How to go about getting sponsors?

[John D]

Hey,
I have been selling ad space on sites of mine for years but I want to develop my sites full time now.

One of the main issues I have always had to work with is getting advertisers or sponsors to help support the site.

Right now I am trying to get three sponsors for my webmaster that would have a major role, they would be the only three advertised throughout the forum and I am trying to work something out so the webmaster forum would act as a division of the sponsors, like webhosting.info is for Directi for example.

One company contacted me and said they would like to be one of my sponsors, which is great, but to pay for the development of the site and my plans I need to have three.

How should I go about getting sponsors?

I don’t want it to come across as spam at all and I know companies have email addresses for these type of proposals, but what about those that don’t, should I contact them?

I think hosts would do amazingly well from this site I am working on now, the members are webmasters, i.e. they own their own and manage their own sites, not just graphic designers or coders like a lot of similar forums would have.

I want to go with companies in an industry that I think could benefit from my site, there’s no point in having a partnership if I don’t think the other company will do well from it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do?

[Aussie Bob]

John,

Didn't you email me a few days ago about this? I remember an email coming through, but can't find it now.

[John D]

Yeah I did Bob, I sent an email to two hosts that I thought might be interested.

They were the only companies I contacted but it still seemed like I was spamming.

I have resent the email if you want to take a look at it.

Thanks Bob

[Aussie Bob]

Spammer!!

j/k :D

I'll read the email tonight. I'm looking for something like that for Dotable.

[John D]

:D

Haha no problem, thanks Bob.

[SoftWareRevue]

heh . . . I was actually going to suggest contacting Bob. :D

Anywho . . . When I looked for sponsors for FU, I just used the contact form from their web sites. I didn't figure contacting them in that method would be viewed as spam. Maybe that's just me though.

[John D]

I wouldn't consider it spam either but I know a lot of people think it is.

What did you include in the emails Dennis?

I tried to include a lot of info, about the site, about me, what I would like from the sponsor and what they get in return.

[SoftWareRevue]

I wouldn't consider it spam either but I know a lot of people think it is.

What did you include in the emails Dennis?

I tried to include a lot of info, about the site, about me, what I would like from the sponsor and what they get in return.I didn't send emails. :P

Since this was before FU was even launched, I included my detailed vision of what it would be, projected demographics of visitors and, of course, my perception of their advantage of sponsorship.

Once I received a positive response from the first sponsor, I included that as reinforcement of the strength of sponsorship for the others.

Seems a fine line between perceived spam and opportunities for strategic alliance. But I believe that the people you contact are receptive to such contacts if they feel you have contacted them on a personal level and not just sent out a template.

One way to accomplish this is to do a little homework.

I began each contact with the information I knew or discovered about their organization. And, of course, how much I liked their product or service. :)

[Aussie Bob]

. . . I began each contact with the information I knew or discovered about their organization. And, of course, how much I liked their product or service. :)
And being an existing client of burst.net, made that first contact all the more smooth too. :)

I receive emails/PMs from folks I know on forums, and have interacted with etc, and don't think of it as spam. If it gets to the point where one person can't contact another person, and propose some kind of mutually benficial business, out of fear of being labelled a spammer, then we've headed down the slippery and dark path.

[John D]

Seems a fine line between perceived spam and opportunities for strategic alliance.

I think that's a big problem.
I have contacted companies in the past with offers that would work well for both companies and been told to stop spamming, although it was a personal, one off email to that one person.

I guess its just down to the people you are emailing, I know I am more than happy to look at anything that could be good for my sites or businesses :)

What I would normally do if I'm contacting someone about a partnership/deal/sponsorship is ask if they would be interested first then send another email containing the details if they were.

[SoftWareRevue]

And being an existing client of burst.net, made that first contact all the more smooth too. . .Burst was actually the third contact I made. :cartman:

[Aussie Bob]

Struth. Good for Burst then! They'll get some great kudos from sponsoring FU. :)

[SoftWareRevue]

I should have probably went into detail the process I took in recruiting sponsors and why I chose each step. :blush:

I'll, at least, explain my rational behind asking Burst third.

I figured that they'd be making the largest investment. So, we had to have a good base to show them. Gaining the software and the style first, gave me something to show off to them. :)

Showing them that others had sponsored different aspects of FU, not only presented that others thought of FU's vision enough to sponsor, but that they were not sponsoring the same type of product.

To sum it up; I believe it's not only important on who you contact for sponsorship, but when.

[Aussie Bob]

Yep, that's a wise approach indeed.

[Jan]

I think many popular companies (and not so popular) get reams of requests for *freebies* over time. Presentation would be a big plus to get them to even read your request :)