How to Calculate the ROI of Sponsorships

Brandon Welch 0:00
The primary goal, Bruce, and the primary ROI is, did I make an impact with people? And that is an intuitive human thing, in the same way that building a relationship with your wife is a human and intuitive thing. Yeah, you don’t look at a spreadsheet for how much your wife loves you or how much your friends like you, nope. Hopefully, maybe some people look at Facebook likes, but, um, but that those things can’t be measured, and that’s the type of thing that makes customers come to you.

Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I’m your host, Brandon Welch, and I’m joined by my co host, Captain Caleb

Caleb Agee 0:37
Agee. It’s good to be here. Howdy. Howdy, ahoy.

Brandon Welch 0:41
This. There you go. This is the place where we answer your real life marketing questions. You can eliminate waste in advertising, grow your business and achieve the big dream. And today we have a big dreamer asking an awesome question

Caleb Agee 0:53
about ships, cruise ships. Friendships, spaceships. Sponsorships,

Brandon Welch 0:59
sponsorship. So we’re gonna anchor this entire episode around sponsorships. I got it. You’re gonna get the whole truth, nothing but the truth about all the sponsorships that you could possibly be faced with your business. We all get hit up for things, probably weekly. Somebody’s trying to get money for this or that. Yeah, and what is the value of that, from a advertising perspective, a media perspective, a growth of your company perspective, should you do it? How should you do it? And how should you not do it? Yeah, everything you ever wanted to know about sponsorships. You’ve participated in hundreds, if not 1000s of these over the years, and there are some tiny tweaks one way or the other that can kind of make the difference of getting the impact that we all want, right? Yeah,

Caleb Agee 1:41
yeah. And I think it’s just like any media a lot of people don’t think about it until the opportunity arises. You know, so, so true that we’re trying to help you. Pre, decide. That is how you make good decisions in life. Is deciding before you have to decide,

Brandon Welch 1:56
drop, isn’t it? Boom, the power. Pre, deciding. I think, I think our church sermons about that right now. So there you go. So Captain Caleb is going to read the question from our good friend Bruce, yeah, and answer it as asked. So here we go. All aboard Brandon,

Caleb Agee 2:10
our credit union currently sponsors many events around town, golf tournaments, fundraisers, etc. And we are also sponsoring a local radio show that airs weekly, featuring one of my main mortgage lenders as an expert. These make up a significant porch portion, got it, portion of our budget. My question for you is, are sponsorships worth the investment, and how do we track the ROI? Great question. I

Brandon Welch 2:39
really can’t believe we haven’t dabbled in this before, because it’s such a relevant thing. I think every marketing budget to some degree, whether you’re sponsoring the mighty mites team or you’re doing something big with a, you know, event, or doing something at church or whatever, yeah, I think everybody has this in their budget somewhere. So, so glad we’re tackling us today. And I would first just say, let’s break these into three different types of sponsorships. Yeah, sponsorships a big bucket that a lot of things get put in. And for my view, there are three, three types. One is media sponsorships. So you’re naming, like, putting your name on a show, or you’re sponsoring the weather or the news or a specific something that’s happening in the media, which is kind of what Bruce just mentioned, yep, or events, which is, could be anything from golf tournaments to sporting events to community events to, like, some thing, you know, a fair or festival or whatever. And then there are philanthropic Phil and tropic Phil and his wife, thropic, philanthropic events, which could be, you know, being a major donor of, like, some organization you’re passionate about, yeah, capital campaigns, building a new building, sponsoring a room, anything under that, right? Yeah, or just flat out, underwriting an effort or program. So I think Bruce is doing all three of these things. That’s a very credit union slash bank thing to do, sure, very common for that type of business. And really, if you think about it, a lot of there’s not a lot of differentiation because of all the regulation between one type of, you know, service at a bank or credit union than any other, yeah, but we’re going to talk about what’s the, what’s the what is the ROI and how could he get the most out of these things? So, but first he mentioned the radio show, yeah,

Caleb Agee 4:18
so I think this is a radio show. It comes on after Dave Ramsey, right? Yep, and, and it’s, they’ve got a real estate pro and a lending Pro, and they both great personalities, lots of knowledge, and they show up and talk about real estate, yes. And so a lot of good show. Yeah,

Brandon Welch 4:35
I’ve actually listened to it before. Yeah, they make it as a podcast, a lot of

Caleb Agee 4:38
fun. I think, I think that’s going to have a great impact on, you know, just the community at large. They are adding value to people, but they also get to mention where they’re from, which is really powerful. But Bruce

Brandon Welch 4:50
is getting the bill, and he’s going, it’s a big bill, yeah, it’s 10s of 1000s of dollars to do this on an annual basis. And he’s going, you know, what am I getting from this? So, yeah.

