Last time we talked about the 1 thing you need to find if you want to recruit people and keep them involved. That is their aspiration. But, I've found there is actually 1 other thing you need to do if you want them to sign up, show up, and show up again.
The Support
Beneath someone’s aspiration, there is one other crucial, even more powerful factor determining if people will do your activity: their capability.
That is, how they rate their ability to complete your activity, will be the deciding factor in whether they will do it.
It turns out this 'self-efficacy' is even more powerful than the aspiration they have, as it will often override their hopes and desires.
That’s because even if your activity motivates or even inspires people if your audience doesn’t feel they can do it, it’s likely they won’t.
Aspiration + Capability = Success
So while an aspiration might motivate people, they also need to consider whether or not they have the ability to do what they want to do.
Even though your event or activity may excite them, if they don’t feel they have the physical or mental ability, knowledge, fitness level, or skills, it’s unlikely they’ll continue the journey with you.
They may see it, but they won’t sign up, or if they do, if their self-perceived capability does not measure up, they may drop off and not show up.
Therefore it is crucial that we provide them the support to participate; the information, training, tools, and environment to act on their aspirations.
It’s important to know that these two forces — their personal aspirations and their perceived abilities — are in play for your people, sometimes working for them, and sometimes against each other.
How can you support them? AN EXAMPLE
'This Girl Can' is a great example of a program that has supported a lot of people to be more active. For the last 5 years, this award-winning international campaign caught a lot of attention and moved a lot of women to take action. Central to its success is that it has built an understanding of the people it wanted to communicate with, and identified the most-relevant drivers and barriers to these women being more active. Which, as the name suggests, was about giving women the confidence in being active. TGC was based on research and the insight that a fear of judgement or lack of confidence came through strongly as a barrier to more women building longer-term relationships (or any relationships) with physical activities. 'This Girl Can' helped change this with messages focused on making sure ‘she’ knew she actually could, and the cues hit the mark in terms of motivation, a sense of opportunity, and capability. And 'girls' showed they could. In the first campaign, over 2.8 million women took on physical exercise, while 250,000 more women became more active every week.
Most importantly, the triggers in the campaign, the messaging, content, and communications all cued positive responses in the audience it supported.
'This Girl' did - but can you?
When we connect with people's aspirations, it is an incredibly powerful opportunity.
But that is half of our job.
We also need to help them, to support them so they have the capability to stay on the journey with us. You might be doing that already, but if you think I can help you and your team, please let me know.
Let's start creating a more active world, together.
More people involved in your sport or events - more often, for longer!
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