Does your organization feel uncertain about how to make the most of sponsorship opportunities in your continuing education (CE) webinars? If so, you’re not alone! The Tagoras Virtual Events Report found that 72% of organizations don’t offer online sponsorships for virtual events, costing non-dues revenue and valuable partner opportunities.
Don’t let your CE program get left behind! Read on for helpful tips on effectively selling and incorporating sponsorships at your CE webinars.
How to sell and incorporate sponsorships at your continuing education webinars
Are you ready to level up your organization’s approach to sponsorships? Follow these strategies to improve the sale and incorporation of sponsorships at your CE webinars:
1. Get to know your sponsors
Does your organization have a sponsorship program yet? If not, it’s easy to begin. Build yours by asking sponsors about their goals, what benefits they’d like to see in a sponsorship package, and what audience they’re interested in reaching.
Consider calling your sponsors to ask these questions directly. Phone calls can foster a relationship with your sponsors. You can also try conducting an online survey to reach more sponsors and establish a baseline for your data and reporting purposes.
TECH TIP: With Freestone, you can help your sponsors get to know your learners better with live polling options. Create custom polls and send the results to ensure your sponsors have your attendee list and specific data to make the sponsorship opportunity worth their time.
2. Best sponsorships to offer
When it comes to selling sponsorships at your CE webinars, consider the following opportunities for your organization:
- Thought leadership opportunities. Sponsors might be interested in providing professional development opportunities, industry best practice tips, or sponsoring unique CE credit offerings.
TECH TIP: When you choose Freestone, it’s easy for sponsors to get to know your learners. Allow sponsors to jump into your learner chat and moderate the discussion by asking questions.
- Lead opportunities. Consider offering attendee information to your sponsors or generating hand-raiser information through attendee polls in exchange for your sponsor package.
TECH TIP: In Freestone, make lead opportunities easy for your sponsors. Staff can add sponsor assets so your learners can download them later. Freestone makes it simple to create a lead form for sponsors, with direct access to the sponsor website.
- Branding. Consider where it makes sense for an organization to sponsor your webinar and be intentional with how involved you want your sponsors to be in your webinars.Do you want all your sponsors’ logos crowding the learner’s view throughout an event? With sponsorships, try creating the best experience for your learners.
TECH TIP: With Freestone, create custom branding opportunities to offer a superior sponsorship experience. Design custom HTML tabs to thank sponsors for their patronage and keep them coming back, event after event.
3. Posting a sales kit
Make it easy for sponsors to find your organization and sell even more sponsorships at your next webinar by creating a sales kit. Begin by starting a document and detailing your organization’s description and CE program. Provide relevant information about your mission and member demographics so sponsors can understand your learner audience.
You’ll also want to provide a list of sponsorship opportunities, including benefits and prices for your CE webinars. Make it easy for companies to purchase sponsorship by providing your contact information. Consider posting your sales kit on a separate sponsorship page on your website and emailing sponsors about any new or upcoming sponsorship opportunities.
Learn more about selling sponsorships
For more tips on how to maximize sponsorship revenue at your CE webinars and events, check out our free guide!