Community sponsored marketing like sports teams, civic groups, school and cultural event sponsorships is a great way for small business to show their local community support. With small businesses using multiple channels for marketing, community sponsorships can be a cost effective way to compete against larger companies for local brand recognition and customers without a large advertising budget. According to our Local Commerce Monitor™ survey of small businesses, community sponsorships are one of the top ten most popular ways for small businesses to market and advertise. In the most recent wave of our survey, 32.1% of small businesses use community sponsorships. Community sponsorships have great ROI and small businesses report having received positive returns on their investments compared to their spend, with most reporting 2-19x return on spend. Small businesses plan on increasing their spend (37.2%) on community sponsorships in 2017.
Small businesses need to make sure that the events they sponsor are relevant and fit their brand. Also, they should be clear on what business results they are looking to gain, increased sales, brand awareness, etc. Local agencies, newspapers, radio and television stations are well positioned to assist small businesses in sponsoring events in their communities.
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