How do you market a virtual race? Racery's strategies for promoting a virtual race.

Brute force marketing strategies fail when it comes to virtual races. What works? You should focus on recruiting one evangelist rather than 20 participants—your race will end up being far bigger and much more fun.

We’ve learned a lot from ~~six~~ nine years of hosting virtual races for charities, businesses and other groups. Great software is only half the battle—a lot depends on how and when you, the race sponsor, communicate about the race. And, most importantly, who you communicate with!

Below, we sketch out some of what we’ve learned about the keys to successfully marketing a virtual race.

Timing

Just because you can create the skeleton of a virtual race in 20 minutes doesn’t mean you should start your virtual race next week. The longer the runway between opening up race registration and the race’s start, the better your race will do. Doubling your race’s registration period and drip of solicitations will double your registrations. (Remember, Racery doesn’t charge for your registration period!)

To maximize participation, we recommend:

Nonprofits should open entries at least two months before the race’s start.
Companies should open entries one month before the race’s start.

Organizational strategy

Big companies and charities often fail to pull off successful virtual races. Why?

Virtual races can be tar pits for organizations with committees of managers, designers, marketing VPs and copywriters.
Each job title seeks to add value, which frequently, unfortunately, actually creates friction and delay. The result: Vital potential registration days get wasted by turf battles and over optimization.
Big companies and charities often are tempted to try to brute-force virtual race adoption–“Let’s buy some ads in USA Today”… “Let’s spend six weeks creating a video to explain our virtual race” … “Let’s spend $10k on Google ads.” This generally fails. (More below on the psychology of a successful virtual race launch.)
Here’s the bad news: that six week delay while your company creates a 15-second race teaser video could have been infinitely better invested in simply recruiting influential participants.
Committees often ignore the core driver of virtual race success: social validation. Think about it: how many ads or explainer videos did Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, Slack or Twitter ever invest in?
Don’t waste time debating gift cards or monetary prizes. Pride is the prize.
Fight the urge to call another committee meeting. Rely on a simple link and lots of carefully crafted FOMO to sell your race.

Setting an entry fee

How you price your race can have a huge impact on how many racers show up. This isn’t an issue for many company races, which offer free entry for staff. But for charities hoping to maximize a mix of entry fees and donations, the decision is crucial. The right strategy is counter-intuitive: keep fees low, but not zero to maximize the overall proceeds from the race. Lots more thoughts in this post about how to price virtual race entree fees.

Note that there’s an important distinction here. If your target participants are investment bankers, you can two or three times more than the $10/racer you might charge college students or $15/racer you might charge $20 somethings.

Psychology

Mass marketing of virtual races often fails; pushing virtual races often fails; using prizes to get people involved usually fails. Here’s an example, taken from a race directors’ forum, of what NOT to do.

What’s the right thing to do then?

Stage 1: start with influencers

Brute force marketing strategies fail to create virtual race success. What works? You should focus on recruiting one evangelist rather than 20 participants—your race will end up being far bigger and much more fun.

