Marketing Buzz or Bust? How to Decide if a Sponsorship Makes Sense for Your Client or Business

Posted on May 1, 2012 in Marketing, Promotion | 0 comments

By Gina F. Rubel, Esq., Laura Powers, and Amanda Walsh of Furia Rubel Communications, Inc.

It can be overwhelming for business owners to cut through the tremendous amount of sponsorship and miscellaneous advertising opportunities for various professional organizations, nonprofit events or trade shows.

How does one decide, in a strategic way, which opportunities are the best fit for the business?

Gina F. Rubel, Esq.’s book Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers outlines some strategic questions to consider when thinking about where to spend marketing dollars for events and sponsorships:

Your Business	The Event / Sponsorship Opportunity
What are your core business goals?	What are the event’s business goals?
What are your marketing objectives?	Does this opportunity meet your marketing objectives?
Who is your target audience?	Does this event reach your target audience?
What is your budget?	Does the cost of this opportunity fit within your budget?
How do you measure the success for your marketing efforts?	Does this event / sponsorship provide measurable opportunities?
Do you track your opportunity costs?	What are the opportunity costs if you do not participate?
Who is your competition?	Will your competition have a significant presence at the event?Note: You may want to participate because there is no significant competitive presence or the opposite might hold true.

After examining the strategic questions above, it is time to see if the answers line up. If the event / sponsorship opportunity has the same target audience, goals and objectives that you want to reach for your business, then the opportunity may make sense from a strategic marketing and public relations standpoint. If the answers do not align, table the event or sponsorship investment until the following fiscal year and reassess the opportunity at that time.

If the event or sponsorship opportunity aligns with your business goals, it is important to have a presence at the event for networking opportunities and company name recognition. The event should also be leveraged through integrated communications such as public relations, marketing, social media and strategic business development efforts.

Furia Rubel typically recommends that a business put a policy or procedure in place to determine which sponsorships it will invest in and why (detailing how each is linked to the business, the target audience, etc.). The policy should include how the business plans to measure the success of each investment.

By using the questions above to strategically think about each event or sponsorship investment and establishing a policy, you have the tools you need to assess any type of opportunity that may arise for your team and your business.

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About the authors: Gina F. Rubel, Esq. serves as the CEO, Laura Powers serves as the Vice President of Marketing, and Amanda Walsh serves as the Social Media, Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator at Furia Rubel Communications, Inc. Celebrating its 10th year in business in 2012, Furia Rubel is a woman-owned certified agency consisting of specialists who provide strategic planning, marketing, public relations, graphic design, websites, social media and media relations to a wide array of professional clients. Follow them on Twitter @GinaRubel, @Lppowers and @AmandaRWalsh. For more information about the company, visit www.furiarubel.com, read our blog at www.theprlawyer.com or follow @FuriaRubel.