How To Improve Your Event Sponsorship Program

Are you wondering how to improve your event sponsorship program? Perhaps you've been struggling to secure sponsors for your event, or maybe you already have some, but not sure what else you can do to secure new partners?

Hey, we totally get it. Growth is important!

And from years of experience, we've identified three main ways you can get started on effectively revamping your sponsorship program.We’ll look at analyzing your demographics, getting rid of pre-packaged deals, and redesigning your sales deck. We believe that if you act on all three of these tips diligently and with excellence, you’ll see an increase in sponsor participation.

Now, let's get started, shall we?

Understand Your Demographics

If you don’t really know who your attendees are, you might struggle to convince your prospects your event is a good fit for them. It might be the coolest one in town, but if it’s not going to help them reach their target market, your event is just not worth their investment.

Also, the more you understand your attendees, the better you can help your sponsor create the right experiences—the kind that bring results.

You can get these insights by conducting attendee surveys, asking your sales and marketing team for input, and looking at your social media and website analytics.

Knowing their age, location, whether male or female, key questions about their experiences with your past events such as their favorite part, what they didn’t care for, and other overall perceptions is a good place to start.

Stop Selling Pre-Packaged Deals

Sorry to break it to you, but as much as I understand how easy this concept might seem to make your sales peoples’ jobs, one size does not fit all. The reality is, your bronze, platinum, gold, or whatever you call it packages are actually getting in the way of potentially partnering with great sponsors.

Sponsorships are relational and creative opportunities to build an emotional connection between the brand and attendees. It cannot be both transactional and sustainable.

You can certainly try to make it a transaction void of personalization and creativity, but I have to warn you that securing new sponsorships is much more time-consuming and costly than renewing and expanding an existing fruitful partnership.

And in order to renew, you’ve got to be delivering a value that’s worth the sponsor’s investment. If you’re not personalizing your deal to meet and align with that specific sponsor’s goals and values, there’s no real foundation to build on over the years.

Help them see the ways they can fully integrate into your event, how they can connect with your attendees, and support them in co-creating content that benefits them, you, and the attendees.

You may think it will take more training, time, and effort to sell sponsorships this way, and it may at first, but if you consider how much more effective your sales team will be approaching sponsors this way, you’ll be saving time and effort in the long run. Quality over quantity.

Bottomline? Look at opportunities that go beyond placing the sponsor’s logo on your event book, website, the big registration banner, and so forth.

Don’t get me wrong, signage is great to include. BUT, the package you sell them should be an all-inclusive bundle that includes the signage WITH opportunities for engagement. Signage alone just won’t cut it, even if the logo is on every attendee lanyard. It’s just not enough.

If you’re struggling with what all your assets are, and/or what opportunities you can present to your prospects, get professional help. If that’s you, know that we can and would love to help you with asset identification and valuation, should you need it.

REVAMP YOUR SALES DECK

If you’re using an outdated sales deck or proposal template, please update.

Hard to read fonts, mismatched colors, and pages oversaturated with information are a major visual turn-off. Again, this is a good time to look for professional help. Find a graphic designer that can at the very least re-design your sales materials; or if you’re looking to get help on asset identification and valuation from us, we’ll be happy to also redesign your sales deck and/or proposal.

Also, SIMPLIFY! Let’s be real… the greatest commodity of today is time. That means if you’re sending a 15-page document right off the bat, hoping your prospect has that much time to spend reviewing your generic and overwhelming offer, you may have already squandered the opportunity.

Create something concise—that means it includes a lot of information clearly and in a few words, it’s brief but comprehensive. Leave some things out so your sales person has a chance to answer questions and develop a relationship in the process.

Make your pitch interesting and appealing. Give just enough to spark their interest, but leave room for a follow up conversation. Tell them right from the get-go that you are flexible, and you want to build a proposal specifically for them.

A sales deck should not be a replacement for a sales person.

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Asset Identification & Valuation Services at Tandem Partnerships

Don't know where to start? Tandem can help you identify your assets and determine their true value using proven methodology.

Tandem's Strategic Development

Take it a step further and invite Tandem to explore your financial objectives, audience, and offerings to receive a personalized strategy that produces results.

Sponsorship Sales & Service by Tandem

Tandem can also secure sales for your sponsorship program and execute successful fulfillment of promised assets to your partners.

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