How to create a community building email challenge

‘The money is in the list’ I bet you’ve heard that line before. Maybe you are totally onboard (as you should be) about the value of having an engaged email list. Which brings you to your first problem. How do you get people on your list. More than that how do you get the right people in your email list.

 

There are many different strategies you can employ to help you build your email list, one of the most effective being a ‘challenge’. A challenge is as mini-course designed to help readers achieve a specific goal in a much shorter period of time, usually within 5-30 days.

 

Before we get to the meat and potatoes of this post where I’ll show you exactly how to create your own challenge. I wanted to touch on why challenges are so effective.

 

 

 

 

Why email challenges are powerful list builders

 

Email challenges are a great idea for a few different reasons;

 

 

• Challenges allow you to showcase your skills and expertise

 

You will be sharing highly specific, helpful content with the people on your challenge. You might even build in some time to teach them directly, perhaps through video or a live broadcast. This allows you to really help your audience and for them to see you as the authority. They can see how passionate and knowledgeable you are.

 

• Challenges can help you qualify leads

 

Challenges also help you segment your list so you can qualify leads more effectively. Then you will be able to divide your list into those who completed the challenge (potentially more committed) and those who didn’t. You can then focus more on those who did complete.

 

• Challenges can give your content focus

 

By theming your content for the duration of the challenge will making it easier for you and also gives you numerous points to try to drive people back to the challenge. Being cohesive in the way you speak about a topic on all your platforms also helps to cement you as the expert in that area.

 

• Challenges can be used as a tripwire

 

The ideal behind using a trip wire is that once someone has purchased from you they are more likely to buy from you again. Even if the initial purchase is of a low value. So perhaps you up sell a workbook for the challenge or you mention other products that are relevant as you progress through the challenge.

 

• Challenges can motivate action

 

There is something very appealing about the ‘we’re all doing it together’ mentality. None of us want to experience FOMO either, so by positioning you challenge as a way to overcome X or achieve Y with a group of like-minded people it will spur people into action and they will want to join in.

 

• Challenges can boost sales and traffic

 

Creating challenges can drive a lot of traffic to your website. The challenge will generate a host of new people who are all getting value from you, so they will head to your site to see what other content you have on offer. The more people on your site the more people will buy your products too.

 

O.k. so let’s now focus on how to run a challenge. We need to start with some planning.

 

Let’s plan your challenge

 

STEP 1:  Think about your audience’s goals

 

A challenge should take your audience from their current point to their desired point. To help you make sure they get there (well to the best of your ability) you need to plot their journey.

 

If you’re unsure of what topic to focus your challenge on, then you need to pinpoint the biggest issue they have right now which prevents them from moving forward.

 

Look for this information in your Facebook group, what questions are you being asked, what emails are you receiving, which posts of your have most traction? Also think about what YOU know they need next (remember unconscious incompetence (they don’t know what they don’t know).

 

Here are some ideas:

 

•                 5 days to Declutter your home
•                 7 Days to cut sugar
•                 Organise your life in 30 days
•                 Learn to sign in 10 days
•                 Lose 10lb in 7 days
•                 30 days to start homeschooling
•                 Write your book in 30 days
•                 Learn how to budget for life in 5 days

 

Consider your timescale

 

Think about the transformation you want your participants to go through. How long will it take them to go through and hit those points you mapped out? Is 5 days sufficient or will it need to be longer? Any number between 5 and 30 days is popular.

 

Will you send daily emails?  For me, this is always a yes. Daily emails is the best way to keep participants engaged, but it is up to you are what fits your content the best.

 

STEP 2: What are your goals?

 

• To grow your list
• To strengthen your relationship with your audience
• Develop a community

 

You need to have a specific goal. Where are you currently and where do you want to be?

 

Make sure your goals are SMART:  Grow your email list (specific), in the month before and during the challenge (time-based), relevant (more emails = more people in your funnel which will increase sales), attainable (this is not a wildly extravagant goal) and measurable (500 more people on my list).

 

“During the challenge month I will add 500 more people to my email list.”

 

STEP 3: How to create your challenge

 

The delivery of your challenge will depend on;

 

• How your audience like consume content.
• What makes sense for the type of content you are delivering.
• The connection you want with your audience.

 

You can place the content in a few different sites. If you have a Facebook group then that’s a great place to host the content, in addition to the lessons being emailed to your participants. Through the challenge you are training your audience to open your emails, so the aspect of appearing in their inbox is so important. You may then also pop the info in the Facebook group or in a free Teachable account for people to refer back to.

 

Also this means if someone signs up after the challenge has started you can direct them to the place where they can catch up.

 

What are you going to teach and how?

 

Even though a challenge is free it still needs to be super valuable. You should truly believe that you could charge for it.

