Sponsorship Ready client awarded VET Teacher of the Year 2022

Sponsorship Ready client awarded VET Teacher of the Year 2022

14/7/2022

We’re excited to be working with Australia Trade College North Brisbane and are sharing a repost from Australia Trade College North Brisbane in celebration of Leah Pollock-Grant who was awarded ‘VET Teacher of the Year’ at the Queensland Training Awards 2022.
​
“And the winner is… Leah Pollock-Grant ‘VET Teacher of the Year’ Queensland Training Awards North Coast Region CONGRATULATIONS LEAH On behalf of each and every current and past Trade College student thank you for creating safe and supportive learning environments for our students to #nailtheconnection and see their trade and business dreams come to life. #QTA2022 #SkillsPower #QTANC #educationsponsorship #sponsorshipinschools #schoolsponsorship”

​8 Reasons your school website is so important in driving Sponsorship

​8 Reasons your school website is so important in driving Sponsorship

12/7/2022

Did you know that it takes 50 milliseconds (0.05 seconds) for users to form an opinion about your website and school?

Considering lockdowns and restrictions over the past few years, we have seen a big shift in the role and importance of a school website. There are characteristically two primary purposes for any school website. One is to provide timely, compelling, and current information to your current parents, students, staff, and community. The second purpose is to attract new students and to recruit quality staff.

Here are eight reasons why your school website is so important and how your website can positively impact Sponsorship outcomes for schools, their communities and ultimately students.

  1. Your school website receives great community traffic and local businesses are eager to show their support for your community. From a marketing perspective, it’s important to understand and harness the opportunities that this shift has presented.
  2. The perception of the school is one’s reality. Improve your perception. Your audience of potential parents have been spending more time at home than ever, communicating, and learning about your school online. This provides an exciting opportunity to review and improve your school website and consider how it can better serve your target audience. We can help.
  3. Having an enticing and attractive prospectus on your site will pique the interest of prospective parents who are early on in their decision-making process. Pre-pandemic, a parent would have to attend an open day or declare an interest in your school in order to receive a prospectus. Now, if a parent types into a search engine “schools near Brisbane City” for instance, they could be flicking through your school’s dedicated and sharply presented prospectus in a matter of seconds.
  4. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Images are an easy way to improve the user experience of your school’s website. Studies show that people remember 80% what they see and only 20% what they read. In fact, there’s research that suggests that 65% of people are visual learners. MIT also found that the human brain can process images in as little as 13 milliseconds. These and many other statistics favour the idea that images are powerful means of communication. Ask us how we can help update your website imagery.
  5. Not only does a website give your potential students information, but it also shows that you’re up with the times. Having up to date, relevant and compelling content highlights that you’re interested in your school’s growth and innovation. It also helps schools relay crucial information surrounding severe weather conditions or school closures for example.
  6. A Stanford study shows that 75% of consumers admit to making judgments on a company’s credibility based on the company’s web design. Promote your schools’ purpose, vision and values and it will spread throughout the online community. You will need to ensure your brand is sharp and managed via some brand guidelines. We can help with this and web development.
  7. Driving an omni-channel approach enables your school staff to proactively engage with parents and their communities both online and offline. That’s why consistent communication and having the offline tools available to manage enrolment enquiry for example will not only accelerate processes for staff, it also drives brand consistency and an overall positive user-experience.
  8. Look into whether advertising on your website is able to be sponsorship inventory for your school, local community-based businesses would be interested if so, but best to make part of a package than sold in isolation. All sponsorship placements can be customised, and Sponsorship Ready can support in producing all graphic content needs on behalf of your school!

For more information on how to drive sustainable sponsorship revenue, you can contact our team who would love to discuss with you some of our success stories and case studies.
For an initial chat please contact Kelsey McAlpine via Kelsey.McAlpine@sponsorshipready.com.au or call 0434 495 948.

Build a connected School Community

Build a connected School Community

8/6/2022

​Schools that have rich community engagement programs are more likely to create vetter sponsorship educational opportunities for students, teachers, parents, and the wider school. School sponsors can help play a part in this as well as deliver incremental revenue for the school.

​Share your schools purpose, vision, values

​By sharing your school’s purpose, vision and values effectively to your schools community, it drives positive impact on brand visibility and awareness for both sponsors and schools.

With your community in tune with your schools vision, it’s easier to connect with the right sponsors that represent similar values and secure the right sponsorship educational opportunities.

