How To Keep a Good Relationship With Event Sponsors
Event Sponsors can be likened to being the heartbeat of any event, especially if event organizers are solely depending on the funds from sponsors to fly that event. Keeping an event sponsor happy begins long before the event, during and after the event.
For you to ensure that you have a pool of sponsors that you can always reach out to, you must learn how to keep a good relationship with every event sponsor that supports your event (or prospect ones). Like they say, how you handle small things would determine how you handle bigger things.
So here are some tips to keep in mind when next you get an event sponsor so that you keep getting more sponsors…
Identify Actual Need
- Don’t come with a mindset that all event sponsors would have the same expectation. No. It is your responsibility to find out what they are looking for. You need to understanding the sponsor's purpose, goals, and brand.
- Ask regularly: who is the person behind the company? What do they want? And, what’s their objective? What are their expectations? Listen, be flexible and open.
- Always ask how can you as an event organizer can help achieve their needs, instead of coming to sponsors with an already curated package that potentially doesn’t quite fit what they’re looking for.
- Do not send out a generic sponsorship package or plan a generic pitch, if you intend to do a presentation. Do your research, understand their market, the business sector, and the way your opportunity fits into theirs. This would help you plan for the next stage
Creatively Actualize their Needs
- This is where you have to integrate event sponsors organically into the event. This can be done to almost any scale, from branded drinkware to branded entertainment, to transforming entire spaces into experiences and so on.
- Event sponsors are a part of everything, whether it’s having special drinks or food or entire food stations named after them, or having an experience that lets people interact with their brand in a natural way. For example, a phone charging station, photo booth where thy get to take pictures free (You can use the AllEvents Selfie Mirror Photo booth which can be branded to suit your brand). It’s not just about having their logos on banners or their names being announced on the stage.
- For some other sponsors, it might be getting someone to tweet or Instagram on their behalf. Some Companies will prefer a certain number of tweets or Facebook/Instagram posts throughout the event because they feel it is likely to have more impact for them than what you might be planning.
- It is also important that if there was a signed documentation between your brand and the event sponsor, be sure to carry out all agreed terms so you can please the sponsors fully. If there’s anything in the agreement you do not understand feel free to request for more clarifications.
Learn To Pamper Event Sponsors
- Upon agreeing to sponsor your event, they would always have a certain level of expectation from you. Try to beat it, with this you would get their attention and gain their trust.
- See your event as an extension of the company, to be able to discover ways to make them experience it. Provide a higher level of service and attention to their needs. There are many ways to accomplish this providing a different size, setting, or location of their table, even slightly elevating them so they’re higher than the rest of the room.
- Carry your event sponsors along through every important stage of progress of the event you are planning, they could provide helpful suggestions as well. Make them feel like they are a part of the planning process, like it is their event as well.
- Consistently ask, as often as possible, if they are satisfied with the plans you have made for them. Don’t leave them in the dark about anything that concerns their brand. Have someone dedicated to following up on your sponsors and giving them updates about the events and your plans as it unfolds.
- Go the extra mile by also providing sponsors with detailed report about the event as proof of return on investment (ROI). It is important to be very honest about this report and not to fabricate lies. Anyone who invested time or money to support your event deserves to know more about their investment, however large or small.
- You could follow this up with a thank you note with meaningful gifts or whatever that is within your budget just to show appreciation after the event for their timely support.
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