Head Start

When you think of race expos, what kind of thing comes to mind? Well, if you’re like me, you’re probably thinking huge pre-race expos like New York or London, where you go to pick up your bib and race packet, and where you get to stroll around hundreds of booths from high-profile running brands showcasing their latest thing.

Race expos are actually a lot more common than you think, and, according to my guest today, absolutely every event can and should have one. And why wouldn’t yours? Race expos are an amazing way to elevate your participant’s event experience, a good way to add an additional revenue stream to your race, and just about the best way to activate sponsorships and expand the roster of your commercial partnerships.

My guest today, industry veteran Craig Mintzlaff, has been working on races and race expos for more than 20 years. Through his company, Endurance Sports Marketing Group, he’s been managing expos for some of the best-known events and event series in the industry, and he’s with us today to share some of the many things he’s learned from setting up, promoting and selling out hundreds of race expos on both sides of the Atlantic.

In this episode:

• How all events - not only larger races - can put on a successful race expo
• What vendors are looking for from attending a race expo 
• Figuring out how many vendors your expo can support
• Types of vendors to invite to your race expo
• The benefits of expo booth-swapping with other events in your region
• Putting a price on your race expo booths/space
• Balancing in-kind vs cash contributions from expo partners
• Negotiating partnerships with local vs national brands
• Unlocking the right contact to reach out to in vendor organizations
• The importance of securing a retail partner before going after the big brands (e.g. Brooks, Nike, Asics etc)
• Selling your race expo to vendors: understanding your event demographics, CPMs, focusing on race experience
• Making your expo partners' lives easier: offering to staff their booths on their behalf!
• How to lay out your expo for maximum lingering time (hint: put all the freebies, drinks at the back)
• Raffles, stamps, competitions and other tips for increasing participant engagement with vendor booths
• Taking your expo to the next level with music and an announcer

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race expos, sponsorships or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Public relations (PR) is an integral part of running a successful brand and business. It is the art of communication and storytelling. It’s about appealing to communities and stakeholders, forging relationships with media and playing the marketing long game.

Yet, as my guest today - PR pro, Meg Treat, of Treat Public Relations - rushes to acknowledge, it often gets a bit of a bad rap. 

Well, hopefully we’re going to be challenging those perceptions for you today, with a really insightful take on public relations, earned media and the power of storytelling, that definitely opened my eyes to the vast opportunities events can unlock through a thoughtful and carefully implemented PR strategy.

In this episode:

• Public relations: what it is about and how it relates to your work as an event owner/director
• Paid vs shared vs owned vs earned media
• The importance of securing media exposure for free (=earned media)
• How every race is intrinsically newsworthy and can have a story to tell
• Understanding newsworthiness and unlocking/developing your race's unique story
• Leveraging newsworthy topics: human interest stories, event milestones, brand partnerships.
• Distributing your story/content through online and offline media outlets
• Deciding when to send out (and when not to send out) a press release
• Writing engaging press releases: quotes, the inverse pyramid approach, calls-to-action that work
• The four ways of mining media contact information!
• Crafting effective cover emails to journalists for increased media outreach success
• Understanding journalist lead times and planning your PR content accordingly
• Inviting media to your race using media alerts
• Post-race press releases
• Being your race's spokesperson: making yourself available for interviews and how to conduct them successfully

Resources:

• Meg's media alert template/example  & press release template/example for race directors: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/jzw8jv0qr21xfmd/AACdD1sj72NhEf3RMJk-jjaAa?dl=0 (make sure to listen to Meg's audio intro in the folder)

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about public relations, earned media or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If you’re listening to this episode as it comes out, it’s the middle of the holiday season and, hopefully, you’re recovering from some excessive meal or other - so, Merry Christmas to you!

Today, we have a very special end-of-year episode for you where we’re going to be looking back at a fairly challenging 2021 but also looking ahead to a - hopefully - much brighter, more optimistic 2022. We’re going to be talking about your expectations for the new year, and also touching a bit on the ongoing supply chain issues which we’ll probably continue to face in the new year.

I say “your expectations” because for the making of this episode, I had the pleasure of talking to many many of you. So many thanks to everyone who contributed: Dave Kelly of RunSeries, David Martin-Jewell of FrontRunner Events, Sarah Kozul of the Lakeland Runners Club, Andy Harris of the Columbus Running Company, Robby McClung of the Canaan Valley Running Company, Suzy Shain of the Technology Education Foundation, Briston Rains of Texas Outlaw Running Company, Terry Majamaki of New Global Adventures and Jon Conkling of Tris4Health.

