How to Run a Million Dollar Challenge: Real Stats and Lessons
Hey gorgeous,
I’m so excited to share today. You’re gonna get all the juicy behind-the-scenes info on how to run a super successful (I’m talking one million dollar successful!) challenge.
Last week we wrapped up a 5-Day Money Manifesting Challenge, which culminated in a launch for my money mindset course, Money Bootcamp. We want to share with you the real stats from the promotion as well as lift the lid on some of our best tactics and biggest lessons.
The last time we ran a 5-day challenge was five years ago. This latest one was kind of an impromptu promotion - it certainly wasn’t on our agenda at the last quarterly planning meeting and it wasn’t on our calendar for the year. But sometimes we love to do things a bit maverick and be spontaneous!
We had a dream and a big goal; we needed to cover the renovations at the Rose Farm, so we did a launch to pay for it. Launches have been brilliant for my business. We bought our dream plot of land by the beach and built our family home and also bought the Rose Farm in the first place, all through the exciting launches we’ve run! When you have a big goal and a clear plan, there’s almost no better way to spike momentum and income in your business than with a launch.
So first of all we want to give you the nine essentials to launching a successful challenge and then give you a peek behind the curtain at our figures from our most recent launch. It’s pretty inspiring! Keep reading for a breakdown of our real stats.
9 LESSONS FROM A MILLION DOLLAR CHALLENGE
Invest in a team
Make Things Easier - Use Templates
Share Great Content
Set up a Group for the Challenge
Bring in a Messenger Bot!
Nail the Follow Up
Give Away Cash Prizes
Don’t Underestimate the Launch Echo
Work on Your Mindset and Anchor the Goal
Nine Essential Lessons for a Million Dollar Launch
Let’s dive into the big lessons we took away from this Challenge. These are our top tips if you’re thinking about running something similar in your business.
1. Invest in a team
Halfway through this year we realized that Mark, as head of marketing and sales, was a bottleneck in the company. It was limiting our growth in both areas. Every time I came up with a new idea or suggestion, he’d say no because he was drowning under his current workload. We decided to hire some new team members to bring back the creativity, joy and FREEDOM!
So our new team freed up Mark’s workload, which was great. He’s been able to get a better overview of the business, and bring back some balance into our family life (more trips to the beach!). We also had the space and capacity to try something new.
This launch was only made possible because we hired additional support and outsourced some tasks months before.
Our additional copywriting, ads management, marketing and community engagement support not only meant we could better run a large promotion like this, but it meant the planning and preparation went smoother and the Challenge itself was far less stressful. You don’t need to have a big business to hire in support and free up more time for you to focus on creative and highly profitable high impact activities.
ACTION: What could you outsource or hire a part time team member to do? This will help right now in the short term for your sanity and energy levels but also in the future when you want to work on your next launch.
(You can start small… some of our new hires only work 5 hours a week.)
Remember, gorgeous, you don’t have to do all of the work yourself!
2. Make Things Easier - Use Templates
You also don’t have to reinvent the wheel. There are a lot of moving parts and options with launches and it can be easy to overcomplicate them. We’ve definitely done that in the past with too many deadlines, price options, bonuses and emails. So getting the process and framework right from the start was crucial. We learnt how to launch from Jeff Walker and his Product Launch Formula and use the principles Jeff teaches in every launch we run.
(You can learn these principles in Jeff’s Live Launch Masterclass which he’s running in the next few days. Register here for free access here)
In addition to launch training, for this Challenge we found templates and courses to help us nail the 5-Day Challenge format. We bought a great course called “The 5-Day Challenge Toolkit” from my friend, Zach Spruckler. It’s got everything in it: recommended schedules, email swipe files, ad ideas and everything we needed to set up the basics of the Challenge. We also found 5-Day challenge journal templates on Canva which we adapted for our Challenge workbooks and daily activities. We even used the AI copywriting app, Jarvis, to help wordsmith some of our emails and ads. There’s no shame in this - if you can get a better result, quicker and easier, why wouldn’t you?
These templates have been tested and are for sales off the shelf, ready for you to use - you can totally make things easier for yourself by being open to hacks like this.
3. Create Great Content
Once we had the framework in place, we knew we had to provide awesome content to ensure everyone GOT THE RESULTS during the challenge!
Each of the workbooks and daily tasks were super practical and goal orientated. It was all about helping people to manifest more money. Many of them chose to come and invest it in Money Bootcamp. Yay!
We were in lockdown in the prep stages for this launch so we had to shoot the videos at home. Without our normal pro team and set up. It was super frustrating but then everyone loved the new videos. The workbooks came out great. And the engagement in the Facebook group went through the roof! I was literally watching it climb by the thousands every day!
4. Set up a Group for the Challenge
You gotta get visible, baby! The key to a successful launch is the number of people who see your content and offer. We had between 1,500 and 1,900 people live on each of the daily Facebook lives and 1,300 people on the 90 minute Masterclass at the end of the Challenge. Some of the lives got over 10,000 comments. This was much higher engagement than when we’ve launched before without a Facebook Group.
