6 Sponsor Placements to Make Their Investments Worth It

While there are so many different facets to running events, few are as important as funding it. And in the world of events, the odds are you’re likely using sponsors to help you get your event off the ground. However, getting them on board with your event is often no easy task. If you’ve done the hard work to identify sponsors that will work well for your event, pitch them and get them to sign on, then the next step is to make sure they’re happy with their investment. Especially if an organization or individual chooses to work with you over multiple years, keeping them happy and enjoying their time is vital — Since every sponsor has an ROI in the back of their head, the easiest way to keep them feeling good about signing on is to help them feel valuable and show your attendees the amazing help you’ve received to put on your event, by promoting them often. This week, we’ll be looking at some of the best sponsor placements to increase their ROI so that they leave your event feeling happy and that their time spent was worthwhile.

1 — Incorporate Their Branding into Your Event Materials

Once you have a sponsor onboard there is a lot you can do with just their logo to spread the word about working with them at your event.In fact, using their physical branding is not only the easiest way to incorporate sponsors into your event promotion materials, but it’s the easiest to see an immediate payoff from.For example:

• If you’re sending emails out in the weeks or months leading up to your event you can include a section for your sponsors’ logos at the bottoms of your emails. Likewise, you can also include emails into your sequence that share specific details of what your sponsors are contributing. Got a sponsor hosting an after event party? Or providing food for lunch? Send an email to build hype for attendees and promote their contribution.
• Include their branding on your physical banners and slides around your event. This is a great way to continue to share how your sponsors are contributing to your event once it starts. Likewise, if you have signs telling people where to go for workshops or announcing the speakers’ talks — you can put any relevant sponsors’ logos on those.
• Finally, the easiest way is to Include their logo into any relevant social media posts along with a link back to their site for attendees.

Ultimately, there are many ways you can begin incorporating their logos into your existing materials, so however you choose to do it is up to you.Just make sure you start as soon as possible, so that attendees have a chance to see who they are and build brand recognition by the time the event starts.

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2 — Use Attendees’ Social Media

Another super easy way for sponsors to feel valued is if their name can reach further than just your event itself. In the age of social media, it’s incredibly accessible to make sure that the sponsors of your event are getting adequate reach for their contributions. If you’ve incorporated gamifying elements to get attendees involved in your event, one super easy one to include is to tweet at a sponsor. Anytime you announce something a sponsor has contributed to your attendees, encourage them to tweet, like, or share the sponsor to help build more buzz about them. Likewise, for example, parties, food, or paid speakers.

3 — Give Them Access to Your Email List

Another simple way to have sponsors feel like their investment was worth it is by sending out an email to your list before the event, promoting them, discussing the capacity in which they’ve come on board for the event, and how attendees can work with the sponsor more. Depending on who your sponsors are and how they’re contributing, you might even share the list with sponsors or allow them to send an email newsletter out to your attendees before the event. Regardless of how you choose to incorporate email into your relationships with sponsors, these emails can be very valuable for helping sponsors build relationships with attendees before the event even starts, and make connections with a new group of people.

4 — Give Them Exclusive Booths

Booths are another really effective way for sponsors to meet and build valuable relationships with your attendees. If you are running the kind of event where you have a formal expo hall or multiple vendors alongside your sponsors, give your sponsors bigger booths, front and center. This will allow your attendees to see them easily. This can be especially valuable for your sponsors if there are other vendors selling alongside them. That said, if you’re not having an expo hall or vendor station, you can still give your sponsors exclusive booths around the event’s venue to promote from. For example, you can give them a booth outside the dining area or speaker hall, so that when attendees pass through, they can easily interact with the sponsor.

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5 — Give Sponsors the Stage

Another really valuable place for your sponsors to show up is as a speaker. If you’ve done the work of finding speakers that share your same target market, then the odds are they’d love to speak with attendees directly about what they’re doing, as well. Allowing sponsors to ‘take the stage’ by including them in your speaker lineup, is a great way to literally give them a chance to shine, make contact with all your attendees at once, and get information about their product out there. Often times, sponsors can tell case studies that would relate to your audience, showcase a related feature, or even share a story that helps build brand awareness and loyalty.

6 — Announce It Often

Above all, any time you can verbally recognize your speakers at your event will always go a really long way. To borrow the examples from above, if you have a sponsor who hosted a post-event party, you can make an announcement to the attendees thanking your sponsors. Or you can announce it often as you transition from one speaker to the next. However, you’re involving speakers in your event, make sure you’re thanking them often from the stage so that they continue to feel happy with their participation.

Final Thought

In the world of sponsors, there are so many possibilities. How you choose to work with them is always up to you. But, regardless of how you incorporate your sponsors, getting them known by your attendees is key. As you’re planning out how to use them, keep the one simple goal of ensuring that attendees know their name before the event, front and center in your mind. Then, once your event starts, you can transition that goal to making sure that they have interacted with every attendee at least once in some way, whether it be from the stage or personally. Maintaining these goals will help sponsors feel really valued, happy, and eager to join you again for another year.