Caleb Agee 5:00
Let’s jump into,

Brandon Welch 5:03
what are sponsorships? What are media sponsorships in general, to answer Bruce’s question, yeah, first thing I’d say to Bruce about ROI is this is very much in the category of tomorrow marketing. Any sponsorship you’re going to do is very rarely going to have any sort of direct response or, you know, association with what we would call a today customer. Yeah. So we use tomorrow marketing in our agency to make people all kinds of successful, right? That’s like, it’s our biggest weapon. Yes, is mass media and tomorrow marketing, yes, and a sponsorship is really just a form of that, because generally, you’re sponsoring an organization that has a reach of lots and lots of people, right? Or, yeah, they at least have a public visibility of that. Yeah, so tomorrow, Mark tomorrow

Caleb Agee 5:45
marketing. You can read about it in the Maven marketer here. Hold on. I’ll hold it for you. Look at this. Look at that. If you’re on the podcast, if you’re listening to audio, just imagine me smiling with a blue book next to my face, and we’re gonna

Brandon Welch 5:55
do something crazy. Yeah, go for a copy of the book. Like share, comment and send us a screenshot of you doing that. Maybe Maven Monday at frankon. Maven.com we’re gonna send you a signed copy of the book. Yes, wow. It’s gonna happen. This could get out of control, yep. Uh, limit, 50. Limit, 50 limit. Okay,

Caleb Agee 6:15
no purchase necessary to avoid. Yeah,

Brandon Welch 6:17
exactly. So, okay. Uh, tomorrow marketing, we talk about this in chapters 1213, and 14. So 14. And if you’re not familiar with the Maven marketer, our entire operating system, how we’ve grown companies from tiny to big, has been based on a key idea that there are three types of customers at any given time up for grabs, yep. And the way you talk to them and the way you reach them is different for each type of customer. A today, customer is somebody who knows they need what you’re doing, and they’re out there searching for you, and it’s a matter of intercepting them and giving them the most attractive offer, saving them time, money or hassle. Yep, a tomorrow customer will not buy you for any reason whatsoever, because you’re selling refrigerators and they don’t need a refrigerator. Yep, you’re selling tires. They don’t need a tire. You’re selling HVAC. They don’t need an HVAC mortgage. They’re just working is fine. You’re selling the mortgage more years. Yes, you have to think about the average customer is only in the market, like literal buying market for food every day, every day, oxygen, every day, and maybe like gasoline, right? Otherwise, the things we buy take long periods of time, especially big purchases, like homes and mortgages and cars and all that, that sort of stuff. So, yeah, so just, just global strategy, like banking in general, people don’t switch banks often, often, people don’t switch credit unions. Often, I know there’s a difference Bruce, people don’t. I heard that. Heard the credit union army coming after me. Cringe. We’re not a bank, um, but they don’t make those types of decisions often. It’s at best, every four or five years. And so what? Why, like at large, our strategy for for a credit union or a bank or anything with a long term buying cycle is that there’s a very finite, finite amount of people bidding and looking today, yeah, but there’s like 99% of the audience that will one day buy and so that’s our biggest available audience in most product categories. Yeah. And so what a sponsorship does is upholds the three things that we know that you have to do to win over a tomorrow customer, and that’s that you have to demonstrate commitment to their outcome, so the general public’s outcome, you have to demonstrate some sort of quality or conviction about why you do what you do, or how you do what you do. So quality, which, while you’re

Caleb Agee 8:29
teaching about mortgages and, yeah, of course, you show that expertise, yeah. And

Brandon Welch 8:33
in this particular example, like so it’s commitment, quality in relationships. I want to finish that. But in this particular example, the radio show. What better way to demonstrate the quality and the commitment to the general public’s better outcome than to educate them and teach them about things that are complicated and scary? Yeah? Yeah. And in doing so, because this is an audience, it’s a radio audience, and they listen to Dave Ramsey every day, and they keep the radio on, and they probably hear these guys weekly. That is a demonstration of relationship and commitment, and then in doing so, you’re demonstrating quality. So media sponsorships of this type are really, really rich with impact,

