Building Strategic Sponsorship Campaigns

Ebony Reed

Ebony Reed

• Head of innovation at Reynolds Journalism Institute at Missouri School of Journalism
• Worked at AP, Boston Business Journal (ACBJ), The Detroit News and The Plain Dealer
• Held positions in journalism/editorial, sales and business development �

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Campaign rationale

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Why are campaigns so important and needed on a continuous cycle?

Campaign purpose

• Create a sense of urgency with a deadline for sponsors to engage
• Create a focus and talking points for a specific timeframe
• Allow you to engage repeatedly around the campaign goal multiple times with a purpose

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7 times 7 rule

Marketing principle says prospects must see an offer at least seven times before they take action. You can expose them more than seven times, but in general they must see it that often in multiple channels to remember, consider and then act.

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Revenue impact

• Campaigns continuously put organizations in your pipeline
• Campaigns may have long-term, not immediate, revenue impact.
• For example, if you are running a campaign to support a new podcast you may not see that revenue for months down the road

Checklist basics

In place 30-90 days before campaign

• Sponsorship calendar (have ready for your budget year)
• Clearly defined goals for the campaign
• Offer and deadline: What is it and how long do people have to respond?
• Marketing plan (communication channels, prewritten messaging, landing page)
• Prospect list (who will you approach and why?)
• Partners (Do you need any for the campaign?)

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Campaign calendar

• Identify focus areas (Goals will help here)
• Create timeline for offer
• Think of editorial calendars as an example
• Schedule prep time (30-90 days) for assets
• Give yourself a break between campaigns, at least a few weeks.
• Adjust as needed

Marketing

• Landing page - Info on the campaign; how prospects can connect with you; why you are raising money; how it benefits donors.
• Dedicate time for phone calls (adding to reg workflows too hard)
• Complete marketing and social posts ahead of time
• Give your current sponsors and subscribers/members a call to action to help you.
• Make sure everyone promoting the campaign is speaking the same language

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Prospects

• Create a list of orgs you want to contact and why
• Look at who is advertising and sponsoring content, events, etc. with other orgs in the community and regionally
• Consider companies with community missions
• Know how you will manage the prospects that don’t become clients. Have a plan on how they will be contacted for further campaigns and tracked.

External relationships

• Do you need any partners to help sponsors?
• For example, does your partner want to make a video, but not have those services in-house? Can you help or direct?
• How will your partner or sponsor promote in social media? Does sponsor have someone to write social media messages ahead of time or can you help?
• Does it make sense to partner with a local charity and give a percentage of money raised in the campaign to it?

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Let technology help you

• Use a scheduling program, such as HootSuite, to make managing those social posts easy
• Watch the developments with Smart contracts. It is still a developing area. No one template exists right now that fits all contexts (Remember you don’t want to ever make things too difficult for your partners and sponsors)
• Be sure to use your CRM or system to set up a tracking of the prospects who do not become sponsors and set up a plan for future follow up

Campaign extension strategy

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Remember the best practices in campaign strategy can also be used in other areas of your business, such as growing subscribers.

Thank you

Let’s connect

Twitter: @ebonyreed