Promotion 101: Sponsor an Event
There truly is a redundant theme in my articles and it basically boils down to marketing and promotion. I always come back to these aspects of the business and stress the importance of both. Part of the reason I do this is because I myself was a business and marketing major in college, who went on to work in mainstream marketing for five years before joining the online adult industry. I like to think that this makes me somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to the ins and outs of the marketing and promotional side of things. The second reason that I discuss these two areas so much is because they really are the most important aspects of this particular industry, and they play such an integral role in the success of a website. I have discussed various promotional strategies in the past and today we look at event sponsoring.
This is an industry where so much interaction and networking happens online. We only get but a few chances a year to come face-to-face with our fellow adult webmasters. The few chances that we get range from the large conventions to the smaller local webmaster get-togethers. Either way, these are amazing opportunities for us to get a little face-time with our peers, get our names out there, and of course to have a little fun. Successful webmasters realize the importance of these events and understand that offline networking can bring in some great contacts as well as big business. The truly smart webmaster will realize that sponsoring such an event will mean even more for his/her website in the form of publicity on top of all the great networking opportunities that it will present.
When most webmasters think of event sponsors, they immediately picture the very biggest companies in the industry that sponsor the huge trade shows. These companies have enormous promotional budgets and can afford to go all out to prove it. However, it does not need to cost a fortune to sponsor an event. The key to sponsoring an event is to moderate your contribution to fit your budget, as well as to determine the size of an event that is right for your company. If you are a big gun in the industry, you will want to create a huge dog and pony show by being a main sponsor at a trade show, or chartering a yacht for a huge webmaster party. If you are a mid-sized program or website or you have something really new and hot to promote then you may want to host or co-host one of the parties that run in conjunction with the big trade shows. However, if you are just a normal webmaster who has a fabulous site, program or product, there are sponsoring opportunities available to you as well that will not break your pocketbook.
First of all, you need to determine the type of budget you will have to work with. Once you have your monetary allowance figured out, you can then decide whether you have enough in your budget to host your own event or whether you should join a group of sponsors. If you are hosting your own event, you must then figure out whether you want your event to be local or during one of the major international get-togethers. The benefit of hosting a local event is that it will be a great opportunity for you and others to meet and network with local webmasters. Webmasters that are located close to one another will feel more comfortable networking with and doing business with each other, as opposed to a much larger and more international scale. The obvious benefit to hosting an event at one of the major trade shows is that you get your name out to a much broader audience. Choosing to host your own event is a great publicity opportunity if you have the budget to do it, but if your funds are more limited, then you may want to opt to co-host an event with one or more other sponsors.
There are many adult webmaster events, parties, and trade shows happening around the world various time of the year and most of them are looking for sponsors. You may not have the budget to do your own event, but the promotional opportunity in joining in a group of sponsors can be just as rewarding. Just by putting your name in a few events a year as a sponsor, you will be doing wonders for your site. It is a terrific way to gain some brand recognition and it can give you a reputation of being a generous and a stand-up adult company. Some people feel that webmasters that sponsor events are just wasting their money, but they do not realize how much these webmasters really get in return. The publicity alone is usually enough to pay back the costs of sponsoring an event.
Sponsoring an event in this industry really is a great way to promote your product or service. All of the industry leaders have been doing it for years, and it has only helped them get even further ahead. Webmasters need to realize that becoming a sponsor is not only for the big companies, but something that almost every successful webmaster can do. If you feel that you may have a few dollars kicking around that you can put towards doing some promotion, I strongly suggest that you look into to sponsoring an upcoming event. If you would like to know what event sponsorship opportunities are available in your area or on a more international scope, you should check out the adult webmaster resources and boards.
