A huge part of a practice marketing plan often involves partnering with and sponsoring local community events and organizations. From little league teams to seasonal running races, sponsorships are a great PR opportunity to showcase your expertise and dedication to local residents and businesses. But, many practice owners shy away from sponsorships due to bad past experiences—lack of return on investment, poor planning from the organization, or conflicting interests with other parties. How can you take advantage of sponsorship opportunities and avoid all the stress?
Set a Business Plan and Goals
Taking the time to plan what you hope to achieve for your practice will guide your expectations and evaluation of the sponsorship opportunity. Formulate goals that are quantifiable, such as “I want to get 10 new patients from sponsoring the 5K race”. Then compare these goals against the costs, in terms of both time and money, to be a sponsor. For example, you need to pay $1,000 to be a sponsor + $500 on marketing supplies (brochures, giveaways etc.) + $200 to pay your PTs for working the race day tent, a total cost of $1,700. Now compare this cost to your goal (10 patients at $100 profit per visit times 6 visits = is $6,000). That’s $4,300 to be gained from this sponsorship.
Develop a Sponsorship Contract
What are your expectations for the sponsorship? These can range from general to specific. Think first about your marketing opportunities—most events do pre-event marketing as well as during the event, you want your practice to be included (and in the right placement) during these promotions. Establish requirements that suit your practice’s plan and goals, such as your logo and business name needs to be included on all posters and on the race bib. If there are digital communications to participants, your logo and link to your website should be included in these as well. Be sure to get these expectations in writing and get agreement with the event team.
Advice from the pros- make sure that the event team is also the marketing team. Sometimes the race might be managed by a local organization, but the marketing is created by the larger race company (say Tough Mudder or Spartan Race). Be sure that your agreement is valid with all operational parties
Do Your Own Marketing
No one knows your practice and its brand as well as you do. Marketing the sponsorship in your own campaigns and promotions is a must! Add information about the event to the follow channels to really see results:
- Newsletters
- Postcards
- Social Media (make a Facebook event)
- Emails and e-Newsletters
- Website Event or Blog Post
- Office Flyers and Posters
Also, watch for cross-promotional opportunities on digital channels. If the event sends out an email or social post, share it with your patients and on your own social media. Link to the event website directly from your blog post to make it easy for patrons to sign up.
Sponsorships can be an excellent marketing opportunity and way for your practice to get more new patients. Let our expert team help you with your next event—we can build a custom marketing package to suit your needs and ensure results!
The post How to Maximize Your Sponsorships with Marketing appeared first on Practice Promotions.
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