"Selling" an event

[telstarbox]

Some events like London Wales London or the Cam Audax series have a nicely seductive website with maps, photos, descriptions of the terrain and so on. Or the club/CTC will set up a Facebook event page which does a similar job.

At the other end of the scale there are some Perms with a description extending to "200km ride from Town X with two controls".

Do many people sign up for the latter category when there's so little to go on?

[D.A.L.E.]

Real G's move in silence like lasagne.

[Feanor]

Yes, but not on account of the web presence.
They will generally know where it goes already.

[Martin]

There is enough selling potential on the AUK website IMHO (routes, endless textual blurb if you want although less is more with some), ride logo, map, gpx files) without needing to go to another 3rd party website.

The other websites seem mainly for non AUK's, the rest of us usually use aukweb as a first port of call.

But yes some organisers do not sell their events well

[grams]

I've entered events with essentially no knowledge of the route*. Not perms though.

(* although you can usually google someone's old track if it's run before)

[Jaded]

The ones with Facebook pages just want to know which way you vote.

[mattc]

SO: who's got their Bingo card ready??

[Exit Stage Left]

The aim of advertising is to sell more units, the same units at a higher price, or to increase the satisfaction of those who buy, or have bought.

Curiously, part of the satisfaction of Audax is the way it repays research. So the experienced tend to be attracted by the obscure, and the difficult. The entry fees are very low by sportive standards, so they probably aren't a factor to newcomers. Older people on fixed incomes may notice them more.

[Somnolent]

There is enough selling potential on the AUK website IMHO (routes, endless textual blurb if you want although less is more with some), ride logo, map, gpx files) without needing to go to another 3rd party website.
.....
But yes some organisers do not sell their events well

I'm inclined to agree.... but others have different definitions of 'enough'.
Drifting slightly off-topic, a little while ago I set out to demonstrate that, for perms, there was a strong correlation (if not a causal link) between the numbers of entrants and the amount of information provided on, or linked from, the event page on the AUK web site.    To my surprise there was no such correlation.

[Whitedown Man]

Did you find any other correlations? At a guess, Perms based on familiar / popular Cals might have a head start, and/or Perms by longstanding and/or well-known Orgs.

[citoyen]

There is enough selling potential on the AUK website IMHO

Up to a point. The AUK online calendar works well as a listings service and as the mechanism for processing entries, but doesn't allow for much in the way of branding (which matters in 2018), and if you consider something like the TINAT events, each of the many variations has its own individual page, which isn't much help to anyone trying to choose which one to enter.

The way the information is presented on the TINAT website (http://tinat.cymru/) makes much more sense as an overview, and sells the concept much more elegantly.

In any case, it doesn't really matter since it's not an either/or choice. No such thing as too much information, in my book (though I've often entered events without knowing any details about the route).

[Bairn Again]

AUK website has enough information for me in the vast majority of instances.  I might try and track down a detailed route elsewhere if there isn't one on the calendar page, but other than that I cant think what else Id want to know.  I value the fact that I just need to go to a single source (unlike - for example - time trials where some I ride are via the British Cycling website and others via CTT). 

Some audaxes may have to work harder than others at attracting entrants (in order to break even if nothing else) especially if there are other events on that might attract the same kind of rider and in that case a bit of a sales pitch is justified.  Others can stay relatively low key and may do so deliberately if they are trying and avoid being over subscribed (my own West Highlands 1000 and Alex's Snow Roads spring to mind). 

I experience this each and every day in my working life on matters relating to personal finance, but I see it in audax too that there are (to me anyway) a surprisingly large number of folk out there who never seem to have quite enough information to make a decision.