Race directors often have to wear many hats and operate on limited budgets. You’re probably a manager, marketer, designer and logistician all rolled into one. When it comes to marketing, wouldn’t it be nice to have professional, creative graphic designs that will attract participants without stressing out your wallet? Well you can now.
Here are five easy online tools that will help you, the multi-tasking race director, take your graphic designs up a notch (for free!):
1. Timetoast - This site allows you to create compelling, interactive timelines and share them around the web. For example, you could create a timeline of your event – when it was founded, how many participants competed each year, any notable finishers, etc. To show you what we mean, here’s something a Timetoast user created about the History of Women in Sports:
2. Wordle - This “toy” allows you to generate word clouds from text that you provide. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them, put them on a poster, add them to your website, or save them to the Wordle gallery.
3. Visual.ly - Here’s a website that “empowers people to tell stories with data.” It provides really easy tools you can use to create professional infographics for free.
For example, below is an infographic a Visual.ly user created as a marathon running guide. As you can see, it’s easy to create professional, fun graphics, with no experience necessary! Choose from lots of free templates and create your own.
4. Prezi - Take your old slide decks up a level and “make your presentations zoom.” Using this free tool, you can create dynamic, professional presentations and present them online or offline. Check out Prezi’s intro video below:
5. eMarketing Center: This is a free resource for anyone to use! Check out articles on industry best practices, download graphic templates, watch webinars on demand, and more.
If you’re already an ACTIVE customer, you have free access to the expertise of our online services team. Click here to schedule a meeting with them to get a review of your website and online marketing tactics.
And here are 25 more ways to polish and promote your event for free:
Shannon Fiack
Shannon Fiack is Senior Content Manager for ACTIVENetwork and has been part of the marketing team for three years. Shannon previously worked as both an endurance event manager and a corporate event organizer. She also loves sports and is dedicated to providing race directors with useful information that helps get more participants involved in their events.
Follow Me: