If you want to create a profitable challenge that attracts your ideal clients to your business, a 5-day challenge is perfect.

However, to be successful, you’re going to need to know how to structure and promote your challenge. You should also know how to turn your challenge participants into paying clients after the challenge is over.

This post covers the basics of creating a profitable 5-day challenge, including naming your challenge, the best promotion methods to get the word out, and the types of content you’ll want to send to your challenge participants every day.

Let’s jump right in!

Why 5 Days is the Optimal Challenge Length

First, let’s talk about the length of your challenge.

Some people recommend doing 30-day challenges, while others suggest an even shorter mini-challenge (3 days or less).

In my experience working with clients across many different industries, a 5-day challenge works best.

A 5-day challenge is long enough for people to get to know you and your brand.

It is also short enough that you don’t have to worry about people dropping out of your challenge before it’s over. And, before you’ve had a chance to make them a paid offer.

How to Create a Profitable 5-Day Challenge

1. How to Name Your Challenge

I always recommend my clients start with a working title and get the opinions of their ideal clients before officially naming their challenge.

A title that seems perfect to you may make no sense to your ideal client.

If you don’t have an audience (your own Facebook group or blog following, for example), you can ask for people’s opinions in other Facebook groups.

Just make sure these are groups where your ideal clients actually hang out since it’s their opinion that really matters here.

You don’t need to spend weeks or months deciding what to name your challenge. If you think of a better title, later on, you can use it for your next challenge!

Here are a few simple rules to keep in mind as you create your challenge title:

  • Keep it short and sweet (3-4 words is ideal)
  • Make sure it’s results-driven (“Raise Your Rates” or “5 Days to Better Sleep”)
  • Get specific (“5-Day Anti-Aging Detox” is better than “5-Day Detox”)
  • Make sure it’s not confusing to your audience (“Launch Your Podcast” instead of “The Golden Exposure Challenge”)

Should it include the word “challenge” in the title? Not necessarily.

For some industries, the word “challenge” may not work very well. In certain contexts, it can sound too aggressive or too masculine.

You can use alternatives like “project,” “detox,” “toolbox,” “booster” or other transformation-oriented words that are in the vocabulary of your ideal client.

Including the number of days in your challenge title is also not necessary. You can clarify this in the challenge description and other communications with your challenge participants.

Keep in mind that there are exceptions to every rule.

When naming your challenge, remember that the only people whose opinion matters are your ideal clients. They will actually be opting into your challenge.

If you’ve got a solid hunch that they would respond to a quirkier, more out-of-the-box challenge name, try it out and see what happens!

In the worst case scenario, you will gain some valuable insights about your ideal clients and their preferences, and do better next time.

2. How to Promote Your Challenge

Before you decide how much effort to put into promoting your challenge, you’ll want to know what you hope to get out of it.

How many people would you like to participate in your challenge?

Do you have a following already? If not, 50 is a good number to start with.

If you do, a few hundred participants (or more) might be within your reach!

The optimal promotion time frame is 1-2 weeks.

Any longer and people may lose interest and drop out before the challenge even starts!

You can start by posting the challenge to your business Facebook page.

To bolster the hype around your challenge, change the cover image of your page to something related to your challenge. Also, you may consider doing a Facebook LIVE to chat with your audience about what’s coming up.

You can also post about your challenge to any relevant Facebook groups, including your own.

Check the promotion rules before doing this, though – some groups only allow promotional posts in dedicated threads or on special Promo days.

Wherever you decide to promote your challenge, follow this format: ask a question related to the problem your challenge solves, then give some results-oriented details about your challenge and invite people to join through your link.

Of course, you should also send a challenge invite to your email list, if you have one, and consider other ways to get the word out (in addition to Facebook).

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to promotion. I go much deeper in my Profitable Online Challenges Program which guides you through the whole process from start to finish.

3. What Content to Create & Deliver Daily

There are two main ways you are going to deliver content to your challenge participants: email and Facebook.

If you can, try to create some or all of this content before the challenge officially starts (you can also repurpose it once your challenge is over).

Every day you should email your challenge participants their daily assignment with an accompanying video explaining what they are to accomplish.

Engage your participants on Facebook daily. You can create posts with questions and updates; you can also host a Facebook live session for Q&A… and much more.

They key is to be helpful and add value to your participant’s challenge experience without overwhelming them with too much content.

If you want to get new clients as an outcome of your challenge, it’s critical to get this right. Your challenge is a sample of what they would get from you as a coach and mentor. This is your chance to show them you’re stuff!

The daily engagement of a challenge is a wonderful opportunity to build trust and convert participants to clients, which is why I spend a significant portion of my Profitable Online Challenges Program on this topic.

4. How to Make an Offer

The easiest way to monetize your challenge is simply by offering the recordings from the challenge to people who joined, but don’t have the time while it’s live or who want to reference its contents later.

If you have an offer and want to include it after your challenge, it should feel like a natural next step for your participants.

There are 3 main follow-up methods for making a paid offer: offering a free strategy session, utilizing email marketing, or inviting your challenge participants to a webinar.

Follow-up emails work great if you are more comfortable with writing rather speaking with people about your offer. 

Strategy sessions work best if you have a smaller number of participants and you are good at enrolling clients on the phone.

And both strategy sessions and webinars work better if you are making a high-ticket offer. For example, a $2,000+ program is going to be easier to sell live (via a call or a webinar) than via email marketing.

Bonus Tip: you can also do a series of FB Lives leading to your paid offer.

Need More Help?

There are several things you need to consider to create a successful online challenge, many of which cannot be covered in a single blog post.

Want to make sure you nail every single aspect of your challenge? Download my FREE Profitable Online Challenge checklist:

FREE CHALLENGE CHECKLIST

 

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Alina Vincent
Business and Technology Strategist and CEO at Business Success Edge
Alina Vincent is a business strategist and the creator of a popular "Profitable Online Challenges" program. Alina is passionate about helping entrepreneurs package and monetize their knowledge and expertise to create a leveraged and scalable business. Experts hire her for strategic advise and simple step-by-step approach to creating successful online programs, engaged Facebook communities, and profitable online challenges. Finding her zone of genius by combining a strong analytical background, which includes advanced science degrees, with creative vision, Alina works at the intersection of logic and imagination, giving her clients everything from practical research-driven systems and strategies, to creative original and intuitive solutions.