Caleb Agee 9:14
I think what’s what’s interesting? If we want to get really specific about radio, yeah, it usually costs more and is harder to buy. Usually radio, you buy on wide what we call day parts, so you buy all day, or you can maybe get down to, like morning drive time, which is like a four hour, three or four hour segment. These guys are buying, essentially a one hour show, yeah,

Brandon Welch 9:36
a little station inside of a station, and those people come back like it may not be 10s of 1000s of people, but the people coming here are

Caleb Agee 9:43
the same and like, yeah, we want that consistency with the audience that we’re talking to. We want to make sure we’re talking to the same people over and over again. Yes, and I would say that this is a very habitual type of listener which is really powerful,

Brandon Welch 9:56
and nobody listening can even predict or tell. You when the moment’s gonna pop up that the perfect house comes across their way, or they had another kid and they’re gonna have to upgrade their house, or they’re, you know, gonna have to move cities for a job or something. Nobody even knows when that’s gonna happen to them, really, like they think, yeah, maybe in three or four years. Yeah, they don’t know specifically, but that moment it happens and they go, Oh, time to talk to a lender who’s going to pop in your mind? First, the one you’ve heard about a million times and has helped you a million times, yeah, without asking for anything in return, or some goober on a search engine. Yeah, the one you’ve heard about, and I’m telling Bruce like, and all the people at this credit union, like, even if it was a extremely small audience, and this is not a big radio station that they’re on, but it’s a really loyal audience, even if it’s extremely small. What’s the value of like over the next 10 years, having 100 more

Caleb Agee 10:51
mortgage customers than you would have had? Is that like, multiple, multiple

Brandon Welch 10:56
six figures of return? I think it is. And then think about all the ancillary things, and this is actually a really good way to demonstrate what a tomorrow customer’s value is. And the thing is, if Bruce were just to run an ad and say, well, our rates are this today, and you should choose a bank or choose a credit union, because we’re a credit union and we’re good, and that’s unfortunately, that’s kind of what a lot of banking ads are limited to. Now Bruce, I have a way, way, way better idea for you than that. So don’t, don’t hear me that you shouldn’t do advertising, but, yeah, but that’s, that’s what most people would be doing. And the people who are not buying today or not buying a mortgage today are going click, I don’t care you check this me, but if you’re talking about a market condition, I know these guys are probably talking about the economy, they’re talking about how to build wealth, they’re talking about how to get the best deal that’s that has inherent entertainment value. Yeah. So this is a really, really solid media sponsorship from my point of view. Yeah. In general, media sponsorships can do that, yeah. But also

Caleb Agee 12:00
sometimes they don’t okay. But

Brandon Welch 12:02
first, let’s answer the second part of Bruce’s question. How

Caleb Agee 12:05
do you measure the ROI, was his second question, how do you know it’s working?

Brandon Welch 12:12
You don’t get your CPAs involved or see your accountants involved, because this will just drive them crazy. Probably tough in the finance house, in the finance industry. So everybody is every smart person in the building is going, Yes, but when did it? Where’s, where’s it on the spreadsheet? And I say this often, but I can’t say it enough. You cannot measure the future emotions of your target audience on a spreadsheet. It cannot be measured. No, if you were somehow able to go, you know, maybe Elon Musk will give us away someday. That’s scary to like, take inventory on people’s thoughts, feelings and like synapses in their brain, like all at once, then you then you’re kind of good. But until we can do that, it is based on faith. Is based on faith that when you do good things, people like you more. When you are consistent, people trust you more. And when you are entertaining, people will pay attention to you more. Yep. And so that is the essence of a tomorrow customer. And I say all that to say there’s no granular way to measure it. However, when this is being done, somewhere in the buying cycle, usually in the six to 18 month range. The things we start to see happen for our clients that make a strong commitment to tomorrow marketing are things we call these seven clues along the way. I’m not going to go into all seven of them. You’ll have to leave us a like and a comment and get your very own copy of the Maven marketer. Boom. But made it happen. But some things that that would start happening is, if all of the things were the same, you could start seeing an increase in Direct website traffic, like we when somebody commits heavy to tomorrow marketing, we start seeing people go to them, which is a byproduct of people trusting them more and going, Ah, I thought of that person first. Instead of going to a stupid search engine saying,

