Custom Bats Cricket Forum

General Cricket => Cricket Admin, Facilities and Fundraising => Fundraising => Topic started by: tommo256 on November 25, 2014, 05:56:22 PM

Title: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: tommo256 on November 25, 2014, 05:56:22 PM
Evening,

I have been asked to assist with the marketing of our club, i.e helping get sponsorship, making full use of the facility etc!
How do people recommend getting sponsorship from business?
I have a few ideas of the sort of companies I would like to apply to and how we can reward them etc,

what are peoples thoughts?

Lee
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: WalkingWicket37 on November 25, 2014, 08:06:09 PM
We have:
A main shirt sponsor
An accademy training shirt sponsor
A sponsor for our covers
A sponsor who gets a banner the length of our net
A load of double sided boards (can be seen from the pavilion or the pitch)
Also adverts in our fixture card

Once we decided who we wanted to sponsor us we'd offer them a "level" of sponsorship.
Our main sponsor gets match shirts, T20 kit and a sign on the rollers and whatnot.

The Accademy sponsor gets the banner on the nets and accademy training shirts.

Some companies get a board and an advert in the fixtures book. Others go for one or the other.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: cricketbadger on November 25, 2014, 09:10:17 PM
How did you gain those sponsorships? Going into more depth may have been more suitable rather than where all your advertising is placed. I imagine thats the same for most clubs regarding sponsors logos on shirts and boards, covers etc

some details as to how the club went about approaching businesses would perhaps be better IMO, what sort of arrangements and costs are involved, what the club offers in return, and anything else the sponsors may provide besides money

"HOW DO PEOPLE RECOMMEND GETTING SPONSORSHIP FROM BUSINESS?"
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: Chad on November 25, 2014, 11:33:05 PM
Thanks walking wicket. Now if your on the committee and could tell us how you got all those sponsors it might be useful. If not....Your point is?

What's up with the tone of your comment? Maybe he hasn't answered the question directly, but he's just outlined all the things that the club does for the sponsors.

Being part of the University cricket committee, what we do is we look for companies, and then drop them a phone call or type them up an email, stating who we are, why we want them to sponsor us, and what we will offer them in exchange for them sponsoring us. The only way really is to either get in contact, knowing someone inside that business will help to some extent. (ie. Main club sponsor at our club is a club regular, and watches the 1st XI games) Make sure that you type out the email well, making sure to punctuate and spell check properly. :)

Thanks KIPPERS, now, if you're part of the forum, then please, give your input. If you don't have any constructive input to offer, what's the point in posting?
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: KIPPERS on November 25, 2014, 11:36:26 PM
Hey walking wicket don't take it personally we know what can be sponsored. But for most of us out here in the little world its hard to find anyone to sponsor us. Most clubs don't have anything to offer potential sponsors. Fantastic for your club if you have.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: KIPPERS on November 25, 2014, 11:48:24 PM
If your part of a university its obvious what a sponsor will get. Exposure to the whole campus ect. What is the name on a small clubs shirt worth? If your successful and in the papers maybe something if not, what? And this isn't a forum dedicated to English grammar. To reply to the original question with a list of what can be sponsored isn't helpful and I'm sure you didn't mean it to be unhelpful, it just misses the point a little.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: Chad on November 26, 2014, 12:00:11 AM
If your part of a university its obvious what a sponsor will get. Exposure to the whole campus ect. What is the name on a small clubs shirt worth? If your successful and in the papers maybe something if not, what? And this isn't a forum dedicated to English grammar. To reply to the original question with a list of what can be sponsored isn't helpful and I'm sure you didn't mean it to be unhelpful, it just misses the point a little.

Yes, this forum isn't one dedicated to English grammar, but the people reading the emails will tend to take your application more seriously if you punctuate and spell properly... Not sure what point you're trying to make with that, your emails to companies (Clear, well punctuated, structured and spell checked) and appropriate use of grammar on this forum (As long as it's understandable and not profanity, that's fine) aren't really related at all...

