Do you want to learn how to get the best sponsorship deals and feel confident while doing so? Then you have come to the right place. Today, we will share with you two surefire ways to boost sponsorship value. And why these two methods work. This is a topic we are passionate about because:
- We want to empower you to show proof of strong return-on-investment (ROI) for all your sponsorship deals by working data-driven
- Sponsorship can be one of your most effective marketing strategies if done right. So, we would like to help you achieve this.
- We have great experience in boosting sponsorship value for sports organizations. And today, we will finally let you in on the secret.
So, are you ready?
Before we dive right in...
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Here are two surefire ways to boost sponsorship value for your club
1. How to use a sports CDP to boost sponsorship value today
2. How to leverage your supporter data to negotiate higher sponsorship deals
Let’s dive deeper into each then shall we?
How to use a sports CDP to boost sponsorship value today
Sports CDP? Again?
Trust us, a sports CDP is not just hype but rather a gift that keeps on giving. We have written extensively about why sports organizations need a CDP to grow and thrive so feel free to read that for greater understanding. But in a nutshell, a CDP is the easiest yet most powerful marketing tool out there, it can help you leverage and create new revenue opportunities while maximizing your marketing spend. For the sake of keeping the scope narrow so we can delve deeper, we won’t go into what a CDP is and what it does. If you would like to know more though, here is a reading list for you.
We think that five articles are a great starting list But if you want more, leave a comment in the comment section at the end of the post.
Let’s dive straight in now, shall we?
Bear this in mind
In this post, we assume that you have already collected data through the sports CDP. This is the very first step of the whole entire process. Without it, you cannot really proceed to take any other action on the sports CDP. Collecting data is crucial to your sports organization.
There are many business-to-business (B2B) touchpoints you can use to collect data on your potential sponsors. For example, website (inbound), sales (outbound), from your Customer Relationship Management system (CRM), social media, supporter surveys/data mining, VIP stadium attendance, and so on. So, you can collect that data and store it in the CDP.
The Process
Your first step should be segmentation
In episode 12 of our podcast, Spots CDP crash course, we talk about the process of segmentation. Below is an excerpt from the episode. Feel free to listen to it to get more insight.
Segmentation is the process of dividing your target market into groups of potential supporters with similar needs and behaviors. Doing so helps you sell to each supporter group using distinct strategies tailored to their needs. This helps sports organizations identify and choose the most potentially high-value supporter groups to focus on.
In the above context, we were talking about you targeting your supporters. And obviously, today’s context is you finding potential sponsors. However, we highlighted this because the process is the same, just a different use case.
Segmentation through a sports CDP is crucial when you are trying to boost sponsorship value by targeting the best potential sponsor partners.
Why segmentation matters
You wouldn’t want to approach potential sponsors haphazardly now, would you? The best-case scenario is that you would firstly, know a whole lot about your potential sponsors. And then, you would look for the mutual interest you share (which we will discuss later in the blog post). And then finally, be able to demonstrate that a partnership between your two organizations would be fruitful.
This is exactly why segmentation matters. You can have differing sponsor segments such as your official sponsor, supplier, business partner, the list is endless.
Segmentation:
- First and foremost helps you improve your sponsorship campaign performance. When you target the right sponsors based on the mutual interest you have discovered, you will have a better success rate. And can therefore boost sponsorship value for your organization.
- Secondly, it helps you understand your potential sponsors better. You will learn more about what they want and how you can serve that need in exchange. Effectively helping you boost your sponsorship value.
- When you segment well you will, thirdly, identify potential areas for expansion. Nothing would be more painful than missing out on potential sponsors simply because you don’t know that they exist.
- Last but not least, when you segment your sponsors well you can finally focus sharply on what works. Casting your net wide and then holding your breath while hoping for the best is not an approach we advise. Without segmenting your potential sponsors, whatever strategy you employ will be a bit like this.
Where does the sports CDP come in?
So, the sports CDP stores all your supporter data in one place, unifies and analyzes it to give you deep actionable insights to guide your decision-making. It actually does the same for your sponsors as well.
You can:
- Firstly, collect data on your potential sponsors from many different sources. For example, from your website visits and matchdays, amongst other things. Do you know what makes a sports CDP stand out from other solutions when it comes to collecting data? With a sports CDP, you primarily collect first-party data. Read our blog post on “The death of third party cookies – long live first-party data” to find out more about why this is a big deal.
