Growing a race takes more than a great course and a well-stocked finish line. It takes a consistent, strategic approach to marketing — one that builds awareness, drives registrations, and brings runners back year after year. The good news? RunSignup gives you a full suite of tools to do exactly that, and every single one of them is free.
There’s one more thing worth saying upfront: your participant data is always yours. RunSignup will never use your participants’ information to market other races to them. The tools in this guide are designed to help you grow your event — not someone else’s.
This guide is organized around four pillars of event marketing:
Whether you’re setting up a new event or refreshing an established one, use this guide as a reference you can return to throughout your race cycle.
1. Your Race Website
Your race website is often the first impression a potential participant has of your event. It’s where runners decide whether to register, where they send their friends, and where they return when they have questions. It needs to be professional, informative, and built to convert.
RunSignup provides a free, fully branded race website for every event — no separate website platform required.
Build a Branded, Professional Home Base
A polished website signals to participants that your event is worth their time and their entry fee. RunSignup’s website builder gives you full control over the look and feel of your site without requiring any technical expertise.
Start with the basics: upload your logo, set a custom color scheme that matches your event’s branding, and add high-quality header images — race photos from previous years work especially well here. From there, take advantage of the full range of customization options:
- Custom domain or subdomain — point your own domain (or a subdomain of your organization’s site) directly to your RunSignup race page for a seamless, professional experience
- Unlimited content pages — add course maps, FAQs, sponsor pages, volunteer information, and anything else participants need, all in one place
- Custom menu navigation — organize your site with dropdown menus so that key information is always easy to find
The goal is a website that feels like your event, not a generic registration form. Runners who trust what they see on your site are more likely to register — and more likely to share it.
AI Assistant: Build and Refresh Your Website Faster
Setting up race content — descriptions, FAQs, event details — is one of the most time-consuming parts of race setup. RunSignup’s AI Assistant changes that.
Available directly within the Website Builder for Websites V2, the AI Assistant lets you generate polished, engaging content without leaving your dashboard. Need an FAQ section? A compelling event description for your homepage? A summary of course highlights for a new page? Provide a prompt and the AI Assistant generates it instantly. You can refine it with follow-up instructions, or use the highlight-to-edit feature to update just one section without touching the rest of your content.
This is especially useful at renewal time. Rather than rewriting your entire website from scratch each year, use the AI Assistant to update dates, refresh your messaging, and modernize last year’s content in minutes.
Tips for getting the most out of the AI Assistant:
- Be specific in your prompts. “A family-friendly spring 5K with a charity component and a strong call to action” will produce better results than “a race description.”
- Use highlight-to-edit for targeted updates — change what needs changing without disrupting content that already works.
- Always review the output and adjust for your event’s unique voice and branding before publishing.
SEO — Let RunSignup Do the Heavy Lifting
Search engine optimization sounds technical, but the core idea is simple: when someone searches for a local 5K or half marathon, you want your event to show up. RunSignup automatically uses the details you enter during race setup — event name, location, distances, and descriptions — to optimize your race page for search engines.
The results speak for themselves: 29.3% of all race website traffic comes from organic (unpaid) search, according to the 2025 RaceTrends Report. That’s nearly a third of your visitors arriving without spending a dollar on advertising.
To make the most of RunSignup’s built-in SEO:
- Write a detailed, specific race description that naturally includes your event name, city, distances, and any unique features (charity tie-in, scenic course, post-race festival, etc.)
- Keep your race details current — accurate dates, distances, and location information all contribute to search visibility
- Build out your FAQ section with answers to common questions. Detailed, well-structured content helps your site rank in both traditional search and the growing number of AI-powered search tools that runners are using to discover events
- Use the AI Assistant to write or refresh your description if you’re not sure where to start
Using Pricing as a Marketing Tool
Pricing is one of the simplest and most effective ways to drive registrations. According to the 2025 RaceTrends Report, 26% of all registrations come within three days of a price increase or registration close — urgency works.
