Top 10 Tips for Event Sponsorship

31 July 2019

First give some thought as to whether your events can become inventory in a larger sponsorship strategy, but if for whatever reason it makes sense to seek sponsorship for your event as a one-off, here are my top tips for finding sponsorship for your event.

Tip 1 – Build a List of Potential Sponsors

Which businesses would benefit from sponsoring your event? The most likely sponsors will be businesses that see your audience as similar to theirs, and therefore of benefit to them. This means you’ll also need to know the demographics and psychographics of your event attendees in order to match them carefully to your target event sponsors.

Tip 2 – Do the Research on Potential Sponsors 

It’s important to understand your potential sponsors’ sales and marketing goals as well as any challenges they’re currently facing. It will also be helpful to know what events they’ve supported in the past, and what their product or service offering is to ensure it fits well with your target audience.

Tip 3 – Review from a Sponsor Perspective

What is your sponsorship inventory? A sponsor wants to know what the benefits are to them in sponsoring your event, so look at your proposal from their eyes and ensure you’re offering a mutually beneficial partnership. Even ask yourself what you would want if you were them to make sure you’re delivering them something of value.

Tip 4 – Know Previous Data

Have a very clear understanding of the demographics of your attendees from previous events so you can present this clearly and concisely. A potential sponsor will want to know exactly who attended your previous events and how that audience is of benefit to them.

Tip 5 – Have an Event Concept

It’s imperative to have a well-defined concept for the event and provide detail on how the concept will be further developed. Ideally, illustrating your concept through collateral such as your event’s marketing materials will paint a picture for event sponsors and allow them to get a look and feel for what you’re asking them to invest in.

Tip 6 – Have an Event Marketing Strategy

Present a detailed marketing strategy to potential sponsors including all activities you will be undertaking to support the event, from advertising and promotions, to eDM marketing and social media. This is also a good time to ask potential sponsors about aligning with their own marketing strategy or calendar of events.

Tip 7 – Build Partnerships

Sponsorship agreements are all about win-win situations and mutually beneficial outcomes so build relationships along the way.  Showing that you have the interests of your sponsors at heart will be extremely helpful with your sponsorship drive not just for this event, but others going forward. By building relationships and trust, you’ll establish valuable partnerships.

Tip 8 – Follow-Up your Pitch

Don’t just sit back and wait after your proposal pitch. It’s a good idea at the end of your pitch to let your potential sponsors know that you will be following them up after the meeting, and what that process will look like.  If you said you will email them 2 weeks later, make sure you stick exactly to that. It will show you work collaboratively and can follow a plan, but also value their time and money.

Tip 9 –  Treat Your Sponsors at the Event

Congratulations, you secured a sponsor! But the job isn’t done once the event rolls around, as you need to look after sponsors at the event itself. If possible, assign a team member or volunteer to sponsors during the event so they have someone on hand to make them feel important and to deliver what was promised within your agreement.  After all, their dollars allowed the event to take place.

Tip 10 – After the Event

A sponsor will want to know what their return on investment is for sponsoring the event so engage them in the post-event evaluation. Make sure you have key statistics from your marketing and advertising endeavours, as well as attendance figures and audience demographics. And don’t forget to ask your sponsors for their feedback – what they liked, or didn’t like, and what could be improved. And don’t forget to say thank you!

Follow these Top 10 Tips to help you attract event sponsors for your next event and let us know how you go.

By Brand Ambassadors

CLIENTS