As an event planner, you’re no stranger to the financial hurdles that come with orchestrating a successful event. The costs can quickly escalate, from venue rentals to marketing expenses, potentially straining your budget. This is where sponsors can play a crucial role in alleviating the financial burden.

While some larger, more established companies may have a generous marketing budget, smaller businesses often do not. One of the best ways that businesses — both big and small — can organize the event of their dreams is to find a sponsor!

The Value of Sponsors for Your Event

While the primary role of an event sponsor is to provide financial support, their involvement can bring a myriad of benefits beyond just monetary gain. Sponsors often become a key feature and a major draw for attendees, thereby enhancing the overall event experience.

Some of the incredible advantages associated with finding the right sponsor for your next event are: 

Sponsors Fund the Event

First and foremost, sponsors finance your projects by providing monetary funds, offering their products and services, or, in the best-case scenarios, both. With their support, you can enhance the event and create an unforgettable experience for all of your attendees. 

Sponsors Increase the Profile of Your Event and Tap New Audiences

Note that these sponsors can finance your project because they are financially capable of doing so. The reason they have the means to shell out thousands of dollars to sponsor your event is that they have established themselves as a leader in their industry. In other words, your ideal sponsors have already established a reputation for themselves and cultivated their own loyal customer base. By partnering with your brand, they extend their connections to you, thereby growing your audience and increasing the profile of your event. 

Sponsors Enhance Your Credibility by Connecting with You

In relation to the previous point, sponsors can enhance your credibility by simply connecting with you. Forming ties with established and relevant brands will put your name out there and better your reputation as a whole. 

Overall, securing a sponsor will not only provide a financial boost but will also enhance your credibility. As such, it’s essential to identify the right sponsors and craft a compelling sponsorship pitch to attract them to your project. 

Which leads to our next point: understanding your ideal sponsors.

Understand Your Ideal Sponsors

Before asking how to get sponsors, you first need to establish the type of sponsors you require. There are many options to choose from, and it’s up to you to select the right ones. The key to choosing the best sponsor for your event is to understand your event’s objectives and know what you will need sponsorships for. With this information at hand, you can narrow down your options and target the most suitable sponsors for your event. 

Different Types of Sponsorships

Generally, there are four types of sponsorships to consider. Each of them has different strengths and offers a unique advantage for your event. 

• Financial Sponsors: As the name suggests, this type of sponsor primarily provides financial support in return for predetermined benefits. The exchange should be outlined in a sponsorship agreement between the two parties. To give you a better idea, some examples of pre-determined benefits include logo placements, content creation, and/or a spotlight during the event itself. 
• Media Sponsors: This type of sponsor replaces their financial support with media exposure. So, instead of giving the event planners the money outright to do with as they will, they will allocate it for something more specific — say, an article in a magazine, TV coverage, or video plugs. 
• In-Kind Sponsors: In-kind sponsorships focus on providing event planners with the necessary resources rather than cash. For example, you need a venue for your conference, so your in-kind sponsor will provide it for you. Alternatively, if you need catering for your guests, another sponsor will handle that for you. Depending on what you and your event need, in-kind sponsors are there to help you make your event a success.
• Promotional Partners: The last type of sponsor is known as a promotional partner. These individuals are public figures, local celebrities, or online personalities who have considerable influence and a large following. By partnering with them, you can promote your event to a much larger audience and convert potential customers to grow your brand. 

Which Companies to Approach

Knowing the types of sponsors available is just the beginning. The next step is to determine who to contact and how to reach them. With so many choices at your fingertips, narrowing down your options can be overwhelming. However, there are some key considerations to keep in mind when determining the type of partnership you need. Generally, the sponsors you need to reach out to must have the following characteristics:

• An Understanding of Marketing: Sponsors play an integral role in the success of your event. As such, the companies you partner with for potential collaborations must understand their role in your project and propose ways to maximize the results and benefits for both parties.
• An Audience that Aligns with Your Interests: It’s not enough to simply look for businesses with a considerably large audience. You also need to make sure that their customers are similar to yours. If you stray from this idea, you’ll experience a mismatch between what you’re trying to promote and who you’re promoting to. Maintain consistency in your target by partnering with a company that shares the same target audience.
• A Focus on Event ROI: Some sponsors only want to put their names on promotional materials and consider the event a success. But if you genuinely want to make the most of a potential partnership, you need to find a sponsor that knows sponsorship is a two-way street. 

