8 Steps to Create a Challenge | ProductiveandFree

If you’ve been in business for a while, you might have heard of online challenges.

They’re these highly popular events that get people excited and engaged for a short period of time and there are also a lot of topics out there for you to choose from.

I’ve personally joined many challenges before (a meditation challenge, a blogging challenge, a drink-green-smoothies challenge, and even a Youtube yoga challenge), and I’ve also created and hosted a couple of challenges for my business too (a goal-setting challenge, a productivity challenge, a to-do list challenge, a habit challenge, etc.).

Speaking from experience, creating and hosting a challenge is a highly effective strategy to:

Attract your ideal clients and customers
Build your email list
Grow your community
Increase engagement within that community
Position yourself as an industry expert
Increase awareness about your products or services
Sell your products or services

So, if you’re here thinking of creating a challenge for yourself, you’ve come to the right place because it doesn’t have to be as complicated as you think.

Here are eight steps to create a challenge (the simple way).

1. Pick a challenge topic

The first step is to pick your challenge topic.

It might sound simple at first but many people actually get stuck here because there’s just so many topics you could create a challenge around.

Here’s a quick exercise that could help.

List down topics you’re knowledgeable about.
List down topics that are relevant to your business offer/s.
List down topics that your target audience is interested in.

You could imagine this as a 3-way Venn diagram and once you have a couple of ideas under each category, you could choose the topic that overlaps all three.

It’s also a good idea to choose a topic that could help your target audience get a quick win.

If you can clearly identify the end results for your target audience, then you know you have a good challenge topic.

Remember, the more actionable your challenge is, the better, because it can help them get to know you, like you, and trust you enough to buy your products or book your services later on.

Sample Challenge

To put this blog post in action, we’ll create a sample challenge called, “Create Your First Lead Magnet in 5 Days.”

To follow step 1, I picked this specific topic because:

I know about lead magnets and email list building.
Lead magnets are relevant to my business offers (I sell easy-to-edit lead magnet templates).
My target audience is interested in growing their business and getting more clients. Lead magnets and list building are excellent ways to accomplish that.

2. Set challenge goals

The next step is to set goals you want to achieve with your challenge.

Do you want your target audience to know, like, and trust you?
Do you want to position yourself as an expert in your industry?
Do you want to sell your products or services?
Do you want to grow a community?
Do you want to increase awareness about your brand and business?
Do you want to gauge interest in a future product or service?

More specifically, try to answer:

Who is your ideal challenge participant?
What is your target number of challenge participants?
What is your target conversion rate?
When will you host your challenge?

It’s best to be clear about your purpose for creating a challenge so that all your actions from here on out would be directed towards those goals.

Next, be sure to set goals for your challenge participants too!

What do you want your participants to learn, do, overcome, or accomplish with your challenge?
At the beginning of your challenge, they should be able to ___________.
During your challenge, they should be able to ___________.
By the end of your challenge, they should be able to ___________.

The clearer the end results are for your participants, the easier it is to determine whether the challenge will be a success for them or not.

Sample Challenge

To follow step 2, my goal is to sell my lead magnet templates.

My goal for my challenge participants is for them to understand the importance of lead magnets to grow their business and to actually create a lead magnet using my lead magnet templates.

Want to create your own challenge?

No need to start from scratch — our challenge lead magnet bundles can help!

Our bundles include workbook pages AND social media graphics to help you create your challenge workbook and promote your challenge on different platforms.

3. Meet your participants at the beginning

Now that you have the goals, end results, and outcomes in mind, it’s time to put yourself in the shoes of your challenge participants.

What are they struggling with right now?
What’s their current mindset and limiting beliefs?
What do they know or don’t know?
What’s been holding them back?
What have they tried before? Why didn’t it work for them?

It’s important to understand what your target audience is really going through because then you could provide a clear path for them to move forward.

You’ll be able to meet them where they are right now and help them get from point A to point B.

Sample Challenge

For this sample challenge, I might assume that my target audience has had trouble growing their email list and getting more clients.

Maybe they’re unclear about email lists or lead magnets and how it can be extremely beneficial for their business.

Maybe they think it’s difficult to create a lead magnet or maybe they’ve tried creating lead magnets before but they were unsuccessful.

4. Connect the dots

Now it’s time to take your answers in step 2 and step 3 and connect the dots with your challenge content.

