Ron Seaver, founder the National Sports Forum, is an expert on how to find a sponsor for your marketing. He created his conference in 1996 as a way for the different pro sports teams to come together to share best practices in marketing, sponsorship sales and fan entertainment.
Seaver, who speaks nationally on how to obtain sponsors, has a motto: “Sponsorship is a business decision, not a donation.”
Seaver also teaches it is all about finding a tribe and knowing the value of what that tribe spends.
“Here’s the truly remarkable part about finding a sponsor: just because you don’t have a million followers, doesn’t mean you can’t build an incredible core business where sponsors will absolutely want to pay you $30,000 or $50,000 – even $100,000 to be part of the special relationship you are building with your customers and true fans,” says Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI and the host of the Onward Nation podcast.
“What you do need above anything else is the confidence to know that it is possible,” says Woessner.
The key, adds Woessner, is if you have built an audience, a customer base, a loyal following – no matter the size – who value you, who love you, who appreciate your opinion, your insights, and they look to you for guidance.
What can you offer to be sponsored? Here are some ideas:
- If you host a conference
- If you host a radio show
- If you plan and host events
- If you host a podcast
- If you host a television show or YouTube channel, or a blog
- If you own a business
“If you are a speaker or an author, you can get a sponsor, because as a speaker and an author you have access to an audience — a fan base of people — who know your work and know your book, and as a speaker you command the platform,” adds Woessner.
Penny Reed is an author, professional speaker and consultant in the dental industry. I met Reed when I helped edit her book, Growing Your Dental Business. Reed went out and landed CareCredit as a sponsoring partner for her speaking engagements. The fit was logical. For 30 years CareCredit, from Synchrony (NYSE: SYF), has helped millions of people pay for needed and desired dental and health expenses.
Woessner interviewed Linda Hollander for Episode 383 of Onward Nation. She is one of today’s foremost experts on sponsorship with large brands. Here are three steps Hollander recommended during their interview for any business owner who wants to find a sponsor:
Step One. Create a Sponsor Wish List. The wish list is the list of companies that you would like to have as sponsors. Remember in your sponsor wish list to include both Top Tier and the Second Tier sponsors. Most business owners when they start their wish list think only of Top Tier sponsors. Go deeper.
Step Two. Prepare Your Proposal. Here are some key components to an industry standard sponsor proposal. The full sponsor proposal is about eight to ten pages in length and here’s what it includes:
- A description of your “Property.” Your podcast is a property. Your book is a property. Your speaking business is a property. Your business, your event, your non-profit, whatever you are doing is called a property. You want to describe that.
- You should include your sponsor’s goals, such as increasing brand loyalty and customer base, education, and driving traffic and sales.
- A one-page marketing plan. This should include all the ways you’re going to get the word out about the sponsor. Sponsors are interested in this because marketing is the difference between a good idea someone has in their head and something that actually has legs and is sustainable.
You should include your demographics. Whether your demographics are mothers, the parent market, the entrepreneurial market, the urban youth, the baby boomer market, you need to describe your demographics. Include any testimonials you have.
Include your sponsor fees. You’ve been building the case, and here you show them what the exposure of your property to your demographic is worth.
Step Three. Create an Emotional Connection Through Storytelling. David Mammano has a fantastic example of this, and it got him a $30,000/year sponsorship deal.
“I decided to personalize my sponsor proposal template,” said Mammano. “I explained the value of the podcast, the TV show, events that I’m doing for entrepreneurs, the social media that I’m doing, the email marketing – all of my properties.”
“I included everything that I’m doing, put it together in this proposal, and saved it as a PowerPoint. I sent it to my contact at Paychex, he read through it, and he private messaged me back, and said, ‘Wow. This is amazing. I need to take it to my boss because you’re asking for a lot more than I thought.’”
The boss said it was the best proposal he had ever seen and approved a $2,500 per month sponsorship for a year.
Bottom line: As Seaver and Woessner preach and teach: sponsorships matter. “They add credibility to your brand,” says Woessner. “They show you, the sponsor and the world that you have something of value to share.”
