Why Sponsorship?

Happy Wednesday! You should have received your weekly Bear Necessities last night. Have you ever noticed all the businesses that are mentioned at the bottom of the Bear Necessities? (Always click the “view entire message” link to ensure you don’t miss anything.) Or perhaps when you have scrolled through the Down Home blog the colorful images on the side of the page have caught your eye. Have you ever wondered why those are there? Our Director of Marketing and Merchandising, Betsi Ashby, joins us today for another installment in our Wondering Why series.

Why do we offer sponsorships to our Down Home blog and weekly Bear Necessities emails?

The most obvious answer is, it is another avenue to raise funds for our school. The other aspect of why we sponsor though is that it’s a way to showcase businesses and highlight them within our community. There are so many incredible, quality business owners among our families and in our area, we want a way to share them! 

Why sponsor?

Though sponsorship is a form of advertising, it is much more than that.

Sponsorship is about reputation and association.
Sponsoring a non-profit (or event or business or cause) aligns you with the organization you are sponsoring. It associates the reputation of each party with the other, to help cross-promote. In short, by sponsoring you are saying, We believe in what this organization is doing, and/or, They align with our values, and we support that. In case you were wondering, SLOCA wouldn’t allow just any company to sponsor with us. If their values violate ours, we wouldn’t allow them to sponsor.

Sponsorship creates brand-awareness.
Sponsoring doesn’t just get your brand and logo recognized. Our families now see our sponsors as an extension of their own SLOCA community. These businesses support their school, and in turn, we hope SLOCA supports our sponsors with their business. Seeing your logo over and over again makes it sticky in readers’ brains––so when they need a service you offer, you are more likely to come to mind!

What can sponsors do on their end?

As a sponsor, you can assess if your sponsorship is bringing in business by asking new customers, “How did you hear about us?” That way, you know if people are coming in response to your outreach and marketing efforts!

Thank you, Betsi for shedding some light on the topic of sponsorship.

Keep an eye out for some upcoming Sponsor Spotlight posts introducing you to our SLOCA sponsors and their businesses.

Do you have a “why” you have been wondering about? Share them with us by emailing Down Home or commenting on this blog post below!

Thinking you might be interested in becoming a SLOCA sponsor? Email Cozy Faber for more details.