 

Don’t be afraid to vary the content delivery from day to day. It might be the case that you need to be on camera or live for one lesson but the following day you need to share screenshots etc. That’s totally fine and you should focus on providing the best content delivery for that specific material. Content types could be a written lesson, an audio file, a case study, an interview, a livestream, a video, a group coaching call via zoom or Skype. There are no limits to the variations you could offer. Just make sure you are picking what is best for that day’s content.

 

STEP 4: – Outlining and creating your challenge

 

Now it’s time to get the sticky notes out. My favourite way to plan a challenge is to think of all of the points that your participant needs to master in order for them to get from point a to b. Put each milestone on a sticky note, this way you can move them around if you need to. When it makes sense in terms of their progression then these sticky notes can act as a day of the challenge and can be expanded with more content.

 

Make sure you are staying lean and trying to deliver a quick win, rather than sharing everything you know about the topic.

 

Filling out the content

 

Make sure each day makes sense and ideally stands on its own.

 

Each lesson should:

 

Review: What they last learned or review their current state for the first lesson.

Main lesson: this is where you will do the main ‘teaching’ part of the content.

Daily task: This will be the instructional part- instructing the participants to take an action. Remember quick win!

Assessment: Tell them how they will be able to measure their success. Can they pop their ‘homework’ somewhere and ask for feedback? Or will it be self-evaluated or community evaluated?

Preview next session: To keep your audience engaged, preview what you’ll be discussing in the following session, ensuring they understand the sequential nature of the challenge as a whole.

 

 

Think about tie in’s to your paid products/affiliate products

 

While you are mapping our your content think of appropriate places where you it would help your audience to mention one of your paid offers or even an affiliate offer.

You could also create a skip the line challenge where for a small fee (such as £10) a participant can decide not to wait for the daily lessons but to pay and get every lesson delivered to them (perhaps packaged in a nice printable format) immediately.

 

STEP 5: Setting everything up

 

Write out each lesson and store them somewhere on your computer. I usually pop mine in my notes app, so I know where they are. I can then copy them to wherever they need to be from there.

 

I then add them to my auto responder and schedule them to go out on the appropriate dates. I also schedule everything in the Facebook group.

 

When you have you content you need to create an opt in page so people can join the challenge. You could use Leadpages or simply the form that you have on your autoresponder and embed that into your blog.

 

You will need to set up a list named as your challenge, so you know that these are the people who need to receive the challenge emails. Then this list will need to link to the challenge emails. This is usually a super simple button click, but the exact steps will vary according to your particular autoresponder. Often it is an automation which states if someone join X form subscribe them to X sequence.

 

When you’re creating your opt in page think of how your challenge will benefit your readers. A great format to follow is:

Call to attention – any question to clarify leads – do you struggle to ….

Offer an invitation – would you like to learn how to write sales copy in 5 minutes flat

Make an offer – come along to my fb live today and i’ll share blah blah blah

Call to action – tell them what to do next – type in the comments to let me know if you’re coming. or give weblink – click here to sign up here

 

e.g.

Do you want to write a book?

Would you like to learn how to write a #1 best seller in 90 days?

Join me for this special Facebook live today and I’ll be sharing a step by step process to doing just that.

Click the link to go to the broadcast at 4pm GMT

I would then always add the opt in sign up box to other places on my site and maybe even my main navigation menu.

 

STEP 6: Promote your challenge

 

You will want at least two weeks before your challenge starts to get the word out with your promotion strategy.

To promote your challenge and get it in front of the right eyes, you have a few options:

• Social Media
• Email
• Guest Posts
• Blog posts
• Video

 

You could;

• Offer a behind the scenes of your challenge content
• Showcase success stories from those who have already completed the challenge

 

Using social media

 

Use a hashtag when you are promoting you challenge this means people can easily connect with others who are signed up too and the excitement can start to build. It also gives you a central point to connect with people on social.

 

Use all your channels to promote your challenge with custom graphics and an easy to remember shortlink.

 

Email your list

 

Make sure you share your challenge with your subscribers, even though they are on your list you want to provide value to them. Also they will spread the word to others and get them to sign up too.

Scheduled regular email blasts to those who have signed up and those who haven’t so far.

 

Create a promo video and/or do a live broadcast

 

Video is so powerful and can be a great way to get the word out about your challenge. You can explain the benefits and give people a taster of your skills and experience.

 

Guest on a few podcasts/other blogs in your niche to promote the challenge.

 

After the interview or guest post you will be able to give a link – make sure this is directing people to your challenge and mention it in your interview/post.

 

There you have my audience building challenge strategy.  Start brainstorming ideas for your own challenge! Then follow these steps  to ensure you have an awesome challenge. Do you have an idea for your challenge?