How To Get Sponsors For Giveaways & Competitions
Posted on 25'08 Nov
A lot of people have been asking how I managed to get $11,000 worth of prizes in my latest competition so I thought I would share with you how I managed to do so… I present to you how to get sponsors for giveaways & competitions.
There are 3 ways that work best (in order):
- Direct Email Likely Sponsors
- Call For Sponsorship On Your Blog
- Use Your Other Social Networks
1. Direct Email Likely Sponsors
This is by far the best way to get sponsorship, especially for the larger prizes. Below I will guide you through how I wrote one of my emails to Threadless when asking for sponsorship.
Example:
(1) Gday Bob,
(2) This is Jacob Cass here from Just Creative Design, I hope this email finds you well. (3) I am a big fan of Threadless and the T Shirt community and (4) I was wondering if you could help me out in regards to sponsoring a shirt or two for a MASSIVE prize giveaway that I am holding on Just Creative Design for my blog’s 1st birthday.
(5) I have a loyal fan base of about 8700+ subscribers and the site sees over 20,000 page views a day so you would get some great exposure if you could kindly donate a shirt (or something else?) to the cause.
(6) I really want to give back to the community and my readers… Of course credit and links would be given back.
(7) Anyway, if you do have something to offer please get back to me.
(8) Thanks and hear from you soon.
Regards,
Jacob Cass
http://justcreativedesign.com
Reference:
- Always address the person by name if you can find it. Look hard for it.
- Introduce yourself.
- Add a compliment relating to their business. Do not make it a generic email.
- Ask for sponsorship.
- Tell them what they will get out of it.
- Tell them why you are doing it.
- Don’t assume they will sponsor you.
- Close nicely.
2. Call For Sponsorship On Your Blog
The second recommended way to get sponsorship is to write a blog post asking your readers if they will sponsor something for your competition or giveaway. Tell them what they will get in return. Make it easy for them to sponsor. You can see my original call for sponsorship below.
In a few weeks Just Creative Design is turning 1 year old and to celebrate I am holding a MASSIVE design group writing project with LOTS (I mean lots) of prizes. This is going to be huge!
Back in June I held my first group design project and I managed to gather $5000 worth of prizes (including an electric guitar) when I had less than 2000 subscribers so I wonder what can be done with 8300+ subscribers?
I am not going to tell you much more for now but if you want to sponsor you will get many links back to your website from this website and from other blogs posting about this contest – plus a warm giddy feeling that you are donating.
To Sponsor
To sponsor a prize please email me (jacobcass [AT] justcreativedesign [DOT] com) with the prize you are kindly willing to donate along with a link to your website so I can link back to your site and the value in $ of your prize. For prize ideas see what was donated last time.
Excited? I am.
3. Use Your Other Social Networks
If you have a good following in any social networks send out a request for sponsorship in that network. Everyone has their own preferred network (ie. Digg, SU, DesignFloat, Twitter) so use them to your advantage.
Personally I am quite active on Twitter and Facebook… I sent out numerous Twitter’s asking for sponsorship and then those messages then got retweeted by friends and so fourth. Follow Me On Twitter.
I also have a Just Creative Design group on Facebook of which I sent out a mass message to all of it’s members asking for sponsorship.
This mass message method doesn’t usually work as well so I would try doing the first two methods, it really does pay off.
Well there we have it, how to get sponsors for giveaways and competitions! What other tips do you have?
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37 JUST™ Creative Comments
Fantastic article. I work for a climbing company as the Marketing Manager and I prefer requests by email so I can track them. Also remember to explain what THEY will get out of it, so for example; I want to know how many participates there will be, where my logo will be used, if I am the only company of my kind that is sponsoring, media coverage, a website so I can create a click through. All of this effects how much stuff will get sent.
Excellent article. I was just thinking today that I should create my first ever contest / prize giveaway now that I have grown in subscribers…and I was wondering how best to go about getting sponsors. Nice bit of help here Jacob, thanks
Great article Jacob. Sometimes its good to know people skills are still important.
I’m still pretty far away from doing things like this on my blog, but i will keep it in mind for the day when I need it.
This are great tips to find sponsors online. Doing this will a great attitude will also help.
Great information there Jacob. I found the example of an Email quite useful, as I sometimes write too much when approaching people online. I’ll use this post for future reference.
An interesting Post to read. It’s always interesting to find out what others write in letters like that. A bit like finding out what people put in their cover letters for jobs i suppose.
One thing I will criticize though is the casual nature of your example email. However, it is really dependent on who you are writing to, as to how formal or informal it is and it is something you need to gauge when you sit down to write it.
Thanks for sharing.
Adam,
I also prefer email, even if I get things on facebook, twitter, etc I always ask them to send me an email, it is easier to track. Usually I keep the email short at first and then after their first reply you have something else to backup your story… ie. elaborate on what they will receive.
Brian,
Well good luck with it :)
Preston,
People skills are definitely important. Good luck for when you start finding sponsors.
Andrew,
Yeah I find that long promotional emails I hardly ever read, maybe just the first two paragraphs. If it hasn’t grabbed me by then, well better luck next time.
