I said recently that sponsorships have a lot in common with Psychology 101 and Maslow’s Hierarchy. Because that is true, it is also true that not all sponsorships are equal. Provide Equal Opportunities While all sponsorships are not of the same value, you do want all of your possible sponsors to be able to find a sponsorship that appeals to them. Provide tiers or levels in your sponsorship options. Some businesses seek the top level in anything they are a part of while other are just glad to participate at a smaller level. Provide Event Specific Options Make sure to consider event specific items, as well. Nationally, we are seeing a trend that the third-tier sponsors are willing to spend the same amount of money as other sponsors. However, they want individual aspects of the event that they can label. Do you have a photo booth sponsor, a potty sponsor, a valet sponsor? Present Your Ideas When making your pitch to the sponsor, make sure your plan includes a catalog of all your sponsor levels, pricing and benefits. To increase the probability of sale, including pictures from the last year’s event, marketing materials and audience reach are always a plus. […]
I’ve been talking a lot lately about building a sponsorship campaign and the initial blocks in that process. One of the most important is an organized team. In all actuality, a Chamber really needs two organized teams. The First Team Your first team should be obvious – those who will sell the sponsorships. Think through your sales team. Will your sales be done in-house by one staff member? Are you going to include an entire department? What about directing it to a Chamber committee – say the Ambassadors? Are you going to look to the entire membership to recruit an army of volunteers? Regardless of what your sales team is going to look like, they need to be organized from the beginning. You need to have the idea in mind of who will sell, so that the next steps will be executed more effectively and in a more timely manner. The Second Team The second team is your staff. You need to make certain that they are all on board with the process and understand the plan. They all will have a part in the campaign, regardless of whether or not they are on the sales team. If you are […]
If your chamber is thinking about a sponsorship plan, there isn’t one perfect plan, just like there isn’t one perfect chamber. Your leadership needs to evaluate various types of plans and determine what will work best for your chamber. There are four types of sponsorship plans: Per event Annual bundled program Sponsorships through tiered memberships Total resource campaigns. Once your chamber identifies what type of plan it has or would like to execute, it needs to determine the goals of the plan. Are you looking strictly for financial revenue? Do you want to initiate organizational pride? Are you looking for an increase in awareness for your organization throughout the community? Next, your chamber will need to determine what inventory will be included in the plan. Items we are seeing trending nationally include: Workforce Development/Education programming and events Women’s initiatives Medical events & First Responder recognition programs Educational seminars during the lunch hour (aka “Boxed Lunch & Learn” series with attendance cost of $10-25) are being replaced with substantial professional development programs – at least half a day – with at least $100 admission. Chamber leadership programs are being reinvented to include professional development components as business leaders are saying “city […]