- Secondly, you can then analyze this data. You can find out the types of industries your potential sponsors are in. You can also note the overlap between your audience and your potential sponsor’s audience. For example, what interests, demographics and behavior your audiences have in common. That is, you have to prove brand affinity to make your sponsorship negotiations that much more powerful.
- Lastly, once you know all of this, you can act on the insights you get – intentionally and strategically.
Why this works
Using a sports CDP to help boost sponsorship value for your organization takes the guesswork out of the process. Assuming, guessing, or hoping – whatever you call it, leads to inefficiencies. Not only that but you want to be able to know how you got that sponsor, what worked and what you could do better next time. We would advise you to use a sports CDP to boost your sponsorship value if:
You want to develop a long-term sponsorship strategy that you can replicate. For example, sponsorship acquisition is one thing but delivery is another. So once you get the sponsorship, how do you plan on delivering the best results possible?
Your aim is to keep on improving your sponsorship strategy so you can always get results. For example, through streamlined segmentation and personalization, you can keep delivering exceptional results for your sponsor. you can do this by working data-driven.
You want to be able to effectively monitor the performance of your sponsorship campaigns. You can do this by checking the levels of engagement and purchases.
Aligning with the right sponsors for your organization for a long-term relationship is a top priority for you. So you prioritize, for example, value alignment versus just getting a quick buck.
Do you know what is almost as bad as missing out on a sponsorship deal because you weren’t aware that there was potential for one? Getting in bed with the wrong sponsors.
What is a “wrong” sponsor?
There are many reasons a potential sponsor can be the wrong sponsor for your organization. These include:
If your values are misaligned. And in the worst-case scenario, the sponsor’s values go against your organization’s goals. That is, you have opposing values.
There’s a lack of affinity between your audience and the sponsor.
If the sponsor is not willing to come up with joint/innovative marketing campaigns to drive the sponsorship deal further.
If the sponsor is not willing to engage with your supporters, i.e they are just in the background and not willing to do anything.
The importance of choosing the right sponsors
Do you know that saying, it’s not what you do that matters but how you do it? A little bit of that rings true here. Sometimes, it’s not just about getting the sponsor, but how you get it. Using a sports CDP to drive your sponsorship campaigns will save you a lot of heartaches.
At an organizational level
Without a sports CDP in place, your teammates have to work harder but not necessarily smarter. Not only that but they have to work with limited insights and obsolete data. That’s right. Because a sports CDP keeps the most up-to-date data on your potential sponsors, you never have to worry about getting it wrong on that front. This differs from the likes of a B2B CRM in that, this data is kept up to date simultaneously with your supporter data. Plus, the CRM will be only limited to sales activities and cannot be used for segmenting and proving affinity.
If your teammates are less than equipped for the task of boosting sponsorship value:
there is plenty of room for error and mistakes.
high inefficiency rates become the norm for your organization. Can you imagine the time, effort, and energy it takes to work on assumptions and guesses?
you might align with the wrong sponsors.
If you align yourself with the wrong sponsors, you will not be happy. Your teammates will most probably not be happy either. And you might feel entrapped by the sponsorship. As if you are out of control or that you sold your freedom. But this does not only stay there.
Problems between you and your sponsor and possibly your supporters may arise
Sponsorship deals can go wrong for many reasons. However, being in a misaligned relationship with sponsors does not only affect you and your organization. It also affects your relationship with your sponsor. And it can also affect your relationship with your supporters. Which can lead to:
Disputes - between you and your sponsors
Underdelivering on KPIs
The underperformance of your sponsorship campaign
Tarnished image and reputation - within the industry for example
Bad publicity
Destroyed trust - between you and your sponsor and/or your respective audiences, respectively or collectively
The goal of sponsorship is to benefit from a positive brand association. So if you are misaligned or in bed with the wrong sponsors, this might be severely jeopardized.
Conclusion of how to boost sponsorship value with a sports CDP
We started with this point because we believe it is the most important. After all, it is a long-term solution that is sustainable. Not only that, but it increases efficiency, sponsorship campaign performance rate and allows you to identify new potential sponsors. The more you understand who your audience listens to and interacts with (by using a sports CDP), the more you can develop the right relationships with the right sponsors at the right time and through the right channels. Not only that but you can monitor your campaign performance and keep what works whilst improving on what doesn’t. It sounds great, right? And actually, the next surefire way to boost sponsorship value that we are going to discuss is dependent on you using a sports CDP. Now let’s move on to our second method…Email lists
Ticket purchases
Merchandise purchases
Contact cards filled out on your website
Food and beverage purchases
Accounts created on your mobile application
Maybe take a minute and list down all the touchpoints your supporters have with you and your organization.
