How To: Build Challenge Engagement

How to set up and manage your challenge engagement plans and comms.

By Will Webberley

• 3 articles

Set Up Short Links

Engagement: Set Up Short Links Before configuring a SimplyDo engagement plan, we recommend creating a set of “short links” to your challenge. Short links present an easier-to-use (and easier-to-remember!) method for accessing content on SimplyDo (for example, a direct short link to a challenge page). SimplyDo short links are hosted at the domain name sdi.click, along with a simple path name. This allows for links like “sdi.click/mychallenge” to point to your own challenge, such that people who click the short link are automatically redirected to your challenge. Short links also come with a suite of analytics tools, allowing you to easily report on the performance of your campaigns. In this article, we explain how to set up, manage, and view analytics for short links in readiness for inclusion in your engagement plan. Your account will need organisational-level permissions to access these features. 1. Find the Short Link Manager Option A: Via the Admin Dashboard The short link dashboard is available from the admin dashboard. To get there, navigate to Admin in the top navbar, and then select the Links option on the left-hand sidebar. You’ll be presented with a screen showing you the links you’ve created so far. Option B: Via the “Quick Manager” Short links can also be viewed and created anywhere in the platform via the quick manager. To access this manager, hover your mouse over the Admin option in the navbar, and select Manage short links. This will open up a window showing you a summarised view over your short links. 2. Create a New Short Link Short links can be created from the short link manager available via either route described in section 1. To do so, tap the Create a new short link button. You’ll be presented with a form that asks for some information in order to create the link. Complete the form by filling in the information: - The “URL to shorten” field is the address that will be eventually resolved by the short link. This should go to your challenge (or other page as you need). - Note: we recommend using the “Search by name…” field to search for a challenge and to find the link you need. - The “Short URL” is the actual short link that will be created. In the example above, this will create a link available at sdi.click/my-example-link, which will take visitors directly to the challenge. - Important note: the text you use in the short link must be unique across all of SimplyDo. You will see an error if you try to use a link that already exists. - The optional “Description” field lets you describe your link so that you can remember what it’s used for. In the example above, we indicate that this link is intended to be used for dissemination via an intranet system. Click the Create button to complete the setup. For each challenge, we recommend creating a different short link for each mechanism needed for challenge engagement (e.g. one for email, one for Teams, etc.). This then allows you to measure the effectiveness between different communication channels. 3. Access and Copy Your Short Links Once created, you can view your short links via the short link manager. We describe how to find this manager in section 1 above, and you can choose either of the routes. On this screen you can use the input box to filter your links to find the one you need. You can use the “copy” icon to copy the link to your clipboard (so you can paste it elsewhere). You can also click the QR icon button to show a downloadable QR code that you can print or use in your own comms to improve access for people with smartphones. 4. View Short Link Analytics SimplyDo reports on key short link usage metrics. To find this, navigate to the short link manager available via the admin dashboard, as described in section 1 above. On this screen, find the link that you’re interested in analysing. You can do this using the Filter links… option or by finding it in the list. The mini chart in the table displays an overview of the activity over time for this link. You can change the timeframe for this chart using the Show clicks over… option. By clicking the information (“i”) icon button, you’ll be presented with additional information about the link’s performance. The Engagement tab shows high-level interaction analytics. The Analysis tab shows information about the devices and browsers used, and typical usage during the day. By comparing this data between the links pointing to a specific challenge, you can contrast the effectiveness of your communication campaigns. 5. Delete a Short Link If you no longer need a short link, it can be deleted. Important: Once a link has been deleted, it can be used by another SimplyDo user to be pointed to a different URL. Please only delete a link if you are sure that none of your own user base will use the link again in the future. Short links can be deleted from the short link manager, via any route described in section 1 above. Once on the short link manager, click the “bin” icon to delete the link.

