This is a guest post by Andrew Dipper, Marketing Executive for Microsoft recruitment experts Nigel Frank International.

Sponsors can make an event shine – whether it’s providing a welcome injection of cash, benefits in kind or simply putting fresh eyes on your brand. A great sponsor will do all three.

So far in 2016, Nigel Frank International has exhibited at 10 events and sponsored a further six high-profile conferences, including Microsoft Ignite in Atlanta. We’ve been approached to sponsor many more – but, like all businesses, we need to make sure any arrangement makes financial sense and is a sound investment of time and resources.

Here are eight big questions we ask before putting pen to paper on a sponsorship deal.

Related: How To Get Good Event Sponsorship

Do you know your target market?

Knowing your attendees inside out isn’t just going to help with ticket sales. Sponsors will often want to know exactly who your target demographic is so they can maximise their own lead generation tactics. Try and gather as much data as possible about your customers, including their age, gender, job title, location, hobbies and interests, level of experience and, of course, their contact details. The easiest way to do this is at the point of purchase or via a social media offer or giveaway.

Once you have all of this data you can start building a thorough customer profile to show your sponsors. If you really want to impress them, produce a case study detailing how your event has benefited similar companies in previous years.

If this is your first event, it’s worth explaining how you’re going to reach your target market. It could be through a PR campaign, newspaper advertising, social media activity, preview events, and conferences – or a healthy mix of online, offline and experiential marketing. Either way, explain to your prospective partners how this will bring the right people to your event and convert for your sponsors.

Related: How to find your audience online

2. When and where is it?

Outline all the basic information in your initial proposal, no matter how obvious. What’s your event called? When is it? How long will it last each day? Where is your event? Location is particularly important to us because we need to establish whether there are a sufficient number of consultants working in the market. Sponsors may also want to make sure someone from their marketing team can physically attend your event.

Related: How to structure a successful event sponsorship proposal

3. What’s the schedule?

Whether you’re a new venture or approaching your 10th birthday, have a clear vision for your event and provide a drafted programme that you’re able to firm up nearer the time. Having this information to hand will dictate how many people we should commit to your event (see point two) and what materials or literature we’ll need to bring with us. It also means we can plan activities pre and post-event to ensure maximum engagement.

For example, at Ignite we created a Microsoft Dynamics salary survey for distribution to potential candidates at our booth. We also produced blog content around the Ignite keynote, social media activity to direct attendees to our booth, and targeted press coverage to amplify the brand’s visibility at the conference.

Related: Event sponsorship is broken. 10 tips to fix it.

4. How much is it going to cost?

Pretty important in the grand scheme of things! If we don’t have the right budget we can’t sponsor your event, no matter how much we’d like to. Tiered sponsorship packages are particularly helpful in this instance as they allow sponsors the flexibility of picking a package that suits their financial needs. It’s also worth bearing in mind that sponsorship costs can soon mount up when you factor in:

  • Travel
  • Hotel costs
  • Employee expenses, including wages
  • Printed marketing, including pop-up banners, t-shirts and branded merchandise
  • Event tickets (if applicable)
  • Furniture for a booth or stand
  • Competition prizes (example below)

Related: An introduction to the event planning cycle

5. How can you support our activity?

As well as outlining your own marketing strategy for the event, think about the ‘extras’ you can offer sponsors. For instance, you could include partners on your website, in press release copy, and on your social channels – as well as on any printed marketing materials including pop-up banners and branded merchandise. You could also offer to cover some of the costs above.

Giving sponsors direct access to your customers via an exclusive mailshot or attendee list can also be a deal-clincher, as it opens the door to a more sophisticated lead generation strategy. Speaking of which…

Related: Maximise the success of your email marketing for events

6. How many direct leads can we generate from your event?

For the most part, sponsorship is a numbers game. Help your sponsors estimate their potential lead value by telling them:

  • How many people you expect to attend – and how many people have attended in previous years (if applicable)
  • How many attendees are specifically relevant to the sponsor – i.e. how many are likely to convert into genuine customers
  • The average conversion rate for previous sponsors in the same industry
  • The total cost plus VAT (see point four)

No matter how much we love the idea and ethos of your event, the value of the deals needs to stack up.

Related: All you need to know about lead nurturing for event sponsorships

7. What are the fringe benefits?

Sponsorship is never just about selling to the room. When deciding what events to sponsor we look closely at how the collaboration will impact on our brand positioning. Furthermore, will it increase brand awareness and create preference? Could the event act as corporate hospitality to bolster relations with clients? Will our sponsorship benefit the local or international community? Events and conferences also give us an opportunity to show people how brilliant our employees are and how company culture is at the heart of our recent success.

Related: The 10 unwritten rules of event sponsorship success

8. How can we get involved?

Advertising is becoming increasingly experiential – and your sponsorship packages should reflect that. Leave room in your event programme for sponsored workshops, product demonstrations, and speaking engagements. The key is to give your sponsors a wide range of opportunities and channels to communicate with your attendees.

Related: The complete guide to experiential marketing

And the one big question event organisers should ask…

‘How will our sponsorship drive ROI for our partners and sponsors?’ Address that and you’ve already got one foot in the door.