You have an event, a podcast, a campaign, or something else that attracts an audience. Your programming captures the eyes and ears of a target market, and your brand keeps them interested. Now, you are looking for more ways to monetize it! Have you thought about sponsorship? If there is another company out there that wants to reach your audience, too, this just may be an opportunity for them to sponsor you so they can get in front of the community you have built. If you want to put your best foot forward with those prospective sponsors, there are a few things you will need. Let’s talk about three must-have tools for soliciting sponsors.
When I work with clients on sponsorship development, I explain that sponsorship acquisition actually happens in two phases. The first is what I call the pre-work. This is all the deliverables that need to be prepared before you begin to do any outreach. The second part is the outreach itself.
If you have not done the pre-work, chances are that you will not get much traction with the bigger companies. Companies may be evaluating hundreds of solicitations a year, and they are comparing yours against all the others they receive to find the best fit with their objectives and their budget.
Companies may be evaluating hundreds of solicitations a year, and they are comparing yours against all the others they receive to find the best fit with their objectives and their budget. #sponsorship #sponsorshipmarketing Share on XWhen you give them up front what they need to evaluate your pitch, there is a much stronger chance that they will give you a good look. So, what do you need to prepare to increase your chances of getting sponsors?
- Sponsorship deck. When I first started approaching sponsors back in 2013, I noticed many of the corporate contacts ask me for a “sponsorship deck.” Not knowing what that meant, I could see that I needed to get up to speed on it right away. A sponsorship deck is a brochure – often 10-20 pages – that can be delivered by email as a PDF. It mixes eye catching visuals, photos, color, or graphics that represent your brand with the information they need to evaluate your proposal. Rather than clicking through multiple pages of your website, sifting through information they don’t need, you will get more people to take action if you compile all the information they need in one place. That place being the sponsorship deck. So, what kind of information do they want in this document?
- Cover page
- Your mission and values
- Your services, products, and programs
- Demographics of your audience. They have a target market, and they need to see if that matches your target market
- Engagement statistics of your audience. Show them follower or attendee numbers, list sizes, percentages, and historical data that will make it clear how many people they can reach through you and how engaged those people are. You can find ways to represent this data to reflect best on you, such as emphasizing the level of engagement if you feel you have a small audience
- Sponsorship levels / packages
- About the team
- Contact information
Although there could be more information in a sponsorship deck, and you are welcome to add it if it shines a positive light and gives the prospect more context on what you do, these are the basics.
- Pitch email. When you reach out to a prospect for the first time, you will want a compelling pitch email that synthesizes the most impressive information from your sponsorship deck. Capture their attention with what your project is, a noteworthy statistic to show them your reach, any VIPs involved or solid details of an event to ground them in the shape of your plans. Be up front in why you thought to approach them specifically. Tell them that you want to collaborate with them. Let them know that you want to work with them as a sponsor and attach the sponsorship deck, but also make it clear that you want to tailor the relationship to their needs. Then, be prepared with at least 4-5 follow-up emails to continue getting that original email in front of them periodically. Best practice: Use those emails to give them updates on new confirmed details for your event, new popular podcast episodes that may be of interest, or any other new details of your project so they are constantly hearing the latest details of what you have planned.
- Outreach list. Spend time looking up companies that tend to sponsor things like what you are doing or that sponsor different types of projects that reach the same target market. Research the specific individuals from their team who may be responsible for sponsorship. This could include community managers, sponsorship managers, employee resource groups, marketing personnel, and those are just a few of the roles that typically oversee sponsorship budget. Make a lengthy list to start. If you can, make it at least 50-100 contacts long. Once you have your list, you can begin emailing them one by one. Carve out a half day or a day to do this so you know your follow ups can all be executed on consistent timelines in the future, as well.
Of course, there is an art to what happens once you begin your outreach, but being prepared with the materials you will need is an important starting point. Now you can get ready to acquire sponsors and not worry that you will have to drop everything to start pulling together deliverables retroactively as your prospects ask for them.
The more prepared you are, the more up front you are with the materials you prepared, the more likely a sponsor prospect will respond to you with interest. So, be sure to take the time to get your ducks in a row. One sponsor coming in will make it all feel worthwhile!