The Reggie Awards – our playful nod to “registration” excellence – celebrates event organizers who create extraordinary experiences within the athleteReg community. Each month, these passionate individuals share their stories, strategies, and the magic that makes their events uniquely special. Ready to share your victory story from the podium? Introduce yourself here.
This month’s winner showcases how thoughtful email marketing – from well-crafted templates to strategic participant communication – can create an engaging experience throughout the event cycle.
Event Overview
Event Director: Amy Charity
Event Name: SBT GRVL presented by Wahoo
Event Registration Site: https://www.bikereg.com/sbtgrvl
Event Website: https://www.sbtgrvl.com/
How many years have you been organizing this event? We’ve held the event annually since 2019, so that would make 2025 our 6th in-person year, with 2020 being held virtually.
How many participants attended your most recent event? In 2024 we were capped at 3,000 riders and have been fortunate to sell out every year during our open registration window in December.
Tell us about your event:
SBT GRVL p/b Wahoo is a world-class gravel race experience held on the greatest gravel roads on Earth in and around the magnificent Routt County Colorado and based in the town of Steamboat Springs. The unique combination of the quiet roads surrounding a thriving resort town create a setting for an incredible gravel bike event.
With the fundamental goal of inclusivity, we focus not only on the ride and race days, but also on creating a fantastic weekend away with family and friends. The beauty of the mountains, the camaraderie with fellow cyclists, as well as the challenge of covering these gravel roads on two wheels is something that will not soon be forgotten. SBT GRVL is a small, independently owned business founded and driven by passionate cyclists with a mission to give back to our community, advocacy partners, and riders.
Email Marketing Strategy
How do you structure your email communications throughout the event cycle? We believe that it’s important to communicate regularly and year round with our riders to keep SBT GRVL p/b Wahoo top of mind. While we ramp up our communications around our random selection open registration process with weekly emails in the month leading up to opening registration, we strive to send emails at least once per month during the “off season” with training tips, event updates, course previews, lodging information and schedule details. As the event gets closer we communicate once every other week in the two months leading up to the event with schedule details, followed by weekly communications up until the rider guide and final email three days before the event. Finally, we wrap up with a post-event email 48 hours after the event that includes results, and links to photos. The final communication is the rider survey within five days of the conclusion of the event to see what our riders have to say.
Could you share specific examples of how you use athleteReg’s email tools to enhance your messages? We embed our email header and sponsor footer into athleteReg to make our communications look and feel consistent across platforms. We use athleteReg for the most important and urgent information around deferral and course change reminders and merge tags to speak personally to riders in each category.
Marketing & Communication Plan
Beyond email, what other marketing channels do you use to promote your event? We are very active on social media, primarily utilizing Instagram as our main method of rider communication, as well as our Strava Club for engaging riders and LinkedIn for press acknowledgements. We have a very active Facebook group as well that riders use to discuss relevant race information and communicate with one another.
What types of content do you typically include in your pre-event emails to ensure participants are well-prepared? In addition to embedded images, text, and schedules with links to our website, we include a comprehensive digital rider guide one month in advance that details our schedule, FAQs, rules, sponsor activations, and routes so riders feel prepared for the event well in advance.
Implementation & Best Practices
How do you segment your email lists? With three events globally, we segment emails based on our overall GRVL audience, as well as specific events. From there break down emails into our overall SBT GRVL p/b Wahoo database that includes broader communication and updates for all past and current participants, as well as specific event based content for current participants. Last year we had a more challenging Black Course so we communicated more heavily with those riders with videos, details and “what to expect” messaging prior to race day.
What’s one piece of advice you’d give to other event directors about effective event promotion? Create engaging emails and content that balances important information as well as promotion and refrain from sending emails unless you have something important to share. Emailing too frequently drives up unsubscribe rates and lack of communication creates confusion, so it’s important to find that balance with your audience. We have extremely high open rates that we attribute to creating content that our riders get excited about seeing in their inbox.
Just For Fun
What’s the signature element or tradition that makes your event uniquely yours? (The thing participants rave about year after year!) Aside from the format of a multi-day cycling festival for both racers, riders and their families, the Friday Night Costume HLL CLMB has become a fixture at our event showcasing the fun and capturing the positive energy and camaraderie of the weekend. The signature rider takeaway is the finisher hats where each participant receives a BOCO trucker hat color coordinated with their course distance.