1. How we made the annual
Scott Coffee Rotary Run a
virtual race
2. 2
Race History
▷ 36th year
▷ In memory of Scott Coffee
▷ Moorestown Rotary’s big
fundraiser of the year
▷ 800-1,000 participants
▷ Timed event
▷ The morning of Moorestown
Day festival on Main Street
▷ The inspiration for RunSignup!
3. 3
Pros of Going Virtual
▷ Make money this year
▷ Engage the community this year with a fun event to commemorate
this strange time
▷ Save money by not having an in-person event
▷ We already had some people signed up for this year’s race
▷ Keep relationships with runners, sponsors, volunteers
▷ RunSignup lets us go virtual on a $0 budget
▷ Virtual races are here to stay (and it’s not a zero-sum game)
4. Of course we went virtual!
Postpone? Too uncertain.
Cancel? Not an option.
(Plus we really like our virtual race technology)
7. 7
Race Wizard >> Step 1
▷ Location
○ Changed from a physical address to “Anywhere, Anytime!”
▷ Dates
○ Extended the dates so that runners can complete the race anytime
between June 6 and June 14
○ Gives flexibility and ensures proper social distancing (don’t want all
runners on the course the same day)
▷ Switched Type from Run/Walk to Virtual
8. 8
Race Wizard >> Step 3
▷ Updated pricing with -$5 price decrease. No price increases.
9. 9
Registration >> Questions
▷ Added a checkbox confirmation so that participants understand
they are signing up for a virtual race.
12. 12
Website Pop-Up
▷ We had 26 people sign up before we announced switch to virtual
○ Bob sent them a simple email to let them know that we went virtual. We offered
to mail shirts for free.
▷ If you have more who registered for your race pre-coronavirus, use the
postponement/cancellation tool to let people know you are going virtual.
13. 13
Notifications >> General Settings
▷ Customize confirmation email
with instructions for completing
the virtual race
▷ If you want to update the
banner image, go to
Notifications >> Email Settings
to upload a new one
14. 14
Donations >> Setup
▷ Updated donations to our
town’s COVID-19 support
▷ Tie your donations (and
fundraising if you are a
nonprofit) to COVID-19 - be
specific about how you are
helping now
17. 17
Shirt Design
▷ Thank you Andrew
Sigwart!
▷ If you don’t know someone
as talented as Andrew
Sigwart…
○ www.canva.com
○ T-shirt companies
generally can help
19. 19
Ordering Shirts
▷ We used the same shirt company that we use every year
▷ Everyone is being flexible - they are letting us do 2 rounds of orders
○ First order: May 16, delivered the first week of June
○ Second order: June 15, delivered the last week of June
▷ Don’t have a shirt vendor?
○ Ask your timer
○ Fulfillment companies
20. 20
Shirt Pick Ups
▷ For people who live in town, we will offer 2
dates to pick up shirts @ Moorestown
Running Company
○ June 5-6 (order before May 15)
○ Last week of June or first week July
▷ Will email a specific plan to participants the
first week of June
○ Shirts in bags per transaction with coffee
○ Hand out shirts inside or outside of store
(TBD)
21. 21
Shipping Shirts
▷ There are out of towners and want to provide them flexible options
▷ Charging a flat $7.50
○ Set this up as an add-on
▷ Validate shipping address
for everyone who chooses
Shipping
○ Race >> Registration >>
Shipping
22. 22
Shipping Shirts
▷ Will probably ship somewhere around 100
shirts
○ USPS First class mail (asked post office)
○ Cost will be $3-$5, but over 13 oz will be much
more - that’s why it’s nice to have the $7.50
shipping buffer
○ Use RunSignup’s Print Bib Labels to create
shipping labels
▷ Make shipping timelines clear to participants
○ Batch shipping vs. Mass shipping
23. 23
Shipping Shirts
▷ If you are shipping a much larger quantity of shirts...
