How to Secure Sponsors for Your Corporate Event

Planning a corporate event involves countless decisions. What venue should be booked? What theme should be established? What are the A/V needs? But none of these matter unless you can answer: How is your corporate event going to be funded?

That’s where event sponsorships come into play. Event sponsors pay to support an event in exchange for exposure and branding opportunities.

So how do you go about finding, contacting and securing valuable sponsors?

Step 1: Determine If You Actually Need Sponsors

There is a lot to be gained from recruiting sponsors. It can help you build brand awareness, increase ticket sales and boost your brand’s image. But not every event needs sponsors to be successful.

Here are a few telltale signs that your event may stand to benefit from strategic sponsors:

• Your event goals require additional budget items not already accounted for in allocated funds.
• You need to build your customer base. Industry bloggers or top executives have audiences whose interests may overlap with your event. Bringing them on as your sponsors essentially transfers over that audience base to your event.
• Your event is brand new and/or your brand needs to build industry cred. Having sponsorships from established companies in your field is the best stamp of approval.

Step 2: Choose the Right Sponsors

The ideal sponsor will be as excited to work with you as you are to work with them. Creativity and elbow grease are required, but finding the right fit can be done – just follow these tips!

Identify Your Audience

To find sponsors that fit your audience, learn about your attendees — their interests, key behaviors, and spending habits.

Your event ticketing platform will be a good place to start with this. Depending on the information attendees provide when registering, you may already have a built-in database of demographics. This will also help you create a highly specific pitch for sponsors.

Create a Wish List

Make a long list of the types of companies that align with your fans’ expressed interests. For example, if your attendees like art, local galleries and supply stores should be on your list.

Leverage Online Tools

There is a wealth of online resources designed to take some of the hassle out of finding sponsors.

• Sponseasy: Identifies leads and designs proposals. You can use it to pitch, sell and close sponsorships.
• SponsorMyEvent: Helps facilitate relationships between sponsors and event planners.
• SponsorPitch: Allows you to search their database, use their CRM and export sponsor data.

Further Refine the List

Once you have an exhaustive list of all the possibilities in the art world, start to get granular. Scroll through their social media platforms and check their websites. What topics do they promote? Have they sponsored events before? Are they a company you would love to work with? Add a check to potential leads.

Then, look up events like yours and find out who sponsored them. Is there any overlap with the companies and your list? There’s a good chance your event will also interest those companies.

Event sponsor pitches and meetings are time-consuming, which is why it’s important to limit the number of brands that you’ll be reaching out to. Make sure you are only pursuing companies that truly represent the key goals of your upcoming event.

Step 3: Create an Event Sponsorship Proposal Letter

Once you have your shortlist of potential sponsors, it’s time to make the asks!

A strong proposal is what secures sponsors. It should be short, sweet and memorable while being supportive of your broader goals.

Your proposal letter (which can also be an email) should:

• Tell your company story. Strike a chord by making an emotional connection. Did your company have modest beginnings? Is it a family business still run by that family? These are the details that will make you stand in a crowd of sponsorship emails.
• Explain what you do. What’s your mission statement, and how does your company live up to it on a daily basis?
• Detail your audience. This one may matter the most because your potential sponsor will want to know that your event will help them reach even more potential customers!
• Mention connections. If you’re able, name drop. People are much more receptive if you’ve been referred to by someone they know and respect.
• Request a Meeting. It pays to be direct. By now, the potential sponsor should know who you are and what you’re doing. The last piece is being explicit about the desired call to action – a meeting or call to agree to a sponsorship.

Step 4: Offer Sponsorship Packages

Use packages to give partners a clear idea of how much to offer and what they can expect in return. Tiers help show how the benefits increase with the cost of sponsorship. They can also be a valuable way for you to secure various levels of sponsorship.

Step 5: Thank Your Sponsors

Once you have the necessary sponsors locked in, make sure they feel valued! It’s a simple way to promote positive word-of-mouth around your event and create lasting relationships.

• Thank them during the event. Take a few moments during the event to thank your sponsors. It will go a long way for them to get recognition while there is a room full of potential customers.
• Send a thank you note. Write a handwritten and personalized thank-you note after the event. This shows more effort than an email.
• Write a social media shoutout. In the age of social media, this will help sponsors feel valued across platforms and could even send more followers their way.

If that all seems time consuming, it’s because it is! But finding, contacting and securing sponsors will bring a much needed financial and promotion boost to your next corporate event.