Down with the belief that only a few businesses need sponsorship. Sponsorship has become vital in recent times due to the need to promote brands, increase sales, and gain a competitive advantage over your competitors. Though a form of advertising, Sponsorship should not be equated with direct marketing. Neither should it be seen as synonymous with begging. The Sponsorship Collective stated that sponsorship is different from begging for money in that it involves offering real partnership opportunities for all-round business growth. While some are of the opinion that sponsorships are only relevant to small businesses or events, that is far from the truth. Both big and small businesses need sponsorships for an event.  

If you have ever thought about how to get a sponsorship for an event, you want to be working with genuine information to ensure that getting a sponsorship for your event is not a daunting task. The ideal thing to do at the onset is to show the intended sponsors you wish to approach that you can offer them value from your event. If your event focuses on the target audience of your sponsors, the better. That will convince them to loosen their financial grip and go all out to sponsor your event for the coveted value in return. 

Types of Event Sponsorship

According to Heritage Center, there are four types of event sponsorship you should know when you consider how to get a sponsorship for an event. These are; 

1. Financial Sponsorship: This is the most typical type of sponsorship where the sponsor offers, in exchange for promotion at an event, financial support to event organizers in the hope that they will reach a larger target audience for future marketing efforts. 
2. Promotional Sponsorship: Also regarded as influencer sponsorship; this is the type of sponsorship that involves reaching out to social media influencers or people with large followership on social media to promote your events on their pages in exchange for which they charge you a fee, get event tickets, among other things they may request. 
3. Media Sponsorship: This is meant specifically for organizations that may not have a large sum of money for physical marketing and resort to advertising on social media platforms, running paid Ads, and various media publicity outreach. 
4. In-Kind Sponsorship: This type of event sponsorship involves using the company’s product to sponsor an event. These may include food or catering provisions and event venues. In addition, Tech and Digital organizations also offer their products to facilitate events. 

Thus, before you enter into that sponsorship agreement with your sponsor, it is important you consider the types of sponsorship that will benefit your event, as well as offer value in return to your sponsors.

How to get a sponsorship for an event 

Know the aim and objective behind your event. 

Getting sponsorship for an event is easy when you know what you aim to achieve with your events. Where objectives are set out before you pitch for sponsorship, it will help you recognize what needs your event aims to serve and answer key questions that may be asked by sponsors. If your event has unique selling points, it will help to convince sponsors why they should give their support. Eventtia says when you have knowledge of the theme, the overall vision, and the values of your event, it will help you identify potential sponsors. 

Identify Potential Companies willing to sponsor your event. 

There are several companies looking to sponsor events or go into event sponsorship partnerships. However, you cannot go with any sponsorship. You must evaluate the vision, the brand’s alignment with your audience, and the list of events they have sponsored in the past. Are the events in the same category as yours, and what has been the outcome of those events? The shortlisting of organizations with the same goal will fast-track how to get a sponsorship for an event. 

Prepare a Proposal letter for your Sponsors.

While talking to the inner circle of friends may be informal and get you easy sponsorship since they already know you and are willing to sponsor your event. Reaching out to the outer circle and organizations is required to be more formal. Thus, you must develop a mind-blowing proposal.  

A strong proposal sells your event fast to potential sponsors when you want to get a sponsorship for an event. Keep it concise and well-detailed. Eventbrite suggests using quality templates available across the internet that had been used by event organizers in your niche or allot time to create one from scratch. 

Offer Convincing reasons to Sponsors.

Sponsors will appreciate it if they can see other sponsors on board and what target audience your event commands. You should offer data to potential sponsors by informing them how many tickets have sold out for your events, the attendee demography and how frequently your event has been mentioned on social media, the wave it is generating, and other vendor booth owners that will grace your event. WildApricot emphasized the legitimacy of data presentation given to your potential sponsors. They will be willing to offer sponsorship to your event when they see you have enough data to present your claim. 

Leverage on Past Sponsors. 

Amelia is of the belief that keeping a connection with past sponsors is one of the ways to get a sponsorship for an event. Therefore, after an event has ended, you are advised to create a follow-up email pool for your sponsors. Reach out to them to show your appreciation and how their past sponsorship has had a great impact on your event. Inquiring about how the event increased its brand awareness is also crucial. 

You could go to the length of mentioning them in your social media appreciation post. This opens more sponsorship from them and other potential sponsors who know that their effort is being appreciated and given to society. As well as helping reach a larger target audience. 

Reach out to Local Sponsors 

The simplest and the easiest way to get a sponsorship for an event is to reach out to organizations in your community who are always ready and willing to sponsor events in their locality. Since local sponsors already know what your event and company stand for and the need to keep the local industry alive, they will give you all the backing you need. While reaching out for this sponsorship, be open to accepting all types of sponsorship as enumerated above.  

Consult with Digital Marketplace Tools for Event Sponsorship 

LookingForSponsor is a great platform where you can find event sponsors within your niche. It is reputed as one of the best tools for event organizers. It offers a wide range of companies looking to sponsor events. 

SponsorMyEvent is another great sponsor-finding platform. It is renowned to have worked for Forbes and TEDx. Hence it will be a great place to find sponsors for your events. 

At Peopleconnect, we have many organizations registered on our platform offering varying sponsorship opportunities for all event types. Our track record of helping Sponsors increase brand awareness, and reach their target audience is one of the reasons why sponsors choose our service to partner with event planners and organizers. Register with us today to get a sponsorship for your event.