Marketing your sports scoreboard advertising is an art, but one that you can easily accomplish to get the highest level of success. You will need to gather a team of volunteers together. This team can be members of the Booster Club, Alumni, students and even some of your sports team players. These will be the core group that will be responsible for various marketing pieces.
Establishing a presentation format to present to your sponsors will demonstrate a professional level and entice them to buy-into the program more readily. Use the expertise of your graphics design department to create a presentation type. The best format (and most cost-effective) is a PowerPoint presentation. You can customize each presentation for the unique sponsor as this will raise their level of interest when they view their logo and personal information. If you choose a brochure format, there will be printing costs associated with the project and any changes will incur more costs. Always make sure you have a contact-sheet, which can be left for the sponsor for additional questions. This may be a general phone number or a personalized business card.
Get your team together to decide on the type of scoreboard ads you will be selling. You should have a variety of cost levels, to appeal to both the budget-conscious and those that want full cost support. Some of the levels could include a spot ad, a full 10 second ad, external door or overhead banners to complement the scoreboard ads. You may also want to work with the professionals that you know to draw up an advertising contract. The contract will detail what is to be delivered for advertising. Include the schedule selections, advertising type, and payment choices. Payment choices can typically be paid in full once the ad is delivered for approval, or a one-third down now, with a balance at approval time.
Once you get you advertising levels established, you can now focus on your sponsor ‘leads’. Take advantage of any relationships that exist within the system, including relatives and friends that know local businesses. Decide on which members of your team will be the presenters and review the presentations and cost levels in detail. Always contact a potential sponsor to set up an appointment; with a decision maker. If you do a presentation with someone who isn’t the decision maker, you may have to return for repeated presentations. The appointment concept will let them know you respect their busy schedules. Allow a specific amount of time for the presentation, and include a question and answer time. This may be the first time that you or your team have ever been in a sales position, but always be relaxed and confident. Take a laptop to the presentation and allow the sponsor to view the PowerPoint presentation or if you have chosen the brochure format, make sure that you have enough copies for multiple attendees.
If you get a confirmed ‘yes’ – don’t go any further with explanations. Once you get a ‘yes’ – move to the close and get a signature on a contract. Further explanations or repeating information may actually do more harm than good at this point. The next step will be to coordinate and get the internal contact at the sponsor location for logos, content, artwork and potential appointments for camera shots or video. Always confirm the follow up date and an ETA for each release level and final production. Be sure to collect any money due (if appropriate) and communicate that a copy of the signed contract will be returned to the sponsor. This is easily done with a scanned copy emailed to them.
Marketing and advertising can be a fine dance between what you feel is the best way to present a sponsor and what the sponsor may have as a vision. Make sure that you convey the best practices of advertising for best results, but, ultimately it is the sponsor’s money that is paying for it, so make every effort to comply with their requirements.