2. State of The Industry
2
% Change 2019-2020
1/1-3/7 +29%
3/8-3/14 -80%
3/15-3/21 -78%
3/22-3/28 -81%
3/29-4/4 -76%
4/5-4/11 -65%
4/12-4/18 -53%
4/19-4/25 -44%
4/26-5/3 -40%
3. State of The Industry
3
Bad News:
▷ Transactions are currently
down 40% compared to
2019
▷ Major Races (such as
Berlin Marathon) have
already cancelled for Fall
Good News:
▷ Signs of Rebounding
▷ Virtual Races are
Increasing
▷ Creativity around in-person
races in the future
4. 4
Running Will Survive
“Right now, when the sun comes out,
every path, park and neighborhood is
crowded with runners...I’ve never seen
so many people out running through
Brooklyn Bridge Park.”
- Brooklyn Track Club’s Kate Gustafson, to CNN
“When the economy is challenged, more
people run because it’s affordable.
People who can’t go to the local gym
have taken up running.”
- Chicago Area Running Association’s Greg Hipp to
the Chicago Sun Times
5. 5
Bridge the Gap:
Organizations need to be thinking about solutions to
engage the community now, and bridge the gap until
racing returns as normal.
7. 7
Make Money
▷ Go Virtual
○ Convert to Virtual
○ Start a New Virtual Race
○ Work With Your Timer
▷ Maximize Your Revenue
○ Adjust Your Fees
○ Promote Through Referrals
○ Embrace Sponsors
○ Bundle Races with Multi-Race
▷ Raise Money for Your Nonprofit
○ Free or Inexpensive Virtual Events with Donations & Fundraising
○ Fundraise with Facebook
○ Fundraise Nonprofit Ticket Events
9. Virtual Races are Filling the Need for Racing
▷ Of the Top 20 races last week:
○ 16 are new virtual races
○ 2 are Spring Races that have converted to Virtual
○ 2 are fall or 2021 races
○ The majority of virtual races are organized by race directors who typically
organize physical races
9
The Role of the Virtual Race
10. Instead of giving up on a scheduled race, take it virtual! You likely won’t
get the same level of participation, but you can still bring in registrations
with lower expenses.
10
Convert Race to Virtual
▷ Crescent City Classic
registered 1,000 people to
the virtual edition after they
cancelled the physical race
Pat’s Run
11. Start a New Virtual Race
Leverage your existing email lists and community trust to create
new virtual events.
▷ 6 of the top 10 races with over $100,000 of
transactions were organized by customers
who typically put on physical races
▷ Just like a physical race, you need a hook
for your race - a unique theme, premium
swag or a serious challenge
12. 12
Examples of Virtual Races
▷ Standard Distances (like 5K)
▷ Scavenger Hunts
▷ Fitness Challenges
▷ Distance Challenges (100 miles in a month or 1,000K in 4
months)
▷ Training Programs
▷ Multi-Week Track Season
13. New Virtual Challenge Tracking
❖ Accumulate totals of any
activity - Miles, Laps,
Pushups, Time, etc.
14. ▷ Be Creative: use a unique theme or premium bling to make your
event stand out
▷ Communicate thoroughly
▷ Build Community Interaction via social media
▷ Replicate RaceDay
○ Facebook Live Events
○ RaceJoy for remote spectator engagement
○ Pre-Race Bibs and post-race finisher certificates
○ Results posting
14
Virtual Race Best Practices
15. Timers can do more than produce results. Partner for a more successful
event.
▷ Swag connections: many timers have relationships with vendors that
can help you get better shirts and medals,
for cheaper
▷ Certified Timers can offer RaceJoy
▷ As modified physical events become
possible in some areas, timers can
help
○ Staggered starts
○ Contactless bib pickup
15
Work with Your Timer
18. 18
Promote Through Referrals
▷ Incentivize participants to refer friends
and family by rewarding them with
refunds, swag, and recognition
▷ Very low cost advertising
▷ Encourages social media interaction
▷ 18% Registrations from Referrals in
April 2020 compared with 7% in 2019
19. 19
Adjust Your Fees
▷ RunSignup fees are lower than most
▷ Participants rarely change their registration decision based on a small
increase in fee
▷ Add an additional fee to increase revenue from each participant
20. 20
Embrace Sponsors
Unusual - or even virtual - events don’t mean you can’t still engage
your sponsors. Get creative:
▷ Partner with a local restaurant for a take-out gift certificate
for runners who complete your virtual race
▷ Promote sponsors through banner ads and audio alerts in
RaceJoy
▷ Allow in-kind sponsorships (like t-shirt donations) to maintain
relationships with long-time sponsors who are having a tough
year
21. 21
Multi-Race Registration
Use multi-race bundles to package multiple events
▷ Create a series of five 5K’s, with a bundle of all of them for the
price of 4
▷ Bundle a 2020 virtual race with a 2021 physical race
23. 23
Free or Inexpensive
Virtual Events
Low registration fees with integrated fundraising and donations
keeps the focus (and the funds) on the cause
Why do a free virtual event?
