How to make a sponsor packet for your pole business

Getting sponsorships for your pole business or event can be tough!

The focus on this post is in how to prepare a sponsor packet to share with potential sponsors presuming you are a pole business or an event.

If you are an individual looking to be sponsored or a business looking to create an individual sponsorship/affiliate type program, check out this post on being a brand ambassador for a pole business.

What is a sponsor packet?

This is simply your offerings for sponsorships and/or marketing related to your business or event.

A sponsor packet should include:

• Basic Information about your business or event such as the date, time, location, basic details such as “May 14, 8pm, Fundraiser Pole Show held at the Cabaret Bar and Lounge.”
• Detailed information about your business or event including your unique discriminators and why people should sponsor you or otherwise give you money. Remember to focus on why other people would give you money.
• Specific sponsorship opportunities.

Creating specific sponsorship opportunities

Many businesses, particularly events, have sponsorships opportunities organized into tiered levels such as “gold, silver, bronze.” Others might provide sponsorships for individual elements of the business or event like “backstage sponsor” or “refreshments sponsor.” Be creative!

Sponsorship levels usually involve several different individual items that comprise a sponsorship, such as advertising on the business or event social media, newsletter, or in some other public way like a banner during the event. Consider what makes the most sense for your situation.

You may also provide the opportunity for sponsors to individually choose elements like an ad in your newsletter or on your social media. Or you may offer sponsors the ability to mix and match items to create their own sponsorship level.

Pricing sponsorship opportunities

When pricing your sponsorships levels and/or individual items like advertising in your newsletter or social media, consider that many businesses in the pole industry are small and do not have huge marketing budgets to spend on marketing through sponsorship.

Be prepared to provide details for how many people receive your newsletter, attend your events, and are following your social media (as well as potentially other metrics or demographic specifics).

Generally, the more “reach” you have, the more valuable your sponsorships can become.

Money is not the only reason someone may choose to sponsor your business or event, but it is an undeniably important factor.

Creating a sponsorship booklet

Just like there are many options to consider when creating the content of your packet, you can present this information in several ways.

The easiest might be a short amount of text you could include in an email or newsletter.

You can create something more robust like a multi-page package of information such as in a Word document, a website, a PowerPoint presentation, made in Canva or another free tool (see this post for some tools) or a PDF of any of the above source materials.

Generally, you want your sponsorship packet to be small enough to email (if an attachment) and not include any linked images or fonts that might not come across right on someone else’s computer.

Make sure you have good, clear photos. They don’t have to be professional photos, but they should clearly show your business or event.

Adding terms and conditions

Remember, you should have a contract for basically anything.

Even if you don’t have an official contract, you should clarify information in your sponsor packet such as:

• How people can buy your sponsorship (link, PayPal invoice, cash, etc.)
• What information do you need from sponsors (logo, other art files, names for the VIP list, etc.)
• When do you need that information (if the event booklet must be printed, when should sponsors send their logos to you?)
• Expiration dates (if relevant)
• Any other terms/clarifications

Having sponsorships can provide an additional revenue stream for your pole dance-based business or event but it should not be the only revenue stream.