Monthly Calendar

At the beginning of each month we send a list of upcoming events within 300 miles of the recipient’s zip code.  The email includes the dates, organization, location and direct link to register for the event.   If you’re using our Google Analytics integration, you can track clicks from these emails with a campaign source of “msr-calendar” and name like “Jun13”.

Last Minute Track Specials

Like the airlines, this list is for last minute discounts on track events. When an organization is running into problems filling an event and needs a last-minute bump, we can send a blast to everyone within 300 miles of an event. We exclude anyone already registered to reduce the chance of an existing registrant becoming upset by a late discount offer.

Instructors Wanted

Attendees can now sign up to receive invitations to instruct at local events when an organization is looking for extra help.  Like with the Last Minute Track Specials, organizers can contact our customer service and request a blast for their geographic area.  We recommend promoting this list to your instructors as the larger the pool, the higher chances someone will respond to help when you need it most.  You can, of course, review an instructor’s registration history and log book entries to help vet their experience.  Don’t turn away students and entry fees because you’re short instructors!

Workers Wanted

This list is basically the same as the Instructors Wanted list, but for workers.   Put the call out and we’ll help you rally the troops.  Same karmic belief here:  if everyone promotes it to their workers, there’s a better chance that help will come when you call.

Race Crowd Occasional Deals

It’s like GroupOn for motorsports.  Except not every day.   Because otherwise you’d never make it out of the garage with your driveway blocked by FedEx boxes.  You know the drill; basically we twist the arms of our vendor friends to unload products and experiences at a steep discount exclusively for MSR users.   If these are regional deals, we’ll only email you if they’re applicable to your area.

According to our friends at MailChimp, the best email subject lines are short, descriptive, and provide the reader with a reason to explore your message further.  Last year, MailChimp did a study in which they analyzed the open rates for over 200 million emails.  Here’s a snippet of what they learned:

Three Words to Avoid

You may (or may not) know that using the word “free” in your emails should generally be avoided since they tend to trigger spam filters.  But the words Help, Percent Off, and Reminder also negatively affect your open rates.

Subject Line Length

Subject lines should be short and to the point.  MailChimp’s rule of thumb is 50 characters or less.  The exception is for highly-targeted audiences where the audience appreciated additional information in the subject line.

Promotional Emails

Keep the message straightforward and avoid using splashy promotional phrases, CAPS, or exclamation points in your subject lines.  Subject lines frames as questions can often perform better.

Reduce Opens with Repeating/Reminder Subject Lines

Sending the same emails over and over again (such as event reminders) with the same subject line will decrease the open rate of each subsequent email.

Conclusion

When it comes to subject lines, tell what’s inside, don’t sell what’s inside.

I’m guessing most of you already send email campaigns in one form or another.  But is anyone reading the emails you’re sending? Before starting any email blitz, ask yourself these three questions:

1. Why does this audience want to hear from me?
2. What useful information can I provide this audience?
3. What do I want to accomplish with my email marketing?

This is just the basics.  If you haven’t answered these three questions in the email you just wrote, delete and start over!  Now for the good stuff.

10 Tips to Make Sure Your Emails Will Actually Get Opened

1. The single most impactful thing in your email campaign is the subject line.  Choose a subject line that grabs your reader’s attention. Avoid vague content like “Our Upcoming Event.” Instead, use an interesting topic or headline from the email, such as “What You’ll Learn in a One-Day Rally School” or “How to Win an Autocross.”
2. Personalize the ‘From’ part of your email and be clear who the email is from.  People are more likely to open an email from an actual person than from a company, organization or random email address.
3. Get the length right. A good rule of thumb is the more frequent your emails, the shorter they should be. Brevity is a good thing.  One benchmark we’ve seen is 300 words or less.
4. Personalize each message. Personalizing your email message makes it more relevant to your recipient and consequently, they will more likely open it.  There are lots of ways to personalize an email, but at the very least, always include the recipient’s name.
5. Minimize the use of ALL CAPS and italics as they are hard to read, AND TOTALLY ANNOYING!
6. Your email should immediately address what your offer is and why it’s valuable to your audience.  Add a value proposition for your offer in the first sentence in your email copy.
7. Send passionate emails- don’t be neutral.  We are part of a large community of motorsport enthusiasts and any passion you share in your emails is highly appreciated, not to mention infectious.
8. Segment your emails based on what people want.  Our email blaster allows you to send emails to everyone in your database, everyone attending an event, and everyone not attending an event.  Send different messages to each group that’s tailored specifically to them.
9. Your email should have a single conversion goal (what you want the recipient to do), whether it’s register for your event, volunteer for the club, or pay their membership dues. The call-to-action is the link that triggers this action- so make sure that you include a call-to-action and that it’s prominently displayed in your email.
10. People like pictures!  Incorporate a relevant image into your email marketing campaigns to really engage your audience.

