Run For the Dogs 5K - Swag Rewards Test Race

This is a test race designed to show you how awesome Swag Rewards are!

You are welcome to SignUp for this race to view/test the swag rewards, social sharing settings and registration follow up emails. However, you will not receive anything for signing up for this event since it is just for testing and example purposes. 

Default Email Formatting with Race Header/Logo:

Refer Your Friends to Earn Cash Back & Exclusive Swag

Custom Email Formatting Example:

Refer Your Friends to Earn Cash Back & Exclusive Swag

Every race can find SOMETHING to offer for swag rewards. No excuses!  Need some ideas? 

• Ask for Sponsor Donations - (highlight the sponsor and their swag in your registration follow up emails as a "trade")
• Create a "Referrers Raffle" - for every XX referred registrations, one ticket will be entered into our exclusive "Referrer Raffle"
• Gift Cards - These are easy to offer, but buy at a later time once you see how many people have earned the gift card swag reward
• Entries to a Future Race - easy to manage
• VIP Parking Pass - Use swag reward inventory if there is limited parking available
• VIP Spot in Transition Area - (for triathlons)
• VIP Tent on Race Day - You would be surprised what people will do for coffee and donuts in an exclusive area on race day!
• Custom Swag (Mugs, Shirts, Totes, Promotional Items) - these items take a little bit more planning (advanced ordering), but any leftovers make great holiday gifts!
• GET CREATIVE!

SWAG REWARD SETUP

TURN ON REFERRALS: 

• Go To Promotion>>Referral Tracking>>Setup
• Turn on Allow Referral Tracking at the top of the page
• Under Referral Tracking Options, turn on Activate Referral Refunds & Rewards

• If you are using referral refunds, enter you referral refund settings and click SAVE SETTINGS at the bottom of the page (For more information about setting up referral refunds, click HERE)

CREATE SWAG REWARDS:

• Go to Promotion>>Swag Rewards
• Click NEW SWAG REWARD button
• Add Swag Name, Image, Description, Quantity Available and End Date (as a best practice, we recommend using the race date as the event end date)
• If you are offering a Swag Reward that has multiple sizes, click "Require Option Selection" and enter sizes.
• **If the "Require Option Selection" option is selected, the registrant will be able to select their swag reward size when they hit the referral threshold. They will receive an email letting them know they have earned that swag reward and they will be prompted to select their size from that email
• Click SAVE SWAG REWARDS
• 

TURN ON SWAG REWARDS: 

• After you have set-up your swag rewards, you can turn them on
• Go back to Promotion>>Referral Tracking>>Setup
• Scroll Down to the Referral Swag Rewards Section
• Set an End Date for Swag Rewards (usually this is the race date)
• Click ADD A REWARD
• Enter the first threshold and select the reward from the list
• Repeat for additional swag rewards
• Click SAVE SETTINGS
• 

PROMOTE YOUR REFERRAL PROGRAM ON THE RACE PAGE

You can use a custom section on the race page to promote your referral program. To add a custom section go to Race>>Race Website>>Custom Section. Click the "+" button to add a custom section. 

• Sign up for the Run For The Dogs 5K
• Once your registration is complete, you will receive a unique referral link to share with your friends, family or post on social media
• Get 5 friends to sign up using your unique referral link and you will automatically receive a refund of $25.00. Boom!
• Get 10 friends to sign up using your unique referral link and you will receive an exclusive Run For The Dogs Shirt
• Get 20 friends to sign up using your unique referral link and you will receive an exclusive Run For The Dogs Tote Bag
• Keep Sharing and Promoting your link

CUSTOMIZE SOCIAL SHARING TEXT

• Go to Promotion>>Social Sharing
• Customize the Registration Confirmation Share Heading: This is the text that will appear at the top of the pop-up after someone has registered. Use a catchy heading to prompt them to read the share message that appears in the popup
• Customize the Registration Confirmation Share Message: This is the text that appears in the popup message. Make sure you customize this message with your referral program details. This is your "hook" text to get them interested to prompt them to post to Facebook or social media
• Customize the Facebook Shared Link Description: This is the message that will appear below the image when registrants post to Facebook
• Customize the Registration Confirmation Email Referral Code Message: Usually, this will be the same text that you have in the "Registration Confirmation Share Heading" above
• Registrant Referral Coupon Message: If you have enabled automatic coupons at checkout, this text will be included in the popup to registrants after completing their registration.
• Shared Link Referral Coupon Text: If you have enabled automatic coupons at checkout, this text will be included in the Facebook shared link description

CUSTOMIZE SOCIAL SHARING IMAGES: 

Social Sharing images are SO Important! If you do not upload a custom social sharing image, the race logo will be used/displayed if someone posts your race or their referral tracking link to social media. While you might have an amazing race logo, it still won't result in as many clicks/shares as a customized social sharing image. When a social sharing image is posted to social media, think of that as a "free advertisement." People are more likely to click on images where people are having fun & smiling when compared to pictures of a race course, landscape, logos, etc. 

