Howdy Readers!
I hope all of you are having a great end to the week and are looking forward to a weekend of racing or relaxing! For this article in our race resources blog I wanted to speak to the power of promo codes and how race directors can use them to encourage early registration to help grow your race numbers!
All race directors should know that more early registrations means higher race day numbers. 1 + 1 = 2 math right? And if you can make the equation 2 + 1 you now have 3 right? However in our experience at Crossroads Events the equation looks more like this: (X * 2) + 1 = ? Meaning the amount of early registrations looks more like a multiplier than a traditional add to your final number. In other terms if you can grow early registrations even by a small amount you can greatly increase your overall numbers!
Why is this you ask?
1. You help set goals for customers/participants. Once a participant has paid for an event even if that event is many months or weeks away they obviously are much more likely to attend even if race day weather or conditions are less than ideal which may possibly scare away last minute registrants.
2. People like to do events together. If you can draw 1 person in with an early promo code you can pretty much guarantee you actually drew in 2. Most people who sign up for events will share this promo code with friends and family or will encourage them to do the race with them as the event draws closer.
3. Participants like to attend well attended events. We all know people normally go with the trend or what is currently popular. If an event is popular it must be popular for a reason right? Yeah because you have an awesome race! By increasing early race numbers others who are interested in doing a race with a great experience will see that you have a popular event and are more likely to sign up!
Ok I Get It So How Can I Use Promo Codes To Increase My Race Numbers?
1. Provide an enticing promo code! - The possibilities are truly endless here! You can either do a certain percentage or dollar amount off for each registration or a newer promo type we like and will be trying ourselves over the next season is a rolling discount. For example the first 20 to use the promo code get 30% off, the next 20 get 20% off, the next 20 get 10% off etc.
2. Set a short amount of time to use the promo code. Usually we do 1 - 2 weeks. You must use the code within that amount of time to receive the discount which will encourage participants to quickly sign up.
3. Be prepared to advertise your promotion well! No one will use it if no once knows about it! Push this promo code through as many outlets as possible to reach your audience: email newsletters, social media, race partners/affiliates, etc.
4. Build your push dates around holidays and times of giving! We like to offer races and discounts to our customers to use as gifts or little surprises for their friends, family, and loved ones. So we generally push promo codes around Christmas, New Years, Valentine's Day, 4th of July, etc.
Sweet! How Can Crossroads Events Help Me Do This!
1. If you are using us for online registration and timing we will create as many unique codes for you as you would like!
2. If we are timing your event we are always happy to push your promo codes for you through our social media pages which have a strong following of athletes.
3. If we are managing your event we will not only push your promo code through social media but will also do several email newsletters advertising your code and will also consult with you to build a marketing plan on how you can push these codes to your own local audience.
I hope you have found this blog post informative and helpful! We know if you use these tips it will definately help you increase those race numbers! If you would like further information, help, or would like to work with Crossroads Events please just shoot us an email at: crossroadseventsandtiming@gmail.com
Cheers!
Ethan Page
President
Crossroads Events