Sponsorship

Sponsorship is a great way to fund your whimsical and out of this world, marketing campaign. Find a company who can benefit from the exposure you can give them and present your case. How do you do that? Well, first of all, do your research. There are a ton of grants and sponsorships available if you take the time to look. If your campaign is geographically centered, start with the local government or tourism office. Even if they can’t help you, they will know what local businesses would be interested.

Finding organizations or local businesses who would like to sponsor events or campaigns requires a little lateral thinking and some research. Remember that you have to bring something to the table and in this case it will be publicity and exposure. Target your search to companies who you think would benefit from this kind of sponsorship.

Once you have a list of potential sponsors contact the company to find out who your proposal should be directed to. Then either drop them an introductory email (my preferred option) or make a quick phone call. It’s always better to pique their interest with a short sentence or two and follow it up with a more detailed, formal proposal.

When emailing or presenting your formal proposal, you may like to set it out in the following sections. This style has always been the most successful in my experience:

1. The Idea – a brief introduction on what the campaign or event is
2. What sponsorship can do for them – list the benefits of sponsoring the program
3. What sponsorship involves – Cash? Free venue hire?
4. Company information – background on your company
5. List of contacts

Each of these sections should be no longer than a page each.

I think the best way to pitch your proposal is by setting up a meeting and using your ‘paper’ proposal to back up your ‘verbal’ proposal. It gives them something to refer to during the meeting.

I have sort sponsorship for various events even television shows. Some have been in the form of free venue hire others supporting the project with cash. To be honest the thing that has surprised me the most, has been people’s eagerness to get behind a project. I will be there thinking of a dozen benefits, researching the internet endlessly to back up that assumption with facts and most of the time they had made up their mind way before I even sat down, and it’s always been a ‘yes’.

Read some related articles:

1. Entrepreneurs: Out dress ‘um The corporate workforce is full of jokes about the pain and consternation of Mondays. Those of us who start our own businesses generally would not...
2. Go BIG Network Lookin’ a bit SMALL Look for investors, hire people to join your startup, read entrepreneurship blogs, and create groups: Go BIG Network has it all. Go BIG is an...
3. Another Reason Why I Became an Entrepreneur There are many reasons why I became an entrepreneur, perhaps I may have been born an entrepreneur and it just took a few years to...
4. Stagnation = Damnation As an entrepreneur, it’s an eminent fact that your business will change over time. That’s why it’s important to remind yourself how it all started....