Organisers may contact participants to share essential updates, confirm logistics, answer questions, and boost engagement—ensuring attendees feel informed, prepared, and excited before they arrive.
Typical examples of when to use this communication mechanism include:
Sending pre-race instructions
Sending critical event information i.e. regarding a change in time or course
Sending post-race information i.e. with information on where to find results, images etc..
It works on a “legitimate interest” basis, which means the email can still be sent to people even if they haven’t specifically signed up to receive your marketing communications.
This ensures your message reaches everyone you want to contact.
Where to Find “Contact Participants”
To access the participant messaging tool, navigate to:
Event > Sign-ups > Contact Participants
This section allows you to create, manage, and send communications directly to selected participants.
Composing Your Message
When creating a participant email, you will see three key areas:
1. Subject
Enter a clear and relevant subject line for your message. This should help participants quickly understand the purpose of the email.
2. Email Text
Use the Email Text field to write the main body of your message. This is the quickest way to compose content that will be sent to your selected audience.
3. Live Preview
A real-time preview is displayed on the right-hand side, allowing you to see how your content will appear within the email template.
⚠️ Important: Custom messages are limited to 1,000 characters.
If your message exceeds this limit, or if you need to include merge tags, you will need to edit the email template instead.
Selecting Your Audience
Choose the races (tickets) whose participants you would like to contact.
Be mindful when selecting all races, particularly if your event includes participants from future editions, as they may also be included in the communication.
Carefully reviewing your audience selection helps ensure your message reaches only the intended recipients.
Sending a Test Email
Before sending your message to participants, it is recommended to send a test email to yourself to review formatting and content.
To do this:
Click Send Test within the Email & Subject section.
Enter the email address you would like to send the test to.
Click Send Test to confirm.
Where possible, review the email on both desktop and mobile devices to ensure it displays correctly across screen sizes.
⚠️ Important: You must select a race category before sending a test email.
This uses random participant data to demonstrate how merge tags will appear.
Sending or Scheduling Your Message
Once your message is ready, you can either send it immediately or schedule it for a later date and time.
Scheduling a Message
To schedule your email:
Tick the Schedule the date/time this email will get sent checkbox.
Select your preferred send date and time.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Schedule now.
You may also choose to save the email as a draft for later editing.
Cancelling a Scheduled Send
If you need to cancel a scheduled email:
Navigate to Event Communications
Locate the scheduled email
Click Cancel send
This will prevent the email from being delivered at the scheduled time.
Advanced Settings
The Advanced Settings section provides additional controls for managing your communication.
Send Yourself the Email
Enable this option if you would like to receive a copy of the communication for your own records.
Audience Filters
You can further refine who receives the email using date-based entry filters:
Only send to participants who completed their entry on or after a specific date
Only send to participants who completed their entry on or before a specific date
These filters can be left blank if no restrictions are required.
Active and Sent Messages
On the communications homepage, you will see a list of your active drafts and previously sent campaigns.
Available actions include:
Edit & Send – Update an existing message and send when ready
Copy – Duplicate a previous communication for reuse
Delete – Permanently remove the campaign
Deleting a campaign cannot be undone.
Copying Previously Sent Emails
Copying a previous email is a fast and efficient way to create a similar communication.
To do this:
Open your historic event communications
Click Copy next to the email you would like to reuse
This creates a duplicate that can be edited and sent as needed.
⚠️ Note: Any audience filters applied to the original email will not be copied.
For further guidance, refer to:
More information on copying Event Communications
More information on copying Subscriber Communications
Viewing Email Statistics
After your email has been sent, you can review performance metrics to understand participant engagement.
Available statistics include:
Status
Date (the date the communication was created, not sent)
Participant Count – Total recipients
Delivered – Number of successfully delivered emails
Opens – Number of opens recorded
Clicks – Number of link clicks
Unsubscribes – Number of recipients who opted out
These insights can help you evaluate the effectiveness of your communications.
Editing the Email Template
The email template controls the final design and structure of the message participants receive in their inbox.
Eventrac allows you to fully customise this template to align with your branding and communication style.
Editing the template is recommended if you need to:
Add larger blocks of text
Insert images
Use merge tags
Customise the overall layout and design
To edit the template:
Click the green Use Default button to reset the template
Click the orange Edit Template button in the top-right corner to open the drag-and-drop email builder
This enhanced editor provides greater flexibility when designing participant communications.
For full guidance, refer to our Drag-and-Drop Email Builder article.
❗ Important: Changes made here may affect your existing template setup.
Be sure to understand how template edits apply before saving changes.
