Are Your Members up for the Challenge?

From Nutrition Challenges to Couch to 5Ks or Boot Camps, challenges are a fun and exciting way of playing into members’ motivation, boosting revenue, and introducing members to your business’s premium offerings.

Why Do Challenges Work?

How often have you brushed aside a goal to start “tomorrow”? We’ve all been there! When there’s no consequence, it’s easy to push things off for another day – even if we know that we shouldn’t.  

By signing up for a challenge, participants have some skin in the game. They’ve paid their participation fee and invested, making them more likely to follow through than when left to their own devices.  

What Do Members Want?

Often, challenges are a great way to kick-start a healthy habit or routine. Members want support, guidance, and direction.  

Think about professional athletes. Do they get where they are alone? No! They have coaches to guide their training.  

Your challenge participants want the same thing. Challenges make committing to long-term lifestyle changes easier and help build a foundation for the future. Participants look to you for guidance, expertise, and support as they commit to a healthier lifestyle.  

Are Challenges Good for Your Business?

Challenges are a great way to boost sales and introduce members to your other offerings. Maybe you're looking to expand your nutrition program or personal training. Use challenges to educate members and establish credibility in areas that members may not be taking advantage of.  

While challenges can be used to increase revenue and introduce other offerings, they’re also a great tool to build your community. Challenges bring members together, working towards similar goals and developing stronger relationships. Ultimately, this increases member engagement and loyalty, making challenges a valuable retention tool.  

Now that you understand the value challenges offer, let’s take a closer look at how to successfully run one. We will use a 30-Day Nutrition Challenge as an example, walking you through the steps to take before, during, and after your challenge to ensure you get the most out of your hard work.  

Before your challenge

Before you launch your 30-Day Nutrition Challenge, you’ll want to do a bit of planning.  

First, choose a start date.

Decide when you want your challenge to start and plan your communication promoting the event. Give yourself 4-6 weeks before the start date to market your 30-Day Nutrition Challenge.  

Next, decide on a price.

When choosing how to price your nutrition challenge, consider the price of your nutrition coaching. Price your challenge a bit higher than your going nutrition coaching rate. Then, it seems like a no-brainer for participants to consider working with you after completing their challenge.  

Finally, build interest.

Invite members and provide a sneak peek of what they can expect from your nutrition challenge. Share free content and information to build credibility and trust.  

Spread information about your nutrition challenge through multiple platforms, follow up with interested members and make it easy to sign up.  

Participants have signed up... what now?

How will you structure your nutrition challenge? What do you need to prepare? When designing your nutrition challenge, consider these three things: conversion, education, and engagement. These are the three factors influencing how you structure your challenge.    

Let’s start with conversion.

Think of your end goal. You want participants to sign up for nutrition coaching at the end of their 30 days, so make sure nutrition coaching is part of the conversation from day 1.  

Consider scheduling an introductory appointment with each participant. It’s an excellent opportunity to discuss goals and what they’d like to get out of their 30-day challenge. Once you understand their motivation, you can check in and build a relationship with them during their 30 days.  

Next, focus on education.

Create content participants want to receive. Rather than changing everything at once, focus on one topic each week of your challenge. For content, consider mindset, nutrition information, tips, or recipes that will help participants commit to a healthier lifestyle.  

Think about how you will deliver your content to participants. Maybe you send weekly emails, text participants, or have live video sessions. Don’t be afraid to use a variety of methods to reach participants.  

Finally, ensure participants are engaged in your challenge.

Motivate participants with prizes. Prizes are a great motivation tool - whether you use small, weekly prizes or larger, overall prizes for finishers. Prizes such as cookbooks, kitchen tools, or free nutrition consultations will motivate participants, increasing engagement and success during their 30-day challenge.  

Wrapping it up

Running a successful challenge isn’t just about the preparation and execution of the event. It’s in the follow-up. The end of any challenge is an excellent opportunity to meet individually with participants and guide them toward their next step (signing up for ongoing nutrition coaching).  

In your post-challenge meetings, you’ll have a chance to discuss successes, setbacks, and how you can continue helping participants work towards their goals. Bring up your nutrition coaching during these meetings. Remember, you priced your challenge to make continuing on with nutrition coaching a no-brainer!  

When following up with participants, you’ll also want to gather feedback and reviews to promote your next nutrition challenge. Consider using a pre-designed Feedback Form to make sifting through responses more focused.  

Ask questions like:  

• How was your 30-Day Nutrition Challenge experience?  
• Is there anything you would change?  
• What is something you will take with you after completing this challenge?  
• Is there anything else you would like to share about your experience?  

Don’t miss opportunities by failing to follow up with your challenge participants. Use the end of your nutrition challenge to guide participants toward what’s next, gather reviews, and ask for feedback.

Looking for Help?

Kickstart your members’ nutrition goals with a pre-built strategy from UpLaunch. Loaded with content, UpLaunch’s 30-Day Nutrition Challenge makes it easy to start a nutrition challenge focused on healthy eating and lifestyle habits leading to sustainable change.  

Build interest and introduce members to your challenge with a 2-week Active Lead campaign pre-loaded with content. Then, move participants into UpLaunch’s Post-Registration Nurture, maintaining engagement and exciting participants before your challenge kicks off.  

When it’s time to begin your challenge, move participants into the 30-Day Nutrition Challenge campaign, where they will receive two emails and a check-in text message each week. Rather than throw everything at participants, resulting in information overload, the campaign focuses on one topic per week.  

Here’s the breakdown:  

Week 1 – Improving Hydration  

Week 2 – Incorporating Vegetables  

Week 3 – Reducing Added Sugar  

Week 4 – Including Protein  

This single-topic focus allows participants to develop sustainable change rather than the “challenge burnout” often seen with short-duration challenges.  

After your 30-Day Nutrition Challenge, participants will move into a Post-Challenge campaign, gathering feedback and reviews while encouraging participants to check out your business’s nutrition coaching program.  

UpLaunch’s 30-Day Nutrition Challenge will support participants before, during, and after your challenge, saving you time and automating communication with your challenge participants, allowing you to put on a great event at your fitness business.