Unlock the Power of Digital Signature Licitness for Your Sponsorship Proposal

How to eSign a document: digital signature licitness for Sponsorship Proposal

you're running an event a festival a conference a fundraising event big event small event and you're looking for sponsorship I know what you're thinking all I have to do is Senate a sponsorship package and money will just come flooding into my bank account well you've either tried that and found it didn't work or you're about to try that and this video is going to save you months of work and disappointment in today's video we're gonna talk all things event sponsorship check it out [Music] hi there my name's Chris Bayliss president and CEO of the sponsorship collective and before we dive in make sure you hit the subscribe button and click the bell icon to get updates every time we send out a video before we can talk about how to get event sponsorship we need to talk about why companies sponsor events in the first place well I've got good news for you the reason companies sponsor events is because they want to put their logos on a sign with the word gold silver or bronze above it unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth and if that is your plan for seeking event sponsorship or worse yet you've been practicing sponsorship in this way you're in for a big surprise why do companies sponsor events for the same reason companies do anything more customers profit keeping current customers finding staff building their brand if all a company wanted was to get their logo in front of people they would just buy ad space or do some internet marketing they wouldn't bother with events events are an opportunity to engage niche audiences in specific ways that the audience loves and that connects them to the sponsor in meaningful ways in other words your job as the event sponsorship sales person is to build opportunities sponsors love and that your audience loves that brings them both together in a way that adds value if a company is looking to sample new product sure you could just put the samples out on a table and hope people pick them up or you could come up with new unique interesting ways to incent people to try the sample to take the sample and in that way you're proving to your sponsor that you're better than just a direct mail campaign or handing out free product on a street corner event sponsorship is an opportunity for you to take a captive niche audience and a sponsor and bring them together so what type of sponsors exist what kind of sponsorship opportunities exist for events cash right you want cash then you'll have cash you'll put their logo on a sign and away they go well okay some people do that but you're missing out on a really significant opportunity if that's all you're doing at your events cash sponsors of course are part of sponsorship and really that huge part of sponsorship but how you activate that sponsorship how you leverage that sponsorship will determine how much cash you can get so the first type of sponsor at an event is the experiential sponsor the company wants to bring an experience or an opportunity to your audience not just put a logo on something but actually add value to your attendees make them feel better have a better time make them feel more engaged give them more of what they want and overcome things that they don't want at your event you can have promotional partners that will help you target and market to your niche audience your target customer you have media sponsors that can help you get your message that helped you build your brand but also help you build the brand of your cash sponsors driving up the value of your event overall and of course you have in-kind sponsors right or contra those companies that give you free stuff that you then use to offset expenses or that you give to your audience to help them a better time no matter what type of sponsorship you're looking for event sponsorship follows really the same process it's fairly formulaic but it's not easy and that's we're gonna talk about next so if you are running an event you have to know your audience in great detail not just how many people come but you really should have at least 30 data points on your audience demographic of course psychographic absolutely preferred brands without question coming purchases most certainly if it's a business-to-business event or a conference you also want to know level of decision making Authority you want titles you want industries and you want to know whether or not you can even influence or contribute to a buying decision if you are running an event and you don't have audiences that you are missing a major opportunity for sponsorship but also a major opportunity to improve your event the more you know about your audience and what they're after the more you can offer them to make sure they come back year after year once you know who your audience is you can do the next three things which are critical to sponsorship sales prospecting valuation and building activations those experiential opportunities that make your audience happy and make sure they come back again and again how does audience data help you prospect well once you know exactly who your audience is what kind of products they want to purchase what kind of brands they prefer it points you to exactly the companies you should be talking to but then you can also look at what companies consider your target market your audience their ideal customer so your audience may not have identified that they plan to buy a particular type of car but you're able to do some market research to determine which companies in fact prioritize your audience once you know who your audience is prospecting is a breeze the next step in building your sponsorship opportunities knowing how much to charge otherwise known as valuation I'll link below in the show notes to a blog post and a video all about valuation we're not going to cover it in a detail here but you must know what your opportunities are you cannot sell sponsorship proof return on investment and negotiate with your sponsors without an understanding of the fair market value and so we have a number of resources that can take you through that process but your value is highly dependent on your audience without knowing who your audience is you can't know what the market value of your assets are and third in order to build activations in order to build experiences for your audience that you can sell at a premium to sponsors you have to know who they are what they want the inconvenience is you can help them overcome and then you build things specifically to address their concerns believe me no audience member no event attendee said I wish there were more signs with logos on them that is not what your audience is after no one sat down to a gala or showed up at a at a race and said boy I wish there were at least 10 more speeches before we got to enjoy our dinner before the event actually began these things do not add value to your audience and the reason you're struggling to come up with ideas to make your event better ideas to sell the sponsors that actually add value versus just another eblasts because you don't know who your audience is you're not asking the right questions once you know who your audience is once you've built activations just for your audience once you've done your valuation and once you've done your prospect research then and only then can you move to building a sponsorship proposal and reaching out to your prospects now I know most people start with the sponsorship package and they send it out to called prospects in hopes that money will come in and it doesn't so instead turn your sponsorship process upside down start with your audience then determine what value they have in the marketplace develop your experience your customized activations for your audience and build a prospect pipeline of companies who you know prioritize your audience customers then you can move to building your sponsorship proposal I'll link to a video all about the sponsorship package below but very quickly I will share a tip with you when you're building a sponsorship package no less than 50% of that package should focus on audience data it's not about gold silver bronze grids it's not about making the sale to a prospect you've never spoken to it's about presenting your audience in a way that marketers find appealing the most important time frame in event sponsorship is the two-week window immediately following your event after your event is the most important time frame for you and your sponsors why because within two weeks of your event ending you're going to provide your sponsors with a fulfillment report proving that you delivered everything you said you would showing the value of the things you promised them the value of the things you actually gave them and proving return on investment when you deliver your fulfillment report you're going to invite feedback from your prospect from your sponsor they're gonna ask them how you could do better and then you're going to ask them the most important question how can I ensure that you will be back next year what do I have to do right now to make this your number one priority your top priority for your next year's marketing plans I've been using this approach for years and it always puts me in a position within two weeks of my event ending to know exactly how many sponsors I have coming back next year so within a couple of weeks I already know how much work I have ahead of me to bring in new sponsors if any so when it comes to event sponsorship we need to change our mindset events are not just another place to put logos events are important in the sponsorship space because it brings in a niche audience it brings in an audience that you can create opportunities for and then you can reach out to sponsors and create unique customized opportunities don't let yourself fall under the trap of gold silver bronze logo placement at your events and maybe putting an insert in the in the bag of free stuff you give away to everybody really challenge yourself to think creatively to reach out to your prospects and build customized opportunities and remember the sponsorship proposal doesn't make the sale you do good luck out there [Music]