This guide walks through 11 steps for landing event sponsors, from building a prospect list to signing the agreement.
Key Takeaways
- Companies sponsor events that reach the customers they already sell to, so build your target list around your attendee profile first.
- Sponsorship packages sell better when you offer several price tiers plus in-kind options like product, printing, or venue space.
- A sponsorship proposal should include attendee numbers, audience demographics, results from past events, and a price next to every deliverable.
- Most sponsorship agreements close after a second or third contact, not after the first email.
Event sponsors can help cover costs like the venue, sound system, catering, signage, and attendee giveaways. But sending the same sponsorship request email to dozens of big brands usually doesn’t work. Companies get plenty of requests to sponsor events, so they’re more likely to say yes when your event puts them in front of people they want to reach.
You need to show them exactly who will attend your event, why those attendees matter to their business, and what they will get in return if they do sponsor your event. This in-depth guide covers how to get sponsors for an event when other organizers are competing for the same marketing budget.
11 Steps To Get Sponsors for an Event
Landing event sponsors usually takes three to six months of work before your doors open. The following steps cover that work in order, beginning with how to decide which companies to contact.
1. Target Companies That Match Your Audience
Start by creating an attendee profile, which is a short written description of who buys your event tickets. Use your past ticket orders or registration form answers to identify the age range, job titles, income level, and cities that come up most often.
If you haven’t held the event before, start by figuring out who’s likely to attend. You can look at the audience for a similar local event or talk directly to people in your target group. Then make a list of companies that already sell to that audience.
For a 300-person craft beer festival, that could include local breweries, glassware brands, food trucks, rideshare companies, and nearby hotels. For a small local event, local and regional businesses are usually better prospects than large national brands.
2. Research Sponsors of Similar Events
Build a second list from events like yours that were held in the past two years. Search the event name plus the word “sponsors,” then check the event website, the printed program, photos of banners on social media, and any recap posts.
Write down every company logo you see and the year it appeared. Those companies have already approved a sponsorship budget for events in your niche. Contact the repeat sponsors first, since a company that came back three years running has a process for approving these deals.
3. Use Your Network for Warm Introductions
Look for people in your network who can introduce you to potential sponsors. Check your vendors, past speakers, volunteers, board members, regular ticket buyers, and local chamber of commerce contacts, then compare their LinkedIn connections with your prospect list.
If someone knows the right person at a company, ask for a warm introduction, where they pass your name along directly. Make it easy by giving them the exact name of the person you want to reach, explaining that you’re trying to get sponsors for an event, and providing two sentences about your event they can copy and forward. The goal at this stage is simply to get connected with the person who handles event sponsorship decisions.
4. Use LinkedIn To Find Potential Sponsors
When nobody can introduce you, use LinkedIn to find the person who handles event sponsorships. Open the company’s LinkedIn page, click the People tab, and search job titles like “marketing manager,” “brand partnerships manager,” “sponsorship manager,” or “community relations manager.” At a company with fewer than 20 employees, the owner or general manager may make the decision.
Add the person’s name, job title, LinkedIn profile, and email address, if you can find it, to your prospect list. You’ll use that information when you’re ready to send your sponsorship pitch.
5. Use Audience Data To Prove Value
Show potential event sponsors exactly who they can reach by supporting your event. Pull together the numbers that demonstrate the size and value of your audience.
Useful data can include:
- Total attendance and ticket sales
- Email list size and open rates
- Social media follower counts
- Website traffic
- Attendee age ranges and locations
- Past sponsor results, such as booth leads or product samples distributed
- Presale numbers and RSVPs for a first-time event
Use the strongest numbers in your sponsorship pitch rather than overwhelming companies with every metric you have. The goal is to show that your event reaches an audience the sponsor wants to reach.
6. Offer Valuable Sponsorship Opportunities
When you try to get sponsors for an event, you need to give potential sponsors clear benefits that make your event worth supporting. Think about which parts of your event give a sponsor visibility, access to attendees, or a chance to promote its products.
Possible sponsorship benefits include:
- A logo on event signage, tickets, or the event page
- A booth or table at the event
- A speaking slot or panel appearance
- Permission to hand out product samples
- Mentions in emails to attendees
- Social media posts
- Naming rights for a stage, lounge, or after-party
Match each benefit to your event promotion timeline so sponsors know when their logo will appear and how often they will be featured. Only promise benefits you can reliably deliver and track.
7. Create Flexible Sponsorship Packages
Give potential event sponsors a few package options at different price points. For example, a $500 supporting package might include a logo on the event page and one social post, while a $10,000 presenting package could include naming rights, a booth in a high-traffic area, and a dedicated email to attendees.
Price each package based on the value of the benefits and access to your audience, then offer custom packages for companies that want something different.
8. Offer In-Kind Sponsorships
Ask event sponsors for goods or services when cash isn’t the best fit. In-kind sponsorships can cover costs you would otherwise have to pay yourself.
For example, you could look for in-kind sponsors that can provide:
- Event signage
- Food for volunteers
- Event photography
- Software licenses for your team
Be specific about what you need, how much you need, and when you need it. Assign a dollar value to anything you receive so you can track how much the sponsorship saves your event.
9. Create a Strong Sponsorship Proposal
Give potential event sponsors a short proposal they can easily share with the person who approves the budget. Keep it focused on the information a company needs to decide whether the event is a good fit.
Include:
- The event name, date, and location
- Expected attendance
- Audience details
- Sponsorship packages and prices
- Results you can prove from past events
- Photos from previous events, if available
- Previous sponsors, if relevant
- A deadline for signing
- Your name, phone number, and email address
Keep the proposal easy to scan instead of filling it with unnecessary details. You can create it in Canva or Google Slides and export it as a PDF to send with your sponsorship outreach.
10. Personalize Your Sponsorship Outreach
Send each potential sponsor a pitch that clearly explains that you’re trying to get sponsors for an event and why yours makes sense for their business. Before reaching out, spend a few minutes on the company’s website and social accounts and look for a specific connection between the company and your attendees.
That could include:
- A product your attendees would use
- A customer group that overlaps with your audience
- A recent marketing campaign
- Another event the company has sponsored
- A local market the company wants to reach
Mention that connection in your opening, then explain why your audience is worth reaching, recommend the sponsorship package that fits best, and include the price. Keep the message short, attach your sponsorship proposal, and end with a clear next step, such as asking for a 15-minute call.
11. Follow Up With Potential Sponsors
Follow up more than once if a potential event sponsor doesn’t respond to your first message. Send another email after five to seven business days, then try a phone call or LinkedIn message if needed. Give them a reason to pay attention by adding something new each time, such as an updated ticket count, a newly confirmed speaker, or a sponsorship package that has sold out.
Track each prospect in a spreadsheet, including the date you last contacted them and what you need to do next, such as send a follow-up email, make a call, or wait for a response. If a company says no because of timing or budget concerns, ask when it plans sponsorship spending so you know when to reach out about a future event.
Manage Sponsored Events With Evey Events
Once you know how to get sponsors for an event, you need to deliver what you promised and show sponsors what they got from the partnership. That means selling tickets, collecting attendee information, displaying sponsor branding, and tracking event results.
Evey Events helps you manage those tasks inside your Shopify store, from creating tiered ticket types and custom registration forms to adding sponsor logos to tickets and confirmation emails and scanning guests in at the door.
After the event, your ticket sales and attendance data can help prove the value of your audience when you approach sponsors again. Install Evey Events, a Shopify events app built for merchants, and start selling tickets for your next sponsored event.
