Finding High-Value Sponsorship Assets

I’ve been talking a lot about sponsorship assets and valuations on the blog lately, and I’m not done yet. Today, I want to take you inside a training lesson I offered to those in my private Sponsorship Collective Facebook group.

If you’re not a member of that group, you really can benefit from joining, especially if you’re a first-time or second-time sponsorship seeker who’s still learning the ropes.

But I digress. I want to make this training more public because there are some true gems that can help you track down which among your assets are the most valuable and thus the most appealing to a target sponsor. 

By the time you’re done reading, sorting assets into properties shouldn’t be such a challenge. 

Let’s not waste any time then!

Where Are Your Assets on the Value Scale?

In my Facebook training, I talked about the value scale of sponsorship assets.

The value scale follows what is a standard sales funnel for a company that offers a product or service. Allow me to explain.

• Awareness: This is the beginning stage of the funnel. Through a company’s advertising and marketing methods, a lead has become aware of the company and perhaps its products and services as well. They don’t know anything about the company at this point, but they do know it exists.
• Lead generation: Now that a company has begun spreading awareness, they need to bring in a consistent influx of leads. Ideally, these should be qualified leads or those who know about the company as well as its products and services. A qualified lead usually has a good idea of product/service pricing and is readier to buy. Unqualified leads will inevitably come through as well, but these leads can jump off the sales funnel at any point and for seemingly any reason.
• Conversion: Through nurturing and engaging the lead, the company convinces the lead to make a purchasing decision. The goal is to convert the person from a qualified or unqualified lead into a regular paying customer. 
• Sales: Once a company has a roster of customers, the goal is to increase the number of customers while also increasing the loyalty of the current customer base. This is how a company accrues sales that pad its bottom line and allow for financial growth and success. 

If you have a list of assets, I want you to take a look at it right now. Rather than think of categorizing your assets using the same old exhausted gold, silver, bronze methodology, I want you to begin thinking about where on a figurative sales funnel your assets would fall.

Let’s use the classic example of logos. I’m sure you have logos on your assets list, as many beginner sponsorship seekers do. At this point in your sponsorship journey, you might not know any better.

Now it’s time to ask, what can a logo do? Can a logo drive awareness? Yes.

Can a logo bring in leads? Not on its own, no. Can it convert leads into customers? Certainly not. Can a logo make sales? Nope.

Thus, a logo is only good for one part of the sales funnel at the very beginning, and that’s awareness. As you go along those sales funnel steps from awareness to sales, each step becomes increasingly more high-value.

Thus, an asset that can only bring awareness is going to be very low-value. 

Now, that doesn’t mean all your assets have to directly lead to sales for your sponsor. It would be awesome if they could, but that’s not always possible.

Rather, you want assets that can bring in leads or convert them into customers. 

Let’s use another example. This time, one of the assets you have is product placement. 

Now it’s time to ask those questions again. Can product placement increase awareness of your sponsor company? You betcha. Can product placement act as a form of lead gen? Yes, it can.

Can product placement convert customers? Sure! Can product placement lead to more sales? If there’s a good alignment between the partner companies, then yes.

Thus, product placement would be a high-value asset, especially compared to logos. 

Examples of Low-Value, High-Value, and Premium-Value Assets

The above examples of logos and product placement are two assets of many. If you’re new to compiling assets into properties, then you might want more examples, especially of what constitutes a low-value asset. I’m here to deliver.

Low-Value Sponsorship Asset Examples

Let’s start with the assets that aren’t worth much in your sponsorship package. These assets, as you’ll notice, mostly increase awareness, which is why their value is low. 

Let me be clear. That doesn’t necessarily mean you want to forego these assets altogether, but be aware that you won’t fetch a large sum for them.

• Sponsor mentions: Even if you were a Fortune-500 company (which I’m assuming you’re not), mentioning your sponsor alone is not going to achieve many of their goals. You’re not increasing lead gen and you’re certainly not converting leads.
• Social media posts: As important as social media is in our day-to-day lives, social media posts are fairly low-value in the grand scheme of sponsorship asset valuations. The posts raise awareness and that’s about it. 
• Signage or logos: I don’t really have to talk about this, as I’ve been doing so throughout this article already. I must reiterate though that whether it’s logos or any other type of signage, it’s not a high-value asset in the slightest. 
• Marketing material distribution at an event: Distributing marketing materials once your event is full is not going to do your sponsor any favors. This is no different than signage in that it raises awareness and that’s it. Plus, you or someone on your team has to go through a lot of manual effort handing out materials. 
• Logos on your website: If a logo in an event space isn’t going to cut it, then neither is a logo on your website. I’d argue this asset is even lower-value than event signage. 
• Inclusion in a press release: Name-dropping your sponsor in a press release is another example of a very low-value asset. All you’re doing is introducing the sponsor to your audience, but not converting your audience to the sponsor. 
• Branded clothing: Branded clothing makes a fun giveaway or maybe a contest prize for a third-place or fourth-place winner, but as far as assets go, it’s not that great. A branded shirt or tote bag is a free promotion, but it’s not bringing in customers. 
  