RunSignup gives you flexible pricing tools that can be deployed throughout your registration window to keep momentum going:
- Early Bird / Time-Based Pricing — set prices that increase on specific dates to reward early registrants and create natural urgency at every stage of your registration window
- Event Size Price Increases — automatically raise prices as your registration count grows, which also creates social proof (“spots are filling up”)
- Time-Limited Coupons — give your email list or social media followers an exclusive discount with a hard expiration date, driving a spike of action whenever you need one
- Group and Team Pricing — offer a discount when participants register together. This doesn’t just incentivize a transaction; it turns every registrant into a recruiter. Every person who brings a group introduces your event to runners who might never have found it otherwise
Make pricing deadlines visible and prominent on your website. RunSignup’s dynamic website elements can automatically display upcoming price increase countdowns — so runners always know exactly how long they have to lock in the current rate.
One important note: don’t overcomplicate it. If participants have to read the fine print to figure out how to save, the incentive loses its impact. Keep your pricing structure clear, and use your website and email to consistently remind people of exactly when and how they can get the best deal.
2. Email Marketing
Email has been around longer than social media, paid search, and most of the other channels competing for your marketing budget — and it still outperforms almost all of them. According to the 2025 RaceTrends Report, 12% of registration dollars are directly attributed to email marketing sent through RunSignup, and that figure doesn’t even account for email sent outside the platform. In a single year, race directors sent 815 million free emails through RunSignup alone.
The key isn’t just sending emails. It’s sending the right emails to the right people at the right time.
Building Your Email List
Before you can run effective email campaigns, you need a list worth sending to. RunSignup supports unlimited contacts at no additional cost, which means there’s no reason to limit who you’re communicating with.
Email capture forms are one of the best tools for building your list before registration even opens. Embed a capture form on your race website, share it on social media, or ask partner organizations — local running clubs, running stores, community groups — to post it on their sites. This lets you collect interest from runners who aren’t ready to register yet and nurture them toward registration when the time comes.
Your list should extend beyond current registrants. Think about:
- Past participants from previous years
- Volunteers and spectators
- Runners who expressed interest but didn’t complete registration
- Community members who signed up via an email capture form
The more comprehensive your list, the more effective your email marketing will be.
Automated Emails That Work While You Sleep
Some of the highest-performing emails in your arsenal are ones you set up once and never have to think about again. RunSignup’s automated email tools let you create triggered sequences that run on their own throughout your registration cycle.
Incomplete registration emails are among the most valuable: when a runner starts the registration process but doesn’t complete it, an automated follow-up email can recover a meaningful portion of those nearly-lost registrations. These runners already showed interest — they just need a nudge.
Other high-value automations to set up:
- Registration confirmation and follow-up sequences — a well-crafted confirmation email does more than confirm. Use it to remind new registrants about your referral program, share your social media channels, and get them excited about race day
- Price increase reminders — automated price increase emails going out 5-7 days and 1-2 days before each pricing deadline are among the highest-converting sends you can schedule
- Pre-race countdown emails — keep registered participants engaged and reduce no-show rates as race day approaches
Email Strategy Tied to Pricing
Your email calendar should map directly to your pricing structure. Every price increase is a marketing event — an opportunity to create urgency and drive a concentrated wave of registrations.
A simple but effective email cadence looks like this:
- Registration opens — announce the launch, highlight early bird pricing, introduce your referral program
- Mid-cycle — share updates, spotlight participants or past race photos, preview the next price increase on the horizon
- Price increase warning — 5-7 days out, remind your list that prices are going up soon
- Final push — 1-2 days before the deadline, make the urgency explicit and make it easy to register
- Post-race — thank participants, share results and photos, and plant the seed for next year
Use email to promote group and team pricing to people who haven’t yet registered. A message like “Register with a friend and save” gives readers a reason to forward the email — and your event — to someone in their network.
Personalization and Segmentation
Generic blasts have their place, but personalized emails consistently outperform them. RunSignup’s email tools allow you to use custom replacement tags to automatically insert a participant’s name, registered event, pricing details, and more — making every email feel tailored to that person.
