{"id":1366,"date":"2013-08-21T14:25:59","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T21:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/?p=1366"},"modified":"2013-08-21T14:25:59","modified_gmt":"2013-08-21T21:25:59","slug":"3-things-musicians-should-avoid-when-asking-for-a-sponsorship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/3-things-musicians-should-avoid-when-asking-for-a-sponsorship\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Things Musicians Should Avoid When Asking for a Sponsorship"},"content":{"rendered":"

How NOT to pitch a band sponsorship<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Imagine you were running a business and you received an email from someone you didn\u2019t know that looked like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, I do a lot of great stuff. Can you give me $10,000 or introduce me to any of your friends who might be able to?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

How would you feel? What would you think? Could you imagine a high profile artist such as Lady Gaga, Coldplay, or Adele sending something out like this?<\/p>\n

Yet variations of this kind of message are being sent by artists every day.<\/strong>\u00a0You can change out the dollar amount or even trade the sponsorship money for some kind ofservice like booking a tour \u2014 but the tone ends up being the same each time. In other words, it sucks. This kind of pitch does not work.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try that again\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Put yourself back in the seat of a business owner or marketing director. Now, imagine you received a message from a trusted colleague or friend of yours who writes:<\/p>\n

\u201cHey! I just came across this amazing artist who\u2019s doing some great work and would be a great fit for what you\u2019re doing. Do you have a few minutes to go over this and see if it makes sense to work with them?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Having a mutual contact or direct personal relationship makes a huge difference. It changes the dynamics of the email from a solicitation to a proposal for a partnership.<\/strong>\u00a0In fact, this is so important that I dedicate an entire chapter in\u00a0my book<\/a>\u00a0to building partnerships and finding others who can make the introduction for you.<\/p>\n

Here are three things that you want to avoid when asking for a sponsorship:<\/strong><\/h3>\n

<\/strong>1. Asking for too much, too soon:<\/strong>\u00a0When you first write someone, you\u2019ll find that it\u2019s easier to get 15 minutes of their time rather than getting $15,000. Begin by asking for small things where you can also provide them with some kind of value first (marketing ideas, free promotion, etc.). In other words, give them a specific, compelling reason to return your call that can build the relationship so eventually you can both feel comfortable discussing larger proposals.<\/h3>\n

2. Being too vague or generic:<\/strong>\u00a0One of the most important things you should learn is how to pitch your band. The more specific you are about what you want, the easier it is to get what you want. When you talk about your music, don\u2019t use generic selling points like \u201cunique,\u201d \u201chard-working,\u201d or \u201chave potential.\u201d Instead, use actual information that proves you are unique, hard-working, or have potential. For example, \u201cwe\u2019re an acoustic duo that has done four national tours using only mountain bikes and backpacks for traveling, which has led to a feature on NPR.\u201d<\/h3>\n

3. Talking about yourself too much:<\/strong>\u00a080% of your communications should be about their company, brand, or organization and what you can bring to the partnership. \u00a0Before you begin pitching ideas, get them to talk about their goals, their audience, and what they want to accomplish. If your ideas are based on their goals, you\u2019ll be much more effective than if you just sent a generic proposal asking for money in exchange for logo placement.<\/h3>\n

Remember, one of the top\u00a0reasons why your sponsorship request will be rejected<\/a>\u00a0is because they don\u2019t know who you are. So, take the time to develop those relationships. You wouldn\u2019t propose to someone before at least asking for a first date, just as you usually wouldn\u2019t ask someone to risk investing time and money into your career without talking to them first. Learn how to\u00a0pitch your band<\/a>\u00a0to entice them. Give them a reason to want more, to hear\u00a0your story<\/a>. After that, you can begin talking about a partnership.<\/p>\n

Via CDBaby<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How NOT to pitch a band sponsorship Imagine you were running a business and you received an email from someone you didn\u2019t know that looked like this: \u201cHi, I do a lot of great stuff. Can you give me $10,000 or introduce me to any of your friends who might be able to?\u201d How would you feel? What would you think? Could you imagine a high profile artist such as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1367,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[223,241],"class_list":["post-1366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-tips","tag-marketing-tips","tag-sponsors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1366"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1368,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1366\/revisions\/1368"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1367"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vakseen.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}