Brand sponsorship is a marketing technique whereby brands contribute to social events to gain more exposure. Sponsorship combines corporate social responsibility with advertising to develop a deeper connection with the target audience.
How does it work?
Before you sponsor an event or pay an influencer, you should look at the reach of the recipient. Your primary objective is to persuade more people to engage with your brand. If you’re sponsoring a community event, find out how many people use your brand? More people means better sales. Spend money on something that will guarantee multiple leads.
Next, adopt a relevant method of advertising. If you sell an energy drink, sponsoring a sports event or team is ideal. Get into a win-win deal with the sports team to partly sponsor their brand. Ask the company to use your contingency stickers on their cars and in return you’ll give them rewards if they come out on top. Winning creates more exposure for your brand.
Spend money on something that will guarantee multiple leads. It’s critical to strategize where your money should go when sponsoring your brand. You could get more funding to help you in the future when needed by getting a car registration loan.
Another sponsorship method is product donations. Let’s say the local kids’ soccer team needs new uniforms and equipment. You can donate uniforms with your brand name and logo.
Another way to sponsor your brand is through cash donations. Write a check in your company’s name to a charity organization.
You can also approach influencers within your niche. This technique can be extremely effective, but it’s also the riskiest. Social media is filled with fake influencers looking to make a quick buck. They buy followers and steal other people’s posts to establish a following. Before you get into a deal with an influencer, find out if they’re genuine. Study their posts and profile. How often do they post? How many people reply to their posts?
Someone can have five hundred thousand followers, but get only one thousand people to comment or like their posts. On the other hand, another person can have ten thousand followers and have all of them like or comment on their posts. Here, you’re better off working with the influencer that has ten thousand followers because they have more engaged users.
When you Need Sponsorship
If your business is relatively new, you can benefit from sponsoring events. Sponsorship is the swiftest way to shift public perception in your favor. People don’t know what to think of you until you provide something of value to them. Sponsorship allows you to influence the buyer without asking them to purchase your products. The act of doing something that makes them happy helps you gain their favor.
Sponsorship is useful when you’re introducing a new product on the market. It helps to boost awareness and sales. For example, if you’re sponsoring an award ceremony, you can give the novel products to the top three best performers. ‘Exclusivity’ leads to more curiosity from the buyers. People will purchase the novel product because they want to grasp how the champions felt.
Products do well according to geographic regions. Sponsoring events in your best-selling areas can boost customer loyalty. You need sponsorship to retain customers. Show them you’re still around and always prepared to serve them.
What’s the Real Value of Brand Sponsorship?
With conventional advertising, you’ll spend thousands of dollars on billboards, television commercials, and online ads without the guarantee of a sale.
With sponsorships, you’ll invest an enormous fixed amount on an event, and reap maximum value through word-of-mouth referrals. The free merchandise given out at the event will consistently remind people of your brand and encourage them to buy long after you’re gone.
That’s the real value of sponsorships. It leads to long-term customer loyalty and less spending for the business.
Sponsorships help you forge relationships with the recipients. They allow you to understand the audience from their perspective. The audience also gets to learn more about you as a brand.
To conclude, sponsorship is a way for brands to advertise their products without urging people to buy from them. They are more social and less commercial. Here’s how it goes; the sponsor agrees to fund an event or project for the community and in return, they place their brand name and logo on all promotional items associated with the undertaking.
