum so that you can actually comment and give feedback on their challenge prompts. You can either use a current group you run or create a group specifically for the challenge.
Prizes and giveaways– This is totally optional, but a great way to entice people to actually participate in the challenge once they’ve signed up. There are always going to be people who sign up who don’t show up for the challenge. This is a great way to encourage them to do the prompts and also hold them accountable.
Follow up sequence– Don’t let them go just because the challenge is over. Even if you are selling something at the end, the percentage of people who will complete the challenge and buy from you is small. What about all the others? Make sure you have a follow up sequence (sales funnel) in place to continue to reach out to them based on what they wanted in the challenge. This can also be a great way to downsell or upsell those who didn’t bite on your offer.
Make it evergreen– If they challenge does really well, you may want to consider making it evergreen and using it as an opt in for your mailing list. Only do this if you get a great response and you know it produces results. If possible, get feedback from participants so you can make any necessary tweaks.
So that’s it! My top tips for running a challenge. Are you excited to create your next or first challenge? In the comments let me know what your idea is!
