This webinar was a high level look at some ideas you can use to make money and save money right now. If you want to dive deeper into any of these ideas, we have a ton of resources below to get you started:
State of the Industry
Where are we today?
Bad News:
- Transactions are currently down 40% compared to 2019
- Major races (such as Berlin Marathon) have already cancelled for fall
Good News:
- Signs of Rebounding
- Virtual Races are increasing
- Creativity around in-person races in future
Tracking the state of the Industry
To follow the week-by-week state of the industry, we have weekly coronavirus blogs for Week 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. Future updates will be posted on our blog.
With people home, running is also reaching a new audience who is looking for something to keep them active and get them outside. There is opportunity to bring more runners into the racing community!
Current solutions will not 100% replace “normal” racing. However, there are ample opportunities to bridge the gap until racing returns to normal, engaging your community and allowing you to make money (and save money) now.
Go Virtual
Virtual is the new normal, whether you’re converting an existing event to virtual, adding a virtual option to a future race, or starting a virtual race from scratch, we have resources to get you started.
Virtual Race Hub: https://runsignup.com/govirtual
New! Virtual Challenge Tracking
Get Started:
- Create a Virtual Race Plan
- Setting up a Virtual Race on RunSignup: Best Practices
- Promoting Your Virtual Race
- Shipping & Fulfillment Considerations
Examples of Creative Virtual Events
- Longer Virtual Events (5K Series, 50 Hour Challenge, 4 month 1000K)
- Healthy Kids Coverts 100’s of Race Series
- Mashup of Virtual Events (Scavenger Hunt, Race + Virtual Party, and Spring Cleaning Run)
- Virtual Fundraising Efforts (with or without a run)
- Community Roundup of Virtual (Race + Training, Fitness Challenge, and free converted race)
- Virtual Running Community (Running Store Challenges, 100 Mile challenge with social media community support)
- Ann Arbor Virtual Marathon with RaceJoy
Tools to Create a RaceDay Experience (without the RaceDay)
- Setup Virtual Results
- Participant How-To for Submitting their Results (once setup)
- RaceJoy for Virtual Events Blog and Webinar
- Auto Results in RaceJoy
- Pre-Race Bib Setup
- Pre-Race Bib How-To for Participants (once setup)
- Finisher Certificates
- More Ideas for a Fun RaceDay
Looking for a Timer who is RaceJoy certified? You can search here.
Beyond Virtual
While regulations and recommendations vary widely by location, some areas are seeing loosening of restrictions that allows for modified events to start rolling out.
- Real Race Examples: Modified events that have taken place, safely.
- Looking Forward Guidelines for Races as the begin to restart
Maximizing Revenue
A Referral Rewards Program is a great low-cost, low-risk promotion strategy to help increase your participation without a large ad spend. Two reasons why:
- Most referrers don’t reach the threshold for a refund, but still refer a friend or two. On average, there are 13 registrations for every refund processed.
- Referrals appear more effective during coronavirus, with 18% of registrations in April from Referrals – up from 7% in 2019.
Resources for setting up an effective Referral Rewards Program:
Adjusting your Fees can bring in additional revenue, spread easily between participants.
- Understanding Price Elasticity
- Processing fees can be adjusted via Financial >>Pricing>>Extra Fees
- Best practice for setting up the extra fee is to absorb the regular processing fee (Financial >> Pricing >> Processing Fee Type), then set the Extra Fee as higher than the standard processing fee with a simple name like “Processing Fee”. This means that only one fee shows up for the participant during registration. If you need assistance here, follow up with your rep or info@runsignup.com.
Sponsors can still have a role in virtual landscape.
- Use Sponsor Offers for virtual swag from sponsors – like a discount for take-out from a local restaurant or a coupon towards shoes at a local running store.
- Promote sponsors in RaceJoy with Banner ads and Audio Alerts
Multi-Race Registration bundles can help you engage participants who are interested in one event, and get them to engage in several. For example, bundle a series of 5K’s, or combine a current virtual race with a future physical one.
Raise Money for Your Nonprofit
Nonprofits are looking to fundraise on a shoestring budget – and free, or inexpensive virtual events can be a lifeline for them.
- Donations and Fundraising During COVID-19 (Webinar recording and resources)
- Virtual Events with Donations and Fundraising (Webinar recording and resources)
- Enable Facebook Fundraising
- Create a Nonprofit Ticket Event Overview
- Nonprofit Ticket Events Webinar
Free Tools
Free Websites
A beautiful, professional website doesn’t require a web designer and a huge outlay of money. RunSignup’s free websites are customizable, with built-in SEO Optimization, data security, PCI Level 1 Compliant payment Processing, a free SSL Certificate, and more. Get started:
- Create a Beautiful Website Webinar
- Website Design Slides
- Customize Race Theme
- Add Custom Sections/Pages
- Cover Pages How-To
- BYO Website Domain Webinar
- BYO Website Domain Slides
- BYO Website Domain How-To
- Free Websites for…anything
Free Email Marketing
Reach participants, previous participants, and custom lists of supporters with free email marketing, built directly into the system. Take a pause on expensive email marketing systems while your organization recovers.
- Email Marketing Basics Webinar
- Email Marketing Slides
- Send Emails How-To
- Create and Manage Email Lists How-To
- Manage Emails How-To
- Email Marketing Templates How-To
- Add Images to Emails How-To
- Automated Emails How-To
- Email Reports How-To
Free CRM
Take a break from an expensive CRM solution and focus on the CRM functionality a race needs most.
- What is a CRM for Races
- Why a RunSignup CRM
- CRM Overview
- RunSignup CRM Offering
- Presentation: Marketing with your CRM
- RunSignup CRM & RaceInsights Success Story
- RaceInsights and CRM
Free Photos
Keep the RaceDay engagement going, online, with free and unlimited uploads of photos.
Free Texting
There are a couple of free text options to engage your participants and text messages via free texts.
Results Text Bot for Participants
Text Results Notifications for Spectators
Understand Your ROI with RaceInsights
Evaluate your true return – track specific marketing actions via promotion >> source tracking >> source tracking codes.
- RaceInsights Overview
- RaceInsights and CRM
- RunSignup CRM & RaceInsights Success Story
- RaceInsights Analytics Presentation
- RaceInsights Analytics Slides
Structural Changes
Timer Agreement: Work with your timer on an agreement that allows for payment via a Timer Processing Fee to reduce your upfront costs.
Encourage Deferrals: Deferrals allow you to spread out your losses over several years.
- Postponement Pop-up tool (can be used to collect preference to defer)
- Bulk Deferrals Tool
- Defer Via Race Transfer Option
