Page 86 - 101 Ways to Market Your Business

TRY A FEW UNUSUAL IDEAS

26 Offer prizes in competitions

Charities and sporting clubs are always looking for busi-
nesses to donate prizes in the form of a sponsorship.
Companies that donate goods or services are generally
offered exposure in the form of publicity such as logos on
promotional material.

When these requests arrive on the fax or over the phone
most of us tend to classify them as a minor irritation rather
than a marketing opportunity. It is time to retrain those
thoughts.

Generally the person seeking sponsorship is after a
service or product that your company sells. By donating
this you are giving away something with a retail value that
you only pay the cost price for. As long as the organisation
can offer you good exposure (in writing) this is a good
deal. As always, the more publicity the competition or event
is promising, the better value you receive for your adver-
tising dollar.

Quite often prizes that you donate are also tax deduct-
ible as an advertising expense.

The next time someone calls you asking for a prize or
sponsorship, ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the real cost of the prize that you will be
donating?

• What publicity will you receive for participating?
• How many people will see your company name

(approximately)?
• Can you reach this many people for the cost of the

prize with conventional advertising?

Most of the time you will see that these types of
sponsorships reach a lot of people, they make your business
appear a part of the local community (which it should be)
and they return good exposure for a very small outlay.

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