With Blogher right around the corner and Blog World Expo coming up in October, a lot of bloggers are out there fishing for sponsorship – just like this past spring when they were looking for sponsorship to Blissdom ’09.
As a business owner who sponsored two mom bloggers to attend Blissdom ’09 – I am looking back on the money I spent on those sponsorships and checking out the return on investment – or should I say, lack thereof.
- Mom Masterminds sponsored Carrie Lauth of Natural Mom Talk Radio. She wore a Mom Masterminds t-shirt and handed out business cards with a coupon code good for a free month of MM Membership. (A $50 value)
- Mom’s Talk Network sponsored Alyssa Avant of Beauty By Design Online. She handed out cards inviting mom bloggers to check out the Mom’s Talk Affiliates program and claim a free product from our Mom’s Talk Biz website.
Note that our offers are targeted to mom bloggers who want to earn money with their blogs and that they were set up to be easy to take advantage of. No strings attached.
Hopes: These fun, engaging mom bloggers would pass the cards out and have lots of great conversations about their sponsor. Dozens of mom bloggers would learn about our company, tuck the card away and take action on it within a month after the event. By taking action, I mean sign up for the freebie.
Actions: Our fun, engaging mom bloggers did pass out the cards and talk up Mom Masterminds and Mom’s Talk Network. They had a great time and from what I see, are remembered well by other attendees.
Results: Zip
Traffic to the MM URL we set up to monitor the Blissdom offer was low. Fewer than 50 visits.
Requests for the freebie we offered via Mom’s Talk Biz never came in.
Do I count these Sponsorships as a Total Failure?
From an ‘awareness’ point of view, I’m sure that some mom bloggers learned about my businesses at Blissdom that didn’t know about them before. But, I didn’t do this to raise awareness. I did it to create results.
It was fun to do it. I loved giving the moms the news that we were sponsoring them. It was fun to see them talking about the sponsorship on their blogs and on twitter.
I don’t blame the bloggers we sponsored. They did exactly what they promised to do.
But in the end, it led to zero results.
The lesson learned has to be that one person handing out cards at an event is ineffective.
Looking back I think I should have pursued being an Event Sponsor rather than sponsoring an individual blogger.
Our sponsorship costs were fairly low. We paid for hotel and admission to the event. (They lived close enough that they didn’t need to fly.) With miscellaneous expenses added in, I spent about $750.
I’m pretty sure that I could have spent that $750 with the event organizers themselves and got more exposure and better results overall.
Do you disagree?
Do you have ideas for how individual sponsorships can be made more effective? I’d love to hear your comments.
About Kelly
Wow – very interesting. I’m really surprised that the traffic was that low. Do you think it could be accounted to the fact that SO many cards were being passed around that many were misplaced?
As a member of Mom Masterminds I know how valuable the membership is and a free month – wow! I can’t believe that no one took advantage of this great offer. They don’t know what they are missing out.
Perhaps the people going to these conferences are looking for the wrong things – things like connections to free electronics, appliances, etc.
Thanks for sharing this. I know the ladies you sent were great gals and like you said, they did what they promised to.
But let me share my thoughts in general. I have seen people requesting sponsorship and did often wonder why a company would want to do this.
- Anyone who attends these conference has their own agenda, as they should. They are there to learn, to network and further their business – that puts your interests on the way back burner.
- Someone seeking sponsorship is not likely a sales person and to really make an impact at these events, you’ve really got to sell. No, I don’t mean being obnoxious and pitching everyone you meet – but connecting with appropriate people and strategically introducing your product, affiliate program, etc.
I wonder if:
- You sought out people who were skilled in person-to-person sales.
- You offered commissions from sales and 2nd tier commission for new affiliates.
…you might see better results.
Now, I know some people are going to say it’s about “brand recognition”…getting your name out there, etc. I can think of a lot more cost-effective and wide-reaching ways to do this than spending a bunch of money on a single person connecting with a handful of people at a seminar/conference.
Again, thanks for sharing…Kelly.
My idea of how to make sponsorships more effective is based on my own experience organizing a sponsorship program for our events. We see the same sponsors coming back year after year.
Based on their feedback, the reason they come back is of course because we give them great exposure (signage, trade show booth, special access at VIP receptions, website promotion etc.). But for some (repeat) sponsors this kind of promotion is far more effective than even advertising (online/offline) because the reach is so targeted.
So make sure you choose an event that is really targeting your audience.
Our attendees look at our sponsors as supporters of our sector/industry. When it comes time to purchase services or products they feel a little more confident contacting one of our sponsors over a competitor who is not a supporter of our sector. That’s the outcome I think you want.
The onus is also on the sponsor to play up in their own promotions at other times of the year, the fact that they are a supporter of important/major/popular sector/industry event(s).
My two cents
Hi Sharon. I *think* you are talking about something a bit different. I can imagine a formal sponsorship opportunity at a specific event could produce some valuable returns.
I believe Kelly is talking about giving money to a conference attendee to attend the event, in return for promoting/representing your business. In other words, the sponsoree gets the benefit of attending an event (likely because they don’t have the funds to attend themselves) and the company gets the benefit of added exposure.
