Been getting a lot of questions about this topic lately so I decided to throw out some additional thoughts about getting a sponsor for your band. Remember, the most important part of this process is to approach it from a business point of view. What can you offer the potential sponsor that is worth the cost of money, products, or discounts? Are you creating a value proposition for them?
Target Audience: You need to have a firm understanding of what your target audience is and how it would relate to a potential sponsor. Are your fans the same kind of audience as the business you’re approaching or does it represent a new type of untapped market for them? Does the brand you’re approaching already have deep coverage in that audience (if so, how would it benefit them to sponsor you)?
More Than a Logo: Many musicians, athletes, and artists assume that offering the ability to display a company’s logo will get you sponsorship dollars. Not necessarily. Companies are looking for a partnership, it has to make sense with what kind of brand they are building. Think of creative ways that you can showcase their product/service with your audience. Try pitching some contest ideas that get your fans talking about their products, a video series of your favorite products that you use, etc. The more creative you are with the approach, the more they’ll see that working with you will provide a return on investment.
Who To Contact: In part 2, I went over what companies are looking for and how to approach them. So who should you approach? Almost always, you’re looking for the Director of Marketing or a Marketing Manager. Call the company and get a name first or use LinkedIn. If you are contacting a music instruments company, you’ll want to call Artist Relations. If it’s a smaller, local company, you’ll want to ask for the owner.
The Point of Your Email: Have a strategic plan on how you approach things. Try and remember, that the purpose of your email to the company is not to get a sponsorship. It is to get a phone call to talk more, an interview if you will, to present our ideas and go over reasons why the partnership makes sense. If you try and blanket companies with a sales pitch that does not entice them to want to call you more, the conversation will often end there. But if you give them an incentive to call you, even if just for a few minutes, you move from a one-sided conversation to a mutual discussion.
Got more questions on the subject? I can walk you through and help you develop a full plan through a personal consultation session.