The best way to find sponsors for your event

Great business ideas need to be regarded as great sponsorship opportunities. In the competitive business realities of today, enticing an organization to sponsor an event requires a harmonization of multiple factors.

One of the most common reasons that an organization would be interested in sponsoring an event is if a large audience or a particular target market could be reached. Sponsorship is, in effect, investment of time and money and sponsors trust a company and its reliability to gain exposure and promote a product to a large cluster of professionals.

To ensure that a large audience will attend a particular event, event planners need to keep an updated attendee database by avoiding inviting the same people one year over another and by asking prior attendees to refer them to potential future attendees. It is extremely important to keep expanded guest lists in order to ensure high attendance rates at events.

Besides, event planners need to think ahead and beyond of their business. This implies to involve a broader range or professionals that are indirectly related to their business and may attend the event thus increasing attendance. For instance, if event planners own a travel agency, they may invite hotel owners, employees from airlines and other professionals from the tourism industry.

Another important consideration for an organization to sponsor an event is the enthusiasm the event planners will show when presenting the event to them. Typically, event planners prepare a 20-second pitch that enables them to expose their event as a great sponsorship opportunity, while explaining to the potential sponsor the benefits of sponsorship. A very important detail is that the style of the call should be appropriate to the type and size of the organization. For instance, if the event planners contact a small, local firm, they most likely speak directly to the owner(s) of the company. In this case, the decision will be immediate. If they contact a medium or large organization, they will speak to an officer from the marketing or the human resources department. This means that the decision will take longer because larger companies construct their sponsorship budgets once a year.

Event planners contact also advertising and public relations companies for sponsorship ideas. These companies have a great cluster of clients, which can offer great exposure to the event and an interesting list of sponsors.

Written proposals are sent out to the organizations that have expressed interest in the event. Typically, this should be done well in advance of the event so that organizations have time to review the invitation and take their final decision. In a professional document, event planners include all the necessary details about the event focusing on the exposure gained through the sponsorship. If similar events have been held in the past, event planners include a track record with copies of newspaper clippings and all necessary information. This builds credibility into the event and ensures the benefits of sponsorship. Besides, invitations should include what the sponsors get in return such as advertising, speaking opportunities, distribution of promotional material, naming rights and so on.

Follow up is extremely important in the business world. Two or three weeks after the proposals have been sent out, event planners should follow up the submissions with a phone call to find out which organizations are interested in sponsoring the event.

When the final list of sponsors is prepared, details of the sponsors should be included in the advertising campaign and media releases of the event making sure that all the sponsors receive copies of the promotional materials. Sponsors should also receive any type of updates and should be included in any meeting held in regards to the event.

After the event is held, event planners should send a letter of appreciation, photos of the event, newspaper and magazine clippings and any coverage of the event by the media.

Corporate sponsorship requires encouraging the participation of the sponsors in the event by working closely with them in all stages. Sponsorship is, in effect, a way to build associations with an organization aiming to have a return on investment for all parties involved.