Event Information

Part of the Expanding Timer Revenue Series: Want to help your races grow while boosting your own bottom line? Don’t miss this edition of Timer Tip Tuesday, where we explore Marketing as a Service — a powerful way for timers to increase revenue by helping events drive registrations.

By offering marketing support to events, timers can provide valuable expertise that directly impacts participation numbers — and more participants means more revenue for both events and timers. Whether included as part of your service package or offered as an add-on, marketing services can set you apart from the competition while making your events more successful.

In this session, we’ll dive into:

• How timers are monetizing marketing support or using it as a competitive differentiator
• Tactics for maximizing RunSignup’s marketing tools, including:
  • Email V2: More powerful, easier-to-use communication
  • Referral rewards: Turn participants into promoters
  • Pricing strategies: Smart tiering and deadlines to drive urgency
• Additional outreach methods, like Facebook advertising and other proven marketing tactics

Whether you’re already dabbling in event marketing or looking to expand your services, this webinar will give you actionable insights to help your events grow and your timer business to increase revenue.

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Summary of Webinar 

Overview

This Timer Tip Tuesday session focuses on Marketing as a Service—how timers can use RunSignup’s built-in tools to provide ongoing marketing expertise to races, increase client retention, and create new revenue streams. The webinar walks through RunSignup’s marketing philosophy, key tools like email marketing, websites, teams, referral programs, and analytics, and shows how these features become far more valuable when actively managed by a knowledgeable timer. The session also outlines practical ways to package and price marketing services at different levels, emphasizing that success comes not from simply turning features on, but from promoting and managing them strategically.

Why Offer Marketing as a Service

• 81% of timers already offer services beyond timing

• Over half offer event marketing in some form

• Marketing services help:

  • Differentiate your business

  • Increase race profitability

  • Retain long-term clients

• Timers have more exposure to what works across many races than most race directors

RunSignup’s Marketing Philosophy

• Race data belongs to the race—RunSignup does not sell or reuse it

• The most effective marketing comes from trusted sources, not ads alone

• Tools are designed to encourage:

  • Participant sharing

  • Community-driven growth

  • Data-driven decision making

Core Marketing Tools You Can Sell as a Service

Email Marketing

• Free, unlimited emails

• Used internally by RunSignup

• Supports:

  • Current and past participants

  • Fundraisers

  • Uploaded custom lists

• Dynamic placeholders pull live race data (names, links, prices, teams, referrals)

Automated Emails

• Price increase reminders (two versions: registered + not registered)

• Cart abandonment emails

• Registration follow-ups (teams, fundraising, referrals, upsells)

Organization Email

• Central email account spanning all races and ticket events

• Ideal for timers working with multiple events

Website Marketing

• Free, SEO-optimized race websites

• Pulls live data from the admin dashboard (dates, prices, fees)

• Website Builder V2 enables:

  • Modern layouts

  • Custom branding

  • Sponsor visibility

• Supports:

  • Custom domains

  • Favicons

  • Professional branding upgrades

Websites become more valuable when managed as a living marketing asset, not a static page.

Social Growth Tools

Teams

• Social teams (no scoring or limits required)

• Encourage participants to recruit friends

• Includes:

  • Team pages

  • Shareable team join links

  • Logos and branding

Team Pricing & Refunds

• Group pricing thresholds (e.g., 10th member discounted)

• Retroactive refunds for early registrants

• Drives urgency and sharing

Referral Programs

• Every participant gets a unique referral link

• Rewards include:

  • Registration refunds

  • Swag rewards

• Highly effective when promoted:

  • Registration pop-ups

  • Website pages

  • Follow-up emails

  • Social sharing

Key takeaway: Referral programs only work if actively marketed.

Coupons & Discounts

• Dollar or percentage-based discounts

• Advanced controls:

  • Expiration dates

  • Event-specific restrictions

  • Tag-based reporting

• Auto-applied coupon links:

  • Ideal for sponsors

  • QR codes

  • Community partners

Membership-Based Discounts

• Integration with RunSignup Memberships

• Automatically discounts club members

• Displays discounted races on club websites

• Leverages timer relationships with local clubs

Tracking & Analytics Tools

Race Insights Dashboard

• Page views, signups, transactions, donations

• Historical comparisons

• Registration pacing graphs

• Demographic and heat map data

Used to:

• Evaluate marketing performance

• Adjust pricing

• Prove ROI to race directors

Custom Source Tracking

• Create tracking-only links (no discount required)

• Highly reliable compared to pixels

• Tracks:

  • Page views

  • Registrations

  • Revenue

• Ideal for:

  • Ads

  • Sponsor promotions

  • Partner accountability

Turning Tools into a Sellable Service

Three Suggested Packaging Levels

Basic

• Registration setup

• Branding and logos

• Website basics

Level 1

• Email campaign setup

• Templates

• Teams or referral programs

Level 2 (Advanced)

• Full email strategy

• Referral and team competitions

• Source tracking and ROI analysis

• Social and ad integration

• Ongoing optimization and reporting

Key Takeaway

There is a major difference between:

• Turning on a feature

• Actively managing and promoting it

Marketing as a Service succeeds when timers:

• Act as experts

• Apply proven strategies

• Manage tools consistently

• Measure and communicate results