High-Value Sponsorship Asset Examples

Now let’s look at some more examples of what I would say constitutes high-value assets. These are assets that you want to try to present to a target sponsor if they’re appropriate in your sponsorship program.

• Speaking opportunities: A speaking opportunity at a sponsored event does more than raise awareness about the sponsor company. It gets people curious as they listen to the speech. A really good speech–or at least a good follow-up with samples and marketing materials–could even lead to conversions on the spot. You could earn a lot of sponsorship dollars!
• Media partnerships: A press release might not be very helpful if you want to present a target sponsor with high-value assets, but a media partnership can be. Since you’re getting the media involved, the sponsor’s reach is exponentially larger. 
• Content on your website: I’ve established that a logo on your website alone won’t really do much for a target sponsor, but tailored content can. A series of posts on your blog about the sponsor’s products or services or even a guest post written by them whets the appetites of your readers. They’ll learn who the sponsor is and what they sell and then potentially be eager to sign up for the sponsor’s email list or even make a purchasing decision. 
• Broadcasting rights: With broadcasting rights, the scope of your event can go further, which is quite appealing to the right sponsor. 

Premium-Value Sponsorship Asset Examples

Although I don’t expect you to offer premium-value assets in your first sponsorship deal or even the second, third, fourth, or fifth, you can eventually aspire to work your way up there. 

These assets are completely exclusive in that the sponsor cannot purchase the assets anywhere else. You will have to work that much harder to deliver these assets as promised, but they will lead to the biggest influx of sponsorship dollars.

• New customer or client acquisition: As I always like to say, as a sponsorship seeker, you’re more of a marketer than a salesperson. It’s usually not your job to sell to the audience. You just want to present the right audience to a sponsor and let the chips fall where they should. Yet in some instances, you can directly offer new customers to a sponsor. This is extremely valuable, as I’m sure you can imagine! 
• Naming rights: Naming rights are another premium-value asset. From event naming rights to the rights to name a building wing or even an entire building after a sponsor company, these kinds of deals can sometimes net millions of dollars (at least in the realm of sports sponsorship).
• Lead capture: Do you have a reliable method for capturing leads directly that a target sponsor might be interested in? If so, then you could be raking in the big bucks as far as sponsorship dollars are concerned.

Why You Need a Combination of Assets in Your Sponsorship Package

Sometimes sponsorship seekers read my take on logos and assume that all logos are bad. As I said before, that’s not true. 

When compiling your assets into properties, you don’t need to skip the low-value assets entirely. They have their place. I’m not categorizing them as low-value so you omit them from your sponsorship package.

Rather, I’m categorizing those assets as low-value so you know what to expect. You’re never, ever going to rake in a lot of sponsorship dollars with a logo. That’s all there is to it.

This can cause some sponsorship seekers to get stuck on assets that increase lead gen or conversions. I agree this is a good place to focus your attention, but not exclusively.

If all your assets focus on lead gen, then what are you doing? You’re not marketing for the sponsor company. You’re not offering sponsorship. You’re offering lead gen. 

This is to the detriment of the other services you could provide to the target sponsor, which yes, would include awareness.

When you get stuck in one area of the sales funnel, be it lead gen or awareness, even if the area you’re stuck in is higher value, you’re still stuck.

The real magic of sponsorship assets comes when you combine services. You look at how the average sales funnel works, and you categorize your assets into low-value or high-value offerings. Maybe you even have some premium-value assets, but I’m assuming that’s not the case.

Then you offer that mix of assets. A lower-value asset isn’t necessarily lower-value because it’s combined with a higher-value asset, but when the two mix, you get enough sponsorship revenue to host your event or otherwise achieve your goal. 

Conclusion

When determining which assets are low or high-value, I recommend looking at the average sales funnel. If your assets only increase awareness of a sponsor company, then they’re not very valuable.

Assets that can raise awareness, as well as boost lead gen and possibly conversions, are much more valuable. 

Even still, you need a good mix of both low-value and high-value assets to create a tantalizing sponsorship menu!