We increased the hours our community team members were working so they could jump in whenever needed and provide the support. They spent more time responding to comments and answering questions to really encourage that feeling of community.
We set up the group so that only admins could post, so all of the participants' comments were focused on 2-3 posts per day. Our audience comments were limited to the daily video, a daily wins post and the daily live broadcast.
5. Bring in a Messenger Bot!
This launch we decided to set up an automated Messenger Bot. It was like having another super-efficient member of our team that sent participants reminders about the daily videos and lives.
We have dabbled with Messenger Bots and ManyChat before and had problems with some of Facebook’s changing messenger rules so I was nervous about setting up the bot linked to our main business FB page and ads account.
We decided to create a new “Team DDT” Facebook page and built the message sequence and reminders linked to that. We were very deliberate and careful to follow Facebook rules about what messages we could send to who and when.
Over 7,000 people registered to get daily reminders. We found that the bot worked very well for the first two days of the Challenge - it really helped more people remember to join the live calls and stay engaged. But then we started to encounter problems - the Team DDT page and a replacement page we created were temporarily banned and we couldn’t send messages.
Frustratingly, this sometimes happens with Facebook - a computer reviews the messages that are sent and flags anything that could violate a rule. Luckily both pages were given the ok after appeal. They were reviewed by a person and were turned back on. But this meant we were not able to send some messages and reminders during the outage.
The lesson we learned with the bot was that it’s very cool technology that can work really well and is inexpensive to set up, but is something that Facebook monitors closely. You will need to be really on it with all the rules. We recommend setting up an additional page so your main FB page is not restricted during a launch.
6. Nail the Follow-up
As they say, the fortune is in the follow-up. A 5-day Challenge can generate a big spike in interest and leads, but it takes work to convert this into sales and a good conversion rate.
We followed up our Challenge and Masterclass with a 5 day email campaign and outreach via messenger. I ran Q&A and bonus Facebook lives in the Group and my team spent a lot of time in the comments and our inboxes answering questions about Money Bootcamp and how it can help.
A new tactic I decided to implement this year was certainly high-touch and took some effort but with each sale being worth almost $3,000, I wanted to play full-out.
I recorded over 500 personalised video messages like this one, which were sent to potential customers via email or messenger. People loved getting the personalised messages and it was really effective in starting sales conversations and getting responses.
We targeted the most common names in our list of 16,000 leads - starting at names like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Michelle (all which had over 100 participants) and then working down to more obscure names.
In the end, any name with more than 10 people got a video and we sent thousands of people a personal invite to work with me and join our course.
The work doesn’t end when you make the offer. Your sales results are not at the whim of some mythical launch god during the open cart period - you can take inspired action and meet the Universe halfway to make your launch goals happen.
ACTION: How can you take your follow-up to the next level in your next launch? What simple thing can you do to connect with and surprise your audience to start more sales conversations?
7. Give Away Cash Prizes
Another strategy that worked well to keep people engaged and excited was giving away cash prizes - go figure!
On each live call we gave away cash prizes by picking a lucky winner from the live participants. The prizes increased from $200 to $1,000 over the five days plus we gave away a few prizes for sharing the Challenge on social media. All in the total prize pool was less than $3,000.
I love how it helped teach some key lessons about manifesting and how deserving people are of abundance. Plus it kept up attendance and excitement on the daily calls. The amount doesn’t really matter, you can give away less or more, but it worked well in this Challenge.
An additional unexpected bonus was that 4 of the 5 winners selected during the Challenge went on to join Money Bootcamp with their prize money!
ACTION: How can you reward and incentivize participants to take the next step?
8. Don’t Underestimate The Launch Echo
Jeff Walker talks about the long term benefits of a launch being called a “launch echo” - the upside that you will feel and the momentum built by launching. We have seen this many times in our business over the years, but a quick look at our sales figures for the month of October 2021 shows how this launch will contribute to future growth and help us go big for our next launch in January 2022.
Check out our October Key Metrics:
Total List Size +7.7%
Social Media Followers +4%
Unique Website Visitors +28%
Pinterest Reach +58%
YouTube Views +8%
Podcast Downloads +5.9%
Launches are the best way to build momentum in your business - they help you build your revenue AND audience quickly by focusing on giving away great value free content. Do not underestimate what a launch or challenge could do for your business whether you’re established or just getting started.
9. Work on Your Mindset and Anchor the Goal
Any article from me about how to achieve anything in business wouldn't be complete without mentioning your mindset, right?!
I know that doing a launch or Challenge is going to bring up your fears and blocks. We’ve all got them - those limiting beliefs about whether you can do this, are you good enough? Will people like this? Argh, they all start rearing their head when you’re getting this visible!
It’s so important to look at these blocks before your launch. Clear the way before you so you can be successful in your execution. Work on clearing and upleveling your thinking about what’s possible for you and your business months (or weeks) beforehand. My book Get Rich, Lucky Bitch is a good place to start if you’re new to this work.