Last updated on Nov 25, 2025

Set Up the Challenge Planner

The challenge planner is a tool designed to help you build an engagement and management strategy for your challenge. By encapsulating upcoming events, announcements, deadlines, and other relevant information, the planner provides a birds’ eye view of where you currently are in your challenge lifecycle, what’s coming up, and how your audience is being engaged. In this article, we explain how to build and manage an engagement plan on the challenge planner tool. 1. Find the Challenge Planner Page Firstly, navigate to the Settings page of your challenge. Find your challenge via the “Challenges” link in the top navbar, and then select “View challenge”. From here, tap the “Planner” tab in the challenge sidebar. 2. About the Planner The planner provides a calendar-like view for your challenge timeframe. The challenge “timeframe” is a custom period of time (which we’ll explain how to adjust later) to encapsulate challenge setup time, the duration for which the challenge is actually open for, and any time as needed after the challenge closes (e.g. for post-closure management). In the example below, the timeframe extends from 22nd September through to 20th October. Other points of consideration: - The day highlighted in green shows the current day. - The days highlighted in blue show the days during which the challenge is open to new submissions (i.e. between the “Challenge opens” event and “Challenge closes” event). - Days in light grey are weekends. 3. Manage the Planner The planner’s Settings tab provides a number of options for customising the planner. Change the timeframe At any time you may change the challenge’s “timeframe” that the planner uses as its calendar view. To do so, modify the Planner start date and/or the Planner end date on the Settings tab. You cannot update the timeframe such that it excludes any events you’ve already created. If you need to reduce the timeframe, first delete or move any events that may fall outside of your new timeframe. Import a planner If you have an existing challenge and want to re-use the same planning structure again, you can import a planner from another challenge. To do so, tap the Import events button, and a window will open to ask you how to proceed. To continue, tick the checkbox next to the challenge that contains the planner you want to import. The Events column in the table indicates how many events will be imported. Your chosen source challenge likely ran at an earlier date than your present challenge. As such, you can provide a Import start date to align the first imported event to this date, and ensures equal separation between the remaining imported dates. Toggle the Include announcements control to include announcements in the import. Toggle the Import dates & deadlines control to also import the open date and deadlines (e.g. challenge closure or the assessment deadline) from the source challenge. Toggle the Clear current events control to delete all events from the present challenge before carrying out the import. When you’re ready, tap “Choose this challenge” to complete the import. You’ll see the new events back on the Planner tab. Shift events forwards or backwards The Event shifting controls on the planner Settings tab allow you to move events in-bulk. To do so, first choose which direction to shift events (forwards in time, or backwards in time) using the Shift events forward/backward toggle. Then, enter a number of days into the text field and tap the Shift events… button. Add your challenge’s planner to your own calendar You can subscribe to your challenge’s planner, such that its events appear in your own calendar. As events get added or changed in your planner, they will automatically update in your own calendar. This feature is compatible with any calendaring system that supports the iCal format (including Outlook, Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and many more). To do so, tap the Get calendar link button on the planner settings page, and paste the generated link into the relevant section of your calendar system’s calendar. 4. Add a New Event On the planner, events can mean a number of things, depending on your own work pattern or context. They could refer to a meeting, a task reminder, or anything else you might need to include in your plan. Each event has typical attributes, such as a title, description, start date/time, and an end date/time. You can also configure an event “label colour”, members, and a notification schedule. As well as organising yours and your team’s time, a key aim of the planner is to manage your challenge’s engagement plan. As such, we recommend using label colours to develop a meaningful structure for your events, such that you and your team know what they mean at-a-glance. For example, “green” events might represent meetings, “blue” events might represent a Teams message reminder, and “yellow” events may represent an intranet message reminder. To create a new event, hover your mouse over the cell in the planner representing the day in which you wish to create the event. An Add item button will show. Click this to bring up the event creation window. In the above example, we’ve added a couple of members (so that they get reminded 10 minutes before the scheduled event), and a date and time for the event. In this case, our event is a reminder to us to send a message to our proposed challenge audience via Teams. We label the event in blue and provide the proposed message itself in the description. Tap Save to create the event, and you’ll now see it on the planner view. 5. Move an Event If you wish to quickly move an event to another day, you can simply click and drag the event to the new day on the planner view. Moving an event in this way maintains the time-of-day. If you wish to change the time as well as the day, please edit the event as described below. 6. Edit an Event To edit an event’s details, tap the event from the planner to open up the details window, and then tap the Edit button. This will bring up the same familiar window that you used to create the event. Make any changes you need (e.g. in our example we updated the event time to 16:00) and then click Save to finish. 7. Delete an Event To delete an event, tap the event from the planner to open up the details window, and then tap the bin icon button. 8. Schedule an Announcement To schedule a standard announcement for a future date and time, hover your mouse over the desired day and tap the Add item button. From the dropdown that shows, select Schedule an announcement. For more information about announcements, including how to set them up, please take a look through our Announcements article. 9. Set or Remove an Open Date If your challenge is currently still in-draft, you can specify a future open date and time, at which SimplyDo will automatically publish your challenge. Note that you can use this same process to update an already in-place open date. To begin, hover your mouse over the desired day and tap the Add item button. From the dropdown that shows, select Set open date. A window will open asking you about your preferences. Use the There is an open date… checkbox to enable the feature, and use the text input to select a date and time. Please note that your chosen date and time must be in the future and before the challenge deadline (if it’s set). If you want to automatically notify users in the challenge audience with matched interests to the challenge’s tags, tick the Send notifications… checkbox. Click Save to finish. SimplyDo will now automatically publish your challenge at the specified time. If you already had an open date configured, your new settings will replace the old ones. Remove (Unschedule) the Open Date If you no longer want SimplyDo to automatically publish your challenge, find the entry for the Challenge opens event in the planner and tap it. This will open a details window for the event. You can delete it using the bin icon button. 10. Set or Remove a Deadline You can specify a future deadline date and time, at which SimplyDo will automatically close your challenge to new submissions. Note that you can use this same process to update an already in-place deadline. To begin, hover your mouse over the desired day and tap the Add item button. From the dropdown that shows, select Set deadline. A window will open asking you about your preferences. Use the There is a deadline… checkbox to enable the feature, and use the text input to select a date and time. Please note that your chosen date and time must be in the future and after the challenge open date (if it’s set). Click Save to finish. SimplyDo will now automatically close your challenge at the specified time. If you already had a deadline configured, your new settings will replace the old ones. Remove (Unschedule) the Deadline If you no longer want SimplyDo to automatically close your challenge, find the entry for the Challenge closes event in the planner and tap it. This will open a details window for the event. You can delete it using the bin icon button. 11. Filter Events on the Planner If you have lots of events on the planner, but only wish to see the ones relevant to you, you can use the Event filter dropdown to only show events of which you are a member.

