Finding the right sponsor is a great way to get your event off the ground. But there’s an art to approaching them—and getting them to agree.
A great partnership should be a win-win situation: your sponsor gives you financial support and in return, you promote their business in some way. So, for them to get on board, it needs to be worth their while.
At Kindred, we’re well-versed in the world of sponsored events: we’ve hosted plenty and have supported a few ourselves. Here’s our advice for finding and securing the right partner.
Who counts as a sponsor?
First things first: what’s an event sponsor? Usually, they’re businesses, but they can also be individuals. They help to cover the cost of the event in exchange for something—usually, to get their brand in front of your audience.
That’s why it’s important to choose a sponsor that makes sense for your event. If you’re running a panel talk about tech innovations, it would probably feel a little confusing to see pet food being advertised throughout, for instance.
Corporate gifts vs corporate sponsors
If you’re a non-profit organisation, you might also get support from businesses in the form of gifts. This isn’t the same thing as a sponsorship.
A corporate gift is basically a donation. It’s given without the expectation of receiving anything in return. On the other hand, a sponsorship is an agreement between two parties, where both are benefiting in some way.
What do sponsors want?
Remember: for sponsors, your event is a marketing opportunity. Once you know exactly what value you can offer them, you can use this to pitch your partnership proposal.
Access to your audience
Events tend to be centred around specific interests or industries, which gives sponsors a chance to target a particular audience. And during an event, you have your audience’s undivided attention—which is a great thing for sponsors hoping to make an impression.
For your sponsor, your audience may be a group of potential customers. By supporting your event, they’re getting a chance to sell to them.
When you pitch your event, be ready to explain why your audience is relevant to your sponsor. Sharing basic information, like demographics, interests, or the industry they work in, can be super helpful in sealing the deal.
Increased reach
Event sponsorship is essentially a form of advertising: having their logo or perhaps even product in front of a new audience is a chance for them to sell. And they might see an uptick in website traffic or social media engagement during or after the event.
Savvy sponsors also tend to use the event as an opportunity to create content for their own channels. They might also piggyback off content used to promote the event—for example, by repurposing it and/or sharing it on their own channels—to extend their reach even further.
Building credibility
Being associated with an event or organisation can influence people’s perceptions of a sponsor.
For instance, if you’re hosting an event about equality in the workplace, your sponsors might see their involvement as a public way of demonstrating their support for the cause.
Or, to return to our example of a panel talk about tech innovation, a sponsor may hope to be seen as a forward-looking company by association
Finding a sponsor
If you’re lucky, your sponsor might be someone already in your network. But often, you’ll need to look a little further afield and reach out to them.
Understand your audience
You want to find sponsors that your audience will be interested in, and hopefully, want to support. For instance, if your audience members are all working in the same field, you might look for sponsors whose product serves that industry. A local business might be a good sponsor for a neighbourhood event, and so on.
To take it a step further, you could dive into your marketing analytics to get insights on your audience’s interests beyond the scope of the event. For example, if you use Instagram, you can see what sort of posts and topics have had the most engagement. This might give you some clues about what else they like.
Look to other events
Research similar events and see what sorts of sponsors they secured. This can give you a sense of the types of companies that are willing to offer financial support to events like yours.
Know your (potential) sponsor
This is key in really honing your pitch. Take a look at your target sponsor’s current marketing and partnership activities: what are they involved in, how are they getting their name out there?
Ideally, you want to pitch them value that they don’t seem to be getting elsewhere. Consider: what can your event offer that’s unique? For example, you might notice that they’re running a lot of social media ads. This gives you mere seconds to grab someone’s attention—and it can be expensive. You might pitch your event as a chance to capture the interest of an engaged audience, who are sitting and listening rather than scrolling.
Look for indications of how their business is doing, too. If you can see that the company just went through a round of redundancies, they probably won’t be that receptive to sponsoring an event.
Pitching to sponsors
Okay, it’s time to put together your pitch and make contact with your potential sponsors. There’s no magic formula for this, but the below tips will help you put your best foot forward.
A warm hello
In an ideal world, you’d be reaching out to someone you’ve met before. If that’s not an option, the next best thing is a warm introduction (this is when someone introduces you to them).
Look to your network to check if there’s anyone who could link you up. It’ll be easier to pitch to someone who you’ve been put in touch with—the referral serves as a kind of vote of confidence in you.
But this isn’t always possible. If you must reach out to someone cold, you don’t want to come across as pushy. Introduce yourself and briefly explain what you’re doing, then indicate the value it could bring to them. You want to let them know what you’re working on, and that you’d like to speak with them about how you could partner. The aim is to get them to agree to look at your proposal.
Remember: your sponsors are busy people and you should respect their time. If you want to get them on the phone, be clear that the call will take 15 minutes, for example.
Send your proposal
Once you’ve got the green light, send it through. It should spell out exactly what you are doing, what you’re asking from them, and what they’ll get in return. The clearer and simpler, the better.
You’ll be expected to back up the things you promise. Include some key, headline statistics about your audience, engagement, and the success of your past events.
Following up
If you haven’t heard from your target sponsors after a week or so, send a polite and concise follow-up email.
There’s a chance (especially when contacting people via cold email), you won’t get an answer. This can certainly be disheartening, but it’s fine: it happens. Keep trying until you find someone who is interested.
Your next event
Once you’ve lined up your sponsors, you can get cracking with the rest of your event planning—like finding the perfect venue. At Kindred, we’ve got an array of sophisticated, unique, and fully accessible spaces for gathering of all sizes. From conferences to intimate dinners, our team will work with you to create something special. Read our private hire brochure or get in touch with us to find out more.