Caleb Agee 14:00
credit union.org, and

Brandon Welch 14:03
today, that’s the name of it, Bruce, Bruce’s credit union, bank with Bruce, credit union with Bruce, they’re going to think of you first. And as Roy Williams says, feel the best about you. So you’re making them know like and trust you. And one signal that is increased website traffic, specifically, organic and Direct website traffic, yeah, because people are searching for your name or your URL directly, what what always happens is our our clients come back and they say, wow, my guy, my sales guys, are closing at a much higher rate. No, like and trust factor, yeah. Just think about what you do in your own life. You go with what you know, right? Yeah,

Caleb Agee 14:41
and they have a preconceived feeling about the company, yes, before you even have to sell, yes, which is amazing, and unfortunately,

Brandon Welch 14:49
I love you accountants, but you can’t measure that, except for feely, touchy relationship type ways, this does not enter the logic, yeah, of calculations.

Caleb Agee 14:59
Well, you can’t. Find that in today marketing, if I can, if I can sidetrack for a second, you can find that in today marketing, yes, but you will pay more for them. Yes, each person will cost. Each set of eyeballs costs to the tune of 10 to 50 times more. Yes, per eyeball or ear, yes, whatever, whichever way you want to go. And then that conversion costs a lot more then you still have to sell them. And they have no feelings. They’re just look they’re they’re honestly just looking for a deal. If it comes

Brandon Welch 15:27
down to doing one or the other, that’s definitely true today. Marketing would be way more expensive, way more cumbersome. You’re buying leads, you’re paying a bunch, like astronomical, record high prices for Google clicks. Yes, I’ve been doing Google for 15 years. I’m pretty dang good at it, and I’m just telling you like I’ve never seen it as cantankerous as it is right now. Yes, and like every other expert I know and trust that’s 10 times smarter than me, says that even more so, yeah, reaching people at the finish line is very, very, very expensive. It is when you reach them with the finish line because you’ve only given them like one stimulus and one specific call to action. You can measure it because that’s all that’s ever going to do good for you. Yes, that’s the bad part about it. You spent it and it’s done tomorrow. Marketing works more and more and more, the more that you do it. By the way, you should do both, and they both help each other do better. Yes, our recommended blend is somewhere in the 7030 range. If you’re an established business, you should be doing 70% tomorrow, marketing with your budget, 30% today. Marketing, yeah, some really cool studies have recently come out on why that’s a good blend.

Caleb Agee 16:38
Soapbox for a different day. Yeah. So increase

Brandon Welch 16:43
sales close rate your sales people are going to be doing better. Nothing against your sales people, but it’s probably the people just trust your brand better, not necessarily that they were doing something totally different. Yep, maybe it’s both. And then one is like, you’re gonna you just, well, you just feel the presence, like, when you have your polo on with your logo, and people like, Oh, I hear about you. Thank you so much for sponsoring this thing. Or, Oh, I know that guy that’s on that radio show, you’ll start to hear stuff like that. That is a clue that it’s working, yep. And there are, there are four other clues along the way. You can look at the movie marketer, if you are just trying to make peace with your account, and you’ve got to have some sort of data to go off of. But the primary goal, Bruce and the primary ROI is, did I make an impact with people? And that is an intuitive human thing, in the same way that building a relationship with your wife is a human and intuitive thing. Yeah, you don’t look at a spreadsheet for how much your wife loves you or how much your friends like you. Nope. Hopefully, maybe some people look at Facebook likes, but, um, but that those things can’t be measured, and that’s the type of thing that makes customers

Caleb Agee 17:45
come to you, yep, yes, yeah, yes. Need the camera guy. Okay, let’s, uh,

Brandon Welch 17:53
let’s dig into that’s Bruce’s media sponsorship. That’s how you we got it. So

Caleb Agee 17:57
let’s cover this from a broad perspective for everyone, because you’ve got, you know, everyone from the Girl Scouts to the football team to the radio station to the hospital to, you know, the new the 5k the golf tournament. You’ve got all these people calling you yes at all different times. It’s like, oh, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with this. So we’re going to go through all three of those categories. Again, we talked about media events and philanthropic, philanthropic. We can do it. Okay, so let’s, let’s start with media sponsorships, which is what, what Bruce has been doing, right? And let’s talk about the do’s and don’ts and just kind of the nuances of each of these. So Okay,