Also many thanks to Matt Mercurio of Stride Awards and Kim Bilancio of Greenlayer for sharing their thoughts on the logistics situation, and also Johanna Goode, Bryan Jenkins and Bob Bickel from GiveSignup|RunSignup for their insights into what’s happening in the market as we head into 2022.

As we round up 2021, I’d like to thank again our friends and sponsors at GiveSignup|RunSignup for their solid support of this podcast, and I’d like to remind all of you listening in to check out all that this amazing technology platform has to offer for your event by visiting runsignup.com. If you are looking to make a fresh start with your event technology partner for 2022, there’s no better place to start than runsignup.com. 

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Sports tourism - you’ve heard the phrase, people traveling to places to participate in sporting - that’s a whole thing these days. And a very fast-growing thing at that.

So, how can your race capitalize on this trend and how can you position your event to attract more overseas or out-of-state participants?

That’s exactly what we’ll be getting into today with my guest, George Kakourides, Marketing Director for the Logicom Cyprus Marathon. As you’ll hear, George has worked really hard on growing international participation for the Logicom Cyprus Marathon since 2014 with some amazing results, and has tons of tips to share on marketing your race internationally  and reaching new audiences through social media, micro-influencers, specialist publications, race expos, and other channels. So get your notepads out and get ready to take notes!

By the way, we’re going to be using the term “international” here a lot, but the lessons we’ll learn here today apply equally to a race that aspires to attract participants from a different country, as well as, say, a US-based race that wants to attract participants from nearby states. Everything we’ll touch on today basically falls under the category of marketing to participants that will travel to your event - so anyone besides your local crowd.

In this episode:

• Positioning your race brand for international appeal
• The importance of infrastructure (airport capacity, accommodation capacity etc) in being able to attract international participants
• How to pick the most promising international markets to target with your marketing
• Getting buy-in and material support from local government, local businesses and your local tourist board
• Partnering with local hotels and designing custom-made accommodation packages for participants
• Working with international specialist-press journalists and relevant influencers to promote the event in target markets
• Why getting Runners World and other high-profile mags to write about your event is easier that you think
• Measuring ROI on your international marketing efforts
• Why you want to translate key landing pages and your ad copy into the language of your target market participants
• Reaching international participants using Facebook Ads and suitable country/interest targeting choices
• Content ideas for engaging potential participants year-round through your social media accounts
• Lessons in building race partnerships from the Swedish Classic

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race marketing or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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If you have built a business putting on races, chances are you would have thought of maybe selling some or all of those races at some point in the future. You may also have toyed with the idea of buying races from others as a way to grow your event portfolio.

Buying and selling races still remains a big mystery for most race directors - even very experienced ones. How do you go about it? How do you find events to buy, if you’re a buyer, and where do you turn to sell your event, if you’re a seller? What is an event even worth on the market? And how does a typical purchase and sale transaction go down?

Well, we’re going to be going into all that and more today, in a super-exciting episode with the help of my two guests, Tony Sapp and Porter Bratten. As you’ll hear in a minute, Tony and Porter have a lot of experience in buying and selling events, and they have tons of great tips to help you get a good feel for where you stand as a buyer or seller of races in this market, and how you can make the most of the opportunities available to you in this very peculiar post-pandemic environment we find ourselves in. 

In this episode:

• Finding suitable buying opportunities: matching type of event, time of year and race location
• What a good buying opportunity looks like
• Reaching out to race directors with an offer to buy
• Selling through a business broker: what business brokers bring to the table, picking the right broker, preparing your business prospectus
• The importance of instructing and consulting with a contract lawyer
• Buying event assets vs buying the events company 
• What assets go into an event sale: physical, digital, intellectual property, sponsorship and other third party contracts
• Purchase price allocation and tax implications of your event purchase
• Preparing for an event sale: organizing documents, keeping track of your business data, anticipating buyer questions
• The purchase and sale agreement: asset lists, exclusions, non-competes, indemnities, transaction timelines and transition periods, price adjustment clauses
• Additional provisions/considerations when selling a race mid-season
• Transitioning key contacts and making introductions with vendors, sponsors, volunteers
• How to calculate the value of your event as a multiple of your revenue and net profit
• Price negotiations and agreeing on a price
• Is this a good time to buy or sell a race?

