Posted on September 14, 2023

How to Get Sponsors for An Event: 5 Tips and Tricks

If you’re planning to host an event, one of the key issues on your mind will be how you fund it. The big companies can use their huge marketing budgets to fund their events, but small event creators may need help to get everything going. 

If you don’t have enough funds for your event, you can help through funded trading plus or sponsorship can be a great financing option. But getting sponsors to back your event is easier said than done. Your event sponsorship proposals will get rejected, while others will not get a response at all.

Luckily, this article shares useful tips and tricks to get sponsors for an event. With the strategies shared herein, you can convince the major corporations to loosen their purse strings and provide the funding you need for your event. 

How Event Sponsorships Works

Before we examine the tips and tricks to get sponsors for an event, let’s first understand how event sponsorship works. 

Event sponsors are organizations, companies, or even individuals who fund an event. The sponsor’s involvement in the event depends on the type of event and industry, but generally, an event sponsor will provide one or more of the following to the event planner:

• Funds
• Products or services
• Venue
• Credibility
• Publicity
• Other resources

This arrangement is largely considered a mutually beneficial one since the sponsor also enjoys a lot of perks for sponsoring an event such as:

• Brand exposure
• Promotion opportunities at the event
• Access to attendee data
• Discounted tickets
• Speaking opportunities at the event
• The opportunity to sell online courses at the event

The sponsor may also support an event to champion a cause they care about and build the brand’s credibility. 

As you can see, everyone benefits from this arrangement. With the right tips and tricks to get a sponsor for an event, you can easily find credible partners for your next event. 

Many players also believe that event sponsorship works, with 70% of industry professionals saying the industry is healthy. 

Image via SponsorPulse

Top 5 Tips and Tricks to Find Sponsors for an Event

Now, back to our main agenda, how do you find sponsors for your event?

Ideally, you want to partner with organizations that share something in common with your company. And with the following tips and tricks to get sponsors for an event, you can attract suitable partners who will support you with everything you need to make your event a success. 

1. Be Clear About Your Goals

First, what are you looking to gain from the sponsorship? Even if you’re only looking to get financing to put up a great event, not just any sponsor will do. 

Remember, the sponsor will use a brand kit generator to create branding elements plastered all over the event. As such, you only want to work with sponsors who match your brand goals and values. 

By defining your brand goals, it becomes easier to choose the right sponsor for your event. For example, if you are looking for a media sponsor, you can narrow down to the company that best aligns with your values. 

You don’t want to pick controversial sponsors since this could distract everyone from the event’s purpose. 

2. Identify Potential Sponsors From Closely-Related Events

This is one of the most important tips and tricks to get sponsors for an event. Identify similar events in your industry and find out who the sponsors are. 

What makes this a great strategy is that these sponsors have already shown they are interested in this kind of marketing. And with the right incentives, you can convince them to support your event. 

In addition, your audience already matches the types of users the sponsor wants to connect with. This makes pitching to get their backing a little easier since the sponsor is already aware of the benefits they can get from sponsoring your event. 

3. Write a Powerful Pitch

To get an organization to sponsor your event, you first have to send a sponsorship proposal to formally seek their support. Take this as an opportunity to highlight what makes your event worth sponsoring. 

You can paint the perfect picture for your event by adding the following details to your proposal:

• Your company story: Describe what makes your company so special. Do you have a unique brand story that sets you apart from other companies in the industry? Sharing this information will help you build an emotional connection with your target sponsoring company. 
• Share what you do: It’s also important to mention what you do in your proposal. This will help your potential sponsors see if you have similar commercial interests worth pursuing. 
• Share your user demographics: Lastly, you want to describe your target market and how that matches with that of your potential sponsor. This way, the sponsor will know they are connecting with the right users by sponsoring your event. 

While sharing the pitch, include your digital business card (check online resources for best digital card solutions) in your email signature. Add sponsorship forms, contact details, and social media handles making it easy for potential sponsors to reach out to you.

To write the best proposal for sponsorship pitch, ensure to use the right tools. This Attrock post reviews some of the top content writing tools you can rely on to write a compelling pitch. 

4. Offer Incentives

Next, our tips and tricks to get sponsors for an event is to offer them incentives. Sponsors want to get as much as possible from this arrangement and will be looking to see what incentives you’re offering them. 

So, what incentives do you have for your sponsors to encourage them to support your event? The following tips and tricks to get sponsors for an event would come in handy:

• Give the sponsor a free booth if you’re hosting a trade show or exhibition
• Add the sponsor’s name and logo on the event marketing materials such as flyers and promotional banners
• Give discounts to customers who buy the sponsor’s products or services
• Mention the sponsor in your email newsletter, blog, and social media posts
• Ask your followers to follow the sponsor on social media 
• Always use a business email address that includes your company name and looks like yourname@yourdomain.com while reaching out to your probable or converted sponsorship brands. These email addresses give a better open rate and make you stand out in the cluttered inbox

By making it clear to the sponsor that they have a lot to gain from your event, you increase your chances of getting their support for your upcoming event. 

5. Use Data to Convince Your Sponsors

Your potential sponsors have their own goals and you can use data to convince them that sponsoring your event is a worthwhile investment. 

If you have hosted a similar event in the past, use data analytics from the event to show the sponsors what they can get by funding your event. 

The key data points you should share in your proposal include:

• Revenue past sponsors earned from your event
• Past event attendance numbers (registrants vs check-ins)
• Social media engagement data
• Potential audience reach
• Audience demographics

Providing this type of data shows potential investors the kind of ROI they can look forward to when they choose to fund your event. 

Conclusion

Getting sponsorship for your event often seems like an unattainable task. However, with the tips and tricks to get sponsors for an event highlighted in this post, you can easily convince potential sponsors to fund your event. 

Remember that sponsors have their own goals and you need to clearly show what they will gain by sponsoring your event. 

The author Gaurav Sharma is the founder and CEO of Attrock, a results-driven digital marketing company. Grew an agency from 5-figure to 7-figure revenue in just two years | 10X leads | 2.8X conversions |  300K organic monthly traffic. He also contributes to top publications like HuffPost, Adweek, Business 2 Community, TechCrunch, and more.