Brandon Welch 18:38
again, this is based on the three principles of tomorrow, customer acquisition, which is commitment, quality and relationships. So all these do’s and don’ts are going to be about how to do more of those things and less of the things that take that just make it a waste of money. So media sponsorships, again, news, weather, shows, specials, uh, sponsoring specific programs like Bruce is doing, do pick ones that are aligned with your audience, right? Yeah, that should. It’s kind of a no brainer, but I have seen some people like, just get pitched something that if it weren’t for the media rep pushing it really hard, they would have never thought of it. It would have never been in their circle like so I think this is really valuable, that this is the type of thing in Bruce’s case that he would be doing anyway, but make sure it’s kind of aligned with your the customer that’s most likely to like you anyway, right? Yeah, that’s just good leverage. I’m gonna say own it all the way. There’s nothing that, uh, agitates me more

Caleb Agee 19:35
than and

Brandon Welch 19:37
sometimes you have to ask special for this, but then being, like, an one of the 50 logos on a NASCAR, like just being a tiny little mention. We’re going to talk about logos in just a second, but, like, sponsorships, I’d rather see you do one or two really well, yeah, than do a bunch of them. Spray and Pray, yeah, and impact. And we’re gonna talk about voice in a second. But own. It like, if it’s something you can own inside and outside your organization. So the media is saying, hey, a really good example that is, you’re going to sponsor our weather app. You get all the mentions on it, or you get a really large chunk of every time we talk about this, we’re mentioning your name. Yes, it’s expensive to do it that way, but, but the ante like is. So when you cross that ante, that threshold, you get a just so much more likeness and power behind that once in a while. Yeah, it’s

Caleb Agee 20:31
more exclusive, and it’s, it’s really tight. Yeah, sponsorships and

Brandon Welch 20:35
company names in general are just things that happen in the subconscious. People are not looking around, going, oh gosh, golly. I just now noticed they sponsor this thing, and now I will do XYZ. It’s not how we work. You don’t work that way. I don’t work that way, no. But over time, if it’s repetitive and consistent, which is the next thing, do it for a long period of time. Don’t go in and out. Don’t sponsor something for three months. If it’s a media thing, we have a attorney here in town that has sponsored the closed captioning for like, 20 years, and everybody knows it, and that’s his thing, and he talks about why he does that. Yeah. Any questions on that so far? No, I think, I think it’s good push your media people. I don’t care if it’s TV, radio, print or whatever, push them to customize it for you so you could be sponsored by Frank and Maven, and it’s like whatever, but if instead they let us put a little tagline, because marketers that don’t teach you why are just a fancy lie, like puts put your own spin on it. Yes, I love it when media reps let me put a little music tag that I have for a client in there, because I get, I get a double factor. I get, yes, I get the mention and the media and the audience that just kind of heard that. But when I have something that’s tied to my other ads, we just did this with a client in Kentucky, and I implant the thing that my customers already know with me, and I put it in these extra media mentions. Like, yeah, they’re saying, give us a minimum of 100 grand. And then every time we talk about our weather app, we’re going to talk about you in it. But instead of just saying your name, they’re going to do this little thing that my clients do, yes, in Kentucky, you guys know, Randy and Dee, they were on the show a couple few months ago. Yeah, they asked this media sponsor, asked us to sponsor their weather app, yeah. And D’s like number one line, it’s like her catchphrase is, that’s a D guarantee. So instead of just saying, you gotta put a little more Kentucky on it while you do it, now, that’s a D guarantee there, yes, ID. And instead of just saying, Oh yeah, put the put their company name on it, we said, No, we’ll do it, but only if you let us put a little script in there where D is talking about the weather app, and say, You can count on the weather, and that’s a D guarantee, yes. And now you can count on my windows, because that’s a D guarantee too, right? Yep. And we tied the two together, and so now I got 10s of 1000s of free dollars in advertising. And instead of it just being some lousy mention that somebody’s saying, yeah, yeah, get me back to the news program. Now they’re going, Oh, that multiplied all the other 10s of 1000s of dollars I’m spending on the core message, yes. So customize it that.

