Our goal with Even Strokes was to grow quickly and the program has helped us with that, we needed to get Even Strokes brand and name out there on a budget and be different to everyone else. Sponsorship for any business is all about ROI (return on investment) no matter what way you look at it, in order to support you have to get a return in some form of currency, our currency was exposure.

So initially we picked 20 riders to work with in 2020, then at the start of 2021 we chose a further 15 riders to join the program. The criteria was pretty simple, social media would be our number one factor with reach, engagement, followers and sentiment (what the content was like) as those metrics are key. It’s important that with any social media our riders are positive, respectful, kind and conduct themselves well as they are an extension of our business and it’s values.

Firstly this Race Program was open to anyone in the UK, we were not worried about what clubs, what results and how long you had been riding, so we didn’t really put any barriers in the way of people applying and so far we have had over 1100 emails applying since July 2020.

Let's talk about our number one must have, social media. We needed the riders and families on the Race Program to work as hard on social media as they do maintaining and riding the bikes, each rider we sponsor is expected to support our own Even Strokes social media, sharing our content, liking our posts and engaging with us. This for us is where the value is, we want to grow a community of people who can help market our business, because the more we are marketed the more we can put into the program. 

So there you have it! Simple hey? That’s how important social media is at all levels right now and if you are reading this and wondering how you get on our program, well now you know, social media is our currency. 

We are now actively monitoring all our riders who are on the program to make sure they are keeping up their end of the deal with their social media commitments, we will even be producing a leader table and some awards for our riders that do well with social media. Our goal is to make sure we have the best social media influencers out there representing our business.

How do I get on a chance to show Even Strokes what I can do?

Simple. Tag us in your stories, tag us in your posts, first that’s a great way of alerting us to you, trust us, we analyse everything so we will see you. Engage with us on posts, push our business online, these are sure fire ways of getting our attention, right now as I write this we have two customers who have purchased kit from us, tagging us in everything and recommending the business to others, these are potential ambassadors of the business and we are closely monitoring them. They are a huge value to us.

Naturally some of our riders will lose interest, take a break or just want a different direction as they grow, some will go on to other teams and hopefully show a value to other people, that’s just the way the world works and business. Some riders may stop riding, it happens. So when these spaces come up we will be looking for people to fill them.

Make yourself valuable to us!

As you have just read, it’s not difficult to get sponsored, you just need to put the hard work in on social media, let's face it you are probably on social media a few hours of the day, why not make it work for you and lower the cost of your favourite sport.

Future openings?

At the moment we are working with our 35 riders and trying to get the best out of them. They are learning on and off the track and benefiting from our private ride days with our riders and we are trying to help them become better riders, have more fun on the bike and grow with our business. We have one dedicated member of staff that supports all the parents and the riders, so at the moment we are learning as much as the riders. But we hope that in 2022 we can extend the program by another 15 to make 50 youth riders in the UK.

So our advice for any riders is to tag, push, engage with Even Strokes, you never know what will happen...