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5 Top Tips to Boost New Year Entries

Boxing Day is the start of the “Resolution Season”, it kicks-off of an exciting but brief period of opportunity for sports event organisers.  Many Christmas revellers will be regretting having eaten and drunk far too much and according to research:&n

Boxing Day is the start of the “Resolution Season”, it kicks-off of an exciting but brief period of opportunity for sports event organisers.  Many Christmas revellers will be regretting having eaten and drunk far too much and according to research: 

  • 64% of them will make a resolution to better themselves

  • 95% of their vows are fitness related

For the switched on sports event organiser this is an excellent opportunity to use their email marketing and social media to promote appropriate beginner events with smart messaging that swaps out the vague promise of “get fit” for “focus on the finish line”.

That New Year newbie’s registration should be the start of a supportive relationship nurtured with frequent personalised emails supporting and encouraging a transformative journey from enthusiastic newbie to finish line loyal follower.  

Here are the 5 key factors to convert “get fits” into your “finish line loyal followers”

  1. Offer realistic starter events - Goals that are too big or take too long to achieve very rarely succeed.  The success of Parkrun and Couch to 5K suggests that there's a huge audience for starter events regardless of the sport type.  Help with an easy to follow training plan to make the journey to the finish line appear very much more achievable 
     
  2. Create accountability - Giving up on a resolution can be easy but you can help the self-doubter train through any dips by creating accountability. Eventrac makes it easy for them to commit to raise funds for a charity, to instantly share their registration, and use links in your encouraging messages to easily spread the word on Facebook and Instagram to their friends and family.  
     
  3. Focus on the ‘Why?’ - From registration to race your supportive email messages can help a converted get fit participant keep the focus on the why, make sure to include positive fitness statements within your frequent messages to them.  Use snippets of motivating text to remind them that more energy, focus and a body that feels great are all benefits of finishing your event. 
     
  4. Celebrate Milestones - Don’t forget to remind them to celebrate achieving their training milestones.  Program your email messaging to automatically reach out to participants, how are they doing? Encourage participants to celebrate and share their training achievements with you and others on your event’s facebook page..  
     
  5. Find a Friend - We all know that signing up and participating with a friend is a huge success factor.  The most effective way to help your “get fit” converts achieve their new year resolution goal is to encourage them to participate with friends.  Eventrac allows you to offer a discount code for friends and groups and make it easy for groups to register.

Friends and group members will keep each other accountable along that journey from registration to finish line and share an unforgettable experience that will make them want to come back to you for more.