RunSignup’s Referrals 2.0, released in late January, has been impressing races with strong early ROI results. The program allows for an automated refund of a set amount for Referrers who successfully refer a pre-determined number of registrants (as set by the Race Director). Additionally, strong social sharing tools encourage more referrals – among other things, registrants can share a personal referral link on Facebook and tag the friends they think may be interested.
Overall, among races with any referrals since February 1st, 2016, referrals have made up 7% of the 46,000+ RunSignup registrations for races that had the referral option turned on.
Although the Race Director has the flexibility and control to select the referral reward setup that makes the most sense for them, races have seen success with a high reward amount for a high referral amount. For example, offering $25 when you hit 5 referrals (as opposed to $5 for every referral) encourages runners to reach out to multiple friends, but does not cost the race anything in refunds unless they are successful in bringing in multiple runners.
One large Next Generation Race Series that turned on Referral Rewards for $25 at a threshold of 5 referrals on 1/29/16 has seen 10% of their registrations and 13% of their registration dollars come from referrals. That’s 1,133 of their 10,966 registrations…with only $883 refunded to the Referrers, or an ROI of $41,488 (4,488).
The program is also providing big rewards for more conventional races. One major marathon that turned on Referral Refunds on 2/5/16 has seen 5% of registrations and 9% of registration dollars from Referrals. Their reward – a $2 refund for every referral up to 5 – has brought in $3,469 in registrations, with only $64 refunded to participants.
You can learn more about RunSignup Referrals 2.0 here: https://runsignup.blog/2016/01/27/referrals-2-0/
Watch a video on the referral process (and benefits) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1DyCfteGHw
About RunSignup
RunSignup is the leading innovator of online tools for races registration, race day solutions, and running clubs. Services include RunSignup for registration, RunSignup Go for Race Day, RunSignup RD Go for Timers, RunSignup Clubs to enable membership management, and RaceJoy for mobile experiences. More than 10,000 race directors, timers, running club officers and running stores use these services today, including leading organizations like the Boilermaker Road Race, Crim Festival of Races, Pittsburgh Three Rivers Marathon, Inc., Fifth Third River Bank Run, Blacklight Run, Bubble Run, Night Nation, Mercedes Marathon, Kentucky Derby Festival, Leone Timing, KC Running Company, Compuscore Timing, Knoxville Track Club, Pike Peak Road Runners, Gulf Coast Runners, Columbus Running Company, Playmakers Running Store and many more. In 2015, over 10,000 races used the system to register more than 2.7 million participants. Services are free except for processing fees when conducting monetary transactions such as race registration or club membership renewal. RunSignup is founded by runners for runners, using technical capabilities to bring the power of cloud computing to benefit the running community. For more information, visit www.RunSignup.com.