What would it take for your participants to get from point A to point B?
What are the exact steps they need to take?
What is the most logical order of those steps?
What do they need to do or learn first, second, third, and so on?

Remember, your goal is for your participants to complete your challenge so aim for quick wins to not overwhelm them.

Be sure to break down your content into small steps they can do, learn, or work on daily.

Then based on this information, determine the duration that makes the most sense for your challenge (3 days, 5 days, 7 days, 30 days, or something else).

Sample Challenge

To connect the dots in our sample 5-day challenge, here’s how I could structure it.

DAY 1 - I could inform them what a lead magnet is and why it’s important.
DAY 2 - I could share different types of lead magnets and give examples. I could also help them decide which type of lead magnet is best for their business.
DAY 3 - I could create sample lead magnets so they can see how easy it is. I could also give them a free workbook lead magnet template so they can create one for themselves.
DAY 4 - I could share lead magnet tips to help them with their lead magnet strategy.

DAY 5 - I could recap everything we covered in the past few days and share a checklist that outlines everything they need to do from start to finish. They could then refer to this checklist every time they make a lead magnet from now on.

5. Include bonuses

A big draw for online challenges is actually the bonuses because these help drive interest, increase engagement, and provide more resources for the participants.

Bonuses are optional of course but here are some popular types:

Checklists
Workbooks
eBooks
Expert interviews
Shoutouts on social media
Membership / community
Giveaways, contests, or rewards
Discounts or promotions on related products / services

Be sure to include bonuses that would actually help your participants take action and see results.

The more they take action and the more results they get, the more proof you have that you know what you’re talking about and people should take notice of what you offer.

Sample Challenge

For step 5, I could offer free lead magnet templates for my challenge participants. I could also create a Facebook group pop-up where I could host the daily video lessons and to create a community around the challenge. I could also go on Instagram and give a shoutout to the people who would be able to create their lead magnet using my lead magnet templates.

6. Choose your content format

The next step is to choose the content format of your challenge.

Based on your answers in step 1 (pick a challenge topic), step 4 (connect the dots), and step 5 (include bonuses), determine which type of content would work best:

Live or recorded video lessons (slides only, direct-to-camera, or a combination)
Audio lessons (ex. for meditation challenges)
Downloadable and printable worksheets, workbooks, or planner pages
Automated emails sent each day of the challenge
Blog posts scheduled to be published each day of the challenge

Next, decide if you will make this challenge available all at once or if you will “drip” your content on a daily or weekly basis.

Lastly, determine if you want to make this challenge evergreen (available 24/7 all year round) or if you want this to be just a one-time challenge.

Sample Challenge

For the purpose of this sample challenge, I could do daily live webinars that is a combination of slides and direct-to-camera with screen-sharing for the tutorial.

I could also structure it as a 5-day drip content-type of challenge and then make it evergreen after launching it the first time.

7. Choose your platform/s and tools

Next, choose how you’ll make your challenge available to people including the tools or platforms you’ll use.

Here are a few common tools but take note that most challenge hosts use a combination of these options:

An automated email sequence
A private Facebook group
Webinar or course platform
Youtube
Instagram
Website and blog

Sample Challenge

As I’ve mentioned, I could create a Facebook group pop-up and go live every day in there for five days.

I could also create an automated email sequence to remind the participants to join the Facebook group, to tune in live, and to tell their friends about the challenge.

8. Promote your challenge

Last but not the least, promote your challenge on relevant platforms to get it in front of your target audience.

Remember, it doesn’t matter how good or valuable your challenge is if no one knows about it in the first place.

Be sure to set aside time and resources to spread the word and get people excited to sign up and join your challenge.

Sample Challenge

As I’ve mentioned, I could promote the challenge to my email list and on Instagram and Facebook.

I could also offer incentives like giveaways, contents, or freebies to encourage more people to join and share the challenge with their friends.

Over to You

An online challenge is a widely popular strategy to grow your email list and increase awareness about your products or services. It’s also a great way to grow your community and boost engagement but it can be quite overwhelming to set up the first time. For this reason, consider these eight steps to create your first online challenge (the simple way): pick a challenge topic, set goals, meet your participants at the beginning, connect the dots, choose your content format, choose your platforms and tools, and promote your challenge.