Build Your Sponsorship Proposal

Now that you have a better idea of what type of sponsors you need to track down, it’s time to craft your sponsorship proposal. Here’s a quick rundown of important points you need to consider when drafting a sponsorship package. 

• Make it aesthetically pleasing and attractive.
• Share what the event is about.
• Provide details on the attendees.
• Describe possible sponsorship opportunities.

Obtaining sponsorship for events is far more complex than you might think. It involves a lot of research, brainstorming, and strategizing to formulate the perfect sponsorship package template that will capture the attention of your prospective sponsors. 

To make it simpler, we’ve narrowed it down to four essential steps you need to follow to increase your chances of success. 

1. Make Your Proposal Aesthetically Pleasing and Attractive

More than the words you put on your paper or the content of your presentation, the first thing your sponsors will see is its design. As such, you need to make the first page visually appealing. When drafting the front page of your proposal, ensure that you include crucial information, such as the name of the event and the organization hosting it. Also, add the logo for brand recognition and recall purposes. 

You can experiment with the font size, color, and background design to achieve the desired look. But here’s a pro tip: if you want to immerse your sponsors in the event before it even starts, align the graphics of your presentation with the theme of the show. This will help them visualize the event concept more accurately and, hopefully, get them on board with your plans. 

2. Share What the Event is About

Once you’ve hooked your sponsors with your proposal, it’s time to build trust and strengthen your collaboration by sharing all the necessary details of the event. Talk about the background of the event, the members involved, and the goals you want to achieve. Providing as much information as possible about the event will help your sponsors see the bigger picture and determine which areas they will be most useful. 

As important as it is to impart details about the event, it’s also equally important to share details about your organization. Explain your brand’s history, mission and vision, and the reasons why your brand is different from other brands.

Getting to know you better will make your sponsors feel more comfortable trusting you with their reputation and brand. 

3. Provide Details on the Attendees

After getting on the same page and learning more about the event’s background, the next step is to provide substantial insights into your demographics. 

Being in the business as long as they have, sponsors already know precisely who they want to market to and how many people they can reach. Therefore, ensure that your pitch includes information about your attendees, allowing sponsors to gain a better understanding of who they’re promoting their brand to. 

In the attendee profile section of your pitch, be sure to include statistics, demographics, numbers, industry, roles, buying power, and any other information that you want your sponsors to know. 

Plus, if your next event is an annual occurrence, it will be to your advantage to integrate post-event surveys from previous years. This will strengthen your pitch and further convince your sponsors of the success they can achieve by partnering with you. 

4. Describe Possible Sponsorship Opportunities

Finally, to hit a home run, expound on the possible opportunities your sponsors can take advantage of when they partner with you. Display the options they have on the table, like à la carte, tiered packages, or a combination of both, and demonstrate how each of these packages can benefit them specifically. 

For instance, if they choose an à la carte package, such as a designated booth or a slot in your show, what advantages can they expect? Perhaps it’s increased brand exposure throughout the event and a broader reach to new audiences. 

Tiered packages, on the other hand, can include more involvement from them. They can experience more benefits, such as in-event speaking roles to boost their brand’s exposure, increased audience engagement, and higher conversion rates. 

Of course, if you want to make your proposal more versatile, you can opt to include add-ons, allowing your sponsors to customize their participation. 

Varying Pitch Styles for Different Companies

Although a sponsorship proposal template should generally contain the same information for all types of events — such as a summary of what your event is all about and the potential opportunities it offers — it’s vital to explore various ways of pitching them to multiple companies. 

After all, no two companies are exactly alike. Some may be big corporations, while others may be small businesses. Some may be more interested in media coverage, while others are more interested in engaging directly with event attendees.

Even if they are in the same industry, their objectives, strategies, financial capabilities, and images vary. To win each company over, you need to understand their nuances and speak their language. In addition, you need to identify what they want to see from your pitch. Once you do, you can modify your proposal to fit their unique needs. 

Don’t be afraid to play around with the presentation of your content or the designs you incorporate. The more unique they are, the more tailor-made they will be for the specific companies you’re talking to. Doing so will give you a competitive edge and increase your chances of success. 

Tap Into Your Network for Sponsors

At this point, you already know what sponsors do, what the different types of sponsorships are, and how to make a compelling sponsorship deck. Now, it’s time to put all these ideas into action, starting with looking for the right sponsors. 

If you’re wondering how to approach local businesses for sponsorship, we’ve got the answer for you.

