I just wrapped up online registration for the Mac-A-Thon which is a fundraising race for Keoua Canoe Club. This race has been going on for the past 32 years, and is one of the oldest 5k/10k runs on the island.
Three years ago when I joined the canoe club I volunteered to help with the web site. This eventually extended to helping with registration and marketing of the Mac-A-Thon. In 2011 I designed a new flyer, re-did the registration forms to include a line for an email address, and in 2012 I setup online race registration. That year, I imported all of the email addresses from our 2011 registration forms and sent out an email notice about the online registration option. We pre-registered about half of the runners online in 2012, which I took as a great step forward.
This year, I started our email marketing campaign earlier and sent more emails letting people know about our pre-registration savings deadlines. The result was a 100% increase in online registrations in 2013, which in turn makes this year one of the biggest Mac-A-Thon’s we’ve had in years.
All this with no budget, in my free time. Winning!
A huge shout out to MailChimp for making it possible.