Segmentation takes this further. Rather than sending the same message to your entire list, build targeted sends for:
- Registered participants vs. prospective runners who haven’t yet signed up
- Participants registered for different distances
- Past participants who haven’t registered for this year’s event yet
The more relevant your message is to the person receiving it, the more likely it is to drive action.
3. Reaching New Runners
Your existing community is your most valuable marketing asset, but growth at some point requires reaching people who don’t yet know your event. This section covers the tools and strategies that extend your reach — many of them with little to no additional effort required.
Referral Rewards — Turn Registrants Into Recruiters
No marketing channel is more trusted than a recommendation from a friend or family member. Referral rewards are how you activate that trust at scale.
RunSignup’s referral rewards system lets you set up automatic incentives for participants who refer new registrants. When someone hits a pre-set referral threshold, they’re automatically rewarded with either a registration refund or a piece of swag — and any information needed to fulfill swag (like shirt size) is collected automatically. You configure it once, and it runs itself.
According to the 2025 RaceTrends Report, 7% of all transactions are attributed to referrals when a rewards program is enabled — and for races that actively promote their program, that number can reach 15-20%.
Best practices for referral rewards:
- Aim for a meaningful threshold and reward. A goal of 3-5 referrals paired with a reward of at least $15-20 gives participants something worth working toward without feeling out of reach.
- Stack your rewards. Offering 3-4 reward levels gives your most enthusiastic supporters a reason to keep going after they hit the first milestone.
- Promote it everywhere. Referral rewards only work if participants know they exist. Feature them on your race website, in your confirmation email, and in follow-up emails — with images.
- Know your audience. Data shows that 70% of referrers identify as female — factor that into your swag reward choices.
Email Capture Forms — Building Your Funnel Before Registration Opens
Not every interested runner is ready to register the moment they hear about your event. Email capture forms let you collect their contact information so you can stay in touch until they are.
Embed a capture form on your race website well before registration opens, and promote it through your social channels and community partners. Use the list you build to send a launch-day announcement when registration goes live — runners who opted in are already warm leads and significantly more likely to convert than cold traffic.
Capture forms are also useful for collecting interest from people who discover your event through affiliate calendars, running club newsletters, or local advertising but aren’t quite ready to commit.
RunSignup Affiliate Network — Free Passive Reach
Every race on RunSignup is automatically shared across a network of national and local event calendars — including major sites like HalfMarathons.net and RunningIntheUSA.com, as well as local aggregators like running stores and timing companies that pull RunSignup events via the Open API.
You don’t have to do anything to be included. According to the 2025 RaceTrends Report, referral sources — including affiliate calendars — drive 25.1% of all race website traffic, making it one of the top drivers of visitors to your event page. Your event is listed the moment it goes live on RunSignup.
Make sure your race details, descriptions, and images are complete and accurate so your listing makes the best possible impression wherever it appears.
Influencer Marketing — A Measurable Revenue Channel
Influencer marketing has moved well beyond brand awareness. When done with the right attribution tools in place, it becomes a trackable, repeatable revenue channel. The key is treating influencer partnerships the same way you’d treat any other marketing spend: measure everything from the start.
There are two approaches that work well for endurance events:
Approach 1: One high-reach influencer to spotlight your event
If your event is a distinctive experience — a scenic trail race, a landmark urban event, something that photographs beautifully and appeals to a broad audience — a single partnership with the right influencer can generate significant visibility and a sharp spike in registrations. Focus on influencers in the running, fitness, or local lifestyle space whose audience matches your participant profile. The right post can reach more people than months of organic social content combined.
Approach 2: A network of local micro-influencers with trackable links and codes
For community-based races, local micro-influencers — fitness bloggers, community Instagram accounts, local running personalities — often convert better than large national accounts because their audiences trust them and are geographically relevant to your event. This approach works best when each influencer gets their own unique referral link and coupon code, so you know exactly how many registrations each partnership generated.
RunSignup’s coupon and source tracking tools make this straightforward. Create a unique coupon code and trackable URL for each influencer, group them together in your dashboard for a clean view of your program’s total impact, and connect them to your tracking pixels (Facebook, TikTok, Google) to see the full attribution picture.
