The Complete 5-Day Challenge Launch Strategy
So you're ready to launch that program...
To get that course out into the world...
Or, to bring in your first flood of coaching clients...
Or, finally fill up that client roster for your services...
Or, build up your direct sales team and move some product...
BUT - you also know a few other things right off the bat...
You don't want a launch that leaves you feeling exhausted
You don't have deep pockets, so the budget is REAL
You have an awesome idea, but your audience size isn't as awesome
You just WANT IT, like in your bones you're ready to make progress
Now if you're like 99% of people, you just rode the roller coaster of I CAN DO THIS, to DO I HAVE WHAT IT TAKES, and you've just docked at "JUST SHOW ME THE DANG PLAN".
I can tell you first hand that I've experienced MANY launches. Launches that have made as little as $400, and as much as $60,000 and I've hit every target in between.
Challenges are the quickest, easiest, lowest risk launch there is.
Period.
They don't require a massive audience, you don't need deep pockets, and you just need to be READY to make progress.
So if you're ready for more clients, less work, and better results... let's do this!
Planning Your 5-Day Challenge
There is this major error that a LOT of people make when they plan their 5-day challenge.
They see everyone else on the internet doing one of these...
5 Day [Insert Social Media Platform Here] Challenge
5 Day [Insert Green Smoothie, or Clean Eating, or Other "Health Topic] Challenge
5 Days Challenge to [Insert Topic]
Are you salivating to sign up?
Yeah, me neither.
You need to focus on creating a challenge offer that is specific and tied to an outcome.
So how can you get this done?
Easy: Create a challenge based on something you can CREATE in just 5 days for your potential customer.
Here are several challenges I've run successfully using this idea:
Generate 20 Leads & 1 Sale This Week With Livestreaming
Build Your Simple Sales Funnel in Just 5 Days
Create Your FIRST (or Next) High Converting Facebook Ad in Just 5 Days
Wow, way more exciting right?
So if you're planning a 5 day "challenge" ditch the same old 5-day challenge "name" and change it into a 5 day EXPERIENCE that your prospects will go through with YOU!
Once you get the topic of your challenge on lock, then it's time to fill that sucker up!
Promoting Your 5-Day Challenge
Promoting and Filling the challenge is VERY important. We usually see a 3-5% conversion on a COLD audience, and 6-8% conversion on a warm market.
That means for every 4-6 sales we want (depending on audience temperature) we need to get 100 people into the challenge.
I recommend using at least 3 different traffic sources...
(1) Paid Traffic Source
(1) Organic Traffic Source
(1) Outreach Traffic Source
Facebook Ads for Challenges
Facebook ads are ESSENTIAL in my opinion for creating a successful 5-day challenge!
We've had over 1,000 sign ups for our challenges DIRECTLY from facebook ads, and have had thousands more over the life of my business.
I recommend that if you're going to run Facebook ads, you start with your warm market as they will conver the easiest. The 3 warm market targets are:
Ads to your existing email list
Ads to people who like your page
Ads to people who have visited your website
We've gotten as many as 500 sign ups for under $250 by focusing on these targets first.
After you've maxed out your warm audiences, then you can allocate additional monies to running ads to cold audiences.
Even if you have a limited budget, you can pull off ads for the entire challenge for just a few hundred bucks, and when we're talking 5-figure returns - that's nothing!
If you need more insight on running Facebook Ads - you can get my FREE guide to writing high converting ads right here.
Organic Traffic for Challenges
Without fail I have to remind my clients and students that organic traffic is IMPORTANT!
We've got students getting HUNDREDS into their challenge with a small (or zero) list, and a tiny (or zero) budget!
Organic traffic is any traffic that doesn't require you to invest additional money into your promotion, and includes:
Marketing on a social media platform of your choice
Livestreaming on Facebook, Periscope or even YouTube
Emailing your existing list (if you have one)
Word of Mouth (aka inviting)
The argument against "organic" marketing usually goes something like...
"But Zach I don't have a BIG audience like you..."
I didn't have a big audience on day one, but I still got mad organic sign ups.
Take some time to market to where you already are, remember that if you can get even 25-50 people signed up with a couple of posts, you could be generating additional sales.