Or am I off-based here? You raise an interesting point though – and I wonder if sponsoring someone to attend an event you are officially sponsoring might be a more effective route (albeit a more expensive one).
Alaina, I do think the sheer number of cards changing hands worked against me but I hoped the free offer would stand out. Apparently not
You may be right about mom bloggers being there looking for other things.
Alice, you bring up great points about putting something more on the table to motivate them.
If I had sought out someone more experienced at person to person sales – it surely would have cost me a lot more than a hotel room and a ticket to the event, right?
I’m curious what you think… if I had went myself and handed out the same cards. Would the results have been different?
Sharon, you’re talking about sponsoring the actual event. That’s what I’m thinking I would have been better off doing.
Thanks for sharing your results Kelly.
It actually was surprising to me how many companies were just sponsoring people who didn’t work for their company or have any solid connection to represent them (not talking about MM, but I saw other people doing contests to sponsor people to go).
I had an experience where a client sent me to do the same thing for her business and I think it’s really tough to get results in that environment. As Alice said, people are not there to hear about your business and have their own agenda. I wonder how many people actually even look at the cards again after they get home.
In my experience it didn’t feel really good to have that much of an ‘agenda’ at an event either. When I’ve gone to other events for the simple mission of building relationships and meeting people I met less people but have actually come out of it with some very powerful relationships. A few key people with who I ended up partnering with to make hundreds of dollars (in sales/affiliate commissions).
Angela
Having attended a few conferences, I’d say this truthfully. I don’t get to view/checkout all the specials, web sites or even business cards right away. Not because I don’t want to but when you get home, you’ve been away for a couple of days, you have to unpack, you have to decompress a little from your trip and you have to take care of some things that may have crept up while you’re away. After you’ve done all that, it’s easy to fall back into the old routine. Most people just go back to status quo – not all.
So I’m not that surprised. I’ve found many things months after the event or only when I have a specific need and look up that person/cards.
It’s already been mentioned in the comments. People go to events for their own agenda and even though the ladies did a fantastic job of promoting the sponsor, when we all sit down for drinks or lunch, it’s often not the sponsor that we talk about. It’s us, what we do. The sponsor is not part of our ‘persona’. When others think of us, they’ll remember us not the sponsor.
So yeah I’d think like Alice said, if the sponsored is part of the organization that would likely go further because that’s part of their personality.
And yeah, just seems to me like the way to get the most results is not only be an event sponsor but have a rep at the event in addition to that. Better yet, if you are a speaker
Although I have not been to a blog conference, I have been to other conferences and you are right, attendees get so much “stuff”. In the future, I think your money would be better spent having a booth where you could engage with the bloggers and capture their contact info and then you can follow up with them, instead of waiting for them to go through their giant stack o’ stuff. MTN is a great affiliate program, and I am sure a lot of bloggers would love to know about it.
I’m Alyssa, one of the bloggers Kelly sponsored and while I am grateful for her sponsorship I am a little bit “not surprised” by the results. At first thought, I too thought the idea was a great one and would work. I gave it my best effort and Carrie and I talked up MM and Mom’s Talk Network, however in this case the audience didn’t seem real open to the idea.
Honestly, most of the mom bloggers didn’t know what an affiliate program was or at least this was one of the first times they had heard about it. They were such newbies that I wonder if that made a difference. I say “most” because not all were this, but many were. I’m not sure, but regardless I’m thankful for Kelly’s help and I am regretful that she didn’t get better results. I think both she and the ladies of the conference missed out on something special.
I think Christie hit the nail on the head. Handing out cards and coupons puts the ball in your prospects’ court and no matter what their intention when they took the card, life happens and they aren’t likely to contact you. But had your sponsor collected their contact information, you would be in control of the next move.
Perhaps sponsors could walk around with a clipboard and ask for email addresses to send information about the free offers (and they could still hand out business cards at the same time).
Or maybe even handing out something like a promotional pen or pocket calendar would be more effective than cards. Give something people might use so they see the offer again and again.
I agree with Alyssa – “…the ladies of the conference missed out on something special.”
I also agree with Linda. “Give something people might use so they see the offer again and again.” is a good idea. Perhaps sponsoring the swag-bag would be improve your ROI.
What Alyssa said. I think she is spot on.
I think Christie is right in somehow getting contact info. I’ve never been to a conference, but I can imagine that most bloggers there get overloaded with info which makes most offers forgettable.
You have to stick out somehow…think out of the box a bit, I guess. Maybe this is a totally stupid idea but it popped in my head: What if you gave away free, cute, and customized t-shirts for attendees to wear on a specific day or at a specific function at the conference? Put a fun saying on them that targets the conference as well as your site.
It’s cheaper, WAY more fun, and you kill 2 birds with one stone: Attendees will find it easier to market themselves and meet others who are also wearing the t-shirts, AND others will come up and ask them about the t-shirts and where they got them. And then they can talk about YOU and you will be much more memorable.
Anyway, just an idea about how you can stick out somehow in a cheaper way.
My own personal thoughts…
It probably depends on the company and the people at the conference. Mommy Bloggers seem to be more interested in product vs. learning resources. Just my opinion observing the community.
But in general I would venture to guess that most companies do not see a return in their investment. Just guessing.
Nell