As a race director, you’ve built a successful race and have a solid pricing model. Now, you’re ready to grow and expand your event! RunSignup offers a range of free marketing tools that race directors can take advantage of. Today, we’re going to focus specifically on growth strategies that revolve around pricing.
To Grow Your Race, Reduce Your Attrition
Race directors tend to think about growth in terms of reaching new runners. But the first step is really to get your previous attendees to return year after year. There are two reasons repeat runners are important. First, every runner who returns is one fewer runner you need to find new. Second, runners who had a good enough experience to return are more likely to bring friends with them. Loyalty programs are an effective way to encourage and reward returning runners.
Creating a Loyalty Program with a Multi-Use Reserved Entry and a Loyalty List
There are many ways to craft a loyalty program, but this is one of our favorites. It allows you to:
- Offer previous participants a discount (with no illicit coupon-sharing).
- For example, offer 2024 participants a link that let’s them register with $10 off of 2025 pricing.
- Let previous runners use their discount to register before regular registration opens, or simply offer a discount during the regular registration period.
- Set up multiple tiers for ranges of loyalty, such as:
- $20 discount for participants who have joined 5 or more years
- $10 discount for participants who have joined 2-4 years
- $5 discount for last year’s participants (who were first-timers last year)
To Grow Your Race, Offer a Membership Model
For race organizers with multiple races, a membership model can be a new format for promoting loyalty across all your events. How? Create a free or low-cost membership program that rewards members with discounts to races. How does it work?
- Get local runners to engage with you whole racing organization, not a single race. This builds trust that you put on excellent events.
- Counters the paradox of choice by re-focusing members on your races (and forgetting the others).
- Builds community amongst members that see the same faces at multiple races, further strengthening their connection to your events.
Membership models can be paid (a low cost that will be recouped via the race discounts and other community perks you can arrange), or free (with an understanding that you’ll need to factor their discounted registrations into your race pricing plans). With email V2 built directly into the Memberships dashboard, it’s easy for you to communicate with your members and promote your upcoming races (and the perks they get).
To Grow Your Race, Build a Referral Rewards Program
Referral rewards programs turn your participants into ambassadors by rewarding participants for (successfully) inviting their friends to join them. How does a referral program work?
- Offer an Automated Referral Reward
- Set up a Referral Rewards Program. Your program setup includes a threshold (the number of people a participant must successfully refer) and a reward (the refund amount 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.
- Automated Tracking
- RunSignup’s referral rewards tool automates tracking, eliminating the need for manual record-keeping. A unique referral link is assigned to each participant and included 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.
- Referral Rewards
- Refunds are the most popular reward for referrals because it’s easy to manage and motivating to everyone. Our standard recommendation is a $15-$20 refund for 3-5 referrals, but you can customize the amount refunded and the threshold of referrals. Refunds are paid out automatically to anyone reaching the threshold you set – no additional action required.
- 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.
- 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.
Do Referral Programs Bring NEW Runners to My Race?
One of the frequent questions we get around referrals is “don’t they just sign up people who would run before and would have run again, anyway? In our experience, sure a few of your referrals might have registered anyway. But many (most) likely are new to your event, and the cost of a referral program is incredibly low. A 2024 case study of the referral program implemented by Sound to Narrows found:
Alternatives to Participation Growth: Revenue Growth
Growth doesn’t just mean an increase in participation. Increasing your per-participant revenue can boost your bottom line without adding additional participants. And, if you do it right, you can improve the participant experience along the way.
Negative Giveaways
Not every runner wants or needs another race shirt. Give participants the option to skip the t-shirt or giveaway for a small price break (like $5) that’s less than the real cost of the giveaway. This saves you on the overhead of the giveaway, reduces waste, and keeps your runner happier. You can set this up by navigating to Race >> Giveaways/Add-Ons >> Giveaways.
We have even seen races get a significant number of opt-outs for giveaways even without the price break for doing so.
A La Carte Events
Offer a premium experience (only if the runner wants it). In this race model, standard registration is a low-frills event, allowing you do keep registration prices and costs low. However, registrants can customize their experience with add-ons for different perk levels. This means participants can chose the luxury level they want for your event, and you can boost revenue via athletes looking for a more high-end experience.
Typically, we would recommend you set this up using add-ons and then enable add-on management to allow participants to upgrade after their initial registration.
Fees for Participant Management
To allow (or not allow) transfers is an evergreen debate for race directors. One solution we’ve found: allowing transfers for a small fee. This empowers athletes to change distances or transfer their bib for a $5-$10 fee. This means you can have a runner-friendly participant management policy and pick up a little extra revenue.
Capitalize on Sellouts (or “Sellouts”)
If you sell out or could call it a sellout with a reasonable cap, you have opportunities to increase revenue without increasing your capacity. First, a sellout increases demand for future years. Second, a sellout means additional ways to boost revenue. A few of our favorites include:
- Add a VIP option with a higher price point.
- Consider offering perks (parking, tent, etc.) instead of “stuff” – this costs you little, but provides significant value to your VIPs.
- Set a high price point for your last 5-10% of registrants
- Late registrants will pay a premium
- Work with charity partners for a mutually beneficial charity program
- Runners fundraise significantly more for the charity than the charity paid you
- Charity sponsors the event with a donation above the value of the regular registrations
Why Pricing Matters to Race Growth
Marketing a race requires more than a singular action or approach. A well-rounded race marketing strategy includes outreach (like email and social media campaigns), consistent branding (like custom website), runner-retention programs (like loyalty programs), funnel expansion (like referral programs), and an unforgettable race day experience. Pricing matters to growth because we know that pricing is the ultimate motivator of action. Strategic discounting, financial rewards, and upcharges can help you grow your race participation and revenue year after year.