Eventrac Blog

Rural Running

28 Feb, 2018 11:30 By: Matt Trevett

Rural Running Background

Rural Running is a local company set up in 2015 by Jeffrey and Michelle Clark. They organise running events in the Fareham and surrounding areas that take in some areas of outstanding natural beauty, castles, forests and coasts and include some night-time events and fun events. Although a relative new entrant to the race promotion arena, the company has a strong following and the events are popular they have the potential to grow.

Fareham is a market town at the north-west tip of Portsmouth Harbour which enjoys the benefit of main line station access. Just a short 20 minute drive west of Portsmouth which is a city famous for the Great South Run, and iconic landmarks like the Spinnaker Tower, and a must do stop off for those who love nautical history and who seek a warm up run along the sea front) and approximately 35 minutes to Southampton with good rail access from the west country and London. 

Commendably, Rural Running also adopt an annual charity and encourage their runners to support it too. During 2016 the company was able to donate nearly £2000 to Guide Dogs as part of a ‘Name a Puppy’ scheme. The Rural Running charity of choice for 2017 is The Rowans Hospice www.rowanshospice.co.uk which is a hospice that offers specialist palliative care to those with life-limiting illnesses in southeast Hampshire. Individual events also promote other causes like the Glow event to raise money toward the fund to buy a defibrillator for Fareham & Lee on the Solent parkruns or the Porchester Ladies only event raising funds for Breast Cancer.

eventrac’s Director Aaron Bird approached Jeff in 2016 and sought to understand how he could help Rural Running position their unique selling points to provide an enhanced web presence with the ultimate goal to leverage entries and promote races to a wider audience. The potential for encouraging running enthusiasts and their families to such a beautiful area of the country and raise some funds for good causes was exciting too.

The Requirements

• Create a web presence (the company did not have one)
• Integrate an entry platform and web presence with their Facebook page
• Promote races to existing clients
• Reach out to new members
• Offer discounts on a race series (ie enter three races for a cheaper price)
• Raise the profile of the events

The Solution

An integrated feature rich website offering that:

Attracts attention

• A cost effective website offering with integrated Eventrac “widgets” and special features
• Visually appealing event page to promote a variety of events (show screen shot)
• Integrated course maps to show participants race routes

Informs and enables the participant

• To enter the event
• Take advantage of Race Series promotion to encourage multiple bookings
• To interact with route map guides
• To buy club kit merchandise
• To organise club equipment ie cycle boxes
• View results

Additional Features to create loyalty and membership

• Integrated marketing communications
• Incorporated email package
• Discount codes

The Results

Rural running has seen an increase in participants to their events with increased social media exposure. This trend is expected to continue with the launch of the new website.

Jeff has improved his cash flow with our direct payment system. Jeff says "I no longer have to wait a week until after an event finishes to receive entry fees, this is a massive help to my cash flow"

Eventrac finals!

We love the ethos of Rural Running – the passion of the organisers really shines through in all they do and it’s a huge honour that they’ve chosen eventrac as the entry platform of their choice for their 16 events this year. It’s early days and there is so much more we can do together to make these events accessible to an even wider participant audience.