And remember, during the launch things can (and will) go wrong - tech, engagement, emails, links, or slow sales. A strong mindset will help you stay resilient so you can keep going. I’ve seen so many people get frustrated, scared or thrown off course during a launch and just throw the towel in. Running a successful launch takes persistence and belief.
Read my article here about my launch preparation tips that nobody is talking about - things that will help reduce your stress levels and the chance of getting thrown off course.
As I said at the beginning, mindset is so important in a launch, so I recommend you tie the launch to a big goal or dream - and not just a monetary target. What are you playing for? What will this launch help you and your family achieve and how will you celebrate?
You’ve got this, gorgeous! Get a big goal, get determined and take action.
The Real-Life Stats from a Million Dollar Challenge
Now it’s time to take a look at the real life, actual stats from our most recent campaign. We’ll show you exactly how we structured the content and the outcome of each stage of the process. Use it as a cheatsheet for your own million dollar challenge!
In case you weren’t playing along, here’s an overview of how we structured the campaign:
The Structure of our Million Dollar Challenge
1-10 October - Promoting the 5-Day Challenge
Lead generation and having people join the pop-up Facebook group. Marketing channels used: social media, email and ads (FB, IG, LinkedIn and, Pinterest)
8 October - Open Facebook Group
We decided to keep the group closed until 3 days before the official start of the Challenge to maximise engagement. When we did open the group there was a huge spike of people joining, introducing themselves and engaging with the warm-up content that ensured the Challenge was at the top of participants' social media feeds.
11-16 October - 5-Day Challenge
I produced daily training videos, workbooks and Facebook Lives in the Challenge group, all focused on the five steps of my money manifesting process.
16-18 October - Promoting Masterclass
Lead generation and reminders for participants to join a live money manifesting masterclass to bring together all of the learning from the Challenge. This is where I pitched the opportunity to continue working with me via joining Money Bootcamp.
18 October - Masterclass
Extended live training and sales webinar with an offer to join Money Bootcamp. Also included a prize draw and special bonuses for fast action takers.
18-24 October - Open Cart
Promotion of the Money Bootcamp special offer with sales emails, ads, social posts and sales by email and messenger.
This campaign was the main focus of our marketing and entire team for October as well as most of September, when we were planning content and promotions.
The Results of our Million Dollar Challenge Launch
The headline results from this Challenge exceeded our expectations and hit the majority of our targets. Here’s a breakdown:
* Australian Dollars
Leads
We had three main sources of leads for this Challenge; our existing warm audience and list, paid ads and participants sharing the Challenge/inviting friends. While ten thousand of the leads were from our existing list, one of the huge positives from running this challenge is that we got 6,500 new leads. Some of these people joined Money Bootcamp right away, but the majority will go on to read our newsletter, read one of my books and hopefully join Bootcamp in the future.
Conversion Rate
We average between 2% and 3.5% conversion of overall leads when we run a large promotion like this for Money Bootcamp. So for every 100 people who opt-in to take part in the launch and receive our sales emails, 2-3 people join. This might sound low, but it’s important to know that these numbers are actually pretty good. Standard is 1-2% conversion.
The other important stat we look at is the number of people who saw the sales page during the launch and the conversion rate of this group. We had about 6,000 unique visitors to the sales page so a conversion rate of over 6% which is high. This really is the beauty of doing a launch and having special bonuses and a deadline, because our normal sales page conversion rate outside of a launch is much closer to the industry standard of 1-2%. For future launches we will work harder to get a higher percentage of the overall 16,000 leads to see the sales page which would drive up numbers further down the funnel.
Cash & Costs
We had more people pay in full this launch than previous promotions so we received a higher percentage of the total revenue upfront (nice!). The launch cost us about $100,000 excluding the charitable donations we do after each launch / from each sale. This was about $70k in ad spend and $30k in team and production costs. Refund requests are inevitable and we’re relaxed and never triggered by them. We have a 14-day refund period and would expect around 15-20 refunds from this launch (around 5%).
Thinking of running a 5-Day Challenge or Launch?
Challenge launches are really effective due to the high engagement, focused timeline and “shareability” of the content/group.
The sales and lead generation from these 3 week will have a long term impact on our business (and our rose farm!).
If you’re thinking of adding a launch or a Challenge to your business we recommend checking out Zach Sprickler’s Toolkit and to go deeper with launch training.
Plus make sure you register for Jeff Walker’s Launch Masterclass which is coming up from 5-8 November - click here to reserve your spot now.
This article might sound like a lot, especially if you’re just starting out, but we hope that us lifting the lid has helped you.
Here’s to making your next launch better!
Denise & Mark xx
Affiliate Disclaimer: I’m proud to be an affiliate partner of Jeff Walker. If you invest in Product Launch Formula in the future, I may receive a commission but at no extra cost to you.