That money (even if it's only a couple hundred) can go right into more PAID marketing to expand your business and your brand.
When it comes to organic marketing, just promise me you won't neglect it, it's important and it works!
Outreach Marketing for Challenges
Outreach marketing is a simple concept - this is putting the power of organic marketing into someone else's hands!
I LOVE the idea of outreach marketing because it allows you to expand beyond your circle of influence, and it's SIMPLE. Outreach marketing includes...
Getting Other's to email their list
Getting Challengers to invite or share
Getting Other's to share in Facebook Groups
Now I can already sense the sweaty palms and "don't make me do this vibes" you're putting out!
Don't worry - you don't have to ASK directly for outreach marketing - you simple build it into your marketing efforts.
For example - the first assignment in ANY challenge we run is to invite a friend! That immediately get's people sharing!
Now how do you get people to share you out to THEIR audience?
You have to make it easy to share you!
Make social media graphics and share them in your challenge group. Make the sign-up link easy to share and remember. Make a post reminding people to invite.
You don't have to go rogue and start begging people to share you - you just have to create an awesome topic and make it super easy to share
Executing Your 5-Day Challenge
Running the challenge is actually the easy part - because before you start, you already have a plan!
The challenge itself is super easy.
Day 1-4 you simple provide value and create an epic experience by showing up for your challengers.
Then on Day 5, you pivot into your offer and convert people with a Fast Acting Offer.
We have testing limited time bonuses, price increases, price discounts, cart open/close dates and they ALL convert. It doesn't really matter what you do but you MUST include a deadline of some kind after the challenge ends.
Once that deadline hits your special offer goes away and the challenge experience ends.
But on a more nitty gritty level each day goes a little like this!
Early AM - Send an email with an assignment & some tips
Mid Day - Do a livestream to connect with your audience
Late PM - Check in with your Challenge Group and answer questions
Throughout the day I may also check in, but if you do that - you're good to go, because these three phases allow you to create massive trust and authority FAST!
Building Trust & Authority in 5 Days
Now let's take a quick moment to talk about what makes a launch effective. In my mind it comes down to three core pieces...
Getting an Audience (CHECK)
Creating an Experience (CHECK)
Highlighting your Expertise & Authority (Let's Talk About That Next...)
The best thing about 5-day challenges is that they are easy to promote (and I've given you a template on how to promote), the experience is built in, and it's easy to become the expert to your target audience.
You see over the course of 5 days you're able to show people the depth of your knowledge on the topic your promoting while simultaneously connecting with your audience.
Let's take my 5-day funnel challenge as an example. For anyone that engaged in the challenge I was able to show them...
My expertise on funnels (building authority)
Get them results and progress (building trust)
That I'm connected and engaged with them (builds the "like factor")
When people like you, can see you know your stuff, and trust you - all they need is to be presented with an offer and they become your new customer.
Your challenge relies on YOU and the EXPERIENCE you create - and it only takes 5 days.
Hopefully you're starting to see why challenges are such a powerful launch vehicle.
Ready to Plan Your Challenge?
Here's the thing...
Throughout this post I've referenced several times how important it is that you create a solid challenge and plan it out before you start.
From finding the right topic, to knowing your key marketing tools, to planning out your daily flow - a plan is the first step to creating a succesfful challenge.
Before I ever start "day 1" I alway have my notebook filled with the topic of each day, what I want to show people, and what assignment I want to give them.
And if you didn't know... I HATE to plan - but I know how important it is for a challenge based launch.
This plan is what's been responsible for quick 10 days sprints of plan, promote, and launch that have generated as much as $22,000 in sales!
In addition to planning the challenge, I also take time to set my budget and plan out some ads to run during the challenge to keep people engaged.
By time day 1 rolls around - I'm just going through the motions. Maybe writing an email or two - but for the most part I'm just following a road map I created and getting paid.
ACTION ITEM: Before we close out this post I want to give you one little action item! Comment below with ONE thing you learned from this post and how you're going to put it in ACTION in your business?
I've walked hundreds of people through this exact process inside my programs and the common denominator for success?
The successful challenge launches happened to those that took action!
If you want to learn more I’ve got an EPIC toolkit that teaches you EXACTLY how to set up, write emails for, run ads for, and CRUSH your own 5-day challenge!
