Reap what you sow is an old saying that simply means that in order to have success you must expend effort. This has application for so many areas of life. It is especially true in the racing business. Whether you are a competitor trying to improve your time, or a race director hosting an event, you get back what you put into it. I hear a complaint from race directors a lot regarding the number of events that are taking place. Whereas on a given weekend several years ago, there might have been 2 or 3, now it is not uncommon to find twice that many or more. This is great for the competitor or anyone just wanting to participate in an event. It is not so great for the races because of the competition.
The concern of course is that the saturation in the market is so heavy that races simply don't do well. I personally don't think that is actually the problem. While it is true that races have to compete against more races than ever before, I see evidence of multiple races that do quite well in spite of the increased competition. What is the differerence? I think it comes down to the effort put into the event planning and production. At Athlete Guild, we work with a lot of events many of which are established but many more that are brand new or relatively new to the market. I can always tell the races that will do well by watching the behavior of the race director and/or committee. There is a mistaken belief by some that all you have to do is put the event on the calendar and they will come. Nothing could be further from the truth. While you will get a few interested people to show up, turnout will be dismal and the race director will be disenchanted. It all comes down to effort that is put into marketing and planning for the event. Does the event have a flyer that is posted in stores? What about going to other events and talking up the event. Is there a social media plan? It's not to say that the event will be huge success if all of these are done, but I can almost guarantee that it will fail if not done at all.
We at Athlete Guild work hard with our customers to make sure that the event is a success. We encourage continual marketing through multiple channels but it is ultimately the responsibility of the event committee to do the necessary work. Our website has an incredible hit count per day and month so a lot of people see the events, but you have to find ways to stand out from the crowd. If you're a race director, give us a call and we can help you figure out how to do that.
See you at the race!