So start your event promotion engines!  You are now equipped to optimize your email marketing for success.

Q: I can’t complete my registration because I can’t get my car number. What should I do?

A: Event organizers control the car numbers for their event. If your number is not available during the registration process, complete your registration by selecting a different number, and then contact the event organizer to have your number changed.

You can contact the organizer in two ways: by clicking the “Ask the registrar a question” link from your event dashboard or by looking at the event information page from our calendar which includes their contact information.

Q: Why do I have to select a car number when I already entered my preferred numbers with my vehicle information?

A: Car numbers are selected at the time of registration, generally from a drop-down list of available numbers. The numbers you entered in the vehicle profile are for the event organizer’s reference should there be a number conflict to resolve.

Hi MSR –

I keep meaning to tell you…

I’ve given up the dark side altogether and am just using MotorsportReg.com for the whole entry process. No more printing entry forms! No more sorting paper to assign numbers! Instead of printing entry forms, I print the Detail Entry List to check entries and verify that they are correct. If I need to make changes to numbers, I go to the Assignments page and change them as needed. That’s it. It only takes a few minutes to verify and complete the entry process. Turns out, you knew what you were talking about when you said it would be easier!

Thanks

Sherry

MSR:  Amy, the Atlanta Region is a very active region of the SCCA.  Please tell us what kinds of events you run and what makes your region unique.
Amy: We offer Autocross (“SOLO”), club racing, Track and Time Trials, and PDX.  If you have ever been to one of our local events or even better, a National level SCCA event, you will know who the Atlanta Region people are. I frequently tell people who are considering trying autocross that the people in the Atlanta Region are some of the friendliest people around.  We like to work hard, play hard, and all have a common thread:  driving in parking lots!  I take so much pride in our region because we don’t see ourselves as an exclusive group where you must drive a certain type of car or have a particular career to be a part of us.  Our events are ‘come as you are and have a great time’.  And the camaraderie doesn’t end when the cones have been picked up or the trailer has left the site.  We can easily be found hanging out together at a restaurant after atuocrossing is finished or even celebrating big life events like marriages and births of children.

MSR:  What lessons have you learned about running successful events?
Amy: In the Atlanta Region, our events are not operated by just one or two people; Team SOLO makes it happen.  We all have our jobs to do, and we work and plan together to make our events run smoothly.  While I may have the most communication with our participants out of anyone on Team SOLO, I am just the messenger of information when it comes to how our events run.  On actual event days, our Region Chair, Op and Safety Stewards, Timing/Scoring folks, On-site Registration team, Equipment managers, and Worker Chiefs all work together to make it happen.  Every year we look back at the previous year and make any necessary changes to keep moving forward and keep our region one of the best.

MSR:  With your busy schedule, why do you keep doing what you’re doing?  What motivates you?
Amy: Sometimes the emails with questions and registration issues can seem never ending, but I am really passionate about making sure everyone gets an answer or knows what to do for each event.  I truly believe in ‘customer service’.  Often I am the first contact people have when deciding to autocross for the first time.  They may not see me face-to-face, but the information or assistance I provide can be the positive first impression they get from our region.  The genuine appreciation I get from people after I have helped them set up an account on MotorsportReg.com (“MSR”) or even just change their number or class in the system is a great feeling.  So many times, people with whom I have communicated via email will come up to me at the events and thank me in person.  Just knowing that the small things I do reflect positively for our region motivates me to do this every year.

MSR:  What kind of event promotion has been successful for you?
Amy: I feel our best event promotion happens through MSR.  While we also use MailChimp, Youtube, and Facebook to get the word out about what’s happening in the Atlanta Region, our best means of communication is through the email blast I use in MotorsportReg.com.  We have so many people who travel to our events from out of state and with such a large database of participants, I know I am always reaching everyone who has ever autocrossed with us.  It’s very easy to send out a reminder a couple days before registration closes or notify people of any changes pertaining to the events.

