Are you doing *this* when asking for collabs? STOP.
When you look for sponsors, you should NEVER, and I mean, NEVER EVER, show need.
Never.
You’ll ask, “how do I even do that if I’m literally asking for money?!”
Well, there’s a way.
Let me share with you a bit of a story.
Penny is a professional woodcrafter.
She runs workshops in her city, and has been at it for over 7 years now.
She’s active on socials, and has even started a membership for fellow woodcrafters, an online platform where they can share and learn about all things woodcrafting.
Now, Penny has found a great love for teaching. She doesn’t want to do any more woodcrafting herself - she just wants to teach other woodcrafters.
It’s time for Penny to grow her online membership and scale up.
Penny decided she’ll run a tour around the country, and have events at some of the main cities, where woodcrafters all aroubnd the area can join her in person, and found communities on the spot.
She’s got it all sorted: the ads, the venues, the audience warm up email sequences, social media - all of it.
Except, this costs a bit of money as you can imagine.
She works with woodcrafting gear brands, and has great relationship with them.
She thinks that they’ll SURELY want to put their brands out there is a community that only shows promise of becoming the greatest woodcrafting community worldwide.
She sits down to write her emails.
She presents them with AAAALL the ways they can help (spot prizes, subcriptoins, welcome packages, funding for the venue - you name it)
She says she’s planning events to grow her membership.
She even adds what’s in it for them: sales opportunities.
Typing sounds fill the environment.
She hits send.
She’s proud.
But, the first ‘NO’ arrives within an hour.
Then the second one.
And, let’s not dive into her despair as more ‘NOs’ roll in.
What went wrong?
Her email showed SO.MUCH.NEED.
She gave SO.MANY.OPTIONS.
There was NO.TENSION.
There was TOTAL.AVAILABILITY.
And, obviously, that doesn’t work.
Here’s 3 things that Penny needs to do:
Limit availability: For example “I’ll only run 3 more events this year.” “The sponsoring is limited to only 2 brands per event”
Show no need: “Let me know if you are not interested, so I can better plan the events. If you are, let me know and we’ll see which event works best for your band”
Limit the options: “I’m after brands that can offer $300 funding for the venue hire” “I’m looking for brands that can send products for the workshop attendants to use (and see for themselves how much better they are than the one sitting on their garage)”
(and a bonus fourth one) - Penny needs to say EXACTLY what’s in it for them:
“Other brands have been extremely happy to work with <her brand>, as they’ve seen their products sales from these events cover the investment and more”
There’s naturally other details that can help (a lot), but that would need to be looked at on a case by case basis
(from WHO will get your email, how best to approach them, if using specific funding amounts or brackets, how to show authority in your market, etc)
Okay, so I seriously hope that if you are looking for sponsorship, this email caught your attention.
It will serve you, well.
If you need me to review your email, just hit reply.
Video recorded reviews from $350 USD + local tax.
Cheers!