SQUADRUN was launched in New Zealand in mid-2015 as a platform for supporting runners with a detailed training plan specific to their ability. The intent was to offer low-cost, high-subscription support that benefits both athlete and event director. It spread like wildfire and quickly became the largest ‘coach led running community’ in the South Pacific region as well as the affiliated training partner for the 3 largest trail races in the region (Tarawera Ultra-marathon, Tarawera Marathon and 50km, and Ultra-Trail Australia).
What became apparent is this: a low-cost, high-subscription option was an ‘everyone wins‘ scenario.
Benefits for Events/Event Directors:
- You finally get a cut of coaching! Straight-up cash sponsorship, referral dollars. Add “Train with SQUADRUN trial” to your event store and keep every dollar. All we need is an email address and SQUADRUN will take it from there.
- Events get better quality, better informed, better prepared athletes on the start line. For example, Ultra-Trail Australia has a 22% DNF rate yet SQUADRUN athletes celebrated a 96.5% completion rate. And those are the ‘all abilities’ athletes across the entire spectrum of finishers.
- Events show goodwill to entrants with an integrated coaching solution.
- Coaching doesn’t come at the cost of any other affiliated product or sponsor. In fact, SQUADRUN becomes a further mechanism to promote sponsors. SQUADRUN athletes are
loyal followers and if our coaches recommend a product, sponsor or service, the engagement and uptake is typically higher than any other advertising platform. If an event already has an established coach there is no conflict of interest as they offer a completely different product. - No cost, no risk and minimal effort. It costs you nothing to offer SQUADRUN coaching to entrants during the registration process. If customers are unhappy with the trial, the problem lies directly with SQUADRUN (of note, we’ve had zero issues to date).
- Affiliated events typically see a 10-16% uptake in the coaching offer, meaning SQUADRUN will likely put more runners on the start line than any other running club, group or coached community. You keep $39 of the trial period fee. To clarify, a 3 week coaching trial is $49, your event receives $39 per athlete of this $49 registration. What’s 15% of your start-line multiplied by $39?
- “SQUADRUN is the best thing I’ve ever sold in my store” – Ultra-Trail Australia Event Director Tom Landon-Smith. SQUADRUN will literally be the easiest up-sell you could imagine. If you have event shirts you have to pay a graphic designer, a manufacturer, freight, customs/duty/tax etc., then you need to advertise and sell the shirt, hold the stock somewhere, ship them, and deal with the headache of left-overs and spare sizes. For what margin? Coaching is a zero effort virtual product that requires nothing more than a link and a shopping cart icon. So easy!
Benefits for Athletes:
- Better prepared, better informed athletes that are almost certain to complete their event and crush their target times.
- Actual coaching support with human experts that are contactable at almost any time (scalability has its benefits!). SQUADRUN is a conduit for everyday people to get to access to some of the best coaching available.
- A low-cost option for high quality programs, comparable training typically costs approximately five times as much.
- Community support! The SQUADRUN social media community is one of the most active and supportive places on the internet with runners joining to train all over the globe!
Coach Kerry pacing Sage Canaday
Benefits for SQUADRUN:
- The more athletes we have, the bigger our community gets and the more support we can offer on the roads and off!
- The more athletes we have the more leverage we have with sponsors to get better deals for our clients.
“We are passionate about what we do, we love sharing people’s training and racing journeys and celebrating their success. Our business was born out of a desire to help people and that’s where our values will always remain.” – Ali Pottinger
If you think your event could benefit from this service join the SQUAD now!
Contact us any time for additional information:
Kerry Suter / Ali Pottinger / Michael Wardian
How to start making money from training referrals:
If you believe your event will attract a good number of runners and your race is of a distance or complexity that constitutes training for, SQUADRUN would likely be a great fit. All you need to do is let us know!
- We provide you with a page about training with SQUADRUN for your event that you put on your website (example)
- We provide you with logos and branding to put on the event homepage/landing page or event store
- You add an item to your event shop or integrate the coaching trial in the athlete registration process, similar to the way you might offer a shirt or other merchandise (example).
- You notify us when someone purchases the training trial (automated email or weekly report)
- You promote the coaching trial in relevant launch and early registration communication and social media