Finding Sponsors Archives - Practical Sponsorship Ideas

How to attract sponsors with an irresistible opportunity

Nobody knows your audience as well as you do. It’s your super power to win the hearts and minds of sponsors, saving them from the clutches of ineffective marketing campaigns.

And your number 1 weapon to attract sponsors is the unique selling proposition (USP), “a factor or consideration presented by a seller as the reason that one product or service is different from and better than that of the competition.” Entrepreneur.com

In this article I’m going to show you how you can attract sponsors with a series of USPs that will make your sponsorship opportunity irresistible.

6 reasons why you should be sponsored

When done correctly, sponsorship is great for business. It provides laser targeted marketing and promotional opportunities that other channels simply can’t match.

Traditional marketing and advertising relies on interrupting people to get their attention. Consider TV advertising, website pop-up banners or telemarketing.

Sponsorship on the other hand is all about creating experiences, weaving the sponsor’s brand into an interactive and memorable exchange with the audience.

Kick the sponsorship letter writing habit – why they don’t work and what you should do instead

Sponsorship letter writing – why they don’t work

If you’re still sending an unqualified and unsolicited sponsorship letter to potential sponsors, please STOP!

Put yourself in the shoes of a marketing manager who receives hundreds of sponsorship letters every month. What’s the likely-hood they are going to take time out of their busy day to read a sponsorship letter from someone they don’t know, asking for some sort of investment into something they don’t care about?

You guessed it – zero, zip, zilch, nada.

3 reasons why you’re not getting sponsored and how to fix them

You’ve been pounding away for months now, cold calling potential sponsors only to get the brush off from a gatekeeper or sending out proposals that never get a response.

It’s becoming depressing and you’re starting to get upset, angry even, that no one can see your potential.

Don’t stress, you’re not alone. It’s the dilemma of many sponsorship seekers.

If this is happening to you then it’s time to stop, re-group and have a serious think about your approach to sponsorship.

The reasons why you’re not getting anywhere can be summarised by three simple words: Who, what and why.

When you come into contact with a potential sponsor they’re going to ask themselves these questions:

Who are you?
What’s in it for me?
Why should I choose you?

As a sponsorship seeker, it’s you job to provide the answers to these 3 questions in a way that makes you and your opportunity the logical choice.

Let’s look at each of these questions in detail and discuss ways you can improve your answers and get sponsored.

Unique insights to help you get sponsored – Part 2

Here’s part 2 of my interview with Frank Pudarich, owner of bespoke automotive marketing company Octane Garage.

In part 1 of the interview we covered:

Leveraging your sponsorship dollars
Marketing 101 – What to include in a sponsorship proposal
Delivering sponsorship value and managing expectations

Sponsorship objectives: business-to-business and business-to-consumer

Kym: There’s different types of businesses that use sponsorships for different types of reasons. For example if you were a manufacturer and distributor of batteries and battery-related products, what would your major objectives be, or what equates to a return on investment for you? Is it purely about more units being sold or are there other factors?

Frank: There’s other factors. It’s similar to when I was working in car care, most automotive industries are the same, they’re very similar in their customer base and their areas of distribution; so you’d have the automotive service and retail chains, and you’ve got the individual workshops, and you may have wholesalers.

Unique insights to help you get sponsored – Part 1

Today it’s my pleasure to introduce Frank Pudarich, owner of bespoke automotive marketing company Octane Garage.

Frank has a long history in the automotive industry, from managing Frank’s Paint and Panel, a hugely successful business which specialised in custom car restorations to consulting with Turtle Wax to build their brand in Australia. While working at Frank’s Paint and Panel, Frank graduated from university with a marketing degree and is also a licensed tradesman.

One of Frank’s roles as a marketing consultant is to review sponsorship proposals and determine how they could work with a businesses marketing programs. Having also been on the other side of the table, preparing sponsorship proposals for his own businesses, Frank is uniquely positioned to give us some great insights into the sponsorship process.

What’s the one thing sponsorship seekers have too little of (apart from money)?

It’s not passion and it’s not motivation.

It’s time; time to find and research sponsors, time to prepare sponsorship proposals and time to create unique marketing opportunities.

As a sponsorship seeker you can spend a heap of time finding and researching potential sponsors, creating spreadsheets, recording contact details and analysing the data.

I know from personal experience that sponsorship research can take days and days of your time. Research is a necessary step in the process of preparing and delivering targeted sponsorship proposals that have the best chance of success.

So what are the alternatives? Can we save time and reach better qualified leads?

Interview with a guru, a sponsorship guru

When someone’s twitter name is @SponsorshipGuru expectations are going to be high. And Julian Moore certainly lived up to my expectations.

Truth be told, I’m not really a fan of the term guru but in this case it’s an accurate description, Julian truly is “Australia’s no.1 nonprofit sponsorship specialist”.

A few months ago I was fortunate enough to attend one of Julian’s sponsorship breakfasts (organised by Strategic Membership Solutions, the consulting services company Julian and Belinda Moore own and operate), where I was able to corner him for a few minutes and fire off questions in rapid succession (something I’m known for).

I was even able to sneak my sponsorship proposal into the conversation. Julian obliged by flicking though it and pointing out a number areas that needed work and some thoughtful tips.

5 steps to finding that perfect sponsor

One of the key steps to securing sponsorship is doing your homework. You must get to know your potential sponsors and determine if you’re compatible with their target audience(s) and marketing objectives.

One of the worst things you can do is send an unsolicited, untargeted, irrelevant proposal to a potential sponsor. You’ll get absolutely nowhere and will waste your time and theirs.

Time spent doing your research now will pay you back 10 fold in the long run.

Before you begin the process of finding that perfect sponsor, I assume that you have a good understanding of your target audience – those people who are interested in what you do. Be it visitors to an event, members / fans of a sporting association or specific audience demographic etc.

The process:

Step 1 – Create a wish list of sponsors
Step 2 – Research each of the sponsors
Step 3 – Record the details in the Sponsor Research Template
Step 4 – Reality check using the Sponsor Compatibility Matrix…how compatible are you really?
Step 5 – Pick up the phone and contact your hot list of sponsors

Sponsorship opportunities are all around you…

Sometimes you’ve just got to stop what you’re doing, sit back and take stock…literally. If you take the time to really look you could spot sponsorship opportunities all around you.

At the moment I’m sitting here in my lounge room surrounded by brands and objects and things that I like. If you take the time to understand what motivates you to select one brand over other then you’re 1 step closer to understanding what you have to offer a potential sponsor.

Take a quick inventory of what you can see…

For me, I’m wearing my Tendence watch. I love this watch, though it’s a bit bigger than I imagined. One of the disadvantages of buying online – no frame of reference.