Contact Information: Your Most Important Asset
By Cheryl Rushing
As a race director, your contact information is your most important asset. Many times while updating our Stroller Friendly Race Calendar we have run into the same problem as many participants: the race listing or website doesn’t indicate whether a race is stroller friendly and after searching there is no contact information, either. In that case, we can’t add the race to our calendar or let our readers know who to contact.
Activity websites like one of the most popular sites Active.com are debuting a new look that takes the “less is more” approach. You provide the race name, location and date and they register your runners. It’s an easy way to get your race out to a wide variety of people, but what if those people have questions? How can they contact you? They can’t contact you.
Race Registration Example. No contact information or website is provided.
A race is a race is a race unless you want to bring your dog, your kids, or a friend in a wheelchair. Sometimes location information isn’t clear to an out of town guest or maybe your event listing or registration page doesn’t give the time of the race start. Having contact information to answer questions is essential to maximizing participation in your race!
Contact information doesn’t just mean an address or phone number. It can happen in many ways:
An email address. This can be the race director’s email or even a Gmail (or other web-mail) address set up specifically for the race. Just make sure someone checks the email address on a regular basis.
A Facebook page. We love race Facebook pages. Questions and answers can be posted on your wall and other interested races have the information they need without asking the same question over and over. You can setup multiple users as admins so that questions can be answered by race staff in a timely manner.
A Twitter account. We do love Twitter, but ensure if you have a Twitter account, please check and reply on a regular basis. Interested racers can “@” you with questions or Direct Message (DM) you.
Include links to any or all of these contact points on your website or your event registration page to maximize exposure. If runners are asking questions and getting answers, they are more likely to attend your event and being a paying participant (and we’re more likely to list it on our calendar). So, please include your contact information in your registration description page or on your website; we want to be able to help maximize your exposure by posting your event for FREE.
You can contact Run Stroller Run at info@runstrollerrun.com, Facebook and/or Twitter.
Cheryl never considered herself to be much of an athlete, but she began running in 2013 as a way to alleviate both her inertness and her boredom. Weight loss and energy followed. When Cheryl isn’t running (or running after Penny) she is a virtual assistant for Run Stroller Run and a freelance writer. She can be contacted at cheryl@runstrollerrun.com.