▷ Engage your community (easily)
▷ Raise money: make a soft ask and incentivize fundraising
▷ Save money: no or limited costs to put on the event
▷ Grow and cultivate your donor pipeline
24. 24
Flippin’ 5K Example
2019 2020
● In-person 5k
● $25 registration fee
● 310 sign ups
● 250 results posted
● Registrations + Donations
● Virtual 5k
● Free event
● 6,498 sign ups
● 1,600+ results posted
● More money raised through
donations only than total
registrations + donations in 2019
“No medals, no t-shirts, no race packets - just pure joy in bringing our
community together.”
25. 25
Facebook Fundraising
The Facebook Fundraising integration is 100% free - no fee to enable, and
no processing fee on donations.
2019 Facebook Fundraising Impact
▷ On average, connected fundraisers raised $490.26 more than
unconnected ones
▷ Connected fundraisers receive 9.74 more donations than unconnected
fundraisers
▷ Fifty-six percent of connected fundraisers reached their personal
fundraising goal, compared to just 25.7% of unconnected fundraisers
who reached their personal fundraising goals
26. 26
Nonprofit Ticket Events
Use GiveSignup’s Nonprofit Ticket Events for low-overhead virtual events
with integrated donations.
Examples
▷ Library Book Challenge
▷ Virtual Art Show
▷ Virtual Chalk Art Contest
30. 30
Free Websites
Websites can be expensive to build, and difficult to update directly. Free
RunSignup websites allow your organization to be dynamic and make
frequent updates to reflect the status of your race.
▷ Your brand first with custom colors, logo, photos, and content pages
▷ Professional cover page
▷ BYO Domain
▷ Free SSL, built-in data security, PCI Level 1 Compliant payment processing
▷ Search Engine optimized
▷ Data-driven and integrated with your race information
▷ No ads or spam
32. 32
Free Email Marketing
We’re not Mailchimp - but we’re free. Take a pause on expensive email
marketing systems while youre organization recovers.
▷ Integrated with RunSignup participant data
▷ Upload custom lists
▷ Schedule emails in advance
▷ Email Performance Metrics
▷ Automated emails
▷ Your brand first, with custom colors & branding
▷ Mobile-optimized template
▷ Build your email elsewhere and copy over the HTML
33. 33
Free CRM
We’re not Salesforce, either - but we’re free.
Take a pause on comprehensive CRM’s and
focus on what a race needs most.
▷ Participant Search and Profile
○ CRM Notes
○ RaceInsights data
▷ Build and Export CRM Lists
▷ Create targeted communications &
Promotions
34. 34
Free Photos
Keep RaceDay going with the free, unlimited photo platform
▷ Smart auto-bib tagging with Google Vision plus RunSignUp filter algorithms
○ Photos are tagged within minutes of uploading
▷ Filters for inappropriate content
▷ High Speed Manual Tagging and Crowdsource tagging
▷ Social Sharing
▷ Management of Photos, with Multi-Location and multi-year capabilities
▷ Simple and Advanced Viewing and Searching
▷ Watermark options for Race Logos and Sponsors
▷ Lookup by Bib, Name or Results
35. 35
Free RaceDay Texts
Enhance RaceDay with texts for participants and
spectators.
▷ Virtual Results Text Bot engages with the participant to
collect their results
▷ Text results notifications keep friends and family
informed of results
▷ Corral TXTs coming this summer
37. 37
Timer Agreement
Work with your timer for a plan that allows them to
improve the value of your race, while ensuring
everyone is paid fairly.
▷ Timer can add “Timer Fee” to processing fee
▷ Participant pays slightly more in processing fees,
with the increase going to the timer
▷ Lower upfront payment to timer
39. 39
RaceInsights
Spend money smarter. Free, accurate information about the sources of
your registrations to ensure you’re not wasting money.
▷ Evaluate return on social media (ads and organic), email marketing, etc.
▷ Use Custom Source Tracking (Promotion >> Source Tracking >> Source
Tracking Codes) to track every specific marketing activity, and
associated spend, via a unique link
42. 42
Encourage Deferrals
Deferrals allow you to spread out your losses over
several years.
▷ Offer a range of deferral options - we’re seeing races
allow deferrals through 2022 or 2023
▷ Use the popup tool to help collect options
▷ Use Defer via Race Transfer (Participants >> Participant
Management >> Deferrals>>Defer via Race Transfer Setup
▷ Participants can claim deferrals when registration
opens
