Best Practices for Challenges.
Updated: Aug 25, 2021
Ride Spot Challenges are designed to quickly create an engaging campaign for you to promote to your riding community. A great Challenge campaign will inspire riders to get on their bikes keep your brand top-of-mind. Here are a few tips to help you find success with Challenges:
Keep it Simple
Host a single Challenge with a single reward for achieving a single goal, ie "Ride 10 times this month to get a free water bottle". Consider aiming your first Challenge at new and infrequent riders and set a goal that will be attainable to a large group of people.
Gather your Ingredients
Details: What kind of Challenge do you want to host? What’s it going to be called? What do you want the theme/visual to be?
Prize: What would you like to offer as a reward? Consider something valuable enough to spark activity, but not so valuable that you’ll regret giving them away! If you DO want to offer something special, consider having a limited number of winners for the reward (ie “The first 20 riders to complete the Challenge…”).
Assets: Create a few digital assets to promote your Challenge.
1. Ride Spot Challenge Banner. (Download a banner template here).
2. An email header/banner.
3. Matching social media posts.
Here's a look at a best-in-class example from our friends at Pearl Izumi:
Set it up
Log in to your Affiliate account on a computer and click “Create>Challenge” in the upper left corner. We suggest the RideMoreOften Challenge type for your first Challenge. They are easy to create and easy for riders to complete.
Add the Details
Give it a fun name and a date range of 3-4 weeks so riders will have plenty of time to participate.
Set the Goal
Set the number of rides and, if you'd like, you can add a minimum distance as well.
Geofencing
For your first Challenge, we recommend skipping the “Geofencing” feature for simplicity's sake. Geofencing is SUPER cool, so definitely consider adding it to your second Challenge. Learn more about Geofencing here.
Reward
Add your reward and explain the redemption instructions. You can either invite them to redeem their reward in-store or let them know you’ll be following up with them after the Challenge is over with instructions on how to redeem. Here are some templates for both options:
Redeem in-store:
“After completing the Challenge, visit the shop and show us your confirmation email to claim your reward.”
Redeem on-line/after:
“When the Challenge period is over on (date), we will email riders who successfully completed the Challenge with instructions on how to redeem your reward (or with a coupon code to redeem online)."
Preview & Publish
Click "Preview & Publish" to see what your Challenge will look like on web and on mobile. If everything looks good, click "Publish" in the upper right corner. If you'd like to make edits, click on the "X".
Promote!
Launch your Challenge to your riding community through an email to your customer list and a couple posts on social media. Invite them to download the free Ride Spot app, join the Challenge and follow your shop. For your convenience, we've included an email template below.
Celebrate the wins! Post pictures of riders claiming their rewards.
During your campaign, export an email list of your participants and send an email reminding them to complete the Challenge before it’s over.
We've created another post of "Challenge Starters" with a handful of ideas you can use to create your own Challenge. Click here to read more.
Here are some examples of Affiliate Challenges you can look at for inspiration:
Burley's RMM Challenge Mordecai's RMO Challenge Elevation's RMO Challenge
Email Template
Subject: Download the free Ride Spot app today to join our (Name of Challenge)Challenge!
Email Copy:
We are excited to announce our first Ride Spot RideMoreOften Challenge. Everyone who rides X times before (end date) will get a free (prize) at (Shop Name). Download the free Ride Spot app and register today to get started.
Ride Spot is a route-sharing and ride-tracking app created by PeopleForBikes, the nation’s leading bicycle advocacy group, to lower the most common barriers to riding: finding great routes and finding other people to ride with.
Ride Spot is where we post our favorite routes and riding activities. After you’ve downloaded the app and registered for an account, please visit our profile and give us a follow. Once you join our Challenge, all of the rides you track on Ride Spot will count towards the goal of X rides this month.
Click here to get started on Ride Spot.