It seems that these days everyone in the blogosphere wants to have their own contest. Whether this is a $500 prize pool contest or a $5000 prize pool contest they seem to always want to ask for more and as a result the pool just keeps growing.

The issue I want to address today is how to get sponsors again. I wrote a post about how to ask for sponsors a while ago but I want to touch it up and add to it a bit here.

The reason I want to do this is that I get about 3 Entrecard private messages a month asking me for a donation to a contest.

All of these mails are generic and have just been mass mailed out. I personally did this when I ran my contest with decent results. The problem I find is that people don’t want a ton of small prizes. For a great contest you need to have a killer high quality prize pool.

What I want to discuss today is how to chase down those killer prizes that people will actually want and jump into your contest for as a result.

The Research

Before you even approach anyone that you are going to ask for a donation, do some research. Unless you already know them personally, figure out what makes them tick, figure out what they like and what kind of causes they give to.

It’s like scouting out a battlefield. You want to have every advantage to make sure you win the “battle” and get the sponsor.

Compose a small list of all your possible sponsors and why you want to target them and what you hope to get. By doing this you stay focused on the goal at hand and are able to gather relevant information to help you in this process.

The Execution

Next you need to write the letter. Although generic letters do work on some people, for most higher quality sponsors a hand written letter does best.

Use your research to write a personal letter to this person asking for the donation. The research helps you connect to them on a base level and makes them feel comfortable.

It allows them to relate to you and as a result be more apt to give to you when you ask for the donation in the letter.

Also you should sound professional. This means that there should be no typos or formatting errors or anything else that could jeopardize your message. These people don’t have time to decipher what you’re saying so don’t make it hard to read!

If You Never Ask…

If you never ask you’ll never know. The opportunity is there for you to get the large sponsors and the only thing holding you back is you. So get out there, do some research, write that letter and you’d be amazed at what can happen!