10 Ways to Promote Your Next Online Challenge

by Kathleen LeGrys | Jan 6, 2019

You want to launch a free online challenge, but you may be wondering where the heck to start to get the word out to as many people as possible.  How and where do you promote it?   

I’ve got you covered in this post, my friend. We’re going to cover 10 different ways to promote your challenge.

TIP: Since building your email list is one of the biggest benefits of running a free challenge, you want to attract the right people (so more of them will enroll in your paid programs at the end of the challenge).  One way to do this is to be clear about conveying who your challenge is for and how it will benefit them.

BTW…If you want to grab a copy of this checklist to have to refer to when you launch your challenge, you can GET IT HERE.

No need to take notes, just grab your copy 🙂

Okay, let’s dive in…

Here are 10 Ways to Promote your Next Online Challenge (9 of the ideas are free):

1. Livestream videos (Facebook Live and/or Instagram Live)

Let people get to know you quicker by doing live videos and invite them to your challenge.  For great tips on using Facebook Live, check out episode 75 of The Wellness Business Podcast

2. Instagram stories

Since more people will typically see your stories than the posts in your feed, using Instastories to promote your challenge is important (in addition to posting it in your feed).

3. Invite your current email subscribers

This may or may not seem obvious. Doing a challenge is a great way to grow your email list and it’s also a great way to build more trust with your current subscribers, so be sure to invite them to join your challenge too.

4. Your social media followers (use hashtags on Instagram)

Let all your followers know about your challenge! On Instagram, be sure to use the hashtags that will attract the audience you want to reach. To learn more about using hashtags to attract your tribe, listen to episodes 32 and 33 of The Wellness Business Podcast where we do a deep dive into using Instagram for your wellness business.  Episode 32  Episode 33

5. Your current Facebook group if you have one

If you have a Facebook group, let your current members know about it. Running a challenge in your existing group can be a great way to boost engagement and interaction.

6. Create an “event” on Facebook and invite people

You can only invite your friends to your event, but you can encourage them to share the event with their friends to help spread the word. You can Google “how to create an event on Facebook” and you’ll find tons of helpful information.

7. Encourage those who sign up to share with their friends via social media

It can dramatically expand your reach when people share about your challenge on social media.  This is an ‘icing on the cake’ strategy – not a main strategy. You don’t want to rely on others sharing about your challenge, but it’s great when it happens.

8. Find colleagues who can promote your challenge, and you can promote one for them in the future

What colleagues do you know who are in complimentary fields who would be happy to share about your challenge (personal trainers, massage therapists, chiropractors, etc.).  Figure out a win-win where you can promote something for them in the future.

9. Write a blog post about one of the topics you’ll be covering during the challenge, and share the blog post

Use a blog post to generate interest about your challenge, then promote the blog post.  Pick a topic that relates to the theme of the challenge and then explain how your challenge is designed to help them (include a link to sign up for the challenge).

10. Facebook ads targeted to the audience you want to attract.

Facebook ads can work really well when you know who you want to target, and you have the right objective.  You’ll want to decide on your ad budget before you begin and keep an eye on the results as you go.  We did an in-depth episode about Facebook ads that also covers how to find the best audience to target. Our expert guest did a phenomenal job of breaking it all down for us.  You can listen to episode 43 here.

Additional tips:

Tease about your challenge at least a week before you plan to start promoting it. This will pique interest and let your audience know something is coming.

During your promotion period of 7-10 days, do as many livestreams and Instagram stories as you can (daily is great) where you cover a different angle of the challenge such as how it will help them, what will it involve (prizes?) and what results people have had before if you’ve run it in the past.  You can do a daily livestream about common questions and struggle and how your challenge is designed to help or solve that issue or problem.

Get creative and have fun with it!

Grab a copy of these 10 ideas HERE, so you have it when you’re ready to promote your challenge.

Check out the 7-Day Healthy Habits Challenge here if you want a challenge that’s done for you, including marketing materials, emails, Facebook groups posts and more!