A virtual race only becomes real when enough people believe in it. Most humans won’t try something new until they see others doing it. So start with marketing to true believers and aspiring leaders, then help them recruit other racers.
Whenever possible, allow racers to compete on teams. (Lots more on how teams improve virtual races.)
Tap into natural rivalries/networks by recruiting team captains first from groups like: division A vs B vs C; region 1 vs 2 vs 3; sales vs marketing vs manufacturing vs admin; middle school versus upper vs alumni; parents vs kids vs faculty; basketball vs soccer vs swimming vs orchestra
When you try a test race, be sure to recruit a few potential ambassadors and influencers! They’ll be crucial in helping spread the word and reaching early participation milestones.
Here’s a sample email to a pool of potential captains (or the entire company): “We’re looking for a few extraordinary individuals to help lead the company/charity’s upcoming X-week virtual race from A to B. With just a few clicks [here], you can sign up and start recruiting your [number] team mates! Racers can log any activity to advance your team on the route. Everyone will get a digital bib and finish award.” The rest takes care of itself!
Remember that if you’re doing a race with teams, you can email all team captains (or just certain teams) using your race’s announcement email dashboard.
If your organization is hosting one of our premium “warm-up races” exclusively for captains, here’s some sample text you can use for recruiting: “Do you want to lead a team of [#] individuals on a team in our upcoming virtual race starting on [date]? That [#} day race will raise money and build camaraderie for [cause], and cover a [#] mile route from [place] to [place.] To volunteer to become a captain, just sign up at [link] for our [#] day warm-up race, which starts on [date]. Participating in the warm-up race will acquaint you with other captains, and you’ll become familiar with the many virtual race features—virtual bibs and finish awards, individual and team leader boards, fitness conversions and many other features—that will make our [season] event so powerful.”
(Note that for some charities and businesses, it’s good to downplay competition and instead focus on group collaboration. In this situation, you’ll want to create one very long route and have everyone work together to push a single “uniteam” avatar, combining everyone’s miles, across that route. This lets everyone, even the least athletic participants, feel they’re contributing. We can advise you on whether or not this mode is ideal for your race.)
In some races, you might consider giving captains who fill their teams some social media recognition or a t-shirt.

Stage 2: expanding the circle

Work email lists and Facebook repeatedly, plus Slack and Instagram if your organization is strong in either.
Create a sense of momentum and urgency by accelerating communication frequency as race day approaches. Set big goals privately and keep expectations low publicly. Then announce the success of any milestones passed. “Wow, 500 racers registered, can we get to 1,000?!” etc, etc.
To drive early signup momentum for captains, you can offer “early bird” registration periods, with a 10-30% discount on registrations.
Do regular Zoom calls with all ambassadors or team captains to get everyone fired up.

Content strategies

We recommend successive waves of emails and Facebook/Instagram posts to your organization’s potential racers (whether staff, past racers or past donors) to build momentum for the virtual race.

Some ideas for content for social media or email blasts:

A video of different racers lining up on their personal ‘starting lines’ (chalk line in sidewalk, etc)… cheesy and user-generated beats slick corporate look. (Here’s an example.)
During the signup period, a screenshot of your race’s map displaying racer’s locations.
A sample digital bib from your race.
Your race’s route map with an explanation of how that map is interesting or germane to your organization’s mission.
Highlight rivalry between various groups that are relevant for your race. If the race is national, pit alumni against each other. If the race is within a company, pit departments or divisions against each other.
Use an image of a Google Street View from along your route. To get this, enter an address here (not our site.)
As momentum grows, highlight the number of signups or donations. Create tangibility for your racers and donors. “We’ve raised $$, that’s enough to feed 10 hungry families for one week.”
Momentum and social validation, not explanations and fancy designs, drive signups. So keep it simple. “We’re doing a virtual race. Here’s the link!” The goal is to get people to click through to the race, see the map and, very importantly, see the list of racers who have already registered.
Tell a story. This race offers a great example: “Why are we calling this ‘Run Forest Run’? Midwest Boston Terrier Rescue saved a puppy’s life earlier this year. He was going to be euthanized due to his misshapen front legs. So we saved him and will cover his $3,500 surgery and additional medical costs. The puppy’s name? Forest! So we are running for Forest. He is a rambunctious, energetic little puppy who doesn’t know anything is wrong. And we want to keep it that way! So let’s run for Forest so that he can keep running!”
If prizes are important to your community, reward participation but avoid physical prizes when possible. Think social validation and shout outs, vs. branded water bottles and t-shirts.
Leverage your social media platforms and the race page message board to create engagement and “contests” like, “Post a picture with the hashtag #myvirtualstartingline” or “Tell us why you’re here by using the hashtag #thisiswhyirun.”

Communication content and timing

Here’s a suggested timeline for content to drive race entries and donations. It includes references to fundraising since some of our events are for nonprofits.

Depending on how many people you message, 10-20% of signups may come from your first big blast. 40% may come in the days just before and after the race begins. In a competitive environment, 40% of donations may come in the last week of the race.

