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Getting the Most from SponsorHouse
Sponsorship means different things to different companies. SponsorHouse provides companies and retailers with powerful internet-based sponsorship and sports marketing solutions to increase awareness of their products and services. SponsorHouse is a way to streamline your sponsorship program by managing it entirely online to reduce the paper-trail, increase efficiency and, ultimately, save you time and money. We are a simply a tool that enables your company to instantly connect to a growing sports network of athletes and teams who want to endorse and promote your products and services. After you’ve identified your primary sports marketing and sponsorship objectives, here are some helpful tips and advice to ensure that your experience on SponsorHouse is a pleasant and successful one. 1. CREATE A PROFILE THAT PROPERLY REPRESENTS YOUR COMPANY - This is the most important element of the site since your profile is a way to promote your company, products, and services. Our profile builder provides different ‘modules’ for you to choose from, as well as different templates to help you create a professional online profile with your logo, company information, photos, videos, and sponsorship requirements . Examples of modules you can add to your profile include photo galleries, video galleries, text modules, sponsored riders, and company location just to name a few. Spend about 30 minutes with your design and marketing teams thinking about which modules you would like to use to best represent your company. It’s tempting to use all the cool social networking widgets available now, but refrain from MySpace code, java script, I-Frames and other things that may break the functionality of your profile. 2. SETUP YOUR SPONSORSHIP CONTRACTS, TEAMS AND LISTINGS – To properly complete the setup of your entire program you need to create your sponsorship contracts, teams, and listings. - Sponsorship Contracts: Your sponsorship contracts are the opportunity to clearly outline your deal points, include a cover letter, and your sponsorship agreement. There is a step by step contract builder that will guide you through the setup process. Be sure to confirm the dates within your contract templates coincide with your specific sponsorship contract season. Include detailed ordering instructions, as well as any other specific details that will help clarify your expectations. Once an ‘offer’ is submitted to an athlete or team, they can execute your contracts digitally online.
- Teams: Teams are a way to organize your entire sponsorship program into “teams” so you can easily keep track of all your different athletes. A team is simply a folder and can be as broad or as specific as you choose to help you organize all your sponsored athletes.
- Sponsorship Listings: Within teams, you can setup sponsorship listings, which act as filters to streamline which athletes you would like to be contacted by for sponsorship consideration. Within sponsorship listings, you can specify dates for when athletes may submit applications, the sport, specific competition organizations and classes, as well as demographic information, such as age, gender and geography. Listings help to ensure you are only contacted by those who fit your criteria. You may also search for athletes on the site and submit sponsorship offers that are assigned to a team without them having to submit through a listing.
3. MANAGING SPONSORSHIP APPLICATIONS – Once inside your sponsorship listings, there is an easy-to-follow interface that allows you to quickly review and respond to applications. You can choose to manage applications from the summary page using the ‘Multiple Response’ feature as a means to quickly respond to athletes who either fit a certain criteria and sponsorship level or as a way to send thank you letters to a large number of athletes not accepted for sponsorship at one time. If you prefer to review each detailed application individually, simply click on the first rider in the list and you can scan each application, respond accordingly, and automatically be directed to the next application on the list. In an effort to get more activity and interest from the applicants it’s best to respond to applicants within 48 hours if time permits. 4. UTILIZING THE ‘FRIEND OF BRAND’ PROGRAM - We launched the ‘Friend of Brand’ program in 2006 as a new way for companies to ‘politely’ turn down sponsorship applicants, but still have a creative way to keep them connected to their company in a more personal way. It’s a way of saying, ‘we’re sorry we can’t sponsor you, but join our Friend of Brand program to stay on our radar and receive important updates about our program and products’. Used correctly, this program can be a highly effective way to keep athletes and teams fired up on your company without having to commit to a sponsorship. Some companies will still provide one-time or smaller level discounts to their Friend of Brand program as a way to say thanks for your interest in our company. 4. DRIVE SALES AND ACTIVITY WITH THE BROADCAST AND COMMUNICATION FEATURES – Looking for an easy way to send a message to all your athletes or friends of the brand? Utilize the broadcast feature to send out company news, new product features, sponsorship season updates, special promotions or whatever information you desire. The broadcast tool is the single most effective way to maintain contact with all the athletes and teams associated with your company throughout the year. 5. STREAMLINE YOUR PROGRAM BY LIMITING SPONSORSHIP INQUIRIES BY MAIL / EMAIL / PHONE / FAX – The reason SponsorHouse was started was to help companies manage their sponsorship programs more efficiently! Sponsorship services for athletes and teams are free with upgraded services available, so there is no excuse for riders not to go online. Things you can do to refer more people to your program on SponsorHouse include: 2. Inform your administrative staff that you’re on SponsorHouse so they can properly refer phone inquiries about sponsorship. 3. Call us at 888-874-3374 to receive postcards and information sheets that you can distribute at any events you attend. Following these couple tips will ensure that you are prepared and will have maximum success on SponsorHouse. If you’re interested in viewing more sponsorship resources, visit the Resource section for more tips and information on sponsorship and interviews with other team managers from the industry.
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