Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Attracting Corporate Sponsorships with Linda Hollander

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Attracting Corporate Sponsorships with Linda Hollander · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff,
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
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  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small biz lady herself.
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  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everyone.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady.
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  Is number 1 small business expert, and I would like to welcome you tonight to small biz chat.
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  Our mission on small biz chat is to end small business failure.
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  Now I created small business chat to give our loyal small business audience an opportunity to
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  see the guests, not just read all the great information that our guests have to offer.
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  So if you're ready to take your business to the next level, I have an amazing show for you
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  tonight.
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  Now I wanna make sure that you're getting what you need when it comes to corporate
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  sponsorships.
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  And that's why I invited my next guest, Linda Hollander, when I first met her, she used to go
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  by the wealthy bank lady, but now she the sponsor concierge.
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  Right?
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  So now she's fancy.
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  Right?
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  So I'm so excited to have Linda here with us tonight because she is an expert on corporate
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  sponsorships.
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  And as the sponsor concierge, she helps businesses from nonprofits to businesses get
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  corporate sponsorship.
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  She has over 20 years of experience, and she has gotten sponsorship from everybody from
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  brands that you know.
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  Microsoft Citibank, FedEx, Bank of America, America Airlines, Staples, IBM.
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  You name it this lady has gotten a check from him.
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  So we need to listen to her because she knows what it takes to attract corporate sponsorships
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  to your brand.
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  So Linda, Welcome to small business chat lock.
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  Great to be here.
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  Thanks.
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  Now listen, when it comes to getting sponsorships, How do you identify potential
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  sponsors for your brand?
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  Okay.
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  Well, the definition of corporate sponsorship is connecting a company to people who buy
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  things.
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  So that's how you identify your sponsors.
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  It's all about your demographics It's all about your audience, and I always say that
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  demographics are your destiny with sponsors.
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  So say somebody like you has an audience of entrepreneurs.
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  Companies that would be good sponsors for you are banks.
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  Office supply retail, shipping, telecommunications, think of the daily
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  lifestyle of your audience and your demographics.
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  They get in a car.
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  They brush their teeth.
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  They wash their hair.
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  So there's personal care products too, food, beverage, All kinds of companies could be your
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  sponsors, but it's all about your audience.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  And I have had the opportunity to be to attractcorp sponsors to my brand for about the
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  last 9 years.
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  So I know that you know what you're talking about.
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  So tell me, what are sponsors looking for.
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  I think we always focus too much on what we want from a sponsor versus what do the sponsors
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  want from us?
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  Sponsors want you to give them visibility number 1.
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  So that's what you do on your show.
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  You give them visibility.
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  You do all kinds of things to engage people with the brand.
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  You can do award presentations for your sponsor.
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  You can promote them on your social media.
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  You can promote them through video, all of the touch points that you have with your audience,
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  such as Things like this, Facebook Live, podcasts, all those channels that you use,
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  including old school email marketing, can promote your sponsors.
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  And for instance, I have a client who sends out an easing, and on the bottom of the easing, she
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  puts her sponsor logo and a hyperlink to that sponsor company.
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  Another client of mine does blogging, and the sponsor pays her to mention their company on a
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  block.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  I love to get money from sponsors any way they wanna give it to me.
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  So I love it.
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  So now let's talk about what is the biggest mistakes that most people make when they're
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  pursuing sponsorships?
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  One mistake that people make that is huge, absolutely huge, is pricing too low, not
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  knowing your worth with sponsors.
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  For instance, I get a lot of people sending me proposals, and they're asking for $250 for a
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  sponsorship.
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  Well, let me tell you a couple things about sponsorship.
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  First of all, sponsorship is a team sport, meaning that person in the company who likes
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  you, who is your champion, has to check with their boss, has to check with their team, has
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  to check with their colleagues.
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  Is it worth their time if you're asking for $250?
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  Absolutely not.
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  So you have to establish your value from the beginning, and we like to start sponsorships at
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  $10,000 because then sponsors know it's worth their time.
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  You're delivering something of value to them.
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  And, you know, in the sponsorship game, you can't double and triple your fees every year.
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  So you kinda wanna start at a certain level.
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  And when I first started getting sponsors well, 18 years ago, I started at 5 and 6 figures.
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  Well, there you have it.
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  Folks, she told you, don't don't sell yourself short.
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  Ask for the big money up front.
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  So now what is the best way to approach a responsive sponsor.
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  Sponsor like you to introduce yourself by email.
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  They don't really wanna be surprised by a phone call And now if they see a phone number that
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  they don't recognize, they may not answer it and may go directly to voice mail.
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  So they want you to introduce yourself by email, And, you know, we think of it as a
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  campaign.
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  Send them a couple of emails.