One key idea: variety is the spice of race success. Alternate your messaging so that the recipient is surprised when she/he opens your email. Possible themes for a virtual race for a rare disease charity:

Factual: what your charity does
Medical: biological facts about the condition you’re raising money for
Whimsical: race route information
Financial: here’s what a $500 achieves
Personal: a profile of someone who suffers from a medical condition

Ten weeks before race start

Identify leaders of groups related to your organization—running clubs, divisions, offices, breweries, branches—who are particularly excited by either your cause or the idea of competition
Send them “FYI notes”
- Hey, I wanted to give you a private heads up. We’re thinking of doing a virtual race. The race will last X weeks and cover X miles. We think it will be good for fitness and camaraderie.
- If you’re interested in helping us launch this, I’ll let you know more as our plans develop.
If doing an ambassadors’ test drive, do a 5-day warm up race.

Six weeks before race start

Mode: Organization mailing list or CRM
Focusing on: insiders/loyalists
Subject:
- You’re the first to know! Announcing [organization’s] first virtual race!
- Shhh, it’s a secret!
- Ambassador invitation.
Content:
- Media: digital bib
- We’re inviting people we think can be ambassadors who will help us make this race big!
- As a long-time [organization] fan, you’re one of the first to hear…
- Enter now to get unique insights and play a leading role in making this race a success.
- We’ll announce this publicly on TK date, but be the first to sign-up and start pushing it out!
- Tell us how you want to be involved!
- Using Racery. Here’s what some past racers have said…

Four weeks before start

Mode: Organization mailing list or CRM, Facebook
Focusing on: entire organization mailing list, Facebook audience
Subject: Announcing [organization’s] first virtual race!
Content:
- Media: sample bib and/or race map
- Get X days of fitness, morale-boosting and competition. And help [organization] raise money.

Two weeks before start

Mode: Organization mailing list or CRM, Facebook
To: entire organization mailing list, Facebook audience
Method: Again, remember that if your race has teams, you can email all team captains (or just certain teams) using the announcement email dashboard.
Subject:
- Announcing [organization’s] first virtual race!
- Join X other racers
- Join companies A, B, C
- Compete with [company name] accounting, sales, engineering departments in our first virtual race!
Content:
- Media: digital bib or route or a Racery video, either our intro or extra features
- Get X days of fitness, morale-boosting and competition. And help [organization] raise money.
- Join companies like A, B, C, that already have teams

One week before start

Mode: Racery’s “announcement” dashboard, or racer contacts exported into organization CRM
Focused on: Registered racers
Subject: We’re happy you’re racing to support [organization]!
Content:
- Media: image or table of leading donors or fundraisers
- Wow, this is going to be a fun virtual race. Already, X people have signed up and Y have already contributed.
- As you know, this is our first race, and we’re beating expectations.
- With your help, we’d love double the number of racers and donors.
- You’re signed up, help spread the word!
- Click to join the race: https://racery.com/r/NAME/#about
- Click to donate: https://racery.com/r/NAME/#contributions

2 days before start

Mode: Email platform and Facebook
To: Everyone
Subject: Last chance to enter before [Race name] starts!
Content:
- Media: route image or image/table of leading donors or fundraisers, image of the current roster, messageboard activity, etc.
- Last chance to join before our first virtual race starts.
- Wow, this is going to be a fun race. X people signed up and Y already contributed.
- Click to join the race: https://racery.com/r/NAME/#about
- Click to donate: https://racery.com/r/NAME/#contributions

Afternoon of race start day

Mode: Email platform and Facebook
To: Everyone
Subject: And they’re off! XX miles logged, $$ raised — you can still join in on the fun!
Content:
- Media: screenshot of race map with avatars, or table of biggest donors or fundraisers
- # of activities, # of people that have already submitted miles (percentage active this week participation metric feature?)
- # new sign-ups since race began
- We’ve got X racers already logging miles but it’s not too late for you to join the fun.
- $X already raised.