• Go to Promotion>>Social Sharing
  
• At the bottom of the page, you will see the "Facebook Share Description & Images" section
• Enter your Social Sharing Description (this is what will appear in a Facebook post)
• In order to upload an image, you need to upload the large and small images at the same time (Large image dimensions = 1200 X 630. Small Image dimensions = 382 X 200)
• Click the left Browse button and select the small image
• Click the right Browse button and select the large image
• Click SAVE SETTINGS

Here is an example of the social sharing image that was used for Run For The Dogs 5K:

SETTING UP REGISTRATION followup EMAILS

Registration followup emails will be sent to participants who have registered for an event, either to each participant after a specified interval (number of days) has passed or all current registrants on a specified date. If you are using referral refunds & swag rewards, we strongly recommend that you use Registration Followup emails to remind people to share their link and earn rewards. Registration Followup emails play a huge role in a successful referral program!

• The first step is to make sure you have an email marketing account set-up in your race. If you don't have one set-up yet, go to Email Marketing>>Send Email and fill in the email account information
• Then, go to Automated Emails>>Registration Followup
• Click on Enable Registration Followup Emails at the top of the page
• Then, choose the intervals you would like your Followup emails to send
• If you would like, you can also schedule emails on specific dates. If using this option for referral reminders, we recommend 6, 4 or 2 weeks before the race to give people enough time to continue to share their referral link and promote your event
• Click SAVE REGISTRATION FOLLOWUP EMAIL SETTINGS
• Once you have saved the settings, you can then click on the "View / Customize Email" link for each interval to customize the email subject, text, and images

To view some sample Registration Followup emails for Run For The Dogs, click here

Referral & Swag Program Best Practices:

• TAKE THE TIME:  RunSignup has built "set & forget" features which allow you to promote your referral program so it runs smoothly. However, you should still take the time to build your swag referral program, decide what to offer and make sure it is clearly highlighted and displayed before, during and after registration. 

• SOCIAL SHARING:  Make sure to customize your social sharing text & images. These are the text and images that are shared on social media. These social settings allow your program to grow and become successful. Does your social sharing image make you happy when you look at it? If not, you should probably choose another image.

• STACK YOUR REWARDS:  We see the most success when referral refunds & swag rewards are used together! The most common settings are refunds first, then swag in additional tiers. However, you can mix and match the tiers and options however you would like.

• KEEP IT SIMPLE: Stacking your rewards and thresholds is great! However, make sure it's easy for people to understand at a quick glance and even easier for people to share. If you can't remember what you are offering in your swag program because there are so many tiers, then you should probably come up with a different program.

• GIRL POWER: Keep it female friendly! The RunSignup Race Trends Report shows that 60% of event attendees are currently female, while only 4% of the shirts ordered across all races are sized for females. Keep this in mind when you plan your swag referral program- since over 70% of referrers are female. This doesn't mean every race needs to promote Tutu's and Tiaras, but make sure your swag options and swag program keep females in mind with your apparel options. 

• EXCLUSIVITY: Don't offer swag rewards that you are also selling during registration. Why would someone go through the effort of sharing and promoting your event for a t-shirt that they could just purchase for $15-20? Make sure your swag rewards are "limited" or "special" edition items that your registrants must refer to receive.

• MAKE IT FUN: Give your program a name that ties in with your race to make it fun! People like being part of a group. The Dog Squad, River Run Ambassadors, etc.

• REGISTRATION FOLLOW UP EMAILS ARE A MUST: Use Registration Followup emails 1-10 days after someone has registered. This is when people are still very excited about registering for your event, so they are more likely to share after receiving a reminder. You can also use registration followup emails on specific days before the race- this is another time when people really want to recruit their friends and family member to join them.

• PROMOTE EARLY- DON'T ADD REWARDS AFTER REGISTRATION IS OPEN: If your race is open for registration and you already have registrants, we don't recommend adding a swag reward program now. When referral refunds and rewards are added after registration is open, there can be complications with rewards being skipped or refunds that aren't issued. However, if you are aware of that and you would still like to set-up a referral program, reach out to your account manager so we can give you some guidance on the best process. 

Our Swag Reward Features were built based on feedback from series who had implemented their own swag referral programs. These programs showed tremendous amounts of success. RunSignUp built features to automate these processes for races who were already promoting a program AND to allow other races to implement similar programs. Learn why EVERY RACE should be using swag rewards!

WHY SWAG REWARDS WORK SO WELL:

• Only a certain "types" of people will post to Facebook or share on social media. These are the people that turn out to be your top referrers
• Adding a swag program DOES NOT result in a huge number of additional NEW referrers sharing their links/posting to social media
• Adding a swag program DOES create incentives for your proven top referrers to keep promoting your event
• When only referral refunds are used, most referrers will stop sharing once they have earned their refund
• Adding a swag referral program encourages those top referrers to keep sharing/posting to earn limited edition/exclusive rewards

• STEP 1 - Set-up Referrals and Swag Rewards
• STEP 2 - Promote your Referral and Swag Rewards by creating a custom section on your race page (see example below)
• STEP 3 - Customize Social Sharing Text to prompt more posts to FB
• STEP 4 - Customize Social Sharing Images to prompt more clicks and referred registrations
• STEP 5 - Set-up Registration Follow Up emails to promote your referral program: EXAMPLE EMAILS

• Sign up for the Run For The Dogs 5K
• Once your registration is complete, you will receive a unique referral link to share with your friends, family or post on social media
• Get 5 friends to sign up using your unique referral link and you will automatically receive a refund of $25.00. Boom!
• Get 10 friends to sign up using your unique referral link and you will receive an exclusive Run For The Dogs Shirt
• Get 20 friends to sign up using your unique referral link and you will receive an exclusive Run For The Dogs Tote Bag
• Keep Sharing and Promoting your link