Event Marketing for Bike Races: Pedals & Pints

Pedals and Pints is a mountain bike race and charity ride held at Big Truck Farm Brewery in Parkton, Maryland. The event raises money for Keep Punching, a nonprofit that supports people facing brain cancer and brain injuries. This post shares how event marketing for bike races helped promote Pedals and Pints through web design, digital marketing, and graphic design.​

Overview: Event Marketing for Bike Races

The main goal for Pedals and Pints was to raise money and awareness for Keep Punching while hosting a fun day on the trails. The event took place at Big Truck Farm Brewery, which helped attract riders who enjoy both cycling and a relaxed brewery setting.​

The target audience was young and middle aged men who enjoy cycling and mountain bike events, plus active families who like riding and running. To include more people, the event also offered kids races and a five kilometer run for those who wanted to support the cause without mountain biking experience.​

Goals and Event Challenges

The organizers wanted a solid turnout that matched expectations for a growing local event and helped build a base for future years. They also wanted to fill multiple parts of the event, including the main race, kids events, and the five kilometer run that supported Keep Punching.​

There were some real challenges. The event had a limited budget and a short timeline, so paid ads expensive promotions weren’t available. Pedals and Pints was also a young event, which meant limited history and awareness in the wider cycling community.​

Building the Event Website and SEO Strategy

To support event marketing for bike races, a dedicated WordPress event website was created for Pedals and Pints. The site included a homepage, about page, contact page, sponsors page, and a results page that was added after the event.​

The website was designed to guide visitors toward the online registration page on BikeReg. Buttons and links across the site pointed riders to register so that the path from discovery to sign up stayed clear and simple.​

Due to the time limit for launching the site, the build work was shared with a college friend, Cory Wilson. Cory assisted with the actual website development, helping to build out content in the WordPress site editor. The overall design, structure, and content strategy was built with my guidance and recommendations.​

Keywords focused on mountain bike race marketing in Maryland, local search around Parkton, and clear phrases related to charity cycling events. The site include keywords and phrases that would target local cycling communities in the Baltimore, Maryland region. Additionally, information on mountain biking and effective backlinks from cycling relations social media platforms help developed a strong reputation for the site in google search results.​

For readers interested in similar web projects, more details about web services appear on the web design page.​

Organic Social Media Marketing for Cycling Events

A large part of the digital marketing plan centered on organic social media marketing for events, instead of paid advertising. Posts and graphics were shared in cycling related Facebook groups and on Strava to reach riders already interested in mountain bike race marketing.​

Facebook group marketing for events helped spread the word among local and regional cycling communities. Many of the top traffic days came shortly after posting in specific groups, which showed how powerful organic reach can be when it is well targeted.​

Strava promotion for bike races also played a role, especially among riders who log their miles and look for new challenges. Posts on Strava pointed riders back to the event website and the registration page, keeping the funnel consistent.​

Graphic Design for Event Promotion

Graphic design for event promotion was another key part of this project. A custom Pedals and Pints logo was created to give the event a strong visual identity. The logo helped connect the ideas of riding bikes, enjoying a brewery setting, and supporting a serious cause through Keep Punching.​

Print flyers were designed to promote the event in bike shops, local businesses, and community spaces. These flyers were passed out at similar biking events as well as close sponsors to help with cross promotion. I was also tasked with creating racer number plates, giving riders a branded piece they wore on course and took home after the event.​

These pieces worked together with the digital campaign. The same colors, fonts, and styles appeared on the website, social graphics, and print pieces, which kept the brand consistent. Image based content also supported SEO by pairing alt text with relevant local images of the host location and participants in the previous years event.​

Sponsorships and Community Outreach

To bring more value to riders without raising costs, outreach was done to brands and local organizations. I reach out to LMNT ask them to donate hydration packets that were used as rider handouts and prizes for top finishers.

Cycling organizations also played an important role. Groups such as Baltimore Youth Cycling and Bike Maryland were contacted to help share the event. Bike Maryland even included Pedals and Pints in one of their newsletters, which increased exposure among riders and increase our sites reputation score with strong relevant backlinks.

This kind of community outreach supported the digital push and showed the relevance of a broad range marketing strategy to establish reputation and interest in an event.​

Results: Traffic, Engagement, and Turnout

The event website attracted 1,261 visitors during the limited time that it was live before and shortly after race day. Traffic peaked on key days that lined up with Facebook group posts and other organic social media pushes.

Most traffic came from Facebook, Google search, and the BikeReg listing, which showed that organic social media marketing for events and basic SEO both worked together. Visitors often clicked through to the BikeReg registration page, which showed that the website structure supported the main goal.​

The turnout for the event ended up similar to what the organizers expected for a young race with a limited budget. This confirmed that the event marketing plan created a solid base that can grow as Pedals and Pints becomes more established.​

Audience Insights and Lessons Learned

After the event, a full marketing audit was completed to understand what worked and what could improve. This included reviewing top performing Facebook groups, best days for traffic, and where visitors came from.

Questions sent through the website contact form gave helpful insight into what the audience needed before they felt ready to register. Many riders were confused by racing categories and divisions, which suggests that age and gender based registration may feel easier.

Riders also wanted clear details about the course, including distance, difficulty, and layout. This feedback highlighted the need for better maps, clearer descriptions, and maybe even photos or simple diagrams of course sections.​

Planning for Next Year’s Event Marketing

Future versions of Pedals and Pints will build on these lessons. One key change is to provide detailed course information with clear mapping and distance for each race or run. This will likely include better visuals and easier to understand descriptions on the website and social posts.

Registration will also be simplified by moving from skill based categories to an easier system based on age and gender. This approach should reduce confusion and help more riders choose the right group quickly when signing up through the website and BikeReg.​

These updates will make the user experience smoother and support stronger event marketing for bike races as the event grows each year.​

Services Provided and How I Can Help Market Cycling Events

For Pedals and Pints, services included web design, social media marketing, digital marketing, and graphic design. Support also included sponsorship outreach, community partnerships, and a post-event analytics report that captured traffic and engagement insights.

If you organize cycling events, brewery rides, or charity runs and want help with event marketing for bike races, this kind of full funnel support can be applied to your project. This includes website design, organic social media marketing for events, and graphic design for event promotion tailored to your goals.​

To see more projects like this, visit the web design page and explore recent work. If you are ready to talk about marketing cycling events, reach out and start planning your next race or charity ride today.