Since starting my sponsorship program in November of 2014, I have learned tons about building and maintaining a successful sponsorship program. I have learned what works best, such as securing a contract with an esign, and what doesn’t work at all, as well as how to effectively advertise my sponsors to get the most of their money’s worth and more. Through all of this, my passion for helping other bloggers and business owners grow their reach as a growing influencer has flourished immensely.
It takes a lot of time and genuine effort into creating a program that works for you and for those who are your ideal sponsors. Having a sponsorship program is not easy, but what you get out of it makes it worth it. The only way you’ll be sure to have a successful sponsorship program is if you really care about those who sponsor you. If you don’t pay any attention to them, they notice. Your sponsors are like-hearted people who believe you’ll help them get closer to their goals, so make sure that’s where your focus is when running sponsorship program.
Whether you’re just getting started on building your sponsorship program or if you’re just wanting to revamp your program, I can assure you that these 5 tips will help you take your sponsorship program to the next level.
5 TIPS TO BUILD A KILLER SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM:
1. An Informative Advertise Page //
The first step to building a killer sponsorship program is having an advertise page that is informative and captivating. I can’t tell you how many times I have been interested in sponsoring a blogger and they’d have no statistics available to see, as well as no real way of drawing me in to want go all in for sponsoring them.
For me to be able to sponsor a blogger, they need to have all of their statistics listed on their advertise page and have them be current. I want to know that I have a chance of growing my blog with sponsoring them. This is a time where numbers are important, and that’s okay!
2. A Variety Of Options //
This is really where the fun begins, because the options here are endless. When building a sponsorship program you need to narrow in on what you want to include in your sponsorship packages. Do you want to just showcase sidebar ads or do you want to do in-post ads, as well? What do you want the size options of the ads be? What amount of social media promotion do you want to include in each ad package? Do you want to open up other opportunities like guest posts and giveaways? There are so many ways to customize your options. Always remember to only offer what you have time to devote to.
I have sponsored bloggers who just have your ad on their sidebar and they don’t give you any promotion at all. To be completely honest, these were some of the worst sponsorship experiences that I have had. Why would someone want to sponsor you if you’re not going to be on their side giving them a hand towards their dreams? At the end of the day, bloggers and businesses choose to engage in sponsorships for growth, and the majority of that growth comes from promotion.
As someone who is on both sides of the sponsorship world, I think that the average ad package should include the sidebar exposure and a decent amount of social media promotion, depending on the price and length of the ad.
I could go more in-depth, but I’ll save that for another time. *wink*
3. Organize, Organize, Organize //
Being organized is so, so key in maintaining your sponsorship program. When you have multiple people sponsoring you at once, it can be hard to keep track of each person’s ad package. This is why you need to come up with a method that works best for you on how to keep track of everything you need to for every sponsor.
What has really worked well for me is having a sponsor log in a Word document, but I am also going to be expanding that into printable sheets that I can put into my binder.
Remember, you can never be too organized.
4. Schedule Social Media Promotions //
When I first started my sponsorship program, I didn’t schedule any of my social media promotions, which soon led to me being completely overwhelmed. When I finally decided to try CoSchedule, I was won over in no time. Scheduling out promotions has made it a million times easier on me by taking stress off of my shoulders, and a bonus perk is that it helps me keep track of each task I needed to fulfill. There are a few other scheduling programs you can use aside from CoSchedule, like Buffer and Hootsuite. I promise you won’t regret investing into having a scheduling program, especially since it helps you schedule your own promotions.
5. Connect With Your Sponsors //
Communication is the number one essential to having a thriving sponsorship program. I have sponsored bloggers before where I was not once reached out to by them, and for that main reason I chose to never sponsor those bloggers again. Even though I got decent exposure with some, I didn’t feel like I was worthy of their time or that they even wanted to help me grow as a blogger at all.
The whole point in having a sponsorship program should be to genuinely help others grow, not to just fill your pockets.
[bctt tweet=”The focus of a sponsorship program should be to genuinely help others grow, not to just fill your pockets.”]
Right from the welcome email, you want to building a relationship with your sponsor. Be personable with them, like you’re chatting over coffee. Ask them what their main goal is for the month and where they want to focus their growth on most. Be intentionally curious and kind. Let your sponsor know that they can come to you with anything at all. Make them feel important and worthy.
Woah, this was long! To those of you who’ve made it all the way through – I hope you’re able to take away something new about blog sponsorship programs.