Understand what a sponsors objectives are

​All too often schools miss out on building these relationships because they present benefits without understanding the motivations of prospective sponsors, so to enable your best chance of finding the right sponsorship platform – remember this! Schools have so much to offer!

Understand that your schools sponsorship strategy should sit alongside other key strategies

Strategic partnerships, communications strategy and marketing strategy​. Engaging with sponsors, bringing them into your sponsor family is therefore a great opportunity delivering more than just revenue.

400% increase in sponsorship

400% increase in sponsorship

10/10/2021

Keperra Country Golf Club had teed off their sponsorship program with more than a 400% increase in sponsorship revenue, and they’re just getting started.

We were pleased to work with General Manager Gavin Lawrence and his team to get Keperra Country Golf Club Sponsorship Ready.

“The professional selling tools that have come from the process are professional and now in line with how we as a club wish to see our brand be portrayed in the market. The results have been more than impressive and we are genuine contenders in assisting brands connect with the community and moreover deliver commercial return for investment,” said Gavin Lawrence, General Manager of Keperra Country Golf Club.

​“We have a strategy now and would recommend the program to any golf club seeking to go to the next level in raising revenue so they can continue to reinvest in the club and keep their members happy, healthy and active,” he added.

Congratulations to Gavin and his team on a great result. We can’t wait to see what the coming months deliver.

To learn more about the work undertaken by Keperra Country Golf Club with Sponsorship Ready, please click here.

Softball Queensland new partnership approach

Softball Queensland new partnership approach

3/6/2021

Softball Queensland and CEO Ross Symonds were recently featured in an Australian Leisure Management article highlighting their new approach to sponsorship management.
An excerpt from the article:

Softball Queensland has unveiled its new approach to forming sponsorships in response to the ever-changing landscape of community and sports organisations.

With the industry still recovering after COVID-19, it has become more paramount than ever for organisations to encourage participation and demonstrate the value return for business sponsors.

Advising that the organisation’s approach to create partnerships involves understanding business objectives and tailoring a package to suit those needs, Softball Queensland Chief Executive, Ross Symonds explained “a partnership with Softball Queensland is not a request for philanthropy, with sizeable reach and impact a partnership can deliver on commercial, brand and community engagement objectives as well as help us keep Queenslanders fit, active and healthy.

“Softball Queensland is a powerful conduit to thousands of engaged and passionate supporters, players and volunteers across the state.”

Noting that sponsorship partnerships with Softball Queensland were beneficial as it promotes brand image, visibility and awareness, Symonds commented “through these vital partnerships we create a platform for our sponsors to showcase their own work and this delivers traffic to their businesses and websites.

“As well as raising brand awareness, Softball Queensland can offer prospective sponsors opportunities such as co-sponsor networking, community connection and strategies to enhance social media presence through campaigns.”

Softball Queensland and Sponsorship Ready designed the new approach to suit the changing landscape of community sports organisations and create meaningful sponsorship opportunities.

Sponsorship Ready Director Terry Johnston said it can take as little as 90 days to get sponsorship ready which is evident through Softball Queensland’s recent additions to its portfolio.

“Softball in Queensland has a story to tell (so) it comes as no surprise to me that Softball Queensland is getting interest in the market now – I have simply helped them tell their story in a way that appeals to sponsors.

“Softball Queensland has some great sponsorship assets that can deliver business objectives.”

To read the full article, click here.

Congratulations to Ross Symonds and the Softball Queensland team. It’s great to see your efforts recognised in the media.

Leverage your school’s impact

Leverage your school’s impact

20/5/2021

​Sponsorship of schools can be linked to improving outcomes for students and to funding variety of initiatives including but not limited to:

  • Excellence programs
  • Extra-curricular programs
  • Community engagement programs
  • Infrastructure projects
  • Additional learning resources

​By articulating your school’s reach and impact to potential sponsors, your school can attract real sponsorship dollars through sponsors as well as a great opportunity to promote your schools mission and values in the community.