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about buying and selling races or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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The GiveSignup|RunSignup Symposium series has grown from modest beginnings of just a few dozen people to be the industry conference most race directors and timers will attend during the year.

And this January 25-26, the Symposium series returns to Orlando Florida after a two-year hiatus for an awesome two days of education and networking, and all race directors, timers and nonprofit professionals are invited - not just GiveSignup|RunSignup customers.

So, it’s great to have with me today, Johanna Goode, from GiveSignup|RunSignup who has the unenviable job of putting the whole thing together to tell us a little bit more about what you can look forward to both at and around the Symposium this coming January.

In this episode:

• The history of the GiveSignup | RunSignup Symposium series
• Why the GiveSignup | RunSignup Symposium is not your regular race director conference/expo
• What you can look forward to in attending if you're a race director, timer or nonprofit
• How you can attend the Symposium as a vendor
• The Demo Room, the Suite Run, and other training and networking opportunities at this year's Winter Symposium

To learn more about the GiveSignup | RunSignup Winter Symposium, and to register visit: runsignup.com/wintersymposium

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If I told you “race marketing”, what kinds of things come to mind? Facebook ads maybe, maybe Google Ads. But what about your race website? Is that optimised for search engines? When people search Google for your race - or, even more importantly, for a race like your race to enter - is your race website the one they find at the top of Google search results?

Today we’re going to be talking about SEO - a huge missed opportunity to get more qualified people to discover your race on Google. Why is this so important? (A) Because it’s free, (B) because it can get you tons of traffic and potential participants, and (C) because very few people are doing it as well as it can be done. And that’s the opportunity for you.

My guest on today’s episode, Cory Jennermann, knows a bit about SEO, having spent countless hours ranking his awesome race listing site, RunGuides.com, to the top of Google search results pages. 

And, as you’ll see, Cory loves geeking over keywords and structured data and the like - as do I, to be honest - so, stick with us for a fun-filled SEO chat.

In this episode:

• What is SEO all about?
• Getting found by people looking for your race vs getting found by people looking for races similar to your race
• How you can't - and shouldn't try to - game Google
• What user behavior tells Google's RankBrain algorithm about your website
• Technical SEO vs On-page SEO vsOff-page SEO
• Backlinks, site authority and link juice(!)
• Technical SEO: URL architecture, content discoverability, sitemaps, internal linking, data markup
• Structured data: marking up your website content for rich snippets and winning more Google real estate
• Event schema markup: marking up your race date and start line location
• Ranking for relevant "near me" search queries
• Marking up for your site's FAQs
• Understanding and targeting user search intent
• How keyword research can help improve your race website content
• Blogs: should your site have one?
• Creating content to win backlinks and draw in qualified traffic
• Building backlinks to your site: targeting local running clubs, race calendars, other local event sites.

Useful links:

• Google Search Console
• Google Structured Data Markup Helper
• Google Keyword Planner
• Google Trends
• Moz - SEO tools
• Ahrefs - SEO tools
• Moz Beginner's Guide to SEO
• Backlinko blog - in-depth SEO and backlink-building articles

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about building your own website, SEO or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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It’s very fashionable these days to hear people speak of “influencers” - people who work with brands to promote their products and services to a niche audience in which they have a strong following.

Well, our industry has had that for a while. They’re called race ambassadors and they can be your race’s special influencers, going out into the community and spreading the word for your event in their running club, weekly group run, or the next race or expo they attend.

Today I have the pleasure of talking with William Dyson, Communications Manager for High Five Events. William manages the race ambassador programs for such prestigious events as the Austin Marathon, 3M Half Marathon, CapTex Tri and Kerrville Triathlon, and he’ll be sharing his thoughts with us on how you can launch, grow and manage your own race ambassador program, including tips on using incentives, keeping track of your ambassadors’ performance and ways to come up with unique ideas to make the most of your ambassadors’ community reach.

