Motorsports Marketing Mail Tips
WHAT IS THE VALUE OF YOUR RACING PROGRAM?
Posted on: Friday December 29, 2023
WHAT IS YOUR PROGRAM WORTH TO A BUSINESS? by Joe Verdegan
(December, 2023 Monthly Motorsports Marketing Mail Tip)
One of the biggest dilemmas short track teams often face in the great ‘money hunt’ to keep their racing teams afloat during the year is determining exactly how much money you should be asking for.
The entire process can be a catch-22. If you ask for too much money one could potentially scare away a potential marketing partner. Yet you also don’t want to essentially ‘giveaway’ your product for nothing as there is an inherent value to what you are offering.
I always suggest to clients to make sure you stress that any marketing plan you have is flexible. It’s o.k. to put a price tag on a race car’s hood, quarter panels, trunk lid, etc. Obviously, a quarter panel will command more money than say a C post or a trunk lid.
There are many other variables within your program that contain value that aren’t necessarily decals on a race car. Your website. Facebook page. Driver’s suit. Crew uniforms. Hero cards. You get the picture.
While I stress the part of being ‘flexible’ you also don’t want to give your marketing options away, either. I recall one team in the 1990’s that put a major fast-food chain on their race car. Decked out with the restaurant chain’s colors and everything. Bad part is this team never got the actual approval nor one dime, so this team gave a major restaurant chain free exposure for an entire season without ever getting one dime.
After that season of ‘free advertising’ this business finally gave an answer of ‘sorry we’re not interested’ so they got away with an entire season of free exposure. Make sure you don’t do that.
Whether you ask for $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 for a hood, you’ve got to know your market. A pavement or dirt touring late model series will obviously command more dollars than a local street stock or four-cylinder racer. But at the same time don’t give your program away with 30 different $200 and $300 sponsors because after your vinyl stickers or wraps are done that will eat into your sponsorship/marketing budget pretty quickly.
Not only that but those 20 or 30 sponsors will most certainly dilute one another and could potentially get lost in that sponsor shuffle.
We can help you with your sponsorship decks. Once again this off season we’ve partnered with Bryan “Woody” Wodack of Woody’s Signs in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin to design your eye-popping cover pages for your sponsorship decks. Email me at jverdegan2@gmail.com for more information. Good luck and Merry Christmas!