How to Get Sponsors for an Event

Effective event sponsorship provides funding for your special event and boosts your event's credibility at the same time. Sponsorship can improve your event's success by reaching more people and drawing in larger crowds.

Linking your event with the right sponsor can even enhance your audience engagement and help expose your event to its target audience. Choosing and recruiting the right sponsors can amplify your special event, bringing it to the next level.

Many event organizers struggle to secure the best sponsors for their events. Knowing how to approach sponsors can help make the process easier. As an event organizer, you must create proposals that clearly demonstrate the benefits of sponsorship.

How to Select and Approach Potential Sponsors

Selecting and approaching potential sponsors is a process. Doing your research can help you find companies and organizations that will benefit from sponsorship. It's important to be thorough and conduct reliable research about your event.

Know Your Audience

Who is coming to your event? Asking questions when selling tickets can help you identify your audience demographics. Knowing their approximate age, income level, location, and shared interests helps you identify who they are and why they've come to your event.

Other ways to get to know your audience include:

• Google analytics. Use Google analytics to find out who is visiting your website, how many people are visiting your website, and where they're learning about your website.
• Social media analytics. Some social media platforms can help your business identify your audience through analytics similar to Google's. Facebook's Audience Insights is one example of this.

Identify Companies that Resonate with Your Audience

Once you know your audience and their interests, you can identify companies and organizations that resonate with your audience. For example, if the majority of your audience regularly shops at a particular store, adding them as an event sponsor may help attract your intended audience.

If your audience all comes from one city or even one neighborhood, a local sponsor from the area can help build credibility for your event.

Research Similar Events

How does your event compare to other recent events? If your event is similar, knowing those event sponsors can help you decide which companies to target.

Create an Initial Outreach Letter

Once you've created a list of potential sponsors, it's time to create an initial outreach letter. This is a short letter to send to potential sponsors to make your pitch. Some tips:

• Short is best. Most company contacts will not take the time to read a long letter. The ideal length for this letter is a page or a page and a half.
• Highlight mutual benefits. Show how you and your sponsor will each benefit from the sponsorship opportunity.
• Mention other opportunities. List other upcoming events that offer further opportunities for collaboration.
• Back it up with numbers. Use statistics to show your potential sponsor how they can benefit from this sponsorship opportunity. You may mention the number of expected visitors, the many opportunities to promote the brand as the event sponsor, and the event's good reputation in the community.  
• Send it to the right person. Send your sponsorship proposal to a key sponsorship decision-maker at the company. If you don't know who that is, use pre-existing company contacts (if you have any) to find the best person.
• Customizing the proposal for each sponsor. Customize the sponsorship proposals to fit the specific needs and goals of each potential sponsor. Show that the offer is especially relevant to their brand and objectives by drawing the line between your event and the event that you're asking them to sponsor.

Creating a Proposal That Wows Potential Sponsors

Once the event sponsorship proposal letter has been sent, companies that are interested in sponsorship may request more information beyond the initial inquiry.

For these inquiries, prepare a presentation that goes deeper into the sponsorship opportunity. You should cover topics such as:

• Value of the partnership. Summarize the opportunities sponsors gain through partnership, such as brand exposure and audience interaction.
• Demographics. Cite research that shows who makes up the event audience.
• List of marketing opportunities. Sponsoring companies use their sponsorship opportunities to advertise their company. Written mentions of the sponsors on event fliers and television commercials that mention the sponsors' names are all benefits that sponsors want to know about.

Brainstorm Marketing Incentives Before Making Your Proposal

The stronger your proposal to potential sponsors, the more likely it is that sponsors will accept it. Brainstorming marketing incentives before making your proposal helps you to present a strong case for sponsorship. Some examples of marketing incentives include:

• Mention of sponsorship in advertisements: Offer sponsors free promotion via event marketing materials like banners, fliers, and digital ads. These materials will give sponsors visibility before, during, and after the event. Discuss where fliers will be distributed and for how long prior to the state date. Be prepared to discuss the distribution of digital ads as well, including the platforms where they will be available and, if numbers are available, how they performed in previous years.
• On-site marketing opportunities: Allow your sponsors to add banners and free informational booths at your special event. This gives them the opportunity to spread information about their products to potential clients.
• Use barricade covers as sponsorship opportunities: Barricade covers represent a unique, low-cost advertising option. If your event already uses barricades for crowd control, converting these barricade covers into branded billboards is easy. This provides additional exposure for sponsors. These barricade covers are seen by event-goers and passersby, creating broader brand awareness. 

Offering Unique Sponsorship Opportunities

Think creatively about what makes your event special and what unique value your event can offer to sponsors. Marketing incentives are only one potential benefit that may entice companies to become sponsors. Some other examples of benefits that you can provide include:

• VIP experiences. Whether you're hosting a sporting event or a concert, providing sponsors with VIP experiences can make sponsorship a more enticing opportunity for many companies.
• Exclusive branding opportunities. Give your main sponsor or sponsors exclusive branding opportunities, including the opportunity to place their name (without others) on all main signs and in all television advertisements.

Plan Your Special Event Using Smart Strategies

Securing event sponsors is just one part of running a successful event. Flawless event planning helps sponsors see the value of their partnership and will assist to draw in more sponsors over time.

Having more event sponsors means having bigger and more profitable events. The more sponsors that your event collects, the easier it is to grow your event without raising ticket prices to an amount that your event-goers would find untenable.

Of course, finding sponsors is just one thing that your company must do to plan a special event. There are many parts to planning successful special events.

Are you ready to take your event planning to the next level? Check out our guide on How to Plan an Event to ensure your event is safe and well-organized.