How to follow up in sponsorship sales

🎯 Today, after a few clients asked, we’re looking at follow-ups and how to approach them in media sales.  

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FOLLOW-UPS

So you know that to be successful in sales you need to follow up. But you’ve been sending emails like ‘What are your thoughts?’ and ‘Would love to hear back.’ 🤮

Whilst it’s extremely true that you should follow up plenty of times. You do need to do it well.

The general ethos of follow-ups is that each nudge should ADD VALUE. This crafty buzzword ultimately means your email should teach them something new. Be persuasive, be engaging, or help the person at the end of the screen in some way.

Let’s dive in. 🤿

🫣 How often?

Unless stated otherwise I always try to follow up every ~3 days. This isn’t an exact rule. But colloquially, any less than 2 feels spammy/impractical and any more than a week will let things slip through the cracks.

I generally follow up AT LEAST 3 TIMES. Any less than that and you’re a part-timer.

⏰ For how long?

How long should you continue following up? It’s not viable (or useful) to eternally follow up on every lead you’ve ever had. So how long you keep politely hounding depends on…

How interested were they? The more they were, the longer you chase.

How much of a good fit are they? The more they are, the longer you chase.

Are they a decision-maker? If they are the, longer you chase.

Do they spend in similar channels? If they do, the longer you chase.

If the answer to most of those is positive, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t follow up for 6 months. But not every 3 days. Let me explain.

After approximately three short-term follow-ups (without a ‘yes’ or ‘f*ck off’), you can then bucket the lead as a long-term follow-up.

For long-term follow-ups, the objective and frequency changes. The goal is not to close a deal tomorrow, but rather to keep them engaged and thinking about your audience. That way when budget or internal conversations crop up, the person will immediately think of little old you.

I have historically done long-term follow-ups from every 2 weeks, up to every month. Once you have a big enough pool of leads, you can streamline this and turn it into a monthly B2B newsletter.

Just be careful that you don’t get too generic, it’s a good idea to segment this into industries and lead scenarios, e.g. previous sponsor, lead, etc.

Stacked Marketer does a good job of this and Emanuel has posted about it before (but I couldn't find it sorry!).

🥇 Short term follow-ups

Let’s dissect that fluffy ‘add value’ term, what are some good things to include in STFUs…

• Relevant case studies

• Testimonials if possible

• Relevant nuggets of audience stats (that you haven’t already mentioned)

• Content you've put out that they might find interesting

• Other advertising options you have

• Remnant availability/discounts

• Good ideas for their campaign

You should never run out of valuable things to talk about. Show that you’re an expert in your audience and niche.

The CTAs should be nudging the prospect to the next step of the sale.

🔒 Long term follow-ups

Here’s what to include in those longer-term chasers…

• Updates on growth

• Relevant case students

• New advertising products you’re launching

• Recent campaign data/trends

• Future business plans

• Availability over the coming months

And much more…

Next week, I’ll share some templates that you can use for these follow-ups WHY they have worked for me.

I’ll follow up.