The Email Marketing webinar will cover all the features of RunSignUp's email system with topics from creating your email, managing your lists, reports, and even setting up automated emails.
Watch the recording of RunSignUp 201 Webinar: Email Marketing
Building the Email
Set-up SendGrid Account: SendGrid is the third party account that we use for all marketing emails
- When you first go to Dashboard -> Email Marketing -> Send Email, you are prompted to create an account. This information is collected on behalf of SendGrid so that there is information for the sender if there is an issue with a specific account.
- SendGrid account must be set-up for each race and partner account
Email Fields
- Email Name, Subject, Schedule Date, Content, Attachment, Additional Recipients
- Must have name, subject and content in order to send email or save as draft
Content
- Defaults to plain text
- Allows for HTML code in the source code area for fully formatted emails
Schedule
- Can schedule for a future date/time
- Lists are dynamic: if you send to "All Participants" and schedule the email for 2 weeks out, the list will include all participants who are registered at that time
Tags: There are many tags that can be included in your emails
- Participant Specific Tags (fields that are the specific to race participants - bib number, first name, last name, corral, event name) will never show in a test email, but will pull the participant information in a real email
- Race Specific Tags (race name, race location, race date, etc) WILL show in a test email, since they are not dependent on participant information
De-Duping Recipients
- The email system will automatically de-dup if the email doesn't include any participant specific tags. It is designed to send only one email the an email if the content is exactly the same
- The system will NOT de-dup if the content includes participant specific tags. This is designed for marketing emails that are addressed to a specific recipient or for pre-race emails that include a participant's bib number, corral, etc.
Preview
- After you build the email and hit confirm, the preview page will show you what the email will look like and confirm the number of recipients
Custom List Management
Standard Lists include all registrants, all registrants by event, team captains only, and unsigned waivers only.
Custom Lists
- Upload a CSV of recipient information
- Additional fields (first, last, etc) can be mapped when custom list is uploaded
- List can be edited/deleted later
Automated Emails
RaceJoy Emails
Incomplete Registrations
- Send in intervals after the drop-out is complete (1-7 days); can be sent customized and sent at multiple intervals
- For example: offer a coupon code only for latest interval
- Send on specific date to include all people on the list who meet the criteria
- For example, use to send one final email the week of the race to capture people who dropped out of registration months ago
- If enabling this feature after registrations have processed, use a specific send date to capture anyone that dropped out of the process more than a few days before
Automated Emails for RaceJoy and Incomplete Registrations: https://runsignup.wordpress.com/2016/03/01/automated-emails/
Price Increases
- Can also be sent in intervals, or on a specific date; intervals will send a set number of days before the price increase
- Two versions of the email
- Send to already registered participants to let them know the price is increasing and they can invite their friends to beat the price increase. If you are using referrals, include the referral code link to generate more referral registrations at the same time.
- Send to past participants that are not yet registered for the race and invite them to come back this year (and beat the price increase)
Include referral code links in your emails: https://runsignup.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/using-email-to-promote-referrals/
Past Participant Data: If this is a first year race, there are two ways that you can send to past participants
- Import past participant data for real YOY numbers
- Upload a custom list with past participant information. Make sure that the past participant custom list is selected for the price increase email
Email Reports
Viewing email reports: https://runsignup.wordpress.com/2016/03/31/email-reporting/
Email Statistics include: Requests, Delivery Rate, Open Rate, Click Rate, Bounce Rate, and Spam Report Rate
- Email Report is broken down by day, not per sent email
Blocked Emails
- List of emails that were blocked with date information
- Race Directors have the option to remove someone from this list, but this should only be completed at the request of the participant
Bounced Emails
- List of Bounced Emails with date and reason
Invalid Emails
Spam Reports
- List of Spam Reports
- Can be removed by the race director, but this should only be completed at the request of the participant
- If you remove someone from the spam list and send another email to them, and they mark it as spam again, it can cause issues with your SendGrid account
Unsubscribed Recipients
- List of people who have unsubscribed from your emails for that race
- Race Directors can re-subscribe a recipient
- The unsubscribe lists are specific to that race, so if emails are sent to a person from another race or partner account they would still receive it
Re-subscribe recipients: https://runsignup.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/email-marketing-resubscribing-emails/
Manage Email Settings
- From Name
- Reply-To Email Address
- The email will still come from a SendGrid email address, but you can set a REPLY-TO email that is specific to your race/company
- Include Race Logo
- Include Sponsor Logo
What's Next in RunSignUp Email Marketing?
Updates planned for the next 2-4 months include:
- Templates
- Excluded lists
- Lists based off answers to custom questions
RunSignUp Email Marketing Guides:
Email Marketing, Part One (basic RunSignUp email marketing features and setup):
https://runsignup.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/runsignup-and-email-marketing-part-one/
Email Marketing, Part Two (tag replacement and reporting):
https://runsignup.wordpress.com/2016/05/26/runsignup-and-email-marketing-part-two/
Email Marketing, Part Three (using email marketing to promote your race): https://runsignup.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/runsignup-and-email-marketing-part-three/
Thanks for joining us!