○ Talk to your timer
○ Use a fulfillment company
○ Use a platform like Shipstation or ShipEasy
▷ More information (and links to vendors who can help you)
○ https://runsignup.com/govirtual
26. 26
▷ Decided to update the theme colors
for this year’s race
▷ Uploaded new logo
Race >> Race Page >>
Race Theme
27. 27
Race >> Race Page >>
Menu Order
▷ Hid some of the content that wasn’t relevant to this year’s virtual
race
○ But the content still exists so we don’t need to re-create anything for
our in-person event next year
29. 29
Race >> Race Page >>
Cover Page
▷ Include directions on how the virtual race works
○ Don’t assume that everyone will know what to do
▷ Promote the Swag
○ Feature images of the shirt and highlight “virtual swag”
▷ Linked to RunSignup FAQ on how to submit virtual results
▷ Featured Andrew Sigwart’s videos
▷ Countdown clock
▷ Need design help? Use www.canva.com
32. 32
Take Inventory of Assets
▷ Past participant email list: ~ 2,800
emails
▷ Moorestown Turkey Trot email list:
~800 emails (after removing duplicates
for Scott Coffee Rotary participants)
▷ Breakfast & Lunch Rotary Club
members
▷ Scott Coffee Rotary Run Facebook
Page: 897 followers
33. 33
Free Email Marketing
▷ Easy to use
▷ Dynamic lists of past and current participants
▷ Easy to upload custom email lists to send to additional participants
▷ Simple templates
▷ Good reporting (and it will only continue to get better!)
▷ Integrated with sponsors (automatically show on your emails)
▷ If you are paying for an email marketing platform, using RunSignup’s
free email marketing is a good way to save money.
34. 34
First Email
▷ Sent to all email lists on May 1st
(scheduled email)
▷ Announced virtual race
▷ Included steps on how the virtual
race works (same text that I used on
website)
▷ Included image of t-shirt
▷ Showed all sponsor logos (with links
to their websites) at bottom of email
▷ Sign Up and Donate options
35. 35
Second Email
▷ Sent to all past participants (and
auto-exclude all current
participants) on May 5th
▷ Cinco de Mayo promotion -
made the email funny
▷ Showed all sponsor logos (with
links to their websites) at
bottom of email
▷ Sign Up and Donate options
36. 36
Third Email
▷ An email will be sent to all email lists next week
▷ Call to Action: Sign Up by May 15 to guarantee a t-shirt for race week!
37. 37
Promotion >> Social Sharing
▷ Control what participants
share
▷ If you don’t see your new
images being shared on
Facebook correctly - go
to Facebook Debugger
and enter your race
website URL
41. 41
Caffeine Challenge
▷ Incentivize people to
build a team of 20+ to get
a prize (running socks)
▷ We do this every year -
just updated the team
description with social
distancing language
(Participants >>
Groups/Teams >> Setup)
42. 42
Referral Rewards
▷ April 2019 – 7% of
registrations from Referral
Rewards
▷ April 2020 – 18% of
registrations from Referral
Rewards
43. 43
Time-Limited Coupons
▷ One day coupon - CINCO
▷ $5 discount per registration
▷ Marketed as limited to first 50 registrants (but we ended up
increasing this cap because of the popularity of the coupon)
47. 47
It’s not easy.
▷ Everyone is hurting
▷ Readjust expectations for sponsor revenue
○ And remember that you are saving money by not having an in-person
event
▷ We’ve had pretty good luck with sponsors
▷ Always had a wide range of sponsorship levels, from $100 - $5,000
▷ We decided to include all of last year’s sponsors on email marketing,
website, etc.
○ It’s a nice way to maintain relationships
○ Assumptive close
50. 50
RaceJoy
▷ Makes the race real
▷ GPS tracking
▷ Maps, directions, splits, cheers, and
sponsor activations
▷ Auto-posts your results
▷ We are also getting ready to
introduce a RaceJoy “Run
Anywhere” option
▷ Ask your timer!
51. 51
Virtual Results
▷ Easy to submit results
▷ Leaderboards
▷ Gives more of a real race feel - it’s not just get your swag and run on
your own. It’s especially nice for timed races.
53. 53
#scottcoffee8k
▷ Promote a hashtag so that runners can share
on social media
▷ Remember to “like” the photos
▷ We kept the same hashtag that’s been used
in the past since it’s been used, but you could
also come up with a unique hashtag for your
virtual race
