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Growing your Small Business through Sponsorships & Promotional Give-away’s

Written by: Elyse Cabral

Article Overview: As a small business it can be difficult to promote your company towards potential customers, especially if you have a limited marketing budget which many small businesses do. One effective technique of growing and promoting your business is through the sponsorship of local sporting teams. This article outlines the benefits of sponsorship as well some tips for getting the most out of your sponsorship.

Growing your Small Business through Sponsorships & Promotional Give-away’s

One of the biggest challenges for new businesses is finding ways to maximise brand exposure in the market place – always with the aim to find ways to connect with potential clients.

Sporting Clubs or Team Sponsorships and Promotional Give-aways can often achieve both goals through the one investment. The Sponsorship/investment can be limited to supporting just the one team and not a whole club so your outlay is minimised. You can pick a team that plays in the area that your customers live in ensuring that your target market is being reached.

The promotional marketing dollar is possibly the most analysed expenditure any business ever embarks on and rightfully so. A return from the investment is crucial, especially in the early stages of setting up a new business. This is when the local market is most important, in the establishment of brand awareness. Some questions have to be asked and the most important ones have to be “Who are your potential clients?” and “Where are they – especially when they are not occupied in conducting their business?” Our guess is that it is highly likely that they will be doing what most people do on the weekends and that is either participating or watching some sort of sport.

If your clients are from the domestic market then it is highly likely that they are Mums and Dads and will be involved with local sporting clubs, as their children take part in some of the more popular sports available.

If a new company would like to ‘introduce’ its services to the local area then this is an ideal situation to do so. By sponsoring even just the one local team you are ensuring your company name and services are highly visible to all that come into contact with the team.

The style of sponsorship can vary by what sort of assistance is provided by the sponsor. In our opinion the handing over of funds to get signage on the grounds is not ideal; yes the club or team will, very likely appreciate it but for any new small business, brand exposure and promotional opportunities are really the most desirable aspect associated with sponsorships. The ideal situation is to supply or assist with supplying promotional sports products that are branded with the your logo and other important contact details as these are the items that they players will be wearing each week as well as taking home to their parents...your potential customers.

For instance Soccer Jerseys can have company names and phone numbers printed on the front, back or even sleeves and make for great advertising space. Even inexpensive caps can provide ample branding opportunities with embroidered logos and websites fitting easily on the cap. Other items that provide great promotional opportunities are branded drink bottles or bags and are ideal for Sponsorships or Give-aways. If possible you should try and be the one to organise the product through your regular promotional product distributor because if you are sponsoring multiple teams in the area you may be able to negotiate a deal where you give the same bag to each of the clubs just in different colours therefore gaining you savings by buying in bulk. You may also be able to be the exclusive sponsor featured on that product if you organise it yourself as opposed to the club organising it and embroidering multiple sponsors on the one cap.

The other advantage of using Sponsorships is that you can try generating your own publicity at the same time. Most local newspapers like to print stories about when local businesses support the community. By donating some bags to the local netball team you may also be able to get a story in the newspaper if you just call up and tell them what you have done.

Ultimately, the true value of the investment will be how many times your target market is exposed to your promotional marketing message and through sponsorships this can be safely measured by assuming that many people will see the promotional item by either participating or watching the sport.

By using sponsorships as a way to grow your business not only will your new company be doing a great deed in providing much needed sponsorship to local clubs and teams but the promotional marketing will work for your company throughout the whole sporting season.

Related Articles
  Promotional Giveaways are Smart Business
  Product Giveaways For Retail Marketers
  Everyone Loves Free Stuff - Retail Marketing Tips
  10 Reasons why to use Promotional Products
  A Basic Guide to Promotional Products

Article Tags: aim, brand awareness, brand exposure, challenges, guess, local area, local market, local team, new businesses, outlay, popular sports, promotional marketing, setting up a new business, small business, sponsorship, sporting clubs, target market, team sponsorships



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