In this episode:

• What a race ambassador program is about and how it works
• The benefits of running a race ambassador program: expand your brand reach in your target community
• Inventivizing race ambassadors: comp codes, event gear, networking opportunities, and other perks
• Building a race ambassador program that effectively represents the local running community
• Deciding how many ambassadors you should have, based on your budget and human resources
• Sharing content/ social media posting schedules with your ambassadors
• Recruiting non-local race ambassadors to expand your race reach in neighboring markets
• Bringing your team together: social meet-ups, happy hours
• Over-communicating!
• What makes for a good race ambassador and how to pick a good mix of race ambassadors for your program
• Making the most of celebrity race ambassadors
• Pros and cons of basing ambassador perks and comp codes on performance
• Offering prizes for your best-performing ambassadors
• Mixing up returning and new ambassadors
• Advertizing your race ambassador program in the community
• Race ambassador program ROI: what return/results you should expect from your race ambassador program

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about launching and growing your race ambassador program or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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Today, we have a bonus episode for you. And it’s all about Tyvek. Yes, that wondrous paper-like, fabric-like material, that is actually neither paper nor fabric, that our industry uses to make race bibs.

Well, that wondrous material is now in a bit of a supply freeze. That’s right - the owners and exclusive manufacturers of Tyvek, DuPont, have informed printers that no more printing-grade Tyvek shall be made available until the end of the year, in an effort to divert production to medical-grade Tyvek, used in PPE and medical supplies, which, not surprisingly, is in high demand lately.

So what is to become of Tyvek race bibs? I sat down with Marathon Printing President and third-generation bib printing specialist, Ryan Zirk, to find out. 

In this episode:

• Tyvek's special properties making it ideal for race bibs
• Tyvek's (many) other industrial uses: PPE, packaging, weather barriers
• Printing on Tyvek bibs: from bulk Tyvek sheets to finished bibs
• Printing Tyvek at home: can it be done?
• Recycling Tyvek bibs: where and how you can recycle your Tyvek bibs
• DuPont's announcement of halting production of printer-grade Tyvek
• Alternatives to Tyvek for printing bibs, if printer-grade Tyvek inventories are exhausted 

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about race bibs or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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At the tender age of 24, with no prior experience or any interest in running, Matt Trevett decided to take a gamble and launch a new 10K in his hometown of Weybridge in Surrey, UK.

Matt promised local business groups and the local council he’ll bring 1,000 people to the race in its first year. As you can imagine, everyone was very supportive of the idea - in between thinking Matt was crazy.

Fast-forward a few months, and Matt delivered his 1,000 people inaugural Weybridge 10K, as promised, and went on to produce more award-winning races in his hometown, putting the former through-town firmly on the regional running map.

Beyond the amazing story of Matt and the Weybridge 10K, today’s episode is not about Matt or the Weybridge 10K. It is an episode about attitude, persistence and - more importantly - taking a lean approach to putting on races that focuses on building community, forging partnerships with local businesses, and marketing smart online, often with little more than a bunch of pictures of empty roads to go on. 

If you’re starting out as a race director you’re going to love this episode, and, if you’re a more seasoned race director, getting the perspective of a young millennial colleague will hopefully help trigger a lightbulb moment or two for you. 

In this episode:

• The Weybridge 10K story
• Planning a new race in the town you grew up in
• Coming into race-directing with the perspective of a non-runner
• Picking your race distance: the merits of a 10K for a new local event
• Not cutting corners on health & safety
• Pitching your vision for your event to town officials 
• Being bold, making mistakes and learning from them
• Focusing on race experience, rather than profits in your first couple of years
• Being transparent and genuine with the content that you share with your audience
• Canvassing residents and local businesses before the launch of the race
• Making advocates of your biggest local critics
• The digital-first approach: launching lean, launching online
• Do organic promotion first (Facebook groups, running clubs), paid later
• The importance of remarketing to "warm" audiences
• Using Facebook Events as part of your race promotion strategy
• Marketing your race on Instagram
• Giving away free race photos and using event photos to market your race online
• Managing a participant death in Weybridge 10K's inaugural race
• Email marketing: less is more
• The future of content marketing: switching from long-from written to short, sharp video content

Thanks to GiveSignup|RunSignup for supporting quality content for race directors by sponsoring this episode. More than 22,000 in-person, virtual, and hybrid events use GiveSignup|RunSignup's free and integrated solution to save time, grow their events, and raise more. If you'd like to learn more about GiveSignup|RunSignup's all-in-one technology solution for endurance and fundraising events visit runsignup.com.

You can find more resources on anything and everything related to race directing on our website RaceDirectorsHQ.com.

You can also share your questions about launching and growing your race or anything else in our Facebook group, Race Directors Hub.

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