Caleb Agee 23:08
So on these media sponsorships, I’m gonna, I’m gonna sidetrack with a quick question. A lot of times these come as the add on or with the package that almost comes you would come and get. So we’re not looking to, I feel like sometimes the stations will try to sell, uh, some of these sponsorships on the side, they’re gonna do and, and should we avoid that? Should we we should really stick to a strong schedule first? First of all, yeah. And this is great. This is gravy, right? The sponsorship is, is not the core. It’s the gravy on top. Yes,

Brandon Welch 23:45
it cannot replace name mentions for your company. Do not make somebody want to do business with you. Yeah, you might as well be going out to the middle of street and saying, I’m Caleb, I’m Caleb. I’m Caleb. Look at me, I’m Caleb. Yes, like, dude, who’s this crazy guy? Right? Nobody cares. But if you say,

Caleb Agee 24:05
Hey, I’m making this up. Yeah, I’m curious where you’re going with this.

Brandon Welch 24:11
My name is Captain Caleb. I have four beautiful children, a beautiful wife, and I’m just looking to make your day today. Can I buy you a cup of coffee? Can I give you something of value? Yeah, and it’s a message, like a depth of message. There horrible example on the fly. But what I’m saying is name mentions do not tell the rest of the story of your company. They don’t tell what can be done in a 30 or 60 seconds,

Caleb Agee 24:32
a logo splash, a homepage takeover, getting getting your logo on their email blast. None of that is going to change. Yes, somebody’s feeling about your company. Yes, those are, in addition to a core tomorrow schedule we lay

Brandon Welch 24:45
out in the Maven market. Are why people hearing your things the the actual audio signature of of your name and a message or a or a brand phrase, um, physiologically and neurologically, you. Is more memorable than just seeing things and people like, No, I like to see it. It can be both, but hearing is more intrusive than seeing. You can close your eyes, but you can’t close your eyes.

Caleb Agee 25:10
Sorry, that’s all right, that’s all right, all

Brandon Welch 25:13
right, which goes to the next, sorry, we’re spending a lot of time on media sponsorships, okay, but get an audio mention of your company. I don’t put hardly any stock into things that are just my name on a screen. I just don’t do it. I ask cool, put the logo on there. But also mention, I have a client who just made a huge media commitment. And we were like, We will do this. We will spend this amount of money with you if you say our name a certain way, and not just your stupid announcer, like standard way of doing it. And they had to go get approval, and they ended up doing it, but so put your slow go jingle on it. Okay, that’s what to do. Don’t just buy image type things. Make sure it’s talking

Caleb Agee 25:56
about you. Yes,

yep. Okay, so let’s move on to event sponsorship, sponsorships that would be like sports, sporting events. I mean, you can go as big as there’s like, we’re in Chief’s kingdom, right? Yes, there’s big sponsorships, right? Big Time, and then, or, you know, there’s local golf tournaments, or the local high school football team, or your banner, and get to put the banner on the on the scoreboard, on the side of the tennis courts, or something like that, right? Yes, there’s a bit. It’s quite a big range. But these are, these are groups of people, theoretically, that are coming to an event, and in some way, they’ll see you, your brand in some way or another, yeah.

Brandon Welch 26:37
So what all of these have in common is that when they’re sold to you, it’s all going to be about putting a banner or your name on something, which kind of goes back to what we just talked about with the media. So I’m not going to beat that force dead. But same thing applies. Do not just pay money for how to have your logo somewhere or your banner somewhere, unless

Caleb Agee 26:52
you’re in category three, which we’ll talk about in a second.

Yes, category three. Philanthropic. I did it. What you

Brandon Welch 27:01
want to do here is you want to show up in a big way, and kind of this customization factor. You want to go. It’s an event that you’re already passionate about. Maybe your employees are already bought into this cause, or this type of thing. Maybe you’ve got a lot of golfers in your organization. Maybe it’s something totally wacky and different. Maybe it’s the maybe it’s the pet show, or something like that, or a dog show that one of your employees is really passionate about. I love those things because you’re doing, you’re you’re supporting and loving on your people, while you’re, you know, being a you’re bringing your brand. It’s a kind of a Trojan horse thing. You’re bringing this employee that trusts you already and is a big deal in this other world, whether it’s a sport or whatever, hobby or whatever, and you’re sponsoring it, everybody in there automatically likes and trusts you. All of her friends become your friends instantly because you supported their dreams. Yes, so I love those things. But even with that, don’t just show up with a name. Show up in a big way. You want to get a spot on the stage to talk about something and to give a little encouraging speech, not about you, but about why you love and support the organization

Caleb Agee 28:04
you want.

