Sponsoring is working its way up in the ranking of marketing methods. No matter its size, almost every company tries to increase its visibility, improve its image or boost sales and sponsorship is increasingly being used for these purposes. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an investment with high financial figures or simply the provision of your own products in small quantities. Since the number of enterprises that sponsor events becomes larger, it is essential to stand out from the masses and improve the visibility of the own sponsoring as largely as possible. In the following, I will show you the simple methods you can use to raise your sponsorship to a new level.
1. Pay attention when choosing the events you want to sponsor
If you are interested in sponsoring a big event, you have to make sure that you don’t get lost in the crowd. Especially at large events, market-leading companies such as adidas and Nike could be listed as sponsors that have completely different financial means at their disposal, as it is the case with smaller companies. That’s why it makes more sense to sponsor smaller events where you can put your brand in the spotlight. Regional events are particularly suitable. In sports, for example, events in your hometown are a good fit for such purposes. There many participants will already be aware of your brand and you won’t be lost in the crowd. Furthermore, there aren’t as many sponsors as there are at big events.
2. Define your goal before going for a sponsoring
It is important that you do not simply plan without a clear roadmap. Set yourself a goal that you want to achieve. Only then you can determine the result of your sponsoring. If you do not do this, it can quickly happen that you use your funds, whether financial or factual, without any outcome. Goals can be set very differently. Some companies focus on the direct sales of their own products while others favor the increase of awareness or improving the image.
3. Pay attention to your ROI
Analyzing your sponsoring is an essential part. A big mistake that many companies make is that they invest in a sponsoring, but never determine the outcome. Conversely, this means that you have no idea whether the decision was successful or not. To prevent this you have to pay attention to your ROI (=Return on Investment). There are different methods for this. It’s easy if the organizer of the sponsored event uses a tool that directly determines the ROI and displays it in an uncomplicated way. However, this is rarely the case.
Some organizers already use tools that improve their own sponsoring by showing how many people were reached and even how many traffic or direct sales resulted from the sponsoring. Therefore, you should check with the event organizer beforehand whether such a tool is in use.
4. Stand out from the crowd
As mentioned above, it is very important that you don’t get lost in the crowd. You can prevent this by being one step ahead of your competitors.
Represent your company or your products in an innovative way. Think about something that your competitors don’t do or simply can’t do. Have you ever thought about using a digital sponsoring platform? In that way you do not only get the chance to easily find events that suit you, you also stand out from the sponsors who try to push through their classic, possibly outdated methods.
