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Audi Club of North America Northwest Chapter (ACNW) is a long-time customer of ours.  They first started using our system back in 2004 and John Ewald has worked with us every step of the way.  John has been with ACNW since 1995 when it was Quattro Club USA.  He now serves as the Registrar, an Instructor and Committee Member.  He’s a long-time track day enthusiast and member of several different car clubs. Our MotorsportReg.com team and John have worked closely together and we consider him one of our biggest advocates.  He really thinks about how our software can complement the ACNW process (especially for driver schools) and how it can be better. We’ve implemented many of his suggestions over the years.  Recently we chatted with John about his club and the secrets to their success.

There's a party going on at MotorsportReg Headquarters today. Hattie, our Director of HR is turning 1! We're celebrating with Milk Bones, belly rubs and long games of Chuckit!

Did you know that when an attendee creates an account on MotorsportReg.com, they’re given the chance to opt-in to a few mailing lists? Our largest list, the Monthly Calendar listings, promotes your events to thousands of subscribers throughout North America. We’ve just added three new lists that we’re sure you’re gonna love! Here’s a quick recap of all of them:

In our last blog post, we highlighted the 10 email marketing tips every event organizer should know. And if you read it, you learned that the single most impactful thing in your email campaign is the subject line. So let’s take a deeper dive into subject lines, shall we? 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:

Most of our customers are volunteer-based organization that have zero-to-no budget for promoting their motorsport events. That’s where email marketing comes in. Our email blaster tool is a core component of our registration management platform and is a quick and easy way to get the word out. There are also a handful of email marketing service providers out there which allow you to run more sophisticated campaigns. Our favorite is MailChimp.

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.

We received this lovely letter from one of our long-time customers Sherry Grantz from SCCA San Francisco Region. We're sharing it in hopes it will inspire you to turn away from the dark side...

This month we’re highlighting Amy Smith from the Sports Car Club of America’s (“SCCA”) Atlanta Region Solo program.  Amy has been autocrossing since 2006 and took over the region’s Registrar duties in 2008. But the bulk of her day is spent surrounded by kindergarteners- she’s been teaching for 18 years!  And with the little time she has left over, she enjoys gardening, hanging out with her family and travelling.  We recently caught up with her to learn the secrets to running a successful program.

You may not know this, but Cinco de Mayo is one of our favorite holidays here at MotorsportReg.com.  Maybe it’s because we’re based in California which has a huge Mexican influence?  Or maybe it’s because Founder Brian Ghidinelli ate Mexican food to fuel many a late night building new MSR features?  Actually, if he had his way, he’d fuel most days of the week with Mexican food.  In either case, we love cinco de mayo and are dedicating this blog to Mexico!

Last November we had the privilege of attending the Formula 1 US Grand Prix at MotorsportReg.com customer Circuit of the Americas.  The facility was amazing, the racing was phenomenal and the fans from around the world were incredible.  Any guesses on which nation’s fans were the loudest?  Mexico!  In 2011 Sergio Perez became only the fifth Mexican to compete in Formula 1 and the first since 1981.  The Mexican fans came out in droves to support “Checo” for the race at COTA.   Everywhere you looked the Mexican flag was flying.  And you knew when Perez was driving by because you could hear the Mexican fans cheering over the sound of the cars.  And that’s no easy feat!  Check out this video we took from Turn 3 during a practice session and you’ll see what we mean.  Sergio Perez finished 11^th in that race, just out of the points, but was signed by McLaren Mercedes this year where he hopes to pick up a few more podiums.

So raise your margarita glasses in celebration with our south of the border neighbors. Salud!

Tired of writing those refund checks?  How about dealing with all of the checks and cash you get at your event?  We can think of much better things to do than standing in line at the bank!  That’s why we developed deferred payment processing and why it’s one of the most powerful features on MotorsportReg.com.

Deferred payment processing allows you to collect payment information at the time of registration but not charge the account until a later date.  It’s similar to making a hotel reservation.  The attendee puts their card on file and “reserves” a spot at your event.  And at the time of your choosing, you charge the card.  You can charge the card when confirming a registration, after your cancel cutoff date, the day of the event or even the day after the event. You have 100% control. This feature is part of our Premium Plan.

It is especially attractive to organizations who offer liberal refund policies like programs where any driver who doesn't turn a wheel is entitled to a full refund.  With deferred payment processing, you simply don't charge their account, eliminating the need to process refunds.

Attendees love this feature too!  For them, there’s no penalty for signing up for an event (especially if they have cash flow concerns).  And based on our statistics, on average, attendees sign up 7 days earlier for events offering deferred payment processing than not.

So what are you waiting for?  Stop standing in line at the bank and start using deferred payment processing!