Last updated on Nov 25, 2025

Set Up Announcements

Announcements are a very handy part of your toolkit when running any challenge. Not only do they help disseminate the challenge to your audience base, but they also keep users in-the-loop as they engage with the challenge and take part in the challenge’s lifecycle. In this article, we explain how to set up and manage your challenge’s announcements. Announcements form a key part of your engagement plan, which we’ll cover in more detail in the next article. 1. Find the Announcements Settings Page Firstly, navigate to the Settings page of your challenge. Find your challenge via the “Challenges” link in the top navbar, and then select “View challenge”. From here, click the “Settings” button in the challenge toolbar. Finally, tap the “Announcements” tab in the sidebar. 2. Create a New Announcement Once on the “Announcements” settings page, as described in section 1 above, click the “New announcement” button to set up a new announcement. This will open up a window and ask you if you want to create a “Standard” or “Automatic” announcement. 2.1. Create a Standard Announcement A “standard” announcement is a bulk message that targets a set of users that you define. It can be sent immediately or scheduled for a future date and time. To begin, select “Standard” as the “Announcement type”. Build a recipient list The first task is to create a recipient list that this announcement will be sent to. In the “Recipient list” section, use the “Add condition” button to add rules that define the intended recipients. All conditions are additive, such that recipients must fulfil all the criteria in order to receive the announcement message. If you need to target distinct sets of recipients, we recommend making a copy of the announcement, and then tweaking it, once it’s been sent. In the above example, the announcement will target all users that have started an idea for your challenge and who have been tagged with the “Engineering and manufacturing” tag. You can sense-test your conditions by observing the “This announcement will be sent to X users” line. Please note that if you schedule your message for the future, the expected recipient count number might be different by the time the message is actually sent. This is because the recipient list is resolved at send-time. 2.2. Create an Automatic Announcement An “automatic” announcement is a message that you configure to send to a single recipient when they carry out a specific action. To begin, select “Automatic” as the “Announcement type”. Configure the automation rule The first task is to choose when you want your automatic message to be sent. To do so, choose an option from the “Send announcement when…” dropdown and make any configurations as needed. In the example above, the automatic announcement would be sent to a user when they submit their idea. 2.3. Configure Your Announcement Now you have chosen what type of announcement you want to send, and who or why it should be sent, you can begin to customise the content and other useful information. Write your announcement content Your next task is to build the content of the announcement message itself. By default, announcements are sent via email, and you can configure both the subject line and message body of your announcement. You are free to write your subject and message in any way you need, given your intended recipients. You can customise your subject and message using placeholders for the recipient’s first and last name. For example, the text {firstName} will be replaced by the recipient’s first name when the message is sent. You can use simple rich text formatting for your message. Manage announcement settings In the “Settings” area, you can control: - Reply-to address: an email address that is used by email recipients when they click the “reply” button in their email client. This is useful to configure because the announcement is usually sent from an address that doesn’t typically handle incoming email. - Call-to-action: you can configure the CTA included at the bottom of your announcement. Here you can control the text shown on the CTA button, as well as the URL. A small preview is displayed. Add attachments Announcements can include file attachments, which are included as attachments in the announcement email sent to recipients. To add attachments, simply drag and drop them into the attachments area. Important note: Please ensure that your total attachment file size is not too large to be sent via email. Different mail systems have different limits, but a general rule is to keep things less than 10MB in total. This helps to ensure maximum compatibility. Add a calendar event SimplyDo announcements can include calendar events. These allow you to send out meeting invitations that can be automatically