Raph,
Yeah it is always interesting to see how others write their letters. The casual nature I thought was perfect for the nature of the sponsor but like you said, it is dependent on who you are writing too.
The whole process was dealt with brilliantly, it maintained an informal friendly feel, and it was always clear everybody was going to benefit. It is very interesting to see how many none blog owners wrote articles. Well done Jacob.
Amazing post, imho.
I had asked that question myself ‘how did he make 11k for prizes’. Great followup. :)
Nice story Jacob. I have a football (soccer) website and recently managed to find a sponsor to fund a contest on my site. I simply sent him an email telling him about how important the contest is to the users, and he agreed to fund a shirt and a soccer ball. All I had to do was add the link to his online soccer store for the duration of the contest. Now, however, we have a lasting partnership in which I regularly have sponsored contests by his online soccer store.
I totally agree with your points. In order to get a sponsor you must
a) tell him/her why the contest is important to you
b) tell him/her what they will receive in return
c) tell them how many people visit your site. It is especially important for your visitors to have an interest in what your sponsor is involved with, as the sponsor may find this as an attractive reason to fund your contest.
Thanks for your advice
Great suggestions.
Keep in touch.
nice post, it guest I could learn to get a sponsor from this post.
all the way from barbados…thank you your article was very helpful….came across it by chance but i’m glad i did…ty vm.
thank you
Hi, Jacob, this is the first time to your blog, but I just wanted to say thank you so much for the straight forward tips on gaining sponsors. Although, I am not looking for any, I have bookmarked your page for the future when I am ready to do a promotion. Keep up the awesome work and I wish you continued success.
A friend just forwarded this post to me, thanks so much! I’m going to try it out tonight! Wish me luck!
What do you do if the sponsor doesn’t keep his word?
Aren’t you concerned with legal issues like your liability to provide the winner with the gift anyway.
This article has been featured here
http://jaredthompson-design.blogspot.com/2009/08/ultimate-list-of-best-links-from-last.html
Keep up the good work!
Thank you so much !..
Cheers
Elijah
Thanks for the great info. This info will be very helpful in the near future, as I will be having a giveaway!
Great article! These are definitely some tips I will be using for my upcoming blog giveaways. It’s amazing how simple the process is (contact the companies), and yet we sometimes freak out over the prospect of calling (thinking we’ll get turned down). I also agree that traffic has a great deal to do with it being a better bargain for them.
Great Article!! We are starting the process of finding sponsors and feel lost. This article has helped dramatically!! One question, how do you get the email addresses??
Just go to the person’s contact page and find it there!
Hi Jacob cass i am a young man with the aim of organizing a quiz competition for schools in my region but getting sponsorship is my major problem .the quiz will be for junior high school .the selected subject are science,mathematics,I.C.T and English language.the quiz will be held live on a local T.V station in cape coast,central region Ghana.I am a teacher and a first year student of U.C.C offering Education.I need your help.
Thank you for the information. I just posted my first blog to ask for sponsors. Wish me luck!!
I have already tried doing this and its really tough working and dealing with sponsors. A lot of meetings to undergo and papers to sign.
Going for ex-deals are actually one of the best ways to get some good stuff. Promote the items in your blog entries as ex-deal for their stuff. Talk to their marketing department and ask how they work on those.
Something else would seem to go without saying, but I’m afraid it needs to be said.
If you sponsor a contest on social media, there is an underlying implication (read warranty) that you WILL fulfill the promotion, contest, etc.
I personally have been “burned” four times now (by small businesses, typically) who seemingly are using Twitter just to drum up followers. They have a giveaway or contest and announce that you will win ‘such and such,’ and then you never receive anything from the company. No further communications, etc. They don’t ever check their “mentions” and they never follow anyone, so you can’t DM them. If you are lucky enough to find an email address for them, they will not answer you as to what’s up with the contest.
I think this practice is poor business at the least, and outright fraud at the worst.
I was doing some reseacrh on how to get sponsors and give away prizes. This has helped me and even given me some ideas on who to contact and what to offer for a prize.
I have recently started my own Company and now finally I’m launching my website. For the launch I was thinking of Giving something away.
thanx for the info.
That’s an excellent idea. I was looking for information on how to get sponsored and your email sample is awesome.
I have an arcade site where people can play online games with no necessity to install anything and I really want to encourage people to come back. I will be giving away a Zune next month and I hope to get more prizes to giveaway.
I think giveaway is an awesome way to get more traffic to your website and keep loyal visitors.
We launched a website http://www.IamSponsored.com It matches talented people with companies willing to sponsor them. It’s free to. You get perks, freebies and a bunch of stuff and great offers from sponsors. Check it out, There are tons of sponsorship categories also.
Hmm. Thanks for sharing, Jacob. Very well explained. First time here.
But it’s difficult for a blogger to get sponsors if the traffic isn’t as high as yours, yeah? :)
You’d be surprised how much others are looking for exposure as well. We all start somewhere!
Hmm, true. That’s motivating! :)
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Direct Email Likely Sponsors - Sponzor .ME - You asked, you got it
Call For Sponsorship On Your Blog - Sponzor .ME - You asked, you got it
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