Q: What is Sponsorship?
A: Sponsorship is a mutually beneficial relationship between two parties. Sponsorship is a partnership. It is often used by companies as a method of marketing to a targeted audience by partnering with an organization / event / athlete / program / cause, etc. In return the sponsorship opportunity, or property, is supported in their efforts as well. The affiliation is meant to support each party's efforts in a stronger way than they would have been able to do independent of each other.
Q: What is the success rate of a match being made?
A: We launched into beta testing in March of 2009, and by the end of the year we had over 40,000 proposal reviews. We have about 5,000 registered members and about 2,000 live proposals. These statistics paint a good picture as to the level of exposure we can generate for the proposals listed on our site. Now, in regards to matches seeing fruition into true partnerships – this is tough for us to measure for the reason that we do not involve ourselves beyond the introductions. We aren’t involved in meetings, consulting, contract negotiations, activation or fulfillment. So as you can see, it’s hard to assign a number to without doing significantly more research; however, we will be seeking out testimonials to offer our clients for additional examples of good partnerships in the next phases of our development. If you are interested in offering your testimony for a connection that you made here on SponsorPark, feel free to contact us to learn about your story.
Q: How can I advertise on SponsorPark?
A: During our beta testing, please contact a SponsorPark representative to discuss this opportunity in more detail.
Q: How can I offer feedback, personal testimony of experience, or present a press inquiry?
A: For any of these interests, please contact us at: info@sponsorpark.com.
Q: How much does it cost to become a member?
A: Until January 4th, 2010, our services are free since we are community our beta testing phase of development. After we hard launch on January 4th, our services will remain free for the use of sponsors. If you are a sponsorship opprotunity representative, you can review the package options when you register with us by clicking the sign up button above.
Q: Do you offer consulting services or any support in other sponsorship related efforts?
A: Currently, we do not offer services in consulting, contract negotiations, activation or fulfillment. Our primary focus is in connection. We do offer a blog and have communities on twitter, facebook and LinkedIn that serve an educational purpose with industry specific highlights, sponsorship tips, etc that we encourage our site users to join. We also encourage you to check out our resources page to check out other partners and resources we highlight who all have valuable services to offer the sponsorship community.
Q: What is the process of creating a proposal?
A: You will complete a 7 step process of creating a proposal. There are yellow light bulbs next to many of the fields which indicate a tip, you can view the tip by clicking on the light bulb. The fields within each step were chosen because during our market research phase, we found them to be the information most relevant to sponsors who are evaluating an investment option with a sponsorship partner. The time to completion will vary depending on how quickly you can uncover and compile the information relevant to your opportunity.
Q: Do I need to answer each question in the proposal template?
A: You are not required to provide information for all questions posed in the proposal templates. We do strongly encourage you to do so in order to maximize the potential of connecting with a sponsor. If you attempt to save and continue without completing a required field, the required field will be indicated with red text next to it, and you will be unable to save and continue until you complete it. Please note; we realize that some customization will most likely be required later on (especially in the package and benefits section), but in order for a sponsor to consider you as a potential partner, they need a starting point to reference. Keep in mind that considering the state of the economy, sponsors need more meaurable information to support their interest in partnering with you - accountability is more important now that it ever has been.
Q: How soon will my sponsorship opportunity be listed?
A: Within 24 hours of submission.
Q: Can I update or edit my proposal once I have posted it?
A: Yes, when you sign up you will have an account with us where you can manage your proposals including any editing or reviewing of contacts which have been made.
Q: How can I become a featured listing?
A: Eventually this will be an option you can purchase as an upgrade; for now, if you purchase a premium or professional package with us and are interested in greater exposure, you can contact us at info@sponsorpark.com to indicate interest and request more information.
Q: Can I contact sponsors individually?
A: For the purpose of maintaining active sponsors on our site, we do not provide the contact information for sponsors on SponsorPark in order to grant them anonymity in their proposal reviews. If you are made aware of a particular sponsor’s involvement on the site through any means, it is up to your own discretion to contact them with your own efforts and time; SponsorPark will not facilitate the contact for you unless the sponsor indicates interest as well.
Q: How do I know who is reviewing my proposal?
A: Currently we do not offer the names of sponsors who have reviewed your proposal until they indicate interest in learning more about your opportunity. Once a sponsor indicates interest in your opportunity, you will receive an email notification in your private communication portal which allows you access to correspond with the interested sponsor.
Q: Can I have multiple proposals listed at once?
A: Absolutely! There are package options offered specifically for this purpose. Review the Premium Package, the Professional Package, and the Unlimited Package to determine which fits your needs best. You can do this by clicking the “sign up” button above.
Q: I have a promo code, how do I use it?
A: If you have received a promotional code, you are able to input the code once you select a package option in the checkout process. You are only able to use one promotion code at a time.
Q: What package option should I choose?
A: Ultimately, this is a question only you can answer, but here's some quick insights:
Basic package: This option is good for those with little to no budget for connecting with sponsors.
