Jun 18, 2019
I recently ran a free challenge in my Facebook Group, Market Like a Boss, and I landed 5 new clients and made over $10k.
This was the most successful challenge that I’ve ever run! I’m all about transparency so I want to share why it was so successful. I want you to know what it takes so you can replicate this type of success in your business.
Here are 10 reasons why I was able to make $10k from one challenge:
140 people signed up for the challenge, the biggest number I have had yet. Before you start beating yourself up for running a challenge and only getting 5 people in, know that I have done a LOT of challenges before this one and they did not start out this way! For my first challenge, I hustled for an entire month or more to get 100 people. Other challenges have only netted me 30 or 40 people. With this challenge, I promoted it for one week and got 140 people. The reason I got so many people signed up in such a short period of time is because I’ve focused my marketing on growing my audience and that growth is paying off. Takes time, but it is so worth it!
The reason it’s important to get a lot of people signed up is because there’s some math involved. The average conversion rate for someone who participates in a free challenge and then purchases a paid offering is between 1-3%. So, if you want to sell a program or service from something free, you need to make sure you have enough people in the free thing before you sell the paid thing. It’s important to do the math to set the right expectations for yourself.
There is no shortcut when it comes to creating good content. My challenge was focused on a topic that I knew people wanted, so that helped generate excitement (and bring more people in). I also showed up and focused my content on shifting the perspectives of those participating, and they were wowed by that! You want to blow people away with your free content so they want to work with you in a paid capacity.
The majority of the clients who signed on with me had been in my group for a while. So they already knew me and knew that I delivered great content. Nurturing an audience takes time, so don’t stop showing up if it seems like no one is listening. Some of the clients who signed on with me weren’t the most active in my group. But because I consistently showed up they felt like they knew me and could trust me. That also shows the importance of nurturing your audience while you grow it…numbers are great, but you need an engaged audience, not just a big one.
My offer after my challenge was for my group coaching program. I positioned the offer as a continuation of the challenge. I talked about the outcome and the transformation they would receive rather than talking about what was included in the program.
I knew what people were learning during the free challenge, and I talked about how those learnings were going to help them go further and get closer to getting steady clients. And I confidently talked about how my group coaching program was the proper next step for them.
Whatever free thing you’re offering, think about how it ties into your paid offer. Think about how you can use it to frame your paid offer as the next natural step for your audience on their journey.
A lot! I talked about the challenge a lot more than I necessarily felt comfortable with, and probably a lot more than you would feel comfortable with.
But all 5 people who signed up as a client signed up 24 hours before the deadline. This is normal for any launch. When you go through a launch, inevitably there will be a period where you feel like no one is listening and you feel like quitting. Don’t quit! When you feel this way, show up even more. Keep showing up until the very end.
I work with a coach and I’m in a group coaching program. Two days before the end of my challenge I was on a group call and I shared that I didn’t believe that anyone was going to sign up for my program. At that point, there was some truth to this — no one had signed up or even showed interest in joining the group program. On the call, my coach and the other women were able to help me evaluate that feeling and separate the fact from the feeling. We worked through an exercise and asked if it was true that no one is interested. No! We talked through why I needed to show up even more. I got off that call super energized and ready to go.
I believe this fresh energy is what helped me bring in those clients. Had I not gotten on that call with my coach and peers, I don’t believe I would have sold 5 spots to my program.
I simply talked directly to the people who were the right fit. I talked very specifically about who was the right fit and who wasn’t. The beauty of that is that it did my screening for me. In fact, I sold 5 spots to my group coaching program without getting on a single discovery call! I simply messaged back and forth to answer a few questions. Because I spent time nurturing my audience they were primed and ready to buy.
In the past, I’ve been emotionally tied to the outcome. This time, I knew I wanted to get 3 people into my group coaching program but I wasn’t necessarily tied to how it was going to happen. And good thing! One of the people who signed on was a current client who saw the promotion and decided she wanted more access to me.
You never really know how you’re going to achieve your goal. So don’t be so emotionally tied to how it has to happen.
My clients shared information about my group coaching program, referred people my way, and talked to people who were interested in joining. This was incredible because the women who wanted to join the program had an opportunity to talk to the people who are actually in it. That kind of social proof is marketing gold.
Serve your current clients! I can promise you that they will be your best ambassadors. It will continue to pay off for you in ways you can’t even imagine because they are going to keep talking about the results that they’ve gotten with you and others will want the same experience.
Do you whole-heartedly, 100% believe that your offer has the power to transform someone’s life? If you doubt what you are delivering, your audience will doubt it too.
I had to do some pretty heavy mindset work because in the first few days after the challenge no one was talking about my group program or asking questions and I started to doubt whether or not it was truly valuable. My coach helped me work through a few exercises to see why my program was valuable and why it mattered to my audience.
If you don’t believe in yourself, how do you expect others to believe in you? Figure out why you’re not all in on your offer and what you need to do to get all in. Trust me - putting in this time will result in a successful launch.
I hope it was helpful for me to outline why this challenge was so successful. Remember, I have learned from a number of challenges to get to this place. I have had a number of challenges that flopped in order to get to this place. So if you’re not at a point where you’re bringing in $10K from a challenge, don’t despair! With every challenge you run, you learn valuable lessons and move one step closer to hitting your goals.
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