A runner spots your event while scrolling on their phone. They like the look of it, tap Enter - and what happens next decides whether they finish signing up or give up.

Mobile comes first
Most participants now discover and enter events entirely on their phone - via Instagram, a club WhatsApp group, or a search result. Forms must be easy to read, buttons obvious, pages quick to load, payment straightforward. Try entering your own event from your phone, as a first-time entrant would. It's often revealing.

Cut every unnecessary step
Creating an account, verifying an email, extra pages, repeated data entry - each adds friction at exactly the wrong moment. Keep the information you genuinely need to run the event safely; if something can be collected later, it shouldn't stand between the runner and their entry.

Make payment effortless
Digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay) beat typing in card details, and offering recognisable payment methods builds trust as well as speed.

Ask for what you need, not what's merely useful
Forms have a habit of growing as organisers add "nice to know" fields. Entrants are happy to answer questions with an obvious purpose (emergency contacts, age category); anything less relevant just slows things down on a phone.

Answer the big questions upfront
Location, date, distance, what's included, what happens if plans change, whether the organiser is credible - the clearer your event page covers these, the less chance someone wanders off to search and doesn't come back.

Speed is the benchmark
Entrants don't judge your process against other entry platforms - they judge it against every smooth online transaction they've had that week, full stop.

The best entry journeys are: clear, quick, mobile-friendly, sensibly short, backed by familiar payment options, and reassuring throughout.

Worth checking today
Enter your own event from your phone. Count the screens. Count the questions. Check whether the key information is immediately visible. Then time how long it takes from deciding to enter to getting your confirmation. Often the fix isn't a new feature - it's removing the small snags that give someone a reason to stop.

09 September 2026