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  Your first email may not get a response, but if you send a few emails, then follow it up with a
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  phone call.
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  That is the best way to go.
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  And then when you send your email to your sponsor, Sometimes we want you to do what's
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  called attaching your proposal or your quick fact sheet.
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  So you have a short description and a snapshot of what you do So the sponsor can look it over
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  and then start a conversation and a dialogue that leads to a deal.
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  Awesome.
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  Awesome.
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  Now what about LinkedIn?
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  Can you hit them up on LinkedIn?
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  You if you don't necessarily have their email address, can you find them on LinkedIn?
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  Is that okay?
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  Yeah.
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  LinkedIn, we found is the best social media platform.
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  For connecting with your sponsors.
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  So if you like a certain company, go to their LinkedIn, and here's what people ask me all the
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  time.
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  Who do I go to in that company for sponsorship?
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  So I'll tell you a real quick story about FedEx.
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  So I have time for a story.
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  Absolutely.
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  Okay.
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  So FedEx, I knew absolutely nobody at FedEx, and I wanted FedEx as a sponsor.
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  So basically, I I searched, and I found the person who does marketing.
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  So if you're taking notes, write down the marketing department, You know, I had to be
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  passed around to a couple of people, but eventually, I got to the guy who could green
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  light a sponsorship, and he was in the marketing department.
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  We had a few conversations.
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  He liked me.
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  He liked what we did.
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  And what happened was I got a multiyear contract.
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  With FedEx, and this was when I was just starting out.
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  I really didn't have a track record or anything.
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  So one of the myths about sponsorship is you need a whole lot of experience and a big
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  following because I had neither.
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  And the renewals, you mentioned cash machine earlier, In sponsorship, renewals are your cash
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  machine because if a sponsor likes you, they give you money this year, the next year, and
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  then the next year.
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  And that is a game changer.
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  I'm taking notes.
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  That's awesome.
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  Alright.
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  Now tell me when how can you best determine the benefits for the sponsor?
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  Like, when you're putting together your sponsorship package that you wanna email, you
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  always have to highlight what's in it for them.
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  So how do you best determine that?
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  Well, the first way is to ask them.
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  As John said earlier, you wanna ask them what they want as benefits.
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  But, you know, if you haven't talked to the company yet, you don't really know them.
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  Here's some benefits that are universal.
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  Tell that sponsor that you're gonna educate people about their products and their services.
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  You're gonna help them increase loyalty to the brand.
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  You're gonna help them grow the customer base.
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  And lastly, and this is probably the most important you're going to help them drive sales
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  because that's really what sponsorship is all about.
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  It is a marketing expense and they want you to help them drive sales for the company.
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  Listen, Linda, you are giving us so many good nuggets tonight.
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  So I wanna hold you right there And all of us know that it's important to listen to and
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  understand corporate sponsorships because that's just extra money on top of ticket sales.
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  So listen, When we come back on small business jet line, we're gonna be talking about what to
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  put in that all important sponsor packet.
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  So don't go away.
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  We'll be right back.
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  On small fish chat line.
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  Hi.
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  This is Melinda Emerson, the small bizlet.
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  He hosted the small fish chat podcast.
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  I want to serve you.
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  This pandemic has been so hard on America's small businesses and on just America in
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  general.
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  Boy, do I have a great offer for you?
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  I am giving away 1000 copies of my best selling book.
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  Become your own boss in 12 months.
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  Over a hundred thousand people have this book.
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  It has been printed in multiple languages around the world, and I wanted to find a way to
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  serve America's small businesses in this pandemic.
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  And so I am giving away a 1000 copies of my book.
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  All you have to do to get your copy is head over to begin my biz.com/freeoffer to, you
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  know, sign up for your copy.
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  All you have to do is pay shipping, and we will mail one out to you I am so excited about this.
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  I wanna serve you.
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  Welcome back a smallbiz chat live.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady, and it is time to talk more about corporate
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  sponsorships And I've got more questions, but we got a question live from my audience.
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  Tracy wants to know if what you're talking about related to corporate sponsorships is the
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  same if you're trying to become a brand ambassador or like an influencer.
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  Linda, can you answer that?
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  Absolutely.
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  An influencer is are some of the hottest people now getting corporate sponsors, and now its
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  corporate sponsorship is sort of democratized.
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  Any of us can do it if we build up our following One of the best brand ambassadors
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  that I absolutely love because I am the original crazy cat lady is grumpy cat.
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  And if a cat can get sponsorships, we can all get sponsorships.
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  So rugby cat has been sponsored by Friskies and by Curios Cereal Brumpy Cat has over
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  300,000,000 followers, and he has a net worth of over a $100,000,000.
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  So, yes, brand ambassadors is a kind of the same as a sponsorship.
