A challenge is something that can inspire change, and help us learn and grow. Whether personal or in a group, a wellness challenge can motivate people in small ways to form healthy habits and create a wellness practice that serves them. Hosting a wellness challenge online can reach a large variety of people, and introduce them to your business while adding value to their lives. So if you’re wondering what it takes to create an online wellness challenge for your community or clients, read on.
What is a Wellness Challenge?
In the simplest terms, a wellness challenge is a fun, competitive way to engage potential clients in an aspect of your business! It helps to motivate and encourage people to participate in a healthy lifestyle using a unified goal and can be used as a tool to help educate them along the way. A wellness challenge can be simple and short term, such as a walking challenge, or longer and more complex, such as fitness.
4 Great Reasons to Create an Online Wellness Challenge
Build an email list of subscribers
A great way to build your email list is to create a wellness challenge that users receive through email or require their email to log in. It is both quick and effective, and because the challenge itself adds value, most people are willing to give their email address.
Gain New Customers
Hosting a free wellness challenge can be a great introduction to your services. It allows potential clients to get a feel for your style, personality, and specialty while engaging them in a way that is meaningful. You are giving them something first, which moves them into a warm market for your services. A paid wellness challenge immediately makes them new customers, which in turn makes them likely to access more of your services.
Bring Awareness to Your Business
People love participating in challenges, and often want their friends to join as well. This can help spread the word about your business in a fun, easy way. You will reach potential clients you may not have through traditional channels, and word of mouth is always the best form of marketing. You will also be seen as someone who cares about their clients’ best self.
Motivate Your Team
Using a wellness challenge in-house with your own team can be a great way to bring everyone together with the same goal. It can encourage healthy competition, and get everyone on the same page as the clients you are serving. It can help foster awareness of the challenges your clients might face, and develop empathy and creative solutions. Plus, it’s fun!
Ideas for Wellness Challenges
The sky is really the limit when it comes to developing your own wellness challenge. Here are a few ideas of common ones to get the creative juices flowing!
Walking
Walking is the simplest wellness challenge. It can encompass everyone, is easy to track using a pedometer or fitness tracker, and accommodations can be made for any situation. The most common goal is 10,000 steps per day, however, you can set a minimum or maximum according to your, and your ideal clients’, goals.
Hydration
This is setting a specific target goal for water consumption each day and is typically done by self-reporting. You can use the time during the challenge to educate your clients on why proper hydration is so important, and at the same time, your clients are experiencing the effects that you are describing. That can make it a very powerful testimony, create trust, and position you as an authority. Whether you decide to do a specific amount each day, such as
half an ounce for each pound you weigh or ask your challengers to walk what they drink in calories each day, a hydration challenge is another simple yet effective tool to engage clients.
Gratitude
Making gratitude part of your everyday routine is a habit that can easily be created through a challenge! Have clients participate daily by sharing what they’re grateful for, whether in a Facebook group, membership portal, or simply by inspiring them with a new topic to ponder each day via email. Since it takes 21 days to form a habit, a 21-day challenge is wonderful for gratitude. However, because gratitude is fun and so simple, shorter, 7-day challenges can be really motivating for clients to hit that sign up button.
Self-care
Self-care challenges are very exciting if your ideal client identifies as stressed out, or unclear on how to practice self-care. These typically range from 7-30 days and can highlight a different idea or aspect of self-care for each day. Through the challenge, you will encourage your clients to try new activities with the hope of finding a few that really speak to them. They can then turn those into their own self-care practice.
Eye Health
Eye health challenges can be particularly enticing for ideal clients over a certain age. Using specific exercises, you can guide your clients in improving their eyesight, eye fatigue and potentially wrinkles and dark circles. Having clients participate in the exercises for 30 days helps create a habit and noticeable change. You can then offer your services beyond the challenge to continue to improve eyes or other areas.
Healthy Snacks
A healthy snack challenge is a simple way to create an online wellness challenge. Participants focus on making one small change at a time. You can have clients sign up via email, and send them out a daily snack idea, or send them the whole list at once so they can prepare. This challenge is so helpful if your ideal client is families, people with younger children, or anyone who gets overwhelmed with big changes and just wants to take the first step.
Healthy Holiday
Holidays are a very hard time for people when it comes to both food and stress. Either is a great option for a healthy holiday challenge. Helping create healthy alternatives to holiday favorites, for example, a 7-day healthy treat baking challenge, is just one idea among hundreds of potential ways to help your clients. A 21-day meditation challenge might also be a great tool to introduce during the holidays!
Fitness
Fitness challenges really can run the gamut and are most effective when you make them very specific to your services. From a 30-day plank challenge to 30 minutes of activity a day for 30 days, there really is no limit to the ways you can structure these. Your best bet is to make them simple, fast, and specific to what you offer. If you are using them to motivate your own team, you can widen the scope a little more. Don’t forget to have some fun!
10 Steps to Create an Online Wellness Challenge
1. Identify your ICA
This is the most important step. Knowing your Ideal Client Avatar (ICA) will allow your challenge to create the impact you envision. Figure out who you want to serve with your challenge, and create it with that person in mind. Speak directly to what they need and are motivated by.
2. Decide on your desired results
What goal do you want to achieve within the challenge? What would you like the challenge to ultimately lead to?
3. Decide if it will be free or paid, and set pricing
Typically, the short and simple ones should be free. You are using them as a tool to create value for your ideal client, who will then buy your services. The longer and more complex they are, and if they use your services directly, the more likely you are to charge for them.
4. Decide on the theme
Pick your challenge and make it your own! The more unique, the more likely people will talk about it, spread the word, and sign up!
5. Decide on the length
Common lengths are 7, 21, 30, or 60-day challenges. Of course, there is no wrong length. Simple, free challenges are usually shorter, and more complex and/or paid ones are longer.
6. Determine the format and sequence
Decide how you want to implement your challenge and a general idea of the order you will do it (for longer challenges).
7. Outline the content
Create an outline or schedule of what you will say and offer each day of the challenge. If there is free content that leads up to a paid challenge, take the time to outline that as well.
8. Select your challenge platform
How will you deliver the content to your challengers? There are many ways to do this. Some of the options include sending emails or posting on social media. If you want to go more advanced, consider hosting your challenge content in a membership site.
The best way to deliver you challenge content will depend on what your challengers are most likely to respond to. So use a delivery method that will be easy for them to access and engage with, so they have a greater chance of participating and completing the event.
9. Test it out
Before you roll out your challenge, test it out! Run a beta to iron out any kinks, find gaps in your content, and make sure it is crystal clear and fun.
10. Launch it!
You’ve created it. Now it’s time to put it out there. Focus on engaging with your challengers throughout the event so they’ll be inspired and motivated to keep going.
Running a wellness challenge is an exciting way to grow your business or motivate your employees and clients. It gives a sample of what you have to offer in your higher-level programs and services while serving to help people form healthier habits in a specific area.
As you run your challenge, stay involved and celebrate milestones of your participants by giving shout outs, rewards, or prizes. Follow-up with those who completed your challenge after to get insight into their “before and after” results.
Adding value to your ideal clients’ lives, and engaging them in a fun and positive way will position you as an authority and create a pipeline of people who are interested in what you have to offer. A well thought out challenge is a great tool for anyone in the wellness industry to demonstrate the power of their services.