The most important principle: make it measurable. Views and engagement are nice, but what you need to know is how many people registered and how much revenue was driven. With proper tracking in place from the start, influencer marketing becomes a strategy you can evaluate, optimize, and scale — not just a social media experiment.
Club Memberships — Tap the Local Running Community
Local running clubs are among the most engaged audiences in your market. RunSignup’s club membership discount feature lets you offer reduced pricing to members of specific clubs, giving you a direct incentive to promote to those communities.
Beyond the discount, running clubs are valuable distribution partners. Reach out about being featured in their newsletters, shared with their membership, and included in their social content. A warm introduction from a club a runner already trusts is far more effective than a cold ad.
4. Retaining Runners
Acquiring a new participant costs significantly more than retaining an existing one. Your past participants already know and love your event — they just need to be reminded, rewarded, and made to feel like they belong. According to the 2025 RaceTrends Report, only 17.2% of participants return to the same event the following year, which means retention is both a challenge and one of the biggest opportunities available to race directors.
Loyalty Program and Priority Registration
RunSignup’s Loyalty Program is one of the most powerful retention tools available — and one of the most underutilized. It allows you to reward participants who have registered in previous years, creating a sense of belonging and status that keeps people coming back.
One of the most effective components is priority registration — giving returning participants early access before registration opens to the general public. This creates exclusivity that participants genuinely value, especially for popular events that fill up.
Best practices for your loyalty program:
- Communicate it early and often. Participants who don’t know about their loyalty status can’t be motivated by it. Announce priority registration windows via email well in advance, and feature it prominently on your race website.
- Frame it as recognition, not just a perk. The most loyal participants want to feel like insiders. Use your messaging to thank them for their continued support and make them feel like a core part of your event community.
- Pair it with your post-race communication. The moment immediately after a race — when participants are riding high from finishing — is the ideal time to plant the seed for next year. A post-race email that thanks participants and previews priority registration for returning runners can lock in next year’s attendees before you’ve even announced the date.
Post-Race Communication and Year-Round Engagement
Retention doesn’t start when registration opens for next year. It starts the moment this year’s race ends.
A strong post-race email sequence should include a genuine thank-you with race highlights and photos, a results link and shareable finisher content, a request for feedback (participants who feel heard are more likely to return), and a preview of next year’s event with a reminder of loyalty program benefits.
Throughout the off-season, keep your audience warm with occasional touchpoints: training tips, community spotlights, early announcements, and behind-the-scenes content. The goal is to maintain a relationship so that when registration opens, your past participants feel invested before you’ve even asked them to sign up.
Measuring What’s Working — RaceInsights
All the marketing in the world is only as good as your ability to understand what’s actually driving results. RaceInsights is RunSignup’s built-in analytics engine, giving you visibility into exactly where your registrations, website traffic, and transactions are coming from.
Use Custom Source Tracking to create a unique URL for every marketing action you take — each email campaign, social post, paid ad, or influencer partnership. This lets you tie every effort directly to registrations and revenue, so you can invest more in what’s working and stop spending time on what isn’t.
Over time, RaceInsights helps you build a clear picture of your most valuable channels. You can create audience segments based on source data — for example, targeting Facebook users who previously came to your site from Facebook, or building a re-engagement list of runners who visited your registration page but didn’t complete sign-up.
The Compounding Effect of Consistent Marketing
The most effective race marketing strategies aren’t built on a single tactic — they’re built on consistent, compounding effort across multiple channels. A great website brings in organic traffic. Email nurtures that traffic into registrations. Referral programs turn registrants into recruiters. Influencers expand your reach into new audiences. And a loyalty program ensures that the runners you’ve worked hard to earn keep showing up year after year.
None of these tools require a marketing budget. All of them are free through RunSignup.
Start with the channels that feel most manageable, track everything from day one, and let your data guide where you focus next. The race directors who grow their events most consistently aren’t the ones with the biggest budgets — they’re the ones who show up, communicate well, and treat their participants like the community members they are.
Ready to put these strategies to work? Create your event on RunSignup today.