Event Sponsorship: Win Sponsors and Market your Event

Finding sponsorships for your event is a great opportunity to generate revenue and host outstanding events. Sponsors can provide your event with necessary funds and resources, and can also add credibility to the event. While the task of securing sponsorships can seem daunting at first, gaining a better understanding of the process will make the task much simpler. In this article, we’ll break down the steps to finding and securing sponsorship and marketing these sponsors at your event for a mutually beneficial partnership. Additionally, we’ll discuss sponsorships for digital events, which offer unique sponsorship and monetization opportunities.

Finding Sponsors for Your Event

Before approaching potential sponsors, organizers should have a clear understanding of what the event has to offer. First, it’s important to understand your event’s unique selling points. What are the unique aspects of your event that would appeal to potential sponsors? Compile key metrics such as expected attendee numbers, target audience, reach, media coverage, and event brand.

Next, begin to research potential sponsors to reach out to. Consider companies and organizations that are in industries relevant to your event. Look for businesses that have sponsored similar events in the past. Industry publications, business directories, and online tools like LinkedIn are helpful resources for your search.

Your next step is to create a sponsorship proposal to send to your potential sponsors. Your proposal should include a brief event overview, audience details, sponsorship benefits, and sponsorship tiers. Sponsorship benefits include brand exposure, speaking opportunities, logo placement, and media coverage. Including various sponsorship tiers in your pitch helps you appeal to varying budgets and it allows you to offer different benefits depending on their interests.

Once you’ve prepared your pitch, reach out to potential sponsors. Contact potential sponsors through personalized emails, phone calls, or meetings. Pay attention to their needs and goalsto see how your event can help them to grow their brand. In your messages, highlight how the sponsorship would benefit them and follow up consistently and respectfully.

Marketing Your Sponsors

Once you’ve secured your event partnerships, the next task is implementing and marketing the sponsorships. It’s critical that your sponsors are satisfied, so take care to integrate the sponsorships into your event and ensure brand visibility. We’ll discuss some key tips for marketing and ideas for sponsorship opportunities.

Pre-Event Marketing

Before the event, there are plenty of marketing opportunities. For example, you can feature sponsor logos and profiles on your event website and social media channels. Create posts highlighting your sponsor’s contributions and the benefits they bring to your attendees.

E-Mail-Marketing is another way to increase your sponsor’s visibility. Include sponsor information in your email campaigns, displaying their logos, products, and services in your emails. Press releases are another option if they apply to your event. Announce your sponsors in a press release, highlighting their contributions to the event.

Digital Marketing Opportunities:

Beyond on-site marketing, online and hybrid events offer a wide range of sponsorship opportunities. You can display sponsors’ logos on your event website and post about them on social media. Event platforms are especially crucial for promoting your sponsors digitally. Event platforms allow you to create company profiles for sponsors and a newsfeed to keep your audience updated. You can also display banners and logos within the event app.

Marketing your Sponsorships On-Site

At your event, there are numerous opportunities to highlight your sponsors in-person. For example, you can display logos on banners, signage, and event materials. Additionally, you can provide branded materials such as lanyards, badges, and other swag that feature sponsor logos. Speaking opportunities are another opportunity to provide your sponsors with visibility and allow them to engage directly with your event audience. Sponsored sessions are an option to provide engagement for your highest-tier sponsorships. Sessions are a great way for your event partners to engage with your audience.

Post-Event Marketing: Follow Up After the Event:

Sponsorships are all about building long-term relationships.Maintaining regular communication with your sponsors and your audience is key to securing their ongoing support. After the event, you can build this relationship by sending personalized thank-you messages to your sponsors. Event-reports are another option to maintain a connection. For example, you can create a recap video, blog post, or post on social media. You can include positive feedback from the event and showcase your sponsor’s contribution. Finally, event reports can provide your sponsors with measurable results, showcasing the impact of their sponsorship. Create an event report with metrics like attendee numbers, engagement levels, media coverage, and social media reach.

Conclusion

Successful sponsorships are a win-win situation for event managers. With consistent effort and a strategic approach, you can pull off sponsorships to fund your event and elevate it to the next level. By first understanding your event’s unique selling points researching and approaching potential sponsors, and effectively marketing your sponsors, you can create a successful strategy that benefits all involved parties. This will lay the foundation for building long-term success and hosting stellar events! Want to learn more about how talque can help you host successful events? Reach out to our team and we’ll be in touch!