There’s a right way and a wrong way to build relationships with sponsors so that you can find funding and support for your dream project.
Creating sponsorship marketing relationships is often a new, unexplored avenue for speakers, authors, event hosts, and entrepreneurs, so it’s no surprise that in this unknown territory, costly mistakes are made.
When mistakes happen, unfortunately the answer is often a NO from sponsors.
Knowing how to avoid such mistakes is crucial, so we've created a 3-part sponsorship educational series addressing 3 easy-to-avoid mistakes (and their solutions).
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The 3 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Building Relationships with Corporate Sponsors:
- Sponsorship Relationship Mistake #1: Not keeping in touch with sponsors through the year and/or only communicating when you have an ask.
- Sponsorship Relationship Mistake #2: Incongruence between your ask and how your project looks on social media, print, and sponsor documents.
- Sponsorship Relationship Mistake #3: Not researching the sponsor.
In our previous article, we explored Sponsor Relationship Mistake #1 (be sure to click the link to learn more).
Today, we continue with the importance of your brand, image, and professional care when it comes to sponsorship decision-making.
Sponsorship Relationship Mistake #2:
Incongruence between your ask and how your project looks on social media, print, and sponsor documents.
If you want to achieve more success finding corporate sponsors and strategic partners, pay attention to how you show up in person, on paper, and digitally as this speaks volumes to your sponsor or prospect.
You wouldn’t believe the number of times that people send Rebecca and I drafts of their “sponsor pitch” document, sponsor deck, sponsor proposal, or sponsor information document to request feedback. We’ve seen documents with glaring typos, clip art graphics, missing information, or notes to remember to include something (e.g. “insert link”) that were not removed in the final version. We have also seen far too many documents that were not professionally designed.
Think about this for a second… you are asking a sponsor for money, let’s say $10,000, and you provide them with a proposal that is a Word document or PowerPoint set of slides with different fonts for the titles.
Does your sponsor information document show congruence with what you are asking for?
This doesn’t mean that you create a document that looks like you spent $10,000 on it. This means that you spend time, energy, and perhaps a small investment to have it professionally designed.
We have interviewed many sponsors and have heard repeatedly comments like:
- Don’t give us a document that is full of clip art graphics.
- Sending a document that looks like a teenager created it is a sure way to no.
- Or the most essential one:
Don’t expect me to spend time reading your proposal when you didn’t spend time to create something compelling and visually appealing.
Please take the time to ensure that what you put out in the world and how you show up represents your brand and values properly. Your brand and documents should highlight for sponsors the degree of quality and care they can expect from you.
These tips may be the difference between a NO or a YES!