added to recipients’ calendars. This can be useful for inviting idea creators or assessors to meetings, or for advertising webinars and other scheduled events. To do so, fill in the relevant information in the “Calendar event” section. Standard announcements: Choose when to send your message By default, standard announcements are sent immediately. You can instead schedule your message to be sent in the future by toggling on the “Schedule this announcement to be sent at a later date” control in the “Send when” area. When this is toggled, you can provide a date and time to send the announcement. You can click the “Send on ” button to complete the announcement setup, and SimplyDo will automatically schedule your message. You can come back to edit your announcement, including the scheduled send date, at any time before it is sent. If you don’t toggle this option on, the announcement will be sent immediately. Automatic announcements: Complete creation For automatic announcements, simply click the “Create announcement” button to finish. You can return to edit your automatic announcement, or delete it, at any time. 3. Import Announcements If you’ve run a challenge before, and want to copy the announcements you previously used, you can import them into your challenge. To do so, navigate to the challenge’s announcements settings page, as described in section 1 above, and then tap the “Copy from another challenge” button. A window will be displayed, inviting you to select another challenge. Tick the checkbox next to the challenge from which you wish to import the announcements, and then click the “Copy from this challenge” button. If you have lots of previous challenges, you can use the search box to find a specific challenge. Once completed, all of the automatic announcements from the source challenge will be added to your challenge. You can then safely make edits to the imported announcements without affecting the original challenge. 4. Edit an Announcement You can make changes to automatic announcements at any time, and to scheduled standard announcements that haven’t yet been sent. To do so, click the “Edit” button next to the announcement you want to change. This will open the usual creation window covered in section 2 above, and you can click the “Save changes” button to complete your edit. 5. Copy an Announcement You can make a copy of a previously-created announcement. For example, this may be useful if you want to send a few similar scheduled “reminders” during a challenge lifecycle, or if you want to re-send a previous standard announcement at a later date. To copy an announcement, first click the “Edit” button next to the announcement you want to change. This will open the usual creation window covered in section 2 above, and you can click the “Copy to new” button to make a copy of the announcement. Once copied, you will be presented with a window allowing you to complete the setup of the new announcement. You can make changes to the copy without affecting the original. 6. Delete an Announcement You can delete automatic announcements and unsent scheduled standard announcements. To do so, click the “Edit” button next to the announcement you want to change. This will open the usual creation window covered in section 2 above, and you can click the “Delete” button to delete the announcement. Once deleted, the announcement will no longer send at its scheduled time or trigger action. 7. View Announcement Logs SimplyDo maintains a log of sent announcements. This enables you to keep track of what people have received. To view the announcement log, navigate to the announcements settings page for your challenge, as described in section 1 above. On this page, tap the “View delivery logs” button to expand the logs table. Browse the announcement logs Once expanded, you can view a chronological timeline of announcements (both automatic and standard) sent for this challenge, with the most recent at the top. For each message, we show the date and time, the message subject and its recipient(s). In some cases, we also provide a delivered, bounced, and opened status indication, though this is not available for organisations using custom outbound mail servers. Filter and search for messages The Filter controls enable you to filter announcement logs by the type of announcement sent, and you can use the input box to type a recipient in order to surface specific messages. View detailed information More detailed information about a specific log entry can be found by tapping the View button on the entry of interest. This will open a pane and display further information about the entry. In this example, we can see that the message was sent due to it being an automatic message triggered to send when someone creates a new idea.

Last updated on Nov 25, 2025