SQUADRUN was launched mid-2015 as a platform for supporting runners with detailed training plans specific to their ability, offering programmes to race goals. The intent was to offer low-cost, high-subscription support that benefited both athlete and event directors. It spread like wildfire across Australasia soon becoming the largest ‘coach led running community’ in the South Pacific region quickly becoming the affiliated training partner for the 3 largest trail races in the region (Tarawera Ultra-marathon, Tarawera Marathon and 50km, and Ultra-trail Australia). Many of the continents most popular races soon followed suit including Taupo Ultramarathon, Surf Coast Century, The Goat Tongariro, Old Ghost Ultra and the greatly anticipated Ring of Fire.
What has become apparent is this ‘low-cost, high-subscription’ offering 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 ‘sell’ a virtual product with little to no effort on your part. All we at SQUADRUN need is an email address we’ll take it from there.
- Events get better quality, better informed, better prepared athletes on the start line. In a race like Ultra-trail Australia, with a 22% DNF rate, SQUADRUN celebrated a 96.5% completion rate. And those are the ‘all abilities’ athletes across the entire spectrum of finishers. Only Barkley doesn’t want to see their entrants finish…
- 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 product-x or sponsor-y, 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 (typically group training and/or premium private 1:1 coaching). We’ll work with these coaches and promote their premium products too as this is not something we offer athletes.
- No cost and no risk and minimal effort. It costs you nothing to offer SQUADRUN coaching to entrants and if they are unhappy with the trial, the problem lies directly with SQUADRUN (0 issues to date).
- Affiliated events typically see a 10-16% uptake in the coaching offer meaning SQUADRUN will likely put more runners in the start line than any other running club, group or coached community. And you got the Trial-period.
“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 the zero effort virtual product that requires nothing more than a webpage 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 real coaching support with real coaches that are contactable at almost any time (scalability has its benefits!). SQUADRUN is a conduit for everyday people to get access to some of the best coaching available.
- A low-cost solution where similar support would typically cost around five times as much.
- Community support. With massive uptake the SQUADRUN online community is one of the most active and supportive places on the internet and with runners joining to train to event we soon see local ‘SQUADDIE’ meetups breaking out in cities all over the globe like Hong Kong and Singapore.
- Happy athletes! Check the reviews on our Facebook page or Google Business. Seriously – check them!
Benefits for SQUADRUN,
- The more athletes we have the bigger and more supportive the community gets.
- The more athletes we have the more leverage we have on sponsors to get better deals for our athletes.
“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 this is something your event could benefit from please reach out to us and we’ll walk you through a ‘near-effortless’ affiliation process.
Feel free to contact us any time should you wish to know more. – Kerry Suter (Director) / Ali Pottinger (Director)
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 trail 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 trail (automated email or weekly report
- You promote the coaching trail in relevant launch and early registration communication and social-media.
- We help you promote your event to our massive international community and encourage our athletes to attend.