Email is the workhorse of event marketing — RunSignup/TicketSignup sent 850 million emails on behalf of our customers last year. But your participants’ attention has moved. Nearly three quarters of race website traffic now comes from a phone, and text messages get read in a way email simply doesn’t: industry benchmarks put SMS open rates at 90–98% vs. 28% average open rate for email.

That’s why we have been making a large investment in building SMS Marketing directly into RunSignup — a full text marketing channel that works alongside the email and website tools you already use. Imagine texting your past participants a registration link the morning of a price increase. Filling the last of your volunteer spots with those that helped last year. Or during an event nudge to stop by the merch tent before they leave — all from the same dashboard where you manage everything else, with contact lists that work just like the ones you know from Email V2.

Today we want to share where we are, where we’re heading, and how you can get involved.

Alpha Testing is Underway

In August we began Alpha testing SMS Marketing with a lighthouse customer — a multi-event endurance organization that runs events throughout the year. They’re using the first release on a real event, with real participants, and their feedback is directly shaping what comes next.

The Alpha release includes the foundation of the feature:

Your own dedicated toll-free number. Each event that enables SMS Marketing applies for and receives its own carrier-verified toll-free number through a guided onboarding process on the Dashboard. Your texts come from your number — prefixed with the recognizable name of your event and approved by the carriers.
Import your contact list. Bring in a list of phone numbers you’ve already collected — along with the consent information behind them — and organize contacts into lists using the same list-building model as our email tools.
Compose and send text messages. Write your message with a live preview of how it will look on a recipient’s phone, complete with character and segment counting. Send the message immediately or at a scheduled future time/date. Quiet hours are observed for scheduled messages.
Automatic opt-out handling. When a recipient replies STOP, they’re unsubscribed instantly and automatically — you never have to manage it.
Reporting. See what was sent and to whom. Later you will be able to retrieve insights around click thru and conversions.

Compliance, Handled

Text messaging is regulated more tightly than email — carrier verification, express written consent, quiet hours, instant opt-out honoring, and auditable consent records are all part of running an SMS program the right way. There’s a lot to it, and not doing it correctly can lead to non-delivery of your messages, shutdown of your number or worse.

Our approach: the platform handles it for you. Number registration and verification, consent capture and record-keeping, opt-out processing, and the required message language are all built into the system, so you can focus on what you want to say — and stay out of trouble while you say it.

Beta is Coming This Fall – and You’re Invited to Apply

Targeting October, we’ll expand to a Beta with a small group of 5–8 customers. The Beta release will be the Alpha feature set refined with our lighthouse customer’s feedback, plus stronger opt-in capabilities — including double opt-in confirmation, where a new subscriber verifies by text reply that they want to hear from you. We will also be adding tools for more ways to grow your opted-in audience.

To enable SMS Marketing there will be a $10 one-time lifetime fee and then $.01 per text segment. These fees will be waived during the Beta testing phase.

If you’d like to be considered for the Beta, email your RunSignup contact or at info@runsignup.com with a little about your organization and how you’d want to use text marketing. Beta spots are limited, and we’re looking for a mix of event types and sizes.

Join Us for the SMS Marketing Webinar on Sept 3rd

Want to see it in action? On September 3 at 2pm ET, we’re hosting a webinar with a full demo of SMS Marketing, a walk-through of onboarding and sending, a look at the (simple, pay-as-you-go) pricing, and open Q&A.

Register for the SMS Marketing webinar here.

Text messaging is the most direct line you can have to your participants. We’re excited to put it in your hands — and we’d love your help getting it right.