When I was planning the Beautiful Women event eight years ago, I needed to fund the event without the cost coming out of my client’s pocket.
The event wasn’t complicated. I had to rent a ballroom, work with the hotel’s tech team to ensure the music, videos and microphones worked properly, and with their food and beverage team to provide hors d’oeuvres for the 150 guests.
How To Find Event Sponsors For Your Event
The event honored exceptional women in the city who came from all walks of life. With an event sponsorship proposal in hand, I decided to approach female run and female focused businesses that would fit with our goal and fit with being potential event sponsors long-term.
After all, the event had to be a win-win for everyone.
In today’s video I’m showing you 3 simple, but powerful steps to help you attract event sponsors for your events.
Whether you’re a pro at getting event sponsors or a complete newbie with no experience, your event is never too small to build sponsorship relationships. When you create an event sponsorship package to present to your clients, identify these eight points:
- Your target audience – who is attending your event and what type of event sponsors fit this market?
- Do you need different sponsorship levels? i.e.: Gold, Silver, Bronze
- Who is the key contact person – the person who says yes or no to sponsorship requests?
- Do you have a compelling sponsorship letter to send to potential event sponsors?
- When will you follow up and how? i.e.: via email, social media, telephone, in person, etc.
- Are you building a strong relationship with your event sponsors? How can you find common ground so it’s not just about business?
- Are there other team members that need to be identified that work with your potential sponsor? i.e.: their executive assistant (often the EA is the most important person in the whole process!)
- What kind of media will be at your event?
If you’re considering event sponsorship for your next event, today’s episode of EventPlanning BlueprintTV is for you because these steps work no matter how big or small your event is.
Now, I’d love to hear from you…
In the comments below, let me know 2-3 ways to build strong relationships with your event sponsors.
As always, thanks for joining me and for sharing this post with other event planners.
Hello,
I’m currently at the beginning of starting my business and so I have no sponsors I currently work with; however, once I do, I will certainly keep in touch via email and mailing thank you post cars along with small thank you gifts for their sponsorship. In addition, I will offer to do mass mailing thank you follow up emails to the group or event they have sponsored. I will also offer a pro Bono event for my sponsors to help solidify my relationship with them.
Thank you for the blog the information you shared was helpful.
All the best!!
Thanks for sharing, Patrice. Staying in touch with your sponsors and sending thank you letters and emails is important, and a nice touch. However, we’re not sure why you’d devalue your expertise by offering free events. This will make it very hard for you to stay in business and, in our opinion, it has the opposite affect to building strong sponsorship relationships. Besides, quality sponsors won’t expect you to work for free (they wouldn’t)!!