You might not know it yet, but the right sponsor for your event could be within your reach. They could be one of your personal friends, relatives, peers, or professional colleagues. As such, it’s essential to start your search within your immediate circle, especially since they’re the individuals you have easy access to.

What’s great about starting with your contacts is that you can skip the “getting-to-know-you” phase and go straight to the point. Since you’ve already built trust and fostered a relationship, you can focus on pitching the event rather than pitching yourself.

However, in case they say no to you — which some of them inevitably will — they can direct you to their networks, which you can then reach out to. 

When you branch out and pitch your event to their network, you may need to exert more effort. The companies they may recommend have no prior knowledge of who you are or what your company does. So, you’ll need to make a strong first impression. 

You also need to conduct more thorough background research on the companies you intend to pitch so that you can align your event’s audience, objectives, and personality with theirs. Once you’ve gotten the attention of the individual who handles sponsorship in a company, it’s time to hook them in with the new experience you’re offering them.

We can’t stress this enough. When pitching to potential sponsors, the most essential question you need to answer is: What’s in it for them? If you can guarantee an increase in numbers of reach, exceptional brand engagement with prospective customers, or maximum exposure, then they will be more willing to partner with you. Not only for your next event but potentially for your future events as well. 

Three Tips for Getting Sponsored

Sponsors are more likely to respond positively to your pitch if you follow these three tips.

1. Offer Incentives

Besides the terms of your agreement with your sponsor, you can further sweeten the deal by offering additional incentives that benefit them. Some of the ideas to help you get started include offering them a free booth in your next trade show or exhibition, mentioning the sponsor’s name in your social media posts, blog posts, and newsletters, giving freebies and discounts to customers that engage with the sponsor, and including your sponsor’s logo in your promotional materials. 

2. Offer Minimum-Risk Options

As much as your sponsors want to know how they can benefit from your brand, they would also like to know what risks they’re taking. Ensure that you provide a minimum-risk solution to protect your sponsors. If you’re a relatively small company, you can propose a trial deal for a smaller amount in exchange for something equally small.

For example, if your event requires approximately $100,000. Instead of asking for the full amount, start with a small request. Start at $10,000, in addition to the incentives mentioned above, to make your offer more attractive. 

The low-risk approach allows your sponsors to test the waters with your company first. In doing so, they protect themselves from potential complications if something goes wrong during the event. 

3. Use Data to Persuade Further Investment

Ultimately, sponsors also have their own financial objectives. By partnering with your brand, they want to see how they can also benefit from it financially. As such, we recommend that you bring in the numbers. Using concrete data backed up by research and previous experiences can make your sponsors feel more confident in your brand.

That said, make sure to include these key points in your pitch deck: 

• Gross revenue from promotions
• Number of registrants versus check-ins
• Types of industries 
• Visit to purchase rate
• Social media engagement statistics
• Potential online and offline reach

We could continue listing other components, but essentially, any valuable Key Performance Indicator (KPI) should suffice. If you want to learn how to collect this data with ease and convenience, here’s an industry secret you need to know about: event management software.

How Event Management Software Can Help You Get Sponsors

Event management software can help you provide your sponsors with the essential information they need to move forward with the deal. Whether it’s a small business sponsorship or a sponsorship from a major corporation, event management software has the features you need to create customizable sponsorship packages for various events, as well as receive real-time reports and analytics. 

All the information you need — from the number of attendees, event time and date, location, and logistics to sign-ups, newsletters, and more — is conveniently stored in one centralized platform. Regardless of what your sponsors may want to know about your event, you have the power to track and control everything with a simple click of a button. 

Take a look at some of the key features of event management software that can help you throughout the sponsorship process:

• Sponsorship and Offering Organization: Easily organize your sponsorship packages for each sponsor, detailing the offerings included in every proposal. 
• Floorplan Management: Manage your floor plan more conveniently and position your sponsors in high-traffic areas. 
• Exhibitor/Sponsor Management: In addition to managing the floor plan, you can also organize logistics, including registration, participation, and sponsor assets.
• Lead Retrieval: In terms of networking, a lead retrieval tool enables you to collect, save, and access essential information from interested prospects and buyers.
• Revenue Tracking: Enable you and your sponsors to monitor all in-event sales. With this innovative feature, you can get updates on your profits in real time.

Search for Sponsors with Strategic Support from Event Management Software. 

Having read this comprehensive guide to event sponsorship, you should feel confident when it comes to the importance of event sponsorships and how to draft compelling pitches. Securing the right sponsor is a crucial yet invaluable aspect of your event.