Tips for clubs with > 400 members

Tips for clubs with > 400 members

18/10/2020

Golden Rules for clubs with > 400 members…

  1. Sports clubs have an engaged, passionate audience – but perhaps they could do better to allow sponsors to leverage this…. Consider the ways your club can help put an SME’s product or service in danger of being sold, create a list or register of all your clubs possible sponsorship assets, get the key people in a room and flesh this out. Its critical, and ideas will flow. Guaranteed. But you need to think about how your club can deliver on their brand, commercial and community engagement objectives and you need to get more creative than signage and logos on apparel. Use the inventory prompt ‘what have you got to sell’ to kick start the process.
  2. Sports clubs have plenty of volunteers, a history, and a story to tell – but struggle articulate it for sponsors …. publish this content, tell the story, and capture it in your professional pitch material. Your selling tools need to be professional, a must. I cannot stress this enough it – in my professional opinion, and I have pitched to hundreds of people representing many sports – it is the difference between winning and losing a sponsor.
  3. Sports clubs and Associations know their organisation makes a positive impact on their respective communities and people’s lives – but cannot define it, this too needs to be told and captured in your selling tools. This type of content is what sponsors are looking for to deliver on community engagement or corporate/social responsibility objectives. Consider strategic alliances with organisations in health/social space in your community. It will help your conversion rate.
  4. Clubs suspect they can provide significant ‘reach’ for prospective sponsors – but cannot demonstrate it…..this is just so key to success, if you can demonstrate quantitatively in your selling tools the reach you have you are then demonstrating ROI versus other mediums sponsors would already be spending on such as radio, print, digital etc
  5. Clubs know their organisation has a good brand, reputation, and governance – but fail to really showcase it in their pitch. Again, these are key components in your selling tools and seriously consider a survey of your member base to get rich data on what members think of the brand so it can be used in your pitch. Why not try getting data on what your members think of prospective sponsors!?!
  6. Fewer, bigger, and deeper relationships with sponsors makes sense – but they tend to have multiple lower value partners with high servicing costs. Consider making the change in your sponsorship strategy to fewer, bigger, deeper. Those already on board subscribe to your club and its impact so take steps to grow their investment and bespoke their partnership platform.

Want more useful tips? Download here for more information.

Sponsorship Ready media

Sponsorship Ready media

7/10/2020

Australasian Leisure Management magazine recently published an article by Terry Johnston, Managing Director of Sponsorship Ready. In the ‘A new approach to sport sponsorship’ article Terry highlights the place philanthropy has in sports, and the strategic approach sponsorship management requires.
Terry writes;

“I do not wish to confuse philanthropy with sponsorship. If a club has people willing to donate, bequest, gift and have little expectation in return – that is great! But pitching and acquiring sponsors to create sustainable revenue is a completely different ball game. This is where the opportunity in this adversity exists for clubs. This is exactly where clubs need to pivot.”

In the article, Terry goes on to explain the importance of becoming sponsorship ready, before approaching potential sponsors.

Also in the article, explaining how the Sponsorship Ready program has helped his club, Ross Fisher, President of the Noosa Heads Surf Club, comments “Sponsorship Ready’s program has set the Noosa Heads Surf Life Saving Club up to succeed.

“The professional selling tools that have come from the process are professional and now in line with how we as a club wish to see our brand be portrayed in the market.

“The results have been impressive, and we are genuine contenders in assisting brands connect with the community and moreover deliver commercial return for investment.

“Sponsorship is no longer a handout, we have a strategy now and would recommend the program to any club seeking to go to the next level in raising revenue so they can continue to play the vital role they do in communities.”

You can read the Australasian Leisure Management article on pages 42 – 44 here: https://issuu.com/ausleisure97/docs/australasian_leisure_management_issue_140_2020

Or you can download the article as a pdf here.

Worth a conversation about your club? Complimentary Sponsorship Strategy Session for your committee here https://go.oncehub.com/TerryJohnston

Australasian Leisure Management magazine is a leading source of information for the leisure industry. You can learn more here: https://www.ausleisure.com.au/

Sponsorship Ready?

Sponsorship Ready?

10/9/2020

Schools can get Sponsorship Ready, they have an audience in Mums, Dads and students and the wider community. The audience is engaged and passionate, and the school is a conduit to that audience. Businesses currently try advertising in school newsletters – we all see that.
Schools are rich in possibilities that could help sponsors reboot their business post covid.

Public or private does not matter. Schools too can deliver on a sponsor’s business objectives. Of course there are sensitivities and common sense needs to be applied. School sponsorship policies will very clearly articulate the parameters.

Do schools do a good job fundraising?

Generally yes and a pretty good job at that actually! But fundraising is very different to sponsorship.

Do schools do a good job acquiring sponsors and growing sponsorship revenue?

No, generally speaking unfortunately. However, just like clubs, schools can benefit from the right strategy, tools and training when it comes to growing sponsorship!

Author

Terry Johnston from ​Sponsorship Ready

Categories