The Nuts and Bolts of Event Sponsorship: A Comprehensive How-To Guide
Event sponsorship is a strategic investment that can amplify your brand visibility, build relationships, and drive measurable business outcomes.
However, event success doesn’t end with signing a sponsorship agreement—it requires careful planning, execution, and follow-up. In this blog, we’ll guide you through what happens after you decide to sponsor an event, breaking it down into actionable steps for pre-event preparation, onsite engagement, and post-event actions.
Table of Contents:
Why Event Sponsorship Matters
Sponsoring an event can be a significant financial commitment, but the return on investment (ROI) can be equally substantial if managed effectively. Sponsorships offer a unique opportunity to:
- Increase brand visibility among a targeted audience.
- Establish your company as an industry leader.
- Generate high-quality leads and business opportunities.
- Build stronger relationships with current and prospective clients
Common Sponsorship Opportunities
Event sponsorship can take various forms, depending on your goals and budget. Common options include:
- Booths or Exhibits: A physical presence to showcase your products or services.
- Cocktail Hours or Lunches: Branded meal or networking opportunities to engage with attendees.
- Water Coolers or Charging Stations: Practical, branded spaces that offer value to attendees.
- Speaking Opportunities: Panel discussions or keynote speeches to demonstrate expertise.
- Event Materials Branding: Logos on lanyards, banners, or swag bags for additional visibility.
Once you’ve decided on a sponsorship type, the real work begins.
Preparing For Your Sponsorship
Preparation is key to maximizing your sponsorship investment. Follow these steps to set yourself up for success:
- Define the outcomes you want to achieve through Sponsorship
- Define clear objectives: Are you aiming to generate leads, increase brand awareness, or strengthen client relationships?
- Ensure your sponsorship aligns with your overall marketing strategy, If you don’t have a clear intention of results from your sponsorship, do not spend the money.
- Build a comprehensive plan
- Messaging and Branding: Tailor your booth design, marketing materials, and giveaways to the event’s theme and audience. The design of all the materials must be on your brand but tailor the content so it resonates with the needs and interests of the audience.
- Team Roles: Decide who will attend and their responsibilities, such as managing the booth, speaking, or networking. Don’t forget to prepare the on the ground team for the event booth set-up and break-down. We make sure there is a point person for the booth materials at every conference and each venue has specific rules and hours about how to construct and de-construct your booth.
- Logistics: Confirm details like booth location, setup requirements, and deadlines for materials. Conferences will usually have specific instructions on how to ship your materials to the conference. When you sign the contract make sure to ask the event coordinator for all the guidelines. For large events, you may even be given access to a sponsor portal. The portal contains the logistical details and gives you other tools to manage your event sponsorship, such as, the ability to order furniture, Wi-Fi or electricity for your booth. Look for the details in your contract of what is included in the sponsorship package before you sign the contract, you don't want to be surprised.
- Promote your sponsorship in advance
- Social Media: Announce your participation, create event-specific hashtags, and share teasers about your presence.
- Email Campaigns: Send targeted emails to clients and prospects, inviting them to meet you at the event.
- Website Updates: Add banners or blog posts to highlight your sponsorship.
- Event Apps: Leverage the event’s digital tools to engage with attendees in advance.
- Thought-leadership: Time the publications of thought leadership & content marketing activities to coordinate with event timing.
- Media & PR: Plan for press announcements to be conveniently timed to the live events to build some buzz at conference time and leverage the announcement.
Maximizing Your Sponsorship During the Event
Once the event is underway, it’s time to execute your plan and make the most of your investment.
- Create a Welcoming Booth or Space
- Engaging Design: Use eye-catching visuals, branded giveaways, and interactive displays.
- Clear Messaging: Ensure your value proposition is immediately evident and relevant to passersby.
- Friendly Staff: Have knowledgeable, approachable team members ready to engage with attendees.
- Network Effectively
- Encourage your team to proactively connect with attendees, speakers, and other sponsors. Don't just stand in the booth waiting for someone to approach, step outside your booth area, and start to engage with people. Introduce yourself and ask them why they are at the conference to get the conversation started.
- Schedule one-on-one meetings with key prospects in advance. We help our clients set up a calendar tool to set up meetings for the on the ground conference team prior to the event. We create communications that promote targeted attendees to sign-up for a meeting at the booth.
- Leverage Speaking Opportunities
- If you’re presenting, focus on delivering value rather than a hard sell. In fact, a lot of industry conferences will not allow you to just make a pitch for your business.
- Share actionable insights that attendees can’t get elsewhere. Give your real-world advice, make it personal and meaningful.
- Use Technology to Engage
- Incorporate QR codes for easy access to resources or sign-ups. Almost no one picks up flyers or paper anymore. By easily giving the attendees a QR code, you have the ability to provide a unique, relevant and even more content than what will fit on a 2-sided piece of paper.
- Utilize social media to share real-time updates and engage with attendees online.
Post-Event Actions
Your sponsorship doesn’t end when the event wraps up. Post-event follow-up is critical to realizing the full potential of your investment.
- Evaluate Your Success
- Metrics: Review KPIs such as leads generated, conversations had, social media engagement, and booth traffic.
- Feedback: Gather insights from your team and attendees to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
- Nurture: Make sure to upload your list of people who you talked with or met with at the conference into your Marketing/Sales database.
- Follow Up with Leads
- Send personalized thank-you emails to new contacts.
- Share relevant resources, such as white papers or case studies, to nurture leads.
- Repurpose Content
- Create blog posts, social media updates, or videos summarizing your event experience.
- Highlight key takeaways, audience feedback, or behind-the-scenes moments.
- Plan for Future Sponsorships
- Determine whether the sponsorship met your goals and is worth repeating. We will get into ROI in later blogs.
- Document lessons learned to improve future planning.
Conclusion: Turning Sponsorships into Success
Effective event sponsorship requires more than just financial investment; it demands thoughtful planning, execution, and follow-up. To help with planning, check out our blog: Preparing For A Year of Events: Getting Organized. By preparing thoroughly, engaging meaningfully, and following through after the event, you can transform your sponsorship into a powerful growth engine for your business. In case you missed it, download our helpful event management tracking tool. This tool will help you keep track of all the details of your events.
Ready to take the next step in your event strategy? Share your tips or questions about sponsorship in the comments below!