How to Run a Champion Customer Challenge Module 3

[Audio] Hi and welcome to How to Run a Champion Customer Challenge module 3.

Module 3 – Design and Set Up Your Challenge.

[Audio] At this point you understand the many business benefits of customer challenges. Your last learning activity helped you choose a specific goal you want to achieve. Now it's time to hash out the details and set up your challenge. This is not your launch phase. Rather, you will design and structure exactly how your challenge will take place and what it will contain. Consider the following factors when creating your challenge for the best chance at success..

[Audio] Should you host your challenge on the Internet? Perhaps you are considering running an event which requires the participants to show up at a physical location, rather than online..

[Audio] There are benefits to both approaches.. Online Plenty of tools you can use Large audience Access social media Host inexpensively In Person Better for the older demographic Face-to-face interaction offers a deeper level of engagement Get a truer sense of participant experience Online/In Person Combination Most off-line challenges benefit from some aspect of online participation Especially true with social media In person challenge members can drive online presence.

[Audio] There are plenty of online tools that make running a customer challenge easy and low- cost. As of January 2019, it was estimated that more than 4.39 billion people are online. This means that if you operate your business in a modern country, there is a great chance that you can reach your market prospects over the Internet..

[Audio] You can access the power of social media websites like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook online. You can inexpensively use email, websites, blogs, and other online platforms to host and deliver your challenge content. Free and paid software is available to host live chats, group discussions, and question-and-answer sessions..

[Audio] As of April, 2019, about 27% of adults in the U.S. ages 65 and older do not use the internet, compared with less than 1% of 18- to 29-year-olds. While the 27% not online is gradually declining, those 2 statistics are still very important. They mean that if you hold your challenge online, you could miss out on a hefty portion of your target market if you are targeting an older demographic. Another benefit of physical challenges is face-to-face interaction. In person events offer a much deeper level of engagement and participation. You have a chance to talk to your prospects in person, and you get a truer sense of the participants' experience in an off-line setting..

[Audio] These days, most off-line challenges benefit from some aspect of online participation. This is especially true with social media. In-person challenge members can drive your presence online by posting regular pictures and reports of their progress, accompanied by a relevant keyword or phrase and hashtag (#) to help spread the word..

[Audio] Closed, private challenges can be limited to current and previous purchasers of your products and services. However, challenges that are open to any interested parties are great if you are trying to attract new customers, launch a new service or business, or get input about product development..

[Audio] It may seem very appealing to cast a broad net and market your challenge to everyone. On the upside, you may reach a bigger audience. On the downside, marketing costs increase, as do the cost of running your challenge. You will also find you are attracting a bigger percentage of lukewarm, less enthusiastic participants..

[Audio] Narrowing your focus allows you to design your challenge around those people you already know are interested in your products and services. Whether you target a large market or a small one, decide if you are going after your existing and past clients, new prospects, or both..

[Audio] Develop a picture in your mind of the type of person that would be perfect for your challenge and focus on that audience..

[Audio] It can be very inexpensive to launch challenges online. If you are on a tight budget, that fact could dictate your choice of in-person or online delivery. How many hours each day or week during the challenge requires the presence of you or your team members?.

[Audio] How much are you willing to spend on social media advertising? Do you need to hire a graphic designer, editor, proofreader, or event manager? Be very thorough here, as a blown budget could doom an otherwise successful challenge..

[Audio] Is your challenge more oriented to business professionals? If so, you will probably want to run it during traditional business hours. Hosting an in-person challenge usually means scheduling events after 6 PM on weekdays and in the mornings on weekends..

[Audio] A 10-day challenge may be perfect for participants to implement some type of marketing or business tactic. On the other hand, 30 days probably makes more sense if you are hosting some type of physical fitness challenge. Don't forget to add time for marketing, both before and after your event. Consider the season, since holidays and weather may affect your particular challenge..

[Audio] In your next module you will learn how to market your challenge. At this point, you will start creating the various pieces of content that support your challenge. There are several steps to creating and distributing your content. ( NOTE: At the end of this section, a list has been provided of software and applications which can help you handle this and every other aspect of creating and running a challenge.).

[Audio] Before you create a particular type of content, you need to know how you're going to disperse it. If email is your primary distribution channel, your content will be largely text-based. In-person challenges benefit from email delivery as well as snail mail distribution. You may decide that handing out flyers at the point-of-sale is the best way to get the word out..

[Audio] Are you running a 10-day challenge? You will need some type of daily content to distribute. You also need to consider how much marketing material you require for before and after the challenge is taking place. Don't forget a thank you email/ letter to send out when participants sign up, as well as any videos, e-books, and other content pieces you will need. Take some time here to thoroughly write down and review step-by-step what types of content you need..

[Audio] As you outline your main content, consider what people need to do step-by-step to achieve the ultimate goal of the challenge. They could be doing the same thing each day, or they could be advancing and doing something different each day. Create your content based on that logical progression and don't make it too time-consuming to complete!.

[Audio] A challenge run on a social media site like Facebook means someone will have to monitor and interact with comments. This requires real time or very close to real time content creation in the form of short posts..

[Audio] Challenge updates and leader boards also require constant monitoring, as well as frequent editing. Surveys for distribution after the challenge are also important..

[Audio] If you want to make your content creation, management, distribution, and all other challenge tasks easier, here are a few pieces of software and applications which can lend a virtual hand. Contest and Challenge Apps and Software Skild Shuttlerock 360 Photo Contest Make My Contest WishPond Award Force ContestCore OpenWater Awards WooBox RaffleCopter SnapApp Constant Contact Social Campaigns WizeHive Votigo Project Management Suites and Apps DropBox BaseCamp Asana Email Autoresponders (online content delivery) Aweber MailChimp GetResponse Active Campaign Freelancers for Content Development Fiverr UpWork 99Designs Elance Online Shopping Cart Services PayPal Shopify BigCommerce Volusion Survey Apps and Sites Survey Monkey SurveyGizmo Zoho Survey FluidSurveys Customer Relationship Management ( CRM) PipeDrive SalesForce Insightly InfusionSoft.

[Audio] Facilitator Instructions:Ask your participants if they have any questions about what you just discussed..

[Audio] Action Steps: Logistics and format: Use the table in your Action Guide or your own tool to make decisions around the logistics for your challenge. Outline your content using the provided spreadsheet or your own preferred tool..

[Audio] Debrief: Ask for volunteers to share their Activity's responses..