Race directors, timers, and nonprofits using our integrated email marketing system in September reached an impressive new mileston: 25 million emails sent in a month. That means that, despite the impact of COVID-19 on the industry, customers sent 35% more emails in September 2020 than they did in September 2019, and sending is up 20% this year so far even with a drop in March and April.
With race organizations and nonprofits operating on a shoestring budget – and more social interaction moving online – we are seeing increased reliance on our free suite of marketing tools. Here’s what we are seeing.
Email Marketing
As noted above, email marketing use has gone up drastically. We’ve seen a steady increase in races taking advantage of the email marketing system since it was introduced in 2015, the increase this fall represents a significant spike. By the end of October, we anticipate having sent as many emails in 2020 as we did in all of 2019.
To get the most out of email marketing with the least work, enable automated emails. All automated emails can be customized for your event. Automated emails include:
- Incomplete Registration. Send a reminder to runners who start the process of registration, but don’t complete it. This is a great way to reach out to people who have demonstrated an interest in your event.
- Price Increase Emails. Use a price increase as a call to action. In 2019, 27% of all registrations occured within the 3 days prior to a price increase or registration closing – but that incentive only works if you remind runners about it! Two separate emails allow you to reach previous participants who have not yet registered, and current participants who may have friends and family interested in joining.
- RaceJoy. If you have enabled RaceJoy runner tracking for your event, these automated emails ensure that your runners will have a good experience with the app by providing usage instructions before the race.
- Sponsor Emails. Set up an automatic email including all your sponsors and any sponsor offers. In a virtual world, this option allows you to provide extra value to your sponsors (especially if they have an offer!) without increasing contact.
- Registration Follow-Ups. The most versatile of all automated emails, these can also be the most effective. Registration follow-ups are sent after someone has registered (either after a specific interval from their registration date, or to everyone on a specified date). The magic here is the ability to remind participants of key elements to help you grow your race – like encouraging them to refer friends, suggesting they create a team, or reiterating the importance of fundraising.
In 2019, more than 100,000 registrations came from automated emails.
Not using email marketing? Start at the link below for access to a recorded webinar, written instructions, and reporting information.
Referral Rewards
When enabled, our automated referral rewards system automatically provides a unique referral link to every registrant in your event – and tracks when that link is used for future registrations. To incentivize that sharing, you can set up rewards – either an automated refund, or a premium swag item that (with automatic collection of size information), or both. A typical referral program will include a higher threshold (3-5 referrals) for a significant refund ($20-25).
Since most people who refer friends never reach the threshold for a reward, this has long been considered the most cost-effective marketing strategy. Since March, the increase in online activity (and desire for anything approaching “social) has made referral rewards event more effective.
From April through September of 2020, races that activated referral rewards saw 17% of their registration dollars from referrals, compared to 7% from the same period in 2019.
Pro tip: Combine marketing strategies and use the registration follow-up emails for the most effective referral rewards program.
Not using referral rewards? Start at the link below for access to a recorded webinar on refund and swag rewards, set-up instructions, and best practices for a successful referral program.
Groups & Teams
Races have long been social events – and nothing about the pandemic has changed that. Offering (and promoting) social or competitive teams both encourages participants to invite their friends and family, and makes the experience of participating more fun and engaging. Megan Silva Schultz recently shared with us how teams drove participation and excitement for their Great American 5000 Challenge (1:26 into the video).
Since most people who refer friends never reach the threshold for a reward, this has long been considered the most cost-effective marketing strategy. Since March, the increase in online activity (and desire for anything approaching “social) has made referral rewards event more effective.
We’ve actually seen a slight uptic in team participation since March, with 33% of participants joining a team when it was available.
Pro tip: Turn on refunds by group size (Participants >> Groups/Teams >> Pricing) to incentivize larger teams by providing a lower price (and automatic refunds) when a team reaches a specific size.
Not using groups and teams? Start at the link below for how-to’s for selecting the correct group type, setting up pricing, and managing your teams.
Social Media
Love it or hate it, social media is a key source for reaching runners and keeping them enthusiastic. RunSignup tools to improve your Social Media presence include:
- Social Sharing Options (Promotion >> Social Sharing). If your initial marketing is successful or you’ve implemented a strong referral program, participants will share their registration with their social network. Control the message and image of your event with a customized post and unique (fun!) social media images.
- Facebook Pixel (Promotion >> Facebook Pixel). If you are doing any advertising on Facebook, activate the pixel to improve Facebook’s ability to report on your success.
- Facebook Custom Audiences (Promotion >> Facebok Custom Audiences). Compared to more traditional advertising, Facebook can be an affordable marketing tool – but only if you’re advertising to the right people. Access formatted participant reports that Facebook can use to advertise to your previous participants – as well as to similar Facebook users (Lookalike Audiences) who may be more interested in joining your event.
Not using Facebook Custom Audiences? Check out our previously recorded webinar to learn what the report includes, how to upload it to Facebook, and how to target different types of lists.
RaceInsights
RaceInsights is your built-in analytics tool for evaluating the success of your marketing – and helping you to decide where to spend your precious marketing dollars. From RaceInsights on your Race Dashboard you can see the page views, registrations, transactions, donations, and registration dollars tied to various sources.
- Email Sources: If you’re using RunSignup’s integrated email (both custom sends and automated emails) , this is where you will see how many participants took actions based on your emails.
- Referral Sources: See what websites drive traffic to your site, and get a better understanding of whether participants are finding you via Google, Facebook, a local race calendar, or somewhere else altogether.
- Custom Sources: The real power in RaceInsights lies in the ability to create custom tracking links for various marketing activities and get a granular look at what works. Custom sources are specific links to your race website that can be easily set up (Promotion >> Source Tracking >> Source Tracking Codes) and shared for a specific campaign (I.E., one for a FB ad, one for a FB organic post, and one for an email your running store is sending). An example of the information is below:
Pro tip: Registration source also shows up in a participant’s CRM record – meaning you can further use the data for targetting them in future years by building Facebook Custom audiences for participants who previously registered on Facebook, or sending an extra email to a participant who registered from an email.
Not sure how to really use RaceInsights? A few places to get started. Note: the guide does not include Custom Source Tracking, but the other two resources cover that.