Connecting Sponsorship Programs to Sales Growth
We are operating in a complicated, scrutinized, analyzed and need-to-deliver world.
Marketing has jumped to the center of the universe of importance for organizations. For a while, vanity metrics such as "awareness" and "impressions" seemed to cover the bases. But what happens when large-scale attendance at events is impossible or if there are never any opportunities for your branding to be seen because of factors outside of your control?
Executives and board members have correctly been asking an insightful question, “impressions are great, but then what?"
We love that question. We thrive on that question. That question fits what we believe about the marketing team's new and more important role. The marketing team is now a glue that can bring disparate stakeholders together. That is a challenge on its own.
Taking your marketing budget to new places
There are numerous platforms for your brand to invest in to accomplish this. Many of those are your more traditional forms of media, and even social media, that heavily rely on those “impression” metrics that don’t as quickly connect to what you want to see happen - sales growth. When activated appropriately, sponsorship has various unique elements to capitalize on that lead to sales growth. While this approach is not instant, it is effective. If you want a quick fix, this approach isn’t for you.
We are looking to build sponsorship programs around the following goals over time:
More engaged customers
Rewarded/recognized employees
More motivated partners
These are your most significant stakeholders. Sales growth will come when these elements are aligned and efficiently activated. Your marketing budget will impact all of these stakeholders. Let’s break down each unique audience and how your sports marketing can engage them.
Engaged customers
Whether you sell high-volume packaged goods to consumers, SaaS or long-term B2B services, chances are you will be better off with a more engaged customer set. Not that you need 100% of your customers fully engaged all of the time. That’s not very practical. Most probably, you have a spread of engagement across your customer set that has a small percentage of customers who are highly engaged, the majority of your customers are somewhat engaged, and some that are not engaged at all.
Each one of these groups of customers will require a different approach to move to the next level or to maintain their current level if they are highly engaged. Use your sports marketing assets here to address each different group. You can run appropriate strategies for each group with the right mix of assets.
Your highly engaged customers could experience the full VIP package, with behind-the-scenes access, celebrity meet and greets, unique places to view the event and other treats that only your best customers deserve. This is some of the most effective marketing you can do because of the way it makes your customers feel.
For those customers who are not very engaged or maybe have been slipping away as of late, you can leverage your sponsorship assets to reach out to them. Going to the basic levels of inviting them to an event you are a primary supporter of can showcase your commitment to them.
Hook these customers up with good tickets to the race, some lunch and maybe a little memento of their time. They might not be entirely engaged, but they must be kept in mind. Then, leverage the event as a follow-up opportunity and a discussion starter for future business opportunities.
Rewarded, recognized employees
The thing about brands, companies, and organizations is that they are all made up of people. Let’s take a look at engaging your employees. The people on the front lines. The people who bring your brand to life. This second group of stakeholders is ripe to engage with your marketing.
You can leverage your sponsorship to show you love your employees and are looking out for them. Your employees are the stakeholders that can most directly lead to increased sales. Build a sales contest if you want to set up something super straightforward to track this. Set an ambitious goal for your team to hit, and when they do, reward them with a once-in-a-lifetime experience that ties into your sports property. The satisfaction they will feel will be euphoric.
Because not every company can offer such amazing experiences, employee loyalty will undoubtedly increase. This approach can be attributed to lower turnover, more productive working culture, happier employees and ultimately…higher sales figures.
Motivated partners
Few businesses do everything in-house. There’s IT, design, creative, recruitment and so much more a company needs to thrive. When you add up all of these specialties, your brand’s partner network becomes important to your success. It may feel a bit backward at first since you are already paying them to provide a service so shouldn’t they be treating you? In a perfect world, yes (vendors, take note).
However, when you look at this opportunity closer, you are creating a networking opportunity for everyone to come together. Hosting a partner summit with a special appearance from one of your assets can create unique opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise happen. Your partners will be thrilled to hear from a personality they look up to and otherwise don’t have the chance to see.
If your partners can see how they are helping to build your business, they are incentivized to continue to do great work. They may also recognize a need in one of their other clients that your work can address, then suddenly you have just generated a new business lead to engage. Sales growth will follow if you bring this partner engagement and appreciation consistency to your business.
Patience
Higher sales won’t come over a long weekend with this approach. Activating your sponsorship is a symphony of engaging three prominent stakeholders in your business. These have different wants, needs, and desires that require attention with the same marketing budget.
Why not market through a platform that offers all three stakeholders something special?
