How to Pick a Challenge Topic (Without Giving Everything Away)
Have you ever been to a trivia night? They’re tons of fun, but only if you go to the right one. If you’re a die-hard Office fan, then a Harry Potter trivia night isn’t going to cut it (even if the drinks and food are good). See, the thing that makes a trivia night fun is the topic. It has to be what’s right for you. Otherwise, you could go to any old pub for trivia night and expect the same setup: beer, pretzels, and nobody-knows-the-answer-to-this questions.
Hosting a challenge for your followers is a lot like a trivia night. You know it will be fun, but only if you choose the right topic for your business, one that will also lead all your new participants to your latest offers and courses!
Set a goal for your challenge
If you’re ready to go the challenge route, you’ve first got to decide what your goal is. For example, do you want to boost your followers? Or build out your email list? Are you trying to promote a new course or digital offer? Once you’ve identified what your challenge needs to do for your business, you decide on the challenge topic that will work best.
What type of challenge should you do?
The best thing about challenges is that they are entirely customizable. So go ahead and do something creative. Just make sure that it follows our number one rule – it has to connect to what you are selling or your goal. If you follow that rule, your challenge will be a success, no matter what type of setup you choose to do. Here are a few of my favorites.
Habit challenge
A habit challenge encourages a daily habit. These types of challenges can be a great way to build up a community and increase engagement among your audience, boosting your sales. You can go through the challenge with your followers, posting daily reminders and highlights. When it’s over, your followers will see how the everyday actions help. Then you can then push the plug for your audience to dig deeper and buy your course or offering. The advantage of this type of challenge is that once it’s finished your new participants will actually see the results of what you have to offer in their daily lives and actions. For example, let’s say you host a challenge to do an IG Live everyday for your business. At the end of the week, your participants will be able to see what that daily habit did for their business and how it improved their engagement. The results will speak for themselves.
Active workshop challenge
Are you the kind of person who gets overwhelmed by a large amount of work? Or do you dream big but never complete what you start? Then an active workshop-style challenge is perfect for you or people like you. This type of workshop targets those who struggle to get started or finish. It's pretty simple to set up.
Each day you break down the overall goal into a straightforward step. So, if your challenge is for your followers to build a funnel in 5 days, they’ll do one manageable task each day. Then, when the five days are up, they’ll have a complete sales funnel that they can use for their projects.
The advantage of this type of challenge is that your followers will come out of it with a completed deliverable. Something they can use! After all the time they’ve wasted struggling to start or finish a project, a completed deliverable is a big deal. But it’s also only one part of the puzzle. They still need more, and now they know that you can help them get it done. So, they’ll be in the perfect position for the next crucial step – buying your course to leverage or sell what they just created!
Create it, then sell it challenge
In this type of challenge, you want to help out your followers who are just starting their businesses. Maybe they have a great course or digital offer idea but no idea how to execute it or create it. Your month-long challenge takes them through the entire creation process to have a sellable product. Two of my favorite businesses do a fantastic job of this type of work.
For example, the Digital Course Academy from Amy Porterfield offers a month-long digital course creation program that takes you through everything you need to know. When participants finish, they have a completed digital course and the tools they need to launch it for sale.
Take the GeekPack 5 Day Coding Challenge from Julia Taylor, for example. Julia created a simple five challenge teaching people the basics of coding a website. When participants finish, they have a two-page website they’ve built themselves and can use for their business. But more importantly, they’ve learned valuable coding skills and will want to know more, so then they sign up for more GeekPack programs and courses!
The advantage of the GeekPack challenge is that it gives participants the chance to put their skills to use. They learn that they can create something sellable, but they still probably need some help with it. So, they buy more packages and offers because they now know that they can do it, because of what they learned!
Challenges help get your customers there faster
Here’s a hard truth for you. If people are motivated, they could scour the internet and find free resources to teach them everything they need to know. But that type of DIY mojo requires lots of time, sorting, and learning to figure everything out. Who’s got that kind of time?
Creating a challenge is one way to grab your potential customers before they go down the rabbit hole. It’s like you’re holding up a sign that says, 'Here come here, I have everything you need in ONE place!’ That’s why choosing the right topic is so critical, because you have to show your participants that you are the expert, and how you teach your topic is the best way to get the information.
You may not be teaching anything that’s groundbreakingly original. Guess what? Nobody is! Most of us are simply repackaging general knowledge in a specific way that helps others take advantage of it better.
It’s like the difference between taking the highway and surface streets. Sure, surface streets can get you to your destination, but it will take a lot longer with a lot more twists and turns. So isn’t it easier to just hop on the highway and get where you want to go?
Don’t forget the #1 rule
If you’re ready to start up a challenge, remember it has to connect to what you're selling or what your goal is. That’s my number one rule! So plaster it on your computer, make it your background screen on your phone, put it on a sign! Because if your challenge doesn’t even make your participants think about your digital course or offer, then it’s just a fun hobby you're trying to get other people to do with you.
Want to host a challenge but don’t know where to start?
Have we convinced you that a challenge is the right introduction for your upcoming launch? Awesome! Don’t worry, though, we won’t just leave you hanging there. We want to make sure you know everything that goes into creating a launch, so make sure to check out our Launch Recipe Cards!
We’ve got all the ingredients you need to host your perfect challenge, from tech set-up to promotion and actually hosting the event!