Some tips
Get a domain name and uses your team name. no myracingteam.speedy.com Sub level domain names look bad and unprofessional.
Website is a must in promoting your team and I'm sorry to say them free site don't cut it. Hosting doesn't cost much these days. Get someone to do a professonal website for you. You can even get them done for free as students that take web design courses need projects to do too get graded. Use freelancers to do this. Contact me and I can help with this. I use them all the time.
Taken from a racer in the US that has got 15+ sponsors and he did all the leg work.
A lot of racers complain about not being able to find sponsors, but how many racers out there are supporting the companies that do sponsor racing? What this means you buy a sponsors product even if it costs a bit more?
Image, Image, Image - Everytime that I visit my sponsor I do the usual stuff; shower, shave, dress nice, make sure all my documents are organized. But just before I leave, I spend a few bucks and have my pickup truck washed. Why? Because I'm sure if I went there with it looking like I just competed in the Baja 1000 someone would take notice, and it would not reflect good on my image and character. Little things like this can make a huge difference. The sad truth is: Normally people with money will only want to do business with other people who have money. You don't have to be Mr. Moneybags, but at least you can look like it!
Email - I don't know if anyone has ever thought about this before, but everytime you send an email it records the exact Time/Date that it was sent. It is a small chance a sponsor will notice this, but what if you sent your email to them in the evening or on weekends. The sponsor might view the Time/Date it was sent and say "Man, this guy is a workaholic. If he's this determined, just think what he could do for my buisness!" Like I said, it's a very small chance that they will notice it, but you never know! (this one I use. I used to sell computers a guy called at 3am and I was down stairs in my office. I picked up the phone and asked if I could help him, he was surprised and was going to leave a message for me to call. I sold a product and had a customer that came back and recommended me to his friends in family.)
Promotional Handouts - This year instead of having made the big autograph posters that all the other teams have, I opted to have baseball type Trading Cards made. The Trading Cards are a hit with the kids and are a lot cheaper to produce. I also had Temporary Tattoos made of our primary sponsor's logo. The kids loved these too, and they were extremely cheap to produce - 1,000 for $85. The sponsor thought these were awesome as well! The Trading Cards and Temp. Tattoos were just another thing that set our team apart from the competition. ( I always found hero cards to big card are easier to store in a binder.)
Don't Be Stupid - I see so many racer's putting their whole proposal on their website. Proposal vampires are out there, and if your proposal is a good one, they will copy your proposal almost word-for-word. I've been a victim of them, and actually I've been a Proposal Vampire myself once or twice. Instead, just put up some marketing info, sport demographics, and your contact info. If someone is interested, they will contact you. I've also seen people put their sponsorships up on eBay. I don't think this is a good idea either. If you take notice it's about a 99.9% chance that someone will buy it. It's a waste of money, and shows for the most part a lack of iniative to go find the sponsor yourself. Plus, then everyone (your competitors in your series) will see your asking price and cut-throat you. All this leads to is poor business ethics. And the whole "Advertise Here" stickers on the side of your car are a crazy and out-dated method. (I'm guilty of this as you leave nothing to talk about as they look at the price and don't call)
Race Results - To much emphasis is placed on results. Sure I know that your out there to win, but the chances are slim to none. That's why it's called racing! Place your empasis on a marketing program that drives the sponsors sales. Most sponsors that I've dealt with don't care what we placed results wise. They just want to see an increase in sales, period! It is more important to market and sell the product to the fans before and after the race. If you never win a race in your career, but can sell the sponsor's product, you will always have a sponsor!
11. Testimonials - Sponsor Testimonials are great to use in your proposals. I called one of our smaller sponsors the other day to see what he thought of our program so far. The month before I had done a promo/link for the sponsors product on our website. (the promo was not included in our original agreement) The sponsor said that because of the website promo, his website hits had increased over 30% and he was selling them so fast that he could not keep the product in stock! He was estatic and already commited to supporting us for 2008. He also said that no other team that he has sponsored had ever done anything like that before. - (Another small cheap promo lead to a sponsorship extention.)
I hope these tips help and if anyone go any other ones please post here.
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