Premium Package: The majority of our users will likely choose this option (1-2 proposals)
Professional package: For agencies or opportunity representatives with multiple opportunities (3-20)
Unlimited Package: For agencies or opportunity representatives with more than 20 proposals.
Q: Should I purchase a month to month listing or an annual listing?
A: The Premium package and the Professional packages give you the option of either a month to mont listing or an annual listing; again, this is ultimately a question you'll have to answer yourself based on your specific needs, but here's some insights to consider:
The annual option: This choice will fit the needs of most sponsorship opportunities. If you have an annual event or ongoing sponsorship opportunity, we recommend this option for you. It breaks down to a better monthly rate, and it allows your proposal exposure to potential sponsors in varying stages of interest. Bottom line – it’s better exposure.
The month to month option is good for those sponsorship opportunities that are a one time opportunity, and it’s less than 10 months away. The monthly package is a recurring payment, so it’s easy to manage.
Q: There's not a subcategory option that best fits my proposal - what should I do?
A: We have chosen subcategories based on what w have researched to be the most popular set of sponsorship opportunities; however, this doesn’t mean we won’t be adding to them. We encourage you to first chose the option that best fits your opportunity (even if that is “other”), so that we can post your opportunity sooner than later. Then send us your feedback to info@sponsorpark.com indicating the subcategory you would like to see. We take our site member’s comments quite seriously and it will be considered for future stages of development.
Q: How will my financial investment be used to draw sponsors to the site in order to review proposals?
A: We are investing large portions of our budget into aggressively pursuing sponsors in a number of mediums. We've optimized our website to the search engines so that is found quickly by sponsorship decision makers within their typical online searches, we are heavily advertising on search marketing (Google, Yahoo!, etc.), we send out email campaigns, make phone calls, are utilizing social media and maker personal presentations to companies interested in learning more about how they can connect with sponsorship partners on SponsorPark. For significantly less than a dollar a day your investment enables us to seek out these sponsors on your behalf - no retainer, no commissions, no finder's fee.
Q: I prefer sending sponsors customized proposals. How can I use SponsorPark and still do this?
A: We are very much in favor of sending customized proposals to potential sponsor partners. What you’re doing with SponsorPark is creating a skeleton proposal, the most foundational and extremely relevant details to potential sponsors so they can determine a fit, at which time you can discuss the option of customization. We do recommend that when you complete your proposal that you specify the fact that you are in favor of customized partnerships, knowing that every company has different interests and ideas for activating your partnership.
Q: Do Sponsorship Opportunities have access to my contact information?
A: No. They can communicate with you through our private communication portal via email only after you have initiated interest by clicking the "contact this opportunity" button on their proposal. It is left to your discretion to offer up your contact information.
Q: What level of sponsorship does SponsorPark cater toward?
A: SponsorPark caters to a wide range of sponsorship as indicated by our listed opportunities. Whether you are looking for local opportunities within your community or you have interest in much larger scale opportunity, you will find a range here on SponsorPark. Keep in mind that opportunities representing all local or even state specific criteria will continue to grow as the community grows.
Q: Can I save searches?
A: Yes. Once you join, you are able to save searches and have results matching your criteria sent to you at your discretion. You will be able to manage multiple campaigns with independent searches under your account. The advanced search tool will also continue to become more and more targeted as the community grows. We advise you to start with broad searches target more specifically as you go.
Q: How do I contact an opportunity if I am interested?
A: As a member, if you conduct a search which leads to interest in a sponsorship opportunity; all you have to do is request the contact information be provided by clicking the “contact this opportunity” button on their proposal and we will immediately offer it to you. Once you click the button you are offered their direct contact information and you are also given the option to send them a personal email with you questions or comments through our private communication portal. Your contact information is still protected, but they are able to reply after you through our communication portal. If you are not a member, we will not be able to provide the information in order to protect the privacy of our members.
Q: How do I discontinue correspondences with an opportunity if for some reason they do not match my campaign needs?
A: If you have already started corresponding with an opportunity and uncover information that reveals they would not be the most optimal match for your campaign needs, we prompt you to simply send a message giving feedback and unless you initiate another contact with them, your correspondences will be discontinued.
Q: Can I manage searches for multiple campaign interests?
A: Absolutely. You have the ability to manage as many campaign specific searches as you like. Simply create a new campaign search and you can alter the search criteria accordingly.
Q: Is there a way I can be contacted when new proposal listings match my preferences?
A: Yes. When you create a saved search you have the option to be contacted with new results on either a daily or weekly basis. We will only contact you when there are new listings for your review that match your preferences. This makes your campaign management much simpler - you need only check back when we contact you unless you want to begin a new saved search. This means you need to add us to your safe sender list in order to receive email notifications from us. Keep in mind we will soon be adding new search criteria to our advanced search to enable you to refine and target your searches.
Q: This service being offered for free sounds too good to be true - what's the catch?
A: We get this a lot! We offer this resource free for your use for several reasons; one of which being that your presence on our site is what makes our connection system work, when you stay, opportunities come. You can believe it when we say we’re truly interested in supporting your passions by making you more proactive in researching your best possible partners– you have nothing to lose, not one penny.