Brandon Welch 28:07
We do a lot of trade shows with like Home Improvement people. You want to get a really cool way to either be up front and give something away, like put your name on the bags, or put your name on the little yardsticks they hand out. You want to be there in a way that’s just not passive, actives in some way interacting with

Caleb Agee 28:24
Yeah, which means, by the way, you should be going or a representative from your company, all

Brandon Welch 28:29
of your people, I

Caleb Agee 28:30
think, yeah, you should make sure you have a presence there if you’re in. Do it all the way, yes, take a big picture, post it on your social media, tag the event, you know, do all of those things so that everybody, everybody feels that you are invested in the event. You’re not just a banner on the wall, right? Because what

Brandon Welch 28:47
are we talking about? Commitment, quality and relationships. You got to build that relationship with that with that audience. So if you can’t be there, and if you can’t show up in some way, don’t do it, yep, um, give a freebie or an insider deal. I love coupons. I love Hey, because you came to this event, because we love you, and you sponsor this, you get x amount off, or some special other thing we’re doing, promote it like crazy. I think this, a lot of companies miss this. Promote it like crazy on your social media. Yeah, don’t wait for the that day to try to maximize just in one day. Like the sponsor like leading up to it, you’re like, hey, this is a really cool thing. We’re excited to be involved. I’m going to do a live video out here. Yeah, I’m going to give away free tickets to it. I’m going to promote it in every way, share and partner with that organization,

Caleb Agee 29:31
event well. And I think, I think that ends up showing a more reciprocal relationship, right? If, even if, you helping them sell tickets actually does not benefit you in any way. You’re still getting a benefit of being invested, being fully into that that event, which is really powerful. And

Brandon Welch 29:50
I want to say this, the person selling you the sponsorship is going to be trying to sell it to you off bullet points, and they’re not going to be imaginative. Usually, you’re going to have to challenge them every time you see an event. Even if it’s something you fully want to do, you go, yeah, I might do that. But would you do this too? Yep, and you’re asking for more than what’s on the little sponsor. Because the

Caleb Agee 30:09
truth is, the board of that nonprofit sat around and said, our gold sponsorship will be a banner on the wall. They will get an eight foot banner instead of a four foot a logo in our email. Yes, and, you know, and so that that’s literally just people in a room, and they’re willing to, we’re willing to move on it. So do

Brandon Welch 30:28
challenge, whatever the package is, to try to make it more your own. Do get video and pictures with all of your people. And the people there post those on social media. Say we had a great time at the yes, you know, dog days of summer or whatever event, or the summer soiree, and that has social gas, like, for weeks after, yeah, frankly, years after, because those will come up in people’s Facebook memories, and they’ll go, wow, that was a cool night. I like those people, like, trust, no, right? Yep, relationships. And then when you’re there, hopefully you get an opportunity to do something on a stage or in an official manner. But even if you don’t, on your social media, on your website, anytime you are around this event, don’t just say we’re proud to sponsor. Say why you’re proud to sponsor. We love this cause because we it’s near and dear to our heart that these kids struggle. CASA is a huge thing for us. Yeah, and I when, when we do things for CASA, we stretch it out weeks and weeks and weeks, right? I go live on social media. I tell stories about things I’ve learned. You as a business have a huge amount of influence that can help these organizations and use it, use it, use it. Yep, that’s good for good, and then also just for that’s what people pay attention to. That’s going to create that relationship factor, yeah, that quality factor, yeah. And

Caleb Agee 31:42
then these kind of, so I’m gonna jump ahead to the the final one, because it’s kind of run together a little bit, right? We’ve gotta, we’ve gotta draw some lines here. But the last is philanthropic. I did it. You did and welcome to the and the goal of these, I think, at the end, is just, you’re being generous, yes, and you don’t expect an ROI. And I think, I think there is a place and a time to say we are a successful company, I’m a successful individual in whatever way. And you just give

Brandon Welch 32:13
because, like, tithing in a way, yeah, it’s, I mean, not fully, but yeah, it’s a like, what are we all doing this for,

