In our race marketing guide, we covered email as one of the four pillars of growing your event — and for good reason. According to the 2025 RaceTrends Report, 12% of registration dollars are directly attributed to email marketing. But sending effective emails doesn’t have to mean sitting at your computer writing campaigns all year. With RunSignup’s free automated email tools, you can build your entire communication strategy once and let it run itself.
The right message goes to the right person at the right time — without you lifting a finger. Here’s how to set it up.
After Someone Registers: The Post-Registration Drip
The moment someone registers is the peak of their excitement about your event. It’s also the best time to get them to do something for you. A post-registration drip sequence takes advantage of that excitement and turns a new registrant into an active promoter before the week is out.
Email 1: The Referral Rewards Follow-Up (Day 2–3)
Set up an automated registration follow-up email to go out 2–3 days after someone signs up, focused entirely on your referral rewards program. By this point the runner has had time to settle into the excitement of registering — and they’re primed to tell their friends.
This email should include:
- A clear, simple explanation of what participants can earn and how
- Their unique referral link, pulled in automatically via a replacement tag — no manual work required
- A visual of the reward (a photo of the swag, or a graphic showing the refund amount) to make it feel real and motivating
- A direct call to action: share your link and start earning
This is one of the highest-ROI emails you can send. Referral programs only work if participants know they exist — and this email guarantees every single registrant finds out at exactly the right moment.
Email 2: The Bring-a-Friend Reminder (Day 10–14)
A second automated touch reinforces the referral message and introduces group or team pricing as another reason to recruit friends. Keep it short — a reminder that they can save money (or earn rewards) by getting their crew to sign up together.
Email 3: The Race Preview (30 Days Out)
An automated email sent 30 days before race day — triggered by the event date, not the registration date — that builds excitement and reduces pre-race anxiety. Cover course highlights, what to expect on race day, and any event-specific details that make your race special. This email serves double duty: it re-engages registered participants and gives them something worth forwarding to friends who still haven’t signed up.
Each of these emails is written once, scheduled in Email V2’s automated email dashboard, and sends automatically to every new registrant going forward.
Recovering Lost Registrations: Incomplete Registration Emails
Not everyone who starts registration finishes it. Life gets in the way — a phone rings, a credit card isn’t handy, a tab gets closed. Incomplete registration emails automatically follow up with runners who started the process but didn’t complete it, giving them a gentle nudge back.
By enabling the automated email RunSignup will send out this email 3 days after an incomplete registration. You can customize both the timing and the content to match your event’s tone. You can even consider adding a small coupon code — a $5 discount is often all it takes to get someone across the finish line.
Price Increase Emails: The Right Message to the Right Person
Price increases are your most powerful urgency tool — but only if people know about them. According to the 2025 RaceTrends Report, 26% of all registrations come within three days of a price increase or registration close. Automated price increase emails are how you make sure that spike happens every single time, without you having to remember to send anything.
The most important thing here is segmentation. People who are already registered and people who haven’t registered yet need to hear completely different messages:
For current registrants: The message flips to peer-to-peer motivation — the price is going up, so now is the perfect time to remind any friends who’ve been on the fence. Pair this with their unique referral link and you have a targeted, high-converting message delivered at exactly the moment when urgency is highest for everyone involved.
For prospective runners (not yet registered): The message is urgency — prices are going up, and now is the time to lock in the current rate. This email goes to your general contact list, past participants who haven’t yet signed up for this year, and anyone who has expressed interest through an email capture form.
From your Email V2 dashboard, set up automated price increase emails under Automated Emails, assign separate recipient lists for each send, and schedule them to go out 1–2 days before each pricing deadline. Every price increase for the rest of your registration cycle will trigger the right emails automatically.
Race Week Emails: Schedule Now, Thank Yourself Later
Race week is when your participants need information the most — and when you have the least bandwidth to write and send it. The solution is to write and schedule all of your race week communication well in advance, so that when race week arrives, your energy goes to logistics, not your laptop.
A complete race week automated sequence:
- 7 days out: The athlete guide — parking, packet pickup, start times, course map, what to wear, and what to expect on race day. Answer every common question before it lands in your inbox.
- 3 days out: Final reminders and any last-minute updates. If registration is still open, include a race day price callout.
- 1 day out: A short, motivational “see you tomorrow” with the most critical logistics — start time, parking, and packet pickup if applicable.
- Day of (or night before): A QR code or Apple Wallet link for check-in to help participants move through packet pickup quickly and skip the line.
Because Email V2 lets you schedule emails to send on specific calendar dates, you can build this entire sequence weeks before race week begins. Once it’s scheduled, it runs automatically — even if you’re standing on the start line at 5am.
Post-Race Emails: Plant the Seed for Next Year
The hour after a runner crosses the finish line is the peak of their emotional connection to your event. A well-timed post-race sequence locks in that goodwill and starts building loyalty before the endorphins wear off.
Schedule these in advance so they send automatically after race day — no scrambling required:
Same day or next morning: A thank-you email with a link to results. Keep it short, warm, and genuine. If you have race photos available, include them or link to them.
3–5 days post-race: A deeper recap — course highlights, top finishers, and links for participants to share their results on social media. This is also the right moment to include a brief feedback survey.
2–3 weeks post-race: The plant-the-seed email. Announce next year’s date, introduce your loyalty program or priority registration window, and give returning participants a reason to sign up before general registration opens. Sent while the race is still fresh, this is one of the most effective registration drivers you have for the following year.
A Few Tips to Get the Most Out of Automated Emails
Personalize with replacement tags. Email V2’s replacement tags automatically insert a participant’s name, registered event, referral link, pricing details, and more into every email. Personalized emails consistently outperform generic ones — and with replacement tags, it costs you nothing extra.
Align your email calendar with your pricing structure. Every price increase is a natural trigger for communication. Map your automated sends to your pricing tiers so urgency is always present throughout your registration window.
Use Organization Email for year-round outreach. RunSignup’s Organization Email connects the participant lists from all your events in one place, making it easy to send event launch announcements, newsletters, and cross-promotion to your full community between races.
Check your performance reports. Email V2 tracks open rates, click-through rates, and unsubscribes for every send. Use these to refine your subject lines and messaging over time so each year’s campaigns perform better than the last.
Need some design inspiration? Check out Email V2 Inspiration: Real Examples from Real Customers to see how races, running clubs, and organizations are putting these tools to work with beautifully designed, high-performing emails.
The Bottom Line
The race directors who get the most out of email aren’t the ones sending the most — they’re the ones who build a smart, automated system and let it run consistently throughout the year. A post-registration drip that promotes referrals, segmented price increase emails that create urgency, race week sends that answer every question before it’s asked, and post-race emails that bring people back the following year.
All of it can be built once, completely free, inside your RunSignup dashboard.