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  Just remember that you get paid.
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  So that's the difference with sponsorship is you're a brand ambassador or an influencer who
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  gets paid by a sponsor.
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  Exactly.
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  And I've had the opportunity to be both the corporate sponsor for some of my events as well
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  as being a brand ambassador and an influencer and really a national spokesperson for brand.
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  So I know exactly what you're talking about.
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  So, Linda, let's get back to how do I use research to strengthen my sponsorship proposal?
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  How can I do that?
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  Okay.
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  Well, when I first started getting sponsors, I kinda wanted to do the same thing that you're
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  doing.
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  I wanted to do a women's small business expo, because I had 2 failed businesses.
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  And when I finally figured it out how to do the right business, I got out of the poverty trap,
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  and more importantly, I got out of an abusive relationship, and I wanted to show other women
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  how to create their own multimillion dollar business like you do.
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  So I did research on the market of women business owners.
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  This is how research can help you.
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  You can sell sponsors on the concept if you are just starting out.
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  So I found that women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men, that women in America
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  spend more than 5 countries combined and that women make or influence over 85% of the
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  purchasing decisions in America.
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  And that's how I got my first sponsors, which were Bank of America, Walmart, and IBM I just
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  had an idea in my head.
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  I'm this short, little, frizzy haired Jewish girl in the kitchen with her cat, and I sold
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  those sponsors because because I
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  took the time to do research on the demographics.
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  Alright, Linda.
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  Now if we're ready to send our sponsorship packet, is it important to make contact by
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  phone or by email before we send over a sponsorship packet?
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  I would do that.
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  I would send an email, but here's where, I wanna give you some advice I want you to send
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  on your very first email.
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  I want you to attach not the full sponsor proposal, but attach what we call a quick fact
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  sheet.
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  It's also known as the proposal brief.
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  It has no pricing on it, no sponsor fees, but it has a great snapshot of what you do and
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  remember the most compelling benefits for your sponsors.
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  In other words, when you are pitching the sponsors, make that sponsor the star.
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  It's not about you.
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  It is about them.
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  And I think you'll agree.
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  That's how to do successful sponsorships.
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  Without question or without question.
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  Now when it comes to time to send the actual sponsor package, what goes in that packet?
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  So what you wanna have there is a description of what you do.
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  You wanna have your benefits.
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  You wanna have your marketing plan.
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  Because you can include sponsors in your marketing plan.
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  How are you gonna get the word out about what you do?
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  Are you going to do forms like this?
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  Are you gonna do email, video?
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  Are you going to do social media?
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  Are you gonna do traditional advertising?
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  Let that sponsor know If you have testimonials, put those in your sponsor proposal.
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  And lastly, this is so important.
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  This is how we help people do sponsors in a different way than everybody else's
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  storytelling.
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  You wanna tell your story.
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  You wanna tell, maybe, if you're not comfortable telling your story, Tell a story of
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  somebody that you've helped through the work that you do because we are all in different
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  businesses, but we are all in the life changing business.
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  I put in my sponsor proposal that I was in the poverty trap.
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  I put in my sponsor proposal that I was in an abusive relationship.
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  You want to show your humanity and make an emotional connection because a company is not
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  gonna sponsor you.
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  It is a human being in that company that's gonna decide to sponsor you.
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  That that's really interesting.
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  I really wouldn't have thought that it's important to share more personal information.
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  Now you mentioned earlier about you had the opportunity to get FedEx to sponsor you 2 or 3
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  years in a row.
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  How can we all do that?
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  I mean, I mean, because I I even I don't have multi, multi year sponsorship.
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  So how do you go about doing that?
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  It's all about relationships because what I did with FedEx, and
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  I I could tell you even American Airlines who I had as a sponsor.
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  So I did an interview like this, and it was at a radio studio.
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  I came back.
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  I had typed her an email that said, hey, American Airlines, I just mentioned you on a
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  radio station to get 75,000 listeners, and she taught me back, oh, thank you so much.
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  So it's about the relationship.
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  It's about talking to that sponsor.
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  Constantly keeping that sponsor in the loop of what you are doing for them.
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  Another way to get the renewals is to send them a renewal report And I recommend sending them a
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  report at least quarterly and then calling them and going over that report remember
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  conversations.
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  You want to have conversations with your sponsor because, really, conversations produce
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  relationships and rapport and the renewals.
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  I love it.
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  I love it.
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  Thank you so much for all of that helpful advice about how to attract and keep corporate
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  sponsors to level up your small business.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small business lady, and the mission of small business chat is to
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  end small business failure.
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  I wanna leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  We'll see you next time.
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  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
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  Subscribe to this podcast wherever you listen to podcasts and join us next Wednesday.