Referral reward programs empower participants to become the ambassadors for your race and allow you to reach a broader audience with minimal investment. RunSignup offers events an easy way to set up and run an effective referral rewards program to help bring in more registrations. Below provides guidance on how to set up a successful program using the free tools within your race dashboard.
Referral Rewards Benefits
Referral rewards is a an effective way for event organizers to increase registrations using a cost-effective and proven marketing approach. This organic promotion generates buzz, expands your reach, and attracts participants who are more likely to convert due to recommendations from trusted sources.
How Referral Rewards Work
- Offer an Automated Referral Reward: Set up a Referral Rewards Program. Your program will include a threshold (the number of people a participant successfully refers) and a reward (the refund or swag a participant gets if they reach that threshold). If you set your threshold at 3 referrals for a reward, participants who refer 1 or 2 participants to your event do not get a reward. How to set up Referral Codes.
- Automated Tracking: RunSignup’s referral rewards tool automates the referral tracking process, eliminating the need for manual record-keeping. The system assigns a unique referral link to each participant and includes it on their confirmation page and confirmation email for easy sharing. Then, RunSignup accurately attributes referrals to participants and automates the rewards process to reduce administrative burdens. How to set up Referral Tracking.
- Refund Rewards: Money talks. Refunds are the most popular reward for referrals because it’s easy to manage and motivating to everyone. Our standard recommendation is a $20 refund for 5 referrals, but you can customize the amount refunded and the threshold of referrals. How to set up Referral Refunds.
- Swag Rewards: Beyond refunds, you can reward your participants with premium swag, VIP race day experiences, and more. While you do have to manage any swag fulfillment, RunSignup’s swag rewards system makes it easy by automatically notifying the participant to select a size or variant option (as needed) when they hit the threshold for your swag rewards. How to set up Swag Rewards.
- Track and Monitor Referral Performance: RunSignup’s comprehensive dashboard provides real-time data on referral activity. You can track the number of referrals generated, successful conversions, and the performance of individual participants. This information helps you identify top referrers, measure the effectiveness of your referral program, and make data-driven decisions to optimize your marketing efforts. Referral Rewards ROI.
Get More Out of Your Referral Rewards
- Customize your Social Sharing Options: Participants can seamlessly share their referral codes and race information on popular social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter – customize your images and messaging to sell your race.
- Stack Rewards: Offer multiple reward tiers to incentivize your super referrers to keep referring after they reach your initial reward threshold.
- Include Exclusive Swag or Merchandise: If you’re offering swag such as t-shirts, hats, water bottles, or other branded merchandise, make sure it’s high quality and something that’s not available to participants outside the referral program.
- Offer an Upgraded Race Experience: Consider a creative approach to rewarding your high performing referrers by offering a VIP experience instead of traditional swag. This could include perks like early access to next year’s registration, preferred start times, free parking, special bib numbers, access to exclusive areas, or post-race amenities.
- PROMOTE YOUR PROGRAM: Referral rewards only works if your participants know about it. Add referral program information to your website cover page, social media channels, and email communications. To automate reminders about the program, set up automated registration follow-up emails and a replacement tag with their unique referrer link.
Other Rewards Programs to Motivate Registrations
Beyond referral rewards, RunSignup offers a range of pricing options and rewards programs you can implement to encourage your participants to sign up fast and invite their friends.
- Team/Group Rewards: Encourage groups of participants to join together for social or competitive teams. Incentivize group members to invite their family & friends to join with automated refunds for groups that reach a specified number of participants – or offer offline rewards to your largest teams. How to set up Group Pricing.
- Donation Discounts: Focused on raising more for your cause? Automatically reduce the registration fee for participants who donate above a certain amount to your charity of choice. How to set up Donation Discounts.
- Age-Based Pricing: Create a family-friendly event with automatic price discounts for your youngest (or oldest) participants. How to set up age-based pricing.
- Club Discounts: Connect with your local community with discounts for clubs that promote your event. Automatically discount RunSignup clubs based on their current membership list while encouraging more runners to join their club. How to add club membership discounts.