MSR: Any favorite MotorsportReg.com features?
Amy: I really love the weekend membership function!  In the old days, we made all SCCA non-members fill out the paper version of the weekend membership while at the event, then they had to be mailed to the National Office.  Now that MSR has given us the capability to just send all of the info electronically, I am not making a trip to the post office after every event.  Another great function is the ability to verify SCCA memberships.  While we ask people to bring their cards to the event, active memberships can be verified online and people pay the appropriate registration fees.  I also love being able to issue credits to folks who are unable to attend the events after signing up.  We always ask people to cancel before we charge cards if they know they cannot attend but having the option to issue credits and be able to keep track of who has or hasn’t used them is very nice.

MSR: Amy thanks so much for your time!
Amy: You’re welcome!

To learn more about the SCCA Atlanta Region and how you can get involved, check out their website.  You can also see them in action on their YouTube Channel. Or better yet, sign up for one of their upcoming autocrosses now open for registration and check out their new timing trailer donated by Haldast Home Services.

A: After you press “Send Message Now”, you will see a notification on the screen that tells you how many recipients the email was sent to. It’s also a good idea to “Copy Sender” so that you receive your own copy of the email.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Well… it IS when you use MotorsportReg.com’s Check-in feature!

Built in to our premium plan accounts for organizers, this tool gives your registration team a quick and easy online, real-time check-in process. Combined with online payments, it makes checking in your attendees as easy and quick as a couple of mouse clicks.

No more multiple attendee list printouts, no more manually searching down a list of names and trying to figure out if they are paid, no more trying to keep track of check-in notes… it’s all at your fingertips. In fact, it’s at everyone’s fingertips! The check-in tool allows you to have multiple check-in screens open at the same time to allow for different check-in lines.

The simple layout of the check-in box lets you easily see the most important data:

• What the attendee is registered for (segment, class, group)
• Do they owe any money?
• Vehicle info, transponder number, and car number

The check-in notes field lets you enter any additional pertinent information (crew members, notes about changes, personal info to update, etc.) And online payments are a snap with the ‘Pay Now’ button right from the check-in box.

Whether you want to go paperless for the environment, or because you simply don’t want to cart 57 file boxes back and forth to every event… get started with online check-in powered by MotorsportReg.com.

Click here for more details on this premium-plan feature.

You can find both of these under the wrench icons at the top of the Form Builder.

Co-Driver Picker

The Co-Driver Picker is all about forming teams. It could be a traditional team, like an endurance race where more than one racer will be driving a car, kart or riding a bike. The team members should be included in the timing and scoring data for MyLaps Orbits and displayed on entry lists. It could also be when two racers will be using the same vehicle in two different classes and the organizer wants to assign the same number for convenience. Or it could be an educational event like a high-performance driving school (HPDE) or Tire Rack Street Survival event where two students are sharing their street car but can’t participate simultaneously (at least not comfortably!)

We refer to all of these cases as teams. Once the primary person has registered, the new Co-Driver Picker allows subsequent participants to join the team which is displayed in several sections of the EventMaster 360:

• Registration screen (in Assignments under “Co-Driver” column)
• Assignment reports have a new “Co-Driver” column available
• Attendee and Driver Experience detail reports
• Label generator

Participants can select their own teammates once a Co-Driver Picker is placed on the registration form and registrars can manually assign a teammate on the attendee screen.

Text Blocks

Our core registration form components of Questions, Packages and Assigners each allow organizers to provide some help text which is displayed in a lighter color gray text under the related item on the registration form. Unlike these “hint” fields, the new Text Block is a full blown HTML editor (just like you’re used to for Text & Waiver) so you can include links, images, bulleted lists, tables and more.

Want to sell more t-shirts as part of your entries online? A great photo of your super cool shirt would probably do better than two sentences telling me it’s super cool! Do you think your participants would benefit from additional instructions or clarification around what they’re signing up for? Experiment with adding directions like in the image.

Just be careful to preview your form and make sure you don’t scare people away with a wall of words or long scrolling page of photos. Remember: the registration form is for getting registered! Brevity and conciseness will be your best friend here.

Unlike the other options for the form, the text block has no form field so it has no value. It should only be used at the bottom of any nesting you might create and should not have any children items on the form layout.