You can apply for sponsorship with a local cricket store, and ask if the store will offer a small discount with club members to encourage them to purchase gear from them. No matter if you're a university club or a smaller club, you won't really get sponsorships unless you get in contact with businesses. The OP has an idea of what to offer the companies, now all that's left is getting the sponsorship applications out to the companies.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: LDifa on November 26, 2014, 12:00:45 AM
I took my old club from £1500 to a regular £4000+ each year, by asking, and asking nicely.

There are a lot of good ideas out there, and I have a template/guidance in an ecb doc somewhere.

First of all work out what you have to offer, number of members etc. number of visitors, function rooms etc then package things , always communicate with sponsors, inviting them to club functions etc.


Tommo, send me a pm and I'll help you sort things out and get the ball rolling.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: KIPPERS on November 26, 2014, 12:16:58 AM
Thanks sensible answer and yes its worth looking at the ECB guideline site where it has a section on club fund raising. Also worth looking at other sports England sites for other sports and the way they look to fund there activities. There are a whole raft of fundraising avenues. Try looking up your local ward forums and borough development officers. They will however ask you what you are proposing to do in return, such as school partnerships and community development. Its worth looking at your own organisation and deciding what you can offer before making advances.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: KIPPERS on November 26, 2014, 12:19:32 AM
Advice to the young at heart. Soon you will be older.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: Buzz on November 26, 2014, 09:10:33 AM
done some deleting.
please keep it constructive and friendly.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: tushar sehgal on November 26, 2014, 01:25:32 PM
Sponsorship is funny, one you need to know what type of market you play in, what would local businesses want and how they want to be seen in the community.

A few years back we created a very nice package and sent it out to 97 different businesses, we play in the middle of the city with a lot of foot traffic so things like banners are very noticable, we have a decent website and our sponsors get a mention at the gala for provincial sports authority's dinner where all sports played in province are present etc. All of this and much more was included in what we were offering sponsors for give a little bit of money. We got 0 sponsors :(

Then a few months later a guy walking by stops, watches a little bit of cricket and then comes over to find me ( I was in charge at that time) gives  me his business card and asks to setup a meeting, long story short he sponsored us for 2 years in a multi-thousand dollar deal per year.

So moral of the story is: Do everything you can, offer everything you can, don't be disheartened if you get nothing, keep trying. We have had a motto that we need to be  financially independent of sponsorship, govt funding, national body funding and be able to sustain and grow cricket, so when any of these things  disappear we can still play cricket.

Make sure when you go out to ask for sponsorship you look good, you proposal is printed on a good quality paper in color etc.

Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: The Palmist on November 26, 2014, 02:13:28 PM
Have you looked for any company directors, business owners, one man bands etc. within the club? They may be able to help even if it is a little help.

Approach local pubs, restaurants, takeaways and you may find some who will be happy to sponsor just to do their bit in the community.
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: cricketbadger on November 26, 2014, 03:37:58 PM
done some deleting.
please keep it constructive and friendly.

it was constructive, and certainly not unfriendly
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: Gelds on November 26, 2014, 07:38:39 PM
At my club we have write to all the local businesses offering them a place in our handbook and a mention on our website. We always seem to get a good response and had over 35 adverts last year!! Our shirt sponsor has always come players companies, although one of the local buisnesses has approached us and asked to have an advert on our shirts next season. We benefit from being close to a main road and also a main rail route so we also offer advertising space on the side of pavilion, back of the sight screen etc.. and take up on these have always been good.

We also offer our pavilion for hire for birthday party's, society meetings etc to try and get extra income from the bar.

It is a very time consuming task writing/emailing/visiting firms but it can be successful if people are willing to put the time in. Good luck!
Title: Re: Sales and Marketing of a club
Post by: rich041187 on December 04, 2014, 04:56:15 PM
Hi guys. At my club one of the schemes we have are match ball sponsors for each home game (1sts and 2nds alternate weeks). We charge local businesses £25quid for this, put who is sponsoring us for the week on social media and print A4 sheets with "todays matchball sponsor is...." (adding their logo) to put on our driveway noticeboard and in the pavilion. Its very simple and people are more willing to give this kind of money without any arm wrestling. 22 home games a year @ £25 is a tidy sum. Can also challenge your 1st xi and 2nd xi players to find one sponsor each