How To Find Sponsors For Your Events

Locating the right sponsors for your events is an effective way of developing great relationships with sponsor companies while earning more money from planning events. It’s always much smarter for event organizers to work with the right sponsor companies because this way you can earn more at the end of the day.

Sponsor companies are willing to partner with events that have a large number of attendees and high media coverage. However, many sponsor companies also work with small events as long as the audiences are a good fit for the sponsor’s customer profile or target market. Naturally, it would be easier to land a sponsorship deal for large scale events which will be attended by prolific media companies. Nevertheless, whether your event is big or small, here are some tips to help you find sponsors for planning events:

Craft a customized proposal for each company you’re reaching out to. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when asking for sponsorships is sending the same generic letter to all. You can make your proposal stand out by including these details:

A brief history of your company history; it can add a “wow” factor if it had humble beginnings, is operated as a family business, is dedicated to servicing local suppliers. These kinds of stories can strike an emotional cord to the company you’re reaching out to.

Talk about your demographic audience – there’s no point for a company to partner with an event organizer if the attendees are not the right fit for them.

Be specific about the amount of funding that you need. Include a breakdown of how much money will be allocated for food, venue rental, accommodation and transportation of guest speakers, equipment rental, and more.

Since sponsorship should be a give-and-take relationship, offer them incentives. Let the sponsor know what they can get out of subsidizing your event, or a part of it. Examples of incentives include providing the sponsor with a free booth, so that they can give out promotional flyers about the company or new products and services they may have These details will be included in the agreement later on.

Sponsor incentives don’t have to end when the event does. You will increase your chances of landing a sponsorship deal if you’re able to mention the sponsor company in your business blog, social media, and newsletters. Event organizers can also offer discounts for attendees that buy a sponsor product, or sign up for their services during the event.

Do your research about each sponsor you want to reach out to. It will save you valuable time if you reach out to sponsors that have the same mission and business goals as you do. Study the current events that they may be participating or sponsoring in, are they launching a new service or product that can benefit from the exposure your event will give them, what business changes are they going through? Information such as this can help you find a better way of providing them with partnership services for your event because it shows you’re helping to provide a solution to one of their problems or concerns.

There’s a lot to think about when reaching out for sponsors; but always keep in mind that as the event organizer, think about what you can do for them before thinking what they can do for you.