What You Don't Know About Is Costing You A Fortune! – Here's The Straight Scoop On How To Make money from sponsoring events!
Have you ever been invited to put up a booth at an event – big or small and then realized that you don’t have a booth yet?
Or you throw together a couple of signs and a bowl with candies to put on a table and call it a booth. Or graduate you bring brochures and collect
everyone’s business cards – hoping to get a ton of leads! Oh if it only worked that easily.
Most of us have done this to varying degrees of success and failure. Some have spent time and money sponsoring events and learning lessons the hard way. Some have just stuck with the low-cost local events. The local community, the local business association or meetup group. These can often even turn up a few good leads.
But what about sponsoring on a bigger stage? What about sponsoring at events with 300-400 people that are your exact target market? Have you tried those events yet? What were your results? Were you more prepared than the pop-up signs and a bowl to collect cards?
Some of the large events charge thousands of dollars to sponsor. What is the likelihood that you can get a return on those events without a proper strategy? This is often where business owners often get their first real lessons in sponsorship. This experience can make or break your business success. Because doing a big event right enables you to make back the expense before you arrive home. But it does take some skill.
And the truth about those events is that “What you don’t know, is costing you a fortune!”
- Do you know who the target market is? And what problem this event is solving?
- What does it cost an individual to attend this event? Why is that even important to you?
- How many people are they guaranteeing to attend? What was the final day’s attendance last year?
- How many sponsors are repeat sponsors? How many of them are clients of the host?
- Can I sell merchandise at the event, or back of the room?
- What are the various sponsorship levels and how many of each are you accepting?
These are just some of the things that you need to consider before you even sign a contract. And yes a good event will have a contract. If they are asking you to put out money to sponsor and don’t have a contract that should be a BIG RED FLAG. Don’t go there! A major sign of an amateur event organizer is no contracts. From these events, you won't get the quality or quantity of leads that a great event can supply.
But:
- even if you know how to plan and layout a booth with precision,
- even if you have a great offer at the booth,
- even if you have a great follow up system for every day that you are at the event.
- YOU will still lose money if you don’t know how to compete at the event. There is lots of other “noise” at the event – speakers, sponsors, competition. And you are competing for the same dollars! But the first step is to get them into your booth! Have a plan for this.
So Here's The Straight Scoop On How To Make money from sponsoring events!
Start by knowing everything about yourself. Know your company; your clients, and what problems you solve.
Get working on it at least 3 months before the event. There are a lot of moving parts to put into place. And use this time to get the most from the social media engine that will be built around the event.
Get to know the speakers, the other sponsors, and the value that each of them brings. You will not be the solution for every prospect and neither will they, so how can you support each other. What makes you unique and how can you differentiate yourself and still support others?
Remember that at these events everyone is selling. The speakers are selling. The host is selling something. The other sponsors are selling. How can you piggyback on their successes too? What can you offer, create, combine to get the most for everyone? And have special event bonuses for fast action takers.
Your booth is about your prospects. How do they need to see/hear/interact with your information? How can you make it more fun and engaging to get people to participate with you?
Everything in your booth will attract or REPEL people. And they will form this measurement in seconds, while still 20 feet away from your booth. So your signage will have a huge impact. Make the messaging clear for their problem/solution and readable from 20 feet.
A Booth is a great place to connect and build a foundation for a relationship. Selling will happen naturally if you are well prepared.
Remember the AIDA formula.
ATTENTION: What steps can you take to draw them into your booth?
INTEREST: Do you have opening lines to engage prospects when they approach?
DESIRE: How can you entice your prospects to want more?
ACTION: Yours will determine your success. Shaking hands and making them welcome goes a long way. Don't be sitting hidden behind a table and waiting for someone to talk with you.
Know the right questions to ask. You will need to identify a prospect from a tire kicker from a job seeker – because they all will be at these events. And the right questions will help categorize them faster.
Keep notes on every contact. You may remember things well. But can you keep track of 100-200 conversations that happen in 2-3 days? That is why you need notes. Make them detailed enough that you can follow up the day after the event? Or after a travel day and jet lag?
Follow-up – know how you will do this before you go. How are you following up? How can the leads be input while you are traveling, or at the event? Who is responsible? Delays here can mean $1000’s of dollars. If the event is a multi-day event then you need to take extra steps. Because you may talk with people on day one, and they may talk to everyone else for the rest of the event. Do you need to plan something for staying “top of mind” while they are talking with your competitors?
AND here is the biggest money maker of all – Book off at least one day and call to follow up with all your leads while they are still hot. Events have their own energy around them. But once people return home, then prospects lose some of that excitement and energy. Sales are much less likely to close, the longer the delay to connect.
These are just some of the points that can make the difference in how to sponsor an event and make money doing it. Event sponsorship is one of the fastest ways to grow your business and your list. Events help create authority and lead to bigger opportunities. Authority and opportunities can grow your business faster than any other method. But like everything – this needs strategy and forethought to succeed.
Event sponsorship is such an important tool for coaches and consultants. And so we have developed a full course on how to sponsor events to grow your business. To join the course click here.