Sponsors are crucial for any event. And event professionals always desire to get maximum and highly popular sponsors for their event. But many people think that getting the right sponsor is the most challenging task. And it requires a lot of research and the ability of persuasion.
Last year, the outbreak of the pandemic pushed us into the new world order. In this new world, everything was different. From our thoughts and aspirations to our ways of doing work, everything changed. And this is true for the event industry also.
The event industry was one of the worst-hit industries. All the events were getting cancelled or postponed for an indefinite period. All of this was adding to the losses. So, people had to find a solution. And hence the already existed virtual events became ever so popular. But with this new change came new challenges. And one of them was getting sponsors for the virtual event. Since people used to sponsor a physical event, but now events are taking place in digital space. So the question was how to get sponsors for a virtual event. But before we address this issue first, let’s understand why sponsors are so important.
Why You Should Get Sponsors For Your Event?
1. Funding Your Event
The most obvious reason to get sponsors is funding for your event. It does not mean that you can’t organise an event without a sponsor. But if you are running short on money, then a sponsor would be much welcomed. Even if you have sufficient funds, then also a sponsorship can be beneficial for your event.
2. Promoting Your Brand
Sponsorship can help in many ways. It is not always about financial assistance. When you get a sponsor, you also get access to its audience. You can ask your sponsor to promote your virtual event or brand. And its followers will also notice you or your event.
3. Higher Sales
Since sponsors help in increasing brand awareness, it means an increase in sales figure. The thing is, the sponsors contribute to the increased popularity of your brand or event. Now that you can access your sponsor’s audience, you can target them and achieve more sales.
4. Better Brand Image
Apart from funds, sponsors also offer the brand image that comes with them. It means the more reputed sponsors you will get, the higher will be your brand image.
Now that you know the advantages of having sponsors. Let’s explore how to identify the possible sponsors.
Approaching The Right Sponsors
1. Sponsors Using Similar Marketing
You can start with those sponsors who have either used this marketing technique in the past or can potentially use it. All you need to do is to convince them to sponsor your event. And make them realise how this proposition is beneficial for them.
2. Sponsors With A Similar Audience As Yours
Try to target those sponsors whose audience is of the same demographic and interest. This can help both of you. In other words, target those sponsors who belong to the same industry or the supporting industry. To understand this, let’s look at this example. If you work in the automobile industry and you are thinking of hosting an event. You can approach a tire manufacturer or engine oil producer for your event sponsorship.
3. Sponsors Looking For Returns
Some sponsors are just focused on the returns from their investment. They want to promote themselves and want to stick their name on everything. So these sponsors are needed to realise how things work. Either try to get these types of sponsors on the same page or start looking for other sponsors.
After looking at how to identify the potential sponsors, let’s move to the most crucial part. How to improve the event sponsorship sales process.
How To Get Sponsorship For Your Event
1 . Specify Your Goals
Begin with identifying your goals. You need to ask yourself questions like how many sponsors you need for your event? What kind of sponsors do you need? And what are you going to offer them? And so on.
The answers to these questions are essential as they give you clarity about whom to approach and how to approach. For instance, some sponsors help financially, while others in getting publicity.
2. Understand Sponsor’s Perspective
Try to put yourself in the shoes of the sponsors. And ask yourself why you would sponsor this event? Or how this event is going to help? What is there for me in this event?
These questions will help you to understand the thoughts and questions of a sponsor. Now that you know how a sponsor thinks. Let’s start finding the appropriate answers to counter these questions. Not only will it make your pitch more effective, but also you will feel more confident. And apart from this, your chances of getting sponsors for your event will be higher.
3 . Contact Sponsor From Comparable Events
Before approaching the sponsors, you need to prepare a list of potential sponsors. Since there are too many brands and not all of them are interested in sponsoring an event, you cannot approach any random brand or all the brands. So you should begin with shortlisting the potential sponsors. For this, approach sponsors from comparable events.
Shortlist those brands that are in favour of event sponsorship marketing. And will likely continue with this type of marketing. These are the brands that understand that you both have an audience with common interests.
You can further narrow down your list by identifying those sponsors who align with your event values. Remember, it will take a lot of time for preparing the pitch since it will require research. Also, you will need to tailor your message according to the particular sponsor.
4. Prepare A Solid And Effective Pitch
Now that you know who to target for the sponsorship, it’s time to prepare the pitch. But you can’t use a general, plain boring pitch. You need to come up with an impactful yet convincing pitch. It should motivate the brand to take action. And in this case, sponsorship.
To make that happen, you need to include several crucial pieces of information in your pitch. These are as follows:
- Origin Of Your Company:
Tell them about how your organisation began? What was the idea behind it? Or was there any problem that you wanted to solve? And so on.
- Work That You Do:
Also, share the details like how your company works. This will help give them a reason to consider the sponsorship.
- Your Target Audience:
Who are you targeting with your work? Or what are the demographics of your audience?
These parts of information will give clarity to your pitch. And will massively increase your chances of getting desired sponsors.
5. Event Sponsorship Packages
Sponsorship is like a deal that should provide something to both parties. So your offer has to be attractive. The proposition you are going to present needs to be valuable for the sponsors. For this, you can provide several incentives. Or you can bundle the services into packages to grant a better value. This will make your offer more alluring and make sponsors more confident about your event.
For instance, you can offer to promote your sponsors on several social media platforms apart from the event. Also, you can organise competitions/giveaways to promote your sponsors. This is just one example of how you can group multiple services into one package.
6. Share Your Virtual Event Marketing Strategy
Including your sponsors in planning, marketing will make them feel important. And also, it will make you look more reliable. In fact, you should consult your sponsors while preparing a marketing strategy. You might get worthy insight from them.
Since you both might have a similar audience, you can exchange your marketing tactics. It will help you understand each other’s way of working. Also, you can give feedback on each other’s strategies to target the audience.
We hope that this article will prove helpful to you. And you will get desired sponsors at your virtual event.
To know more about Dreamcast and our Custom Virtual Hybrid Event Solutions & DIY Products, you can visit our website or book a free demo.
