How to Make a Sponsorship Proposal?

One of the fundamental keys to getting sponsored is your ability to create a winning sponsorship proposal. It’s an important document in the process of going from sponsorship seeker to marketing partner. It can literally make or break the deal.

Creating an effective sponsorship proposal is probably one of the most asked for yet misunderstood facets of the whole sponsorship process.

Most event sponsorship proposals go to trash.

They all are money seekers, not taking the time to research & understand sponsor’s needs & their market conditions.

It might sound cliché, but we have seen this in reality. Many event sponsorship people fail to understand the sponsor’s perspective. They don’t take the time out to tailor the sponsorship proposal.

A lot of sponsorship people download sample proposals from the internet, edit it out by adding their event name & then just broadcast it to the potential sponsors. This kind of act is no different than spamming.

Creating a winning event sponsorship proposal requires a hard work, but in the end, it is worth doing. Here is how!

#1. Give Before You Get

“You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” — Zig Ziglar

Before approaching the potential sponsors, ask yourself what can you offer to them? Define your event’s target audience. Get yourself clear on the demographics of your visitors.

Please don’t create sponsorship proposal to offer a bunch of banners. Instead, Use some creative ways like an event app to give visibility to the potential sponsors.

An Event app is an exciting opportunity for the sponsors to get the desired exposure & create a long lasting impression.

With Event Apps, you can sell in-app sponsorship where the sponsors can get uninterrupted attention. Additional to standard ads, event app solution offers hot deals section where the event organizers can display deals from their sponsors helping them to get direct sales.

#2. Do Research (MAP them)

Now as you understand what you have to offer, find the potential sectors or businesses that might be interested in your event demographic & offering. Create a list of potential sponsors.

Visit their websites. Research their social media accounts. Read the latest news and reports about them. Find ways to passively attract their demo-graph for your event.

Are they planning for a new product launch? Do they have any product that is currently underperforming? Find their pain points; try to solve them by your offering.

#3. Reach Out (AIM)

After the research process, find the people in the CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) department or marketing department of those companies & try to reach out to them.

If possible, find some connection with them, the old fashion networking still works.

Prepare a concise email consist of Introduction, Opportunity, Event demographics, Benefits, Creative ideas to give them visibility & a strong Call to Action.

Your goal with this first mail is to get an opportunity to secure a meeting so don’t mess it up by sending them the full sponsorship proposal.

#4. Win them (Take a breath, Shoot the Bull’s Eye)

Prepare a precise presentation, conveying your demographic information, marketing opportunities & creative ideas to provide desired visibility.

Don’t be the pushy sell person that we all hate. The focus of the meeting should be listening, not selling.

Keep your presentation short & concise. Spend more time in listening & understanding the needs of the sponsor. Ask them questions about their marketing challenges, their objectives or goals, and what has & what hasn’t worked in the previous deals.

Use this data to refine your offering & tailoring your sponsorship offer to meet their needs.

Now based on the offer decide a sponsorship amount, keep it 20 % higher to leave room for negotiation. If your potential sponsor’s budget is below your amount then go back to the offer & review what you can offer the sponsor.

In the context of all the new information what can you realistically do within the budget to meet the sponsor’s marketing objectives?

How can you customize your approach to provide the greatest value?

#5. How the success will be measured?

Once understanding their marketing objective, you need to agree with the sponsor how the success will be measured. The success can be quantitative like 1000 page views of sponsor’s ad in the event app or qualitative like positive social media talking about the brand.

#6. Full proposal

It is primarily about documenting what you’ve already discussed and agreed to.

The sponsorship proposal should be comprised of two parts: One-page offer letter & a supporting document listing other supporting data (demographics numbers, previous sponsor’s testimonials & case studies, terms & conditions and other relevant information).

The offer letter should include a summary of the event sponsorship opportunity, tailored benefits list, the sponsorship amount and a call to action.

#7. Follow-Up

A few days later write a follow-up email or call the sponsor to review the status of your sponsorship proposal.

If the sponsor’s request changes, then review it once again and if needed change the price accordingly.

But unfortunately, if your sponsorship proposal gets rejected then politely ask why, by finding the reason behind their rejection you can improve your offering.

Thank them for taking their time to meet you. Most importantly, keep in touch with them. Build a relationship with them.

Event sponsorship is not a one-time transaction. A good relationship with the potential sponsors can help you to get the sponsorship for the years to come.

PS: 2x your Sponsorship Fund, get an in-depth understanding and learn about the stories from both the sides involved in Event Sponsorship; Why you need Sponsorship and What your Sponsors are looking for!

Download the e-book now and get all your queries solved.

Would you like to know how Hubilo can help you create exceptional events? Know more about it here.

Keep yourself updated by connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.