Cause marketing is a great way to raise money for a cause and build brand recognition, for both the charity and corporate entity. These cause marketing campaigns typically involve a cashier asking customers for a donation for a specific cause at checkout. Often, paper “pinups” accompany these types of cause marketing campaigns, marking each customer’s donation and decorating the store.
In part one of this series “Sponsorship and Cause Marketing: Common Mistakes” we took a look at sponsorship and some of the things holding back the small shop in that area. In this article, we are going to turn our attention to cause related marketing for the small shop.
This post is aimed primarily at the charity and non profit. For my private sector and sports team readers…next week we will be back at it with some tricks of the trade for you. This one’s for the charities! Thanks to my good friend Mena Gainpaulsingh of Purposeful Fundraising Inc. for guest posting and sharing her expertise!
I am asked constantly how to find sponsorship prospects, how to find the right people and how to get prospects to take a call or meeting. My answer is to go back to the principles of sales. People buy from people! Cold calls have a terrible success rate and leading with the sponsorship package is a one way ticket to the recycle bin.
Sponsorship can seem complex and even random at times- sometimes technique A works, other times, technique B does the trick and sometimes, seemingly for months on end, nothing seems to work at all! There is, however, a way to change the odds, and it is surprisingly formulaic. If you want to know how to get sponsorship or how to keep the sponsors you currently have, try the following nine steps: Never go in Sponsorship Proposal First Sacrilege, I know! “Send me a sponsorship proposal” is code for “no thanks” and when you go in proposal first you go right to the no. You certainly shorten the sales cycle but you don’t get the answer you want. Making your prospects read a sponsorship package full of assumptions and hope they find something that appeals to them does not lead to a strong close rate. Instead, have a conversation with your prospects about their sponsorship goals and find out what makes them tick. Ask them what they want to see in a sponsorship package! Want to know how to get sponsorship? Ask your sponsors! Questions, Questions and More Questions! The only time to speak in a sponsorship meeting is when your sentence ends […]
I recently did a presentation for a group of fundraisers, community centre CEOs and sponsorship sales professionals in the sport and for-profit space focused on sponsorship realities that every sponsorship property needs to know. In today’s post, I am going to share the insights from that invite-only presentation. In no particular order, here are sponsorship realities that people just aren’t talking about.
In my post “A Tale of Two Cause Marketing Campaigns” I talked about the differences between two companies and their cause marketing strategies. I also talked about how those strategies played out, leading to a significant difference in money raised.
Sponsorship is an essential components of any corporate fundraising strategy. If you aren’t doing sponsorship as part of your fundraising plan, you should be! When working with clients, I see some some misconceptions come up again and again, and while this post is targeted at the small shop, I think all shops can relate. Before you dive in, if you are involved with a charity or a non profit looking for sponsorship, check out these titles in our “sponsorship for causes” series: Cause Marketing versus Corporate SponsorshipDefinitive Guide to the Sponsorship ProposalThe Biggest Problem with Sponsorship and How You Can Fix ItThree Things Missing From Every Sponsorship PackageCorporate Social Responsibility a Users Guide for NonprofitsHow to Start a Sponsorship Program for Your Nonprofit3 Most Common Barriers To Good Cause SponsorshipThings Sponsors Say: “We Don’t do Sponsorship”What I Wish I Knew at the Beginning of My Sponsorship Career
Once you’ve identified your sponsorship prospects, your next goal is to set up a discovery session. This first meeting doesn’t always take place in person, especially anymore. You can have the discovery session on the phone or through Facetime, Zoom, or any other popular video-chatting platform. After you break the ice with that well-timed and well-practiced joke, it’s time to talk business. The following eleven questions will help you pinpoint whether your prospect could be a viable partner. Who Is Your Target Audience? The first question pertains to your prospect’s target audience. As a note, if you’re not already crystal-clear on your own audience, then this question is as good as useless. The whole point in asking about the prospect’s target audience is to see if any of your audience segments match. You can’t do that without having priorly segmented your audience. You know me, I recommend niching your audience down as much as you can. Think of your audience as an ingredient that you’re putting through a strainer. If the sieve holes are large, that’s a broad audience segment. By using increasingly smaller strainers, you get very fine particles, which are akin to your segmented, niched-down audience. This post […]