How to Position Association Sponsorships as a Competitive Necessity

Competition for association corporate sponsorships is intense. There are dozens of ways for companies to spend their marketing dollars, so it’s important to look at ways associations can position their sponsorship programs to stay competitive.

Discussions with companies that sponsor trade and professional associations consistently reveal these three value propositions as the most important regarding their membership:

• Opportunities to be featured as a thought leader
• Business development opportunities
• Brand differentiation

With this in mind, associations can position themselves to meet the needs of prospective corporate sponsors by: 

• Creating opportunities for companies to provide educational content to members (i.e. Thought Leadership)
• Providing companies with data and contacts (or “leads”) based on content clicks and downloads (i.e. Business Development)
• Making these content dissemination opportunities available to only a select group of companies (i.e. Brand Differentiation)