Increase sales with Sponsorship

Sponsorship can be defined as supporting a person or entity in one way or another as part of a business strategy. 

Sponsorship can achieve the following business goals:

• Image enhancement.
• Customer loyalty.
• Brand awareness.
• Lead generation.
• Increased sales.
• Creating positive publicity and heightened visibility.

Keys to successful sponsorship:

1. Clearly define your objectives – what are you trying to achieve? It could be brand awareness, the opportunities to display their logo, extra sales, or networking. Sponsorship is a long-term relationship that works best with repetition, and as such many of the benefits come in the long term.
2. Know your audience and ensure your partner is aligned with your brand – small businesses should focus on local sponsorship such as sponsoring the local football club, neighbourhood art gallery, or a nearby suburban school event. The ideal sponsorship opportunity is a target audience of people that you could sell to (i.e. potential new customers), not people who you currently sell to
3. Value what you bring to the table – what can you contribute to the sponsee apart from money?
4. Having a 'no brainer' offer that will make leads immediately want to sign up is extremely important.
5. Look for ways to activate the sponsorship across all channels. 
6. Measure results and calculate the ROI. According to Eventbrite, most brands want to see a '2:1, 3:1 or even 4:1' return on their event sponsorship investment.