Unorthodox ways to sell larger sponsorship deals

☎️ Today, an experienced media sales executive-gone-entrepreneur lays out some Unorthodox ways to sell bigger deals.

Let’s dive in! 🚀

This week I’m handing the reins to Joseph Arendt, who’s spent his career selling millions of dollars in media at places such as Vox Media.

Joe is now the founder of Arketekt, an agency that helps digital media companies design and execute a plan to grow revenue through fractional sales support and consulting. Before Arketekt, he was VP of Brand Partnerships at Inman.

Without further ado, over to you Joe…

🤯 Unorthodox ways to sell bigger deals

We all want bigger sponsorship deals but how do we get brands to open up bigger budgets? In previous newsletters, Dan has shared great tips for closing bigger deals, becoming more than a newsletter and optimizing revenue with packages. This week, I’ll share several ideas for how you can think outside the (display ad) box and land those lucrative brand partnerships.

Below are proven strategies that I have used to close millions in sponsorship deals with top brands over the years. While these approaches may require more effort to craft and execute than traditional ad placements, they can unlock significantly bigger brand partnerships when implemented correctly.

Each should be built around the sponsor’s goals and customized to your brand, audience and industry. While not every approach will make sense for your newsletter, hopefully a few can serve as the catalyst to landing your biggest deal yet. 

⛔️ Exclusive Sponsorship

What if you only had one client for the entire year? Offering exclusivity can command a premium and enable you to provide a big idea that larger brands often look for. While your per-slot rate may end up lower, the 100% sell-through should more than make up for it. Doesn’t have to be a full year, the goal is to think about what a longer-term exclusive partnership might look like.

🤝 Collaborative Sponsorship Packages 

Team up with complementary channels such as social influencers, events, or podcasts sharing a similar niche. Combine forces to create larger sponsorship packages, offering sponsors broader exposure to relevant audiences.

🔬 Audience Access and Insights

Provide sponsors access to your audience through custom polls or surveys that will allow them to learn about key buying habits or market insights. Offer rewards or sweepstakes in collaboration with sponsors, incentivizing audience participation and further promoting their brand.

✍️ Custom Branded Content Section

For longer-term commitments, create a dedicated section in your newsletter branded exclusively for the sponsor. Make sure the content is relevant for your audience and not just a bigger ad. Push the sponsor to be creative with what type of content the section includes (and charge more if you create the content).

👯‍♀️ Event Activations

Extend your brand's reach by hosting activations or brand experiences at relevant industry conferences. Offer sponsorship opportunities within these activations, integrating sponsors into the promotions and on-site experiences for added exposure and revenue potential (without having to host your own events).

🤲 Create Mini-Series or Deep Dives

Develop specialized content outside your normal offering that aligns with your audience’s interests and sponsor’s goals. Content can live within your newsletter or be sent as separate dedicated emails. You can use the sponsorship fee to fund additional freelance help to support the project if needed.

🫡 Content Creation for Sponsor Channels

Leverage your expertise and audience trust to create content for sponsor channels or events. This approach offers a different deal structure than traditional banner ads, providing value to sponsors while hopefully exposing your work to new audiences. 

🎯 Audience Retargeting

Explore the possibility of selling audience retargeting capabilities to brands through ad tech partnerships. Proper execution can extend the campaign reach beyond your newsletter platform, and create new inventory to include in sponsorship packages. Ensure that you are in compliance with relevant regulations such as GDPR or CCPA to avoid potential legal issues.

🔒 Unlocking Paid Products

Do you have a paid newsletter, membership or digital product? Partner with a sponsor to provide free access to the product for a limited number of users. Those that sign up can be provided to the sponsor as leads in exchange for them covering the cost of the product or service provided.

🚀 Launch Something New

Take that list of ideas your company wants to launch one day in the future and go pitch them to a sponsor. Use the sponsorship fee to help build the thing, promote it and bring on help with execution if needed. The sponsor gets to align with your shiny new thing and you get the money and reason to launch it. If successful, you have a new channel to monetize (provided you set up the contract correctly).

These ideas can be combined together or packaged with your standard offerings. The key is to develop bigger opportunities that can be customized to the sponsor and feel unique to your brand. As with any sponsorship or ad campaign, it is important to set expectations properly, be clear about deliverables and align on what success looks like. If you want help developing and selling these types of deals for your newsletter, reach out at [email protected].