Caleb Agee 32:20
yeah, I and and so you give, expecting nothing in return, and I, and that’s, that’s the difference between this one and the other two. Is that the other two you you do hope to benefit from them. Yes, there are probably benefits from this philanthropic, you know, side of things, but you may choose to sponsor Casa or some sports team, just because, you know that kids in sports who have worked in been in organized sports, they changed the world. They know how to work with people better. Yes, I, I’ve talked, I talked to a guy at the coffee shop who he’s like, man, get your kids in sports, because that kept me out of jail. You know, like, and for that guy, he, I could see him sponsoring the football team, because, yes, he believes in the power of the football team, yes, not just because they’re playing football, because of what it does,

Brandon Welch 33:11
not because he’s gonna be there and see his logo. Or no, yeah. So yeah, the when you’re when you’re talking about philanthropic things, I think your duty. Like, it bothers me when I see just people put their name on the building because it was an easy check for them to write, and they just they wanted the legacy or notoriety. Like, yeah, hopefully that’s who we’re talking to already on the audience. You guys know that. But dude, make that your life. Make that your family mission. Make that a thing you show up for regularly. One thing I’m really proud of we’re doing is we support a couple of organizations in town, but we’re not just giving them money or trading services. We’re showing up at their stuff, and we’re actually helping them raise money and and spread that message within our our communities and our families. Right? Jason, we’ll

Caleb Agee 33:58
see you like, well, actually, I’m trying to think about when this episode drops. We might have already seen you.

Brandon Welch 34:03
We saw yesterday, Jason, it’s good to see you. Hey, it’s good to see you. Okay, don’t just write a check and slap a name. Don’t talk about how great you are. Talk about the grave of the impact and the people inside that, cause they’re making that’s common sense, right? I didn’t need to write that down, but now you know it. Do get your friends on fire. Do go beyond the event. Do make up your own wacky things. Maybe you have a, you know, some sort of a club that you’re involved in that would have never paid attention to this cause. Get them involved with it. Do your hobby through that thing. One time, I cooked dinner for like, 80 people, because I like to cook, and that was the way I raised money. That was never the causes idea that I got. Just did it. I got 80 people in a room, and I said, if you’ll give me at least $250 I’ll cookie dinner, yeah? And then we raised, like, almost $20,000 Yeah, it was awesome. It

Caleb Agee 34:50
was awesome. Yeah, so it was awesome. Okay, let’s break it down. I’m

Brandon Welch 34:54
gonna share these. We got six points to land on if you’re considering sponsorships. Okay?

Caleb Agee 35:00
Sponsor, big, not small. Align

Brandon Welch 35:03
everything with your values, and talk about your values and why you support that. Cause

Caleb Agee 35:07
we’re on number three. Now, by the way, we didn’t start counting. Talk about why you sponsor, what you sponsor, not just the thing, but why?

Yes, yeah, yeah,

Brandon Welch 35:16
not we’re proud of sponsor, but why we’re proud of sponsor? Tell stories. Number four is show up, finish the personal connection and networking to build that relationship, bring your people and show up large at that event.

Caleb Agee 35:26
Number five is fight for name mentions, speaking opportunities, endorsements, not just logos on things you want, an auditory

recall of what you do, right? The thing

that makes you special, yes, six and the last

Brandon Welch 35:42
tip is, measure this as a tomorrow customer, or don’t measure it all. Do it just because you like doing good things. Yes, I wrote a couple weeks ago, good, good companies are generous companies. Yeah, good people are generous people. It’s like, it’s just fun to do that, right? But if it comes down to dollars and cents, you’re building a future relationship with customers, and that’s where the real value comes being known, liked and trusted, so that when they need you, they will think of you and feel the best about you, in the words of our friend Roy Williams,

Caleb Agee 36:10
yeah. So do we miss anything? Nate, that’s it. What are you

Brandon Welch 36:15
gonna sponsor now? Cameras, cameras, Seto 48 he’s gonna sponsor that. So if you enjoyed this, please hit the subscribe button, please hit the like button. Please forward this to somebody who needs it in their life. I think there are people that need good marketing advice in their life. Yes, and sign up for our newest episodes and a ton of value, extra links, sometimes freebies, sometimes giveaways, sometimes just dadgum, interesting and funny things, right? Yeah. Maven money, sorry, Frank and maven.com sign up for the Maven Monday newsletter, yes, and in the frankly Friday newsletter, and we will be back here every Monday answering your marketing and advertising questions, because marketers who can’t teach you why are

Caleb Agee 36:52
just a fancy lie. Have a great week.