What do you do with that data? Where do you store it? How do you leverage it to help you meet your organization’s goals?
Obviously, today we are advocating that you use it to boost sponsorship value. However, you can use this data in many other ways. Remember that list of posts to read we gave you at the beginning of the blog post, do yourself a favor and read each one of those blog posts. We promise that you will walk away feeling more empowered to reach all your organization’s goals, no matter the context.
The process
Data is one of the most valuable assets a sports organization could ever have. But unfortunately, not a lot of people who work in sports organizations understand this. So then sometimes they give away their data for discounts on software and the like. While the thought behind the practice is not wrong, it’s what you get in exchange for your data that we are questioning. Something to think about as well is that your data is most valuable when it is stored in a sports CDP because:it is always up to date because a CDP updates the data with every interaction your supporter has
there are no duplicates and inaccurate data in a sports CDP because of the unification process the data goes through
it is accessible to other systems and everyone that needs it
it gives you the clearest picture of your supporters (and sponsors)
Find out more about our sports CDP
and get answers to questions like, what are the benefits of using a CDP, what differentiates a CDP from other systems, and how to calculate the CDP ROI by reading our Ultimate Sport CDP guide. The more you read the more confident you will become about heading down this path.
Your data is valuable. That’s our message to you. As a result, you should get something valuable in exchange for it. And that’s basically what we are saying when we say that you should leverage supporter data to boost sponsorship value.
So how do you do this:
Step 1
Get your segmentation right. We discussed this above. Remember? When you segment right, you will get a list of the right potential sponsors to target.
Step 2
Thereafter, you have to find your audience’s affinity for your sponsor’s brand. You can do this by analyzing your own supporters' behavior, interests and values. And thereafter, find the potential opportunity to leverage this affinity. That is, find the right message for the right supporters. The more concrete and clearer you can find this affinity the better.
Step 3
Prove the potential by crunching the numbers. This is the beauty and power of a sports CDP. You can firstly segment right. Then you can analyze your supporter data to find how your supporters and potential sponsors can benefit from one another. And finally, you can crunch the numbers and prove the potential return on investment you both stand to gain if you were to partner with one another.
Step 4
With all of this proven potential, you should confidently approach and negotiate the best deal with your potential sponsors. The key here is in knowing what your data is worth and not settling for anything less.
It gives you more negotiating power
You should always feel confident and at an advantage when asking for sponsorship. After all, your sponsor stands to gain a lot from you. So having the right supporter data helps even out the negotiation field a little bit. It's no longer about you desperately bargaining for money but rather about you proving the value you and your sponsor both stand to gain from being in a partnership.
You can prove that you and your sponsor have an aligned audience
Because sports teams know exactly who their fans are for their marketing purposes, they are likely to be aware of factors including gender, location, and buying power. Knowing essential details on demographics means you can align with the right sports teams or tournaments – ones whose fans are likely to spend money with your brand too. Essentially, investing in sports whose audiences have a similar demographic to that that you’re targeting increases your reach in this market, leading to greater sales and ROI on your campaigns (RTsports).
You can aim higher and grow faster
What's better than boosting your sponsorship value once? Being able to do it over and over again and grow from it. When you have the right data and leverage to boost sponsorship value, the sky is the limit for you. You can dare to dream bigger, aim higher and grow faster.
Getting started is easy
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Conclusion of leveraging supporter data to boost sponsorship value
A defensive sponsorship attraction strategy is not a good strategy. Instead of approaching potential sponsors with an emotion-centric approach, approach them with the hard facts. At the end of the day, your sponsors want to know that they can get a good return on investment (ROI) by partnering with you. And with a sports CDP, you can prove your case with real data and numbers.
Firstly, sponsorship can become one of the most effective marketing strategies your sports organization has.
Using a sports CDP and leveraging supporter data to negotiate higher sponsorship deals are two surefire ways to boost sponsorship value for your organization.
Both ways rely on you making the best decision you could ever make for your organization - using a sports CDP to collect, analyze and act on your data.
Finally, by employing both methods, you can dream bigger, aim higher and grow faster.
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