2 days after start

Mode: Email platform and Facebook
To: Everyone
Subject: There’s still time to join [count] virtual racers raising money for [organization name]
Content:
- Media: screenshot of race map with avatars, or table of biggest donors or fundraisers
- We’ve got X racers already logging miles but it’s not too late for you to join the fun.
- $X already raised.
- Highlight a short quote about the race from one or two racers.
- Click to join the race: https://racery.com/r/NAME/#about
- Click to donate: https://racery.com/r/NAME/#contributions

Community content during the race

Creating emails or social media posts throughout the race boosts competition and camaraderie.

Modalities

Racery announcement email dashboard to racers
Facebook
Instagram
Slack

Messages

Your posts and emails can highlight:

post an image of racer or team avatars on the route
give a shout out to racers #1, #2, #3 in the leader boards
individual with the longest single day mileage
interesting Google Street Views
highlight interesting hashtags
highlight new personal records for distance or continuous exercise days
interview a racer who says “this has been so motivational!” (you’ll definitely hear this)
highlight interesting photos posted by Racers
highlight the most liked mileage log
using the admin race report, highlight interesting activities and their frequency

Charity-specific content

Post a big donation to Facebook

See a big donation come in? (Depending on your organization, “big” varies by event. Could be $100… could be $10,000. Probably worth waiting for a donation that’s either >$500 or 3-5 times bigger than the median amount of your first five donations!)

You’ll receive a notification about the donation and can find this donation in the race’s activity feed (https://racery.com/r/RACEname/#recent). To share the donation on Facebook, click the carrot top right on a big donation (illustrated below) and you can post a snapshot of the donation to your organization’s Facebook page.

This recognizes the donation, nudges other donors to step up AND can spike new race registrations by 10%. (Note that, if “all racers” is selected, all racers will have automatically gotten a note about this donation and donor already.)

When surpassing first significant fundraising round number

Mode: organization email provider, Facebook
To: All
Subject: Wow, we just raised $X,000
Content:
- Thanks to a donation by [name], we’ve just raised surpassed $x,000.
- This is our first virtual race and we didn’t know what to expect.
- So far we’re doing better than expected.
- Help us do even better.
- Think we can get to 2 x $x,000?
- How can you help?
  - We’ve got Y donors. Spread the word and help us get 2Y.
- You can give in the name of all racers here (https://racery.com/r/RACENAME/#contributions-back-all)!

A week before race end

Mode: organization email provider, Facebook
To: All
Subject: One week left, help us reach $X,000
Content:
- We’re getting ready to wrap up our first virtual race.
- We’ve raised X so far!
- Won’t you donate?
- You can give in the name of all racers here! (https://racery.com/r/RACENAME/#contributions-back-all) or use the pulldown menu to back a specific racer or team!

2 days before race end

Mode: organization email provider, Facebook
To: All
Subject: Almost there, help us reach $X,000!
Content:
- We’re getting ready to wrap up our first virtual race.
- We’ve raised X so far!
- Every contribution counts. We’ve got X donors now and would love to get to Y.
- You can give in the name of all racers here! (https://racery.com/r/RACENAME/#contributions-back-all) or use the pulldown menu to back a specific racer or team!

One day before race ends

Mode: organization email provider, Facebook
To: All
Subject: Can we top $10,000?
Copy might include:

The race ends tomorrow at midnight.
We’re at $8,785. That’s fantastic!!!
Let’s try one more push and get over $10,000.
We can do it?
YES! If everyone in the race gives $20.
YES! If everyone in the race sends out their fundraising link and gets two friends to give $10.

7AM of your race’s final day

Mode: organization CRM, Facebook
To: All racers and everyone on the nonprofit’s mailing list
Subject: Twelve hours left, help us reach $X,000
Rational: in a few races with intense donor competition, we’ve seen donations double in the last 48 hours
Content:
- Wow, what a journey this race has been. X participants. X donors. And $YY donations!
- (IF you’ve got teams or groups, highlight those numbers too!)
- Help us end our first ever first ever race with a sprint.
- You can give in the name of all racers here!