event sponsorships 101: how to grow your event revenue with sponsorships
TRANSCRIPT
Event Sponsorships 101:
How to Grow Your Event Revenue with Sponsorships
Event Sponsorships 101
After this slideshare, you should:
• Have a solid understanding of what’s needed to secure sponsorships for your event
• A foundation for your killer value proposition
• Create an event sponsorship proposal template and your pitch email
Event Sponsorships 101
Sponsorship Landscape
$57.5 billion spent on sponsorships just in 2015
Event Sponsorships 101
Sponsorship Landscape
• More marketing $$ to spend
• More activation opportunities w/ rise of digital
• More events sponsors can choose from
Event Sponsorships 101
First Step:Identify your Killer Value Proposition (KVP)
• Killer Value Proposition: A clear description of what your event is and why someone should sponsor it.
Best Practices:• A couple paragraphs max• Tie in event mission & who your audience is• Summarize benefits
• (brand recognition, lead generation, media exposure etc.)
Think of your KVP as laying down the foundation for your proposal
Event Sponsorships 101
Building your KVP
Defining the Terms
Mission: The goal of your event
Demographic: Details about the people you will be reaching
Audience Size: How many people are attending
Tangible Things: Photo/Video content, booth space, logo recognition etc.
Credibility: What have you done that makes you look good?
Benefit: What can your sponsorship do for a potential sponsor?
Answer these terms in 2-3 sentences
Event Sponsorships 101
A KVP ExampleEvent: Craft Beer Conference
Mission: The mission of the Craft Beer Conference is to create a network of passionate craft brewers who can gather on a yearly basis to share & discuss their processes, successes, and failures.
Demographic: Our demographic is primarily male and between the ages of 25-40. More importantly, these attendees are interested in all there is to learn about craft brewing, especially the tools & techniques used to improve their process. The event is based in Austin, Texas but we believe our attendee base will come from Texas and the surrounding states.
Audience Size: We expect 500 attendees & we will launch early bird sales to our email list of 5,000 craft brewers next month.
Tangible Things: We have 4 levels of sponsorship available. (List tiers with detailed description of what they get.)
Credibility: While this is our first year, we aren’t new to the craft brewery industry. Our team has worked with leading brands such as New Belgium, Shiner, Dogfishhead and Lagunitas among others. The conference will be featured in Beer Advocate’s Fall issue and you’re getting first access to become a sponsor.
Benefit: The conference is great exposure to a focused, paying audience. Our attendees bought tickets because they have a passion in craft brewing and are excited to learn about new products to improve their processes. Seeing that this will be an annual event, first year sponsors can sign a package deal at a greatly reduced rate for the second year.Value Proposition Builder: http://jasondoesstuff.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/HowToGetSponsorships-ValuePropositionBuilder.pdf
Event Sponsorships 101
Tactics for Finding Sponsorship Targets
• Start with your existing network
• Create a spreadsheet for tracking purposes
• Lean on your KVP!
Event Sponsorships 101
Sponsorship Hitlist Spreadsheet Example
Spreadsheet you can copy!
Event Sponsorships 101
Questions to help drill down
• Who is sponsoring your competitors’ events?
• What products or services does your attendee audience use?
• Who is the point of contact?• AKA the key decision maker (usually has a marketing/sponsorship role in job
title)
Event Sponsorships 101
Tools for Prospecting Sponsors
• EmailHunter
• Rapportive
• Toutapp
Event Sponsorships 101
Before we contact your targets, we gotta talk about proposals
Event Sponsorships 101
No…not the romcom
Event Sponsorships 101
Creating a Mindblowing Sponsorship Proposal
• Be clear, concise, & to the point
• Don’t skimp on quality design
• Create an attention grabbing opener
• Speak your sponsor’s language
Further Reading: http://techsytalk.com/event-planning/event-sponsorship-proposal/
Event Sponsorships 101
A Great Event Sponsorship Proposal Template
Link to great proposal example: https://s3.amazonaws.com/ticketbud/random/New+BASH+2016+SPONSORSHIP+MEDIA+KIT+.pdf
Event Sponsorships 101
• Base your pricing levels off of perceived value, not actual costs
• Have many smaller priced levels and a few big ones
• Itemize out your benefits for each tier. People WILL ask.
Pricing Sponsorship Tiers
Event Sponsorships 101
Cold Email Pitching
• Cold emailing is awesome if done correctly• Less obtrusive than cold calling• You can create a formula to reuse• Recipients exert less energy to initially respond
• Cold emailing is terrible if done incorrectly• Making it all about you• Not taking time to personalize message• Follow typical sales email formula
Event Sponsorships 101
Sponsorship Letter Template
Hey NAME,
Hope you’re doing well. Recently saw AlphaBrew’s new bucket conveyor. Looks awesome, it’ll be hit with new craft brewers.
Not sure if you’ve heard, but I’m running a big craft beer conference on September 12th in Austin. It’s called The Awesome Brewers Conf. When I saw the bucket conveyor, I thought that our event might be great for you guys to gain some exposure from craft brewers looking to buy equipment.
I’d love to hop on a quick call sometime this week to show you some of our sponsorship opportunities.
Did you have time Thursday afternoon for a 10 minute call?
Cheers,Jack
clear call to action
Personalization is key. Also, conversational tone.Link to website
Showing clear benefit
Event Sponsorships 101
Following up, Managing Objections
• ALWAYS Followup until you get a “Yes” or a “No”• “Maybe” kills your performance
Common Objections to Have Answers For
• I’ve never heard of your event, why should I sponsor it?
• You guys are brand new, I don’t know if you can hit your audience numbers.
• These sponsorship tiers aren’t in our marketing budget
• I’ll review this with our marketing team and get back to you. Can you send over the Proposal in the meantime?
Event Sponsorships 101
Setting Your Sponsors Up For SuccessLaundry List of Options:
• Social Media Considerations• social account takeovers• dedicated posts
• Swag Bags
• Branding Considerations• program• merchandise• website• event specific
• Booth Space• Complimentary Tickets• Creative Activations
Event Sponsorships 101
Sponsorship Activations
Event Sponsorships 101
Setting Your Sponsors Up For Success
- Give them a personal thanks (hand written card is great) and a dedicated thank you blast post event.
- Keep in contact. Update them on the event metrics AND what it means to their sponsorship value
- Continue to promote them via social media. Sponsors love to feel like they got more than they paid for
- When next event rolls around, offer them priority sponsors access
Event Sponsorships 101
Where to go from here?
“Be creative, listen to what sponsors are asking for, and most importantly, make sure you can deliver everything that you promise.”
• Find your KVP
• Create a proposal & cold email pitch
• Set your sponsors up for success before, during, and post-event
