How to find sponsors and brand partners: who to contact, what to say, how to follow up

Start from your audience, not from the brands you'd like to be seen with. A sponsor is paying to reach your people, so the best prospects already want them:

• Brands that sell to your audience today. Their customers are in your room, your list or your comments.
• Brands already sponsoring similar events, shows or creators. They have a budget line for it and know how it works.
• Brands entering your audience's market. A launch, a new region or a new product line means they need to be seen.
• Brands hiring in marketing, partnerships or community. New people bring new budgets and want early wins.
• Tools and services your audience asks about. Look at the questions in your comments and Q&As.

Write down, for each brand, the one reason your audience matters to them. If you can't write that line, the brand isn't a prospect yet.

The right person depends on the size of the company and the kind of partnership. On LinkedIn, a Sales Navigator search by title, function, seniority, industry and region finds them quickly. See our Sales Navigator guide for how to build those searches.

Contact one or two people per brand, not five. If two people at the same company get the same message on the same day, they'll compare notes, and it won't help you.

Not the deck. The first message is a reason to talk: who your audience is, why it matters to this brand, and one easy question. Keep it short enough to read on a phone.

The good version shows homework, ties your audience to their goal and asks permission to send more. When Tom says yes, the deck is now something he asked for.

On LinkedIn, warm up before the first message: view the profile, react to a recent post, and connect with a short note. Our guide on LinkedIn messages that get replies has more on openers.

Once they're interested, the questions come fast. Have the answers ready before you send the first message:

• Who the audience is: roles, industries, regions, and how you know. Only figures you can back up.
• What the partner gets: speaking slots, branded content, mentions, a booth, introductions, leads, whatever you really deliver.
• Packages and price, or at least a range, so they can tell if it fits their budget.
• What past partners did with it, if you have permission to share it.
• Dates, deadlines and what you need from them.
• How you'll report back after the event, episode or campaign.

Most sponsorship deals need several touches. Marketing teams plan budgets ahead, inboxes are full, and a no-reply usually means not yet. Plan two or three follow-ups over a few weeks, and make each one add something:

1. 1A new fact: a confirmed speaker, a new segment of your audience, a partner who just joined.
2. 2A smaller step: a single slot or a trial episode instead of the full package.
3. 3A real deadline: when packages close or when the programme is printed.

When someone says "not this year", ask when they plan next year's budget, and follow up a few weeks before then. A polite no with a date is a pipeline, not a dead end. Timings that work are in automating LinkedIn follow-ups.

When a brand says yes to a call, book it right away, inside the conversation. Send the invite with a short agenda and remind them the day before. Go into the call knowing everything they said so far, and send a written follow-up the same day with the proposal and next steps.

If they don't show, rebook straight away instead of waiting for them to come back. After the partnership runs, report back with what you promised, and ask about the next one while it's fresh. Renewals are much easier than new sponsors.

For events in particular, the same process fills seats and sponsor slots side by side. See how it's set up for marketing, media and creators.