Entrepreneurs are aways looking for good marketing ideas that can help them build their business, but what about the unconventional marketing opportunities you might be missing?
Let’s state the obvious for a moment and say that every business owner is looking for more customers. In order for you to attract more customers you must do things to make people aware of your business. You also have to keep doing things so you remain visible in the market place if you want to continue to grow and scale your business.
One thing you should consider is doing things to market yourself where other business owners are NOT marketing. You need to stand out from the crowd. In today’s world, everyone is using Social Media Marketing which is great but…
Social Media allows you to establish visibility online, but there is no substitution for in person marketing opportunities. Especially when you can use social media as a follow up mechanism to keep in touch with your audience.
There is something about meeting a person face-to-face, eye-to-eye, belly-to-belly, and heart-to-heart that changes the dynamic of a relationship. There’s no way to substitute that kind of in person connection with your potential customers. that’s why relying on social media on it’s own can be risky. There are ways however, that you can bridge online and in person interactions to maximize your relationships and marketing opportunities. That’s what this post is about.
Recently, I had a conversation with someone who does business with a client of mine. After hearing what my client said about working with me, this individual wanted to speak with me. During our phone conversation, there appeared to be some synergies between our businesses. We offered distinctly different services to the exact same market which resulted in us talking about how we might be able to help each other.
I suggested that the best way for them to get to know me, my style and what my business is about is to come to my event, Money, Mindset and Marketing.
The best way for them to network and engage with people who do business with me is to be a sponsor at that event.
They agreed that the $400 investment was more than worth it because it meant spending the day with 300+ business owners who is their exact target market.
Benefits of Being an Event Sponsor:
Let me make something clear – this is not only about my event. This is about being a sponsor at any event where the audience is a good match for your product or service. When the event organizer does a good job, you, the sponsor or exhibitor should benefit in the following ways:
1. Sponsors received increased visibility via the event marketing efforts. In our case, sponsors get mentions and shout out’s from social media, as well as their logo placed on the event website leading up to the event.
2. Sponsors usually have the opportunity to attend the event and bring guests along. This provides an excellent opportunity for you to bring one of your best clients along, or a member of your team as a reward. Many people are hesitant to go to events alone, so offering to bring them as your guest is a bonus.
3. Sponsors get to showcase their business in a way that stands out from 90% of the attendees. For example, at Money, Mindset and Marketing, we expect there to be approximately 350 attendees, and 30-40 sponsors. That means the 30-40 individuals who are sponsors stand out from the crowd because they have an exhibitor space where they can showcase their products and services. This allows you to formulate and create the exact impression you want people to have of your business at the event.
4. Sponsors benefit from all of the networking because walking up to a sponsor booth is a safe activity for attendees. Not everyone loves networking, in fact, networking makes some people very uncomfortable. If you yourself don’t enjoy mingling with strangers and having to start up a conversation, being a sponsor at an event makes this much easier for you. As a sponsor, you become a magnet and draw people to you instead of you trying to figure out how to intercept conversations.
5. Being a sponsor creates the opportunity to demo your products and services, share information about the business, host contests and create a fun experience at the event. It’s an excellent way to create a memorable impression.
Here’s where things get tricky – how do you actually leverage sponsorship to make the most out of it?
When you become a sponsor, usually you want to get new business. While that is the goal, it usually takes 6-12 months after the first face-to-face interaction for new business to occur. Don’t judge your sponsorship efforts only from the day of. Track and pay attention to what happens after the event.
This is really important: don’t show up unprepared, stand behind a table and wait. That’s a sure fire way to squander your opportunity and lose your investment. You need to take time to plan and strategize exactly how you want your presence at the event to unfold.
Consider these 7 things if you want to get the most out of being a sponsor:
- Take time and think about how you can show up and serve the audience.
- How can you connect with attendees before and after the event?
- How can you make a solid, friendly and credible first impression at the event?
- Can you create opportunities to have conversations long after the event is over?
- What can you do to capture leads or follow up? Can you give something away?
- How can you create an experience people remember?
- How can you create a sticking point, where people WANT to connect with you after the event has passed.
One of the ways I once helped a client do this was by hiring a photographer to take photos at their sponsor booth and then they shared the photos on Facebook. Each attendee was directed to Facebook to tag themselves and download their photo and it grew their visibility on Facebook immensely. People ended up liking their page, and this allowed them to keep in touch with those individuals so they remained top of mind.
Another client I worked with did a giveaway. When you signed up for their mailing list, you received a free offer and you were then entered into a draw to win something of value. This works exceptionally well for list building… Provided the free offer is a good one.
If your customers are business owners, being a sponsor at Money, Mindset and Marketing is something you should seriously consider. There are 300+ attendees in one room, all together for a day of investing in their business.
The smartest sponsorship investment is the one where you get to hang out with the exact people who you like to do business with.
People often ask me how I grew my business from zero to six figures and then to over half a million dollars a year in sales as quickly as I did.
There are two things I can directly correlate to business growth:
First, being a speaker at other people’s events and second, being an exhibitor at events. In both cases, I was going to events where I got to interact with the types of people I wanted to do business with.
Engage with the RIGHT people and build up #visibility and #credibility Click To TweetThis year’s Money, Mindset and Marketing event is just over a month away. There are still sponsorship opportunities that you can take advantage of if you’d like to reach an audience of mainly female owned and operated businesses.
Don’t come to the event looking to close quick sales. Come to the event with the mindset and intention of serving, networking and expanding your reach. If you do that, the business will follow.
If you’d like to be a sponsor at this year’s Money, Mindset, and Marketing on October 22nd, in Ottawa, Ontario, you can find more information here: https://lisalarter.com/sponsor
Leave me a comment and let me know, was this helpful to you? Have you been a sponsor before? What worked and didn’t work for you?
