Belinda Riseley [00:00:00]:
Foreign and welcome back to the Motorsport Sponsorship Podcast. I'm Belinda from Motivate Training and if you're new around here, hi. I help motorsport athletes build their brand, secure sponsorship and manage their careers off the track so they can keep racing. So if this sounds like your team, I'd love for you to race over and subscribe and review to the podcast. You never miss this free course, quick training or our new YouTube channel if you're just getting started and sponsorship feels overwhelmed. But you're not alone. But the good news is you can't learn this. You don't need thousands of folders, a big trophy cabinet or a sleek pitch deck to get going.
Belinda Riseley [00:00:41]:
You just need a plan and the right support. That's where I can come in. So, team, today I'm going to walk you through five ways to get started with motorsport sponsorship. Even if you have no experience and zero sponsors right now, let's dive in. Team number one is to start with local businesses. When most people think of sponsorship, they imagine big brands like Monster Energy or Red Bull. But here's the truth. Most grassroots and amateur motorsport competitors are funded by local businesses.
Belinda Riseley [00:01:08]:
So think about your local mechanic, the bakery, the accountant or real estate agent could be your first sponsor. Why? Because you already have a connection, you're part of their community. So I'd love for you to start by making a list of businesses within 10 to 20ks of where you live or race. Predominantly visit them in person. If you can, share what you do, who your audience is, even if you're just cutting club or your online followers. Sorry, even if it's just your local karting club or online followers and how you can help give their business some extra exposure. I think the most important part when it comes to sponsorship team is remembering that like motorsport, sponsorship is really motorsport marketing. And the more that we can all get into the habit of saying motorsport marketing, the more opportunities are going to be open for us.
Belinda Riseley [00:02:03]:
So team, let locals for the win, then build from there. Locals win first, then build from there. All right, teams, the old question around social media will I always say that social media is a tool, but it is also importantly your digital resume. So before a sponsor says yes, they are usually going to check you out online. So I always recommend have your racing profiles pages and your personal ones which are private. Which platform you choose is completely up to you and can be based upon where your sponsors are, not so much where your fans. The most important thing when it comes to social media is that you're posting consistently about your racing journey, your Goals, behind the scenes moments and who supports you. So obviously just using Instagram as an example, there's obviously I keep saying the word obviously today as you can obviously hear I need to stop.
Belinda Riseley [00:03:03]:
There are three pillars on that grid so you can utilize those three pillars to showcase three completely different parts of your of you really of yourself, hobbies, skills, interest, sports, work, racing. You find whatever three pillars work best for you and then stick to that and be consistent. I know it's hard sometimes when you're not racing all the time. Maybe you only race five or six times a year, but there's definitely a lot of content that you can do to build not only your brand but more importantly show value to your sponsor and any prospect going forward. So Tim, if you haven't already, take some time after you've listened to this great podcast to make sure your bio includes your name, your category and link it to something, even if it's your link tree or a contact form. Highlight your values, your sponsors, if anything, and of course try and give a little bit more information about you, who you are as a motorsport athlete, what your goals, ambitions and how can people work with you. See, this is going to help you build trust and gives businesses confidence that you will represent them well. Social media doesn't have to be perfect.
Belinda Riseley [00:04:12]:
I mean, hey, just look at my Instagram otivate, underscore, team. It just needs to be active and authentic. So I don't like social media. It's not something that I love to do because hey, I'm a middle aged woman and I'm sure none of you want to listen to me nor have to look at me, but I do have good content. So I do try and do a mix of both video reels and carousels or images. So don't even if you're, if you're not confident being front of the camera, there are lots of ways that you can overcome that and definitely still have a social media presence and start to build your brand. So I team number three now, I'm liking my head. I'm trying not to say obviously, so that's why I keep laughing.
Belinda Riseley [00:05:00]:
Number three is to identify the benefits you can offer beyond just a logo. So quite often when I'm starting to work with an athlete and I'll say, okay, well what kind of things can you offer a prospect? And I generally will get, well, I can give a sticker on my car. Yes, I understand that, but that's one of the biggest mistakes I see is racers offering only a logo on their cart or race vehicle. And expecting a business to jump on board. That's not a partnership, that is simply a sticker. So instead I'd love for you to make it a list of actual benefits you can offer a prospect. If think about these in terms of marketing opportunities. For example, can you shout them out on a social media or tag them in a race day Content, can you feature their brand in behind the scenes videos or stories? So for example like product placement, like when you're going to utilize their product to clean your race vehicle or you're going to use their brand in order to get ready to go racing or just you may use their brand every single day.
Belinda Riseley [00:05:59]:
Team, could you invite them to a race meeting or create a giveaway together? What kind of foot traffic, visibility or community engagement do you provide these prospects? New partners are after data. They need to know who's your demographic, who are your fan base and what kind of opportunity can you provide them until you know your data. And again for things like the insights into your social media which is kind of behind the scenes like how many likes followers, their sex, where they live, all that kind of information, especially if you're new or a young racer and you might predominately not have a lot of race results that you can actually advise them. Team, I'd love for you to break down these benefits into sizes. So basically when I say size I'm talking about what benefits can you offer a small local business? Maybe it's referrals or being mentioned at local events, inviting them down, having pop up stalls, maybe bring your race vehicle down. What can you offer medium sized businesses? It could be more branded posts or newsletter mentions. Again you might be coming down to do some work experience in their in their work location in lieu of some financial support. And of course like what can you offer the big guys? Like if you did want to go to Monster and Red Bull, what are you going to offer them that is something different than any other motorsport athlete or athlete can offer them? What activation ideas do you have? How can you help promote their brand? And all of those things that are going to make you unique and stand out is going to come from your external hobbies and interests, your family.
Belinda Riseley [00:07:41]:
Maybe like your sister is a social media uni student that can help you do some really cool and wacky video or real content ideas even though you might not like it. Maybe mum's a graphic designer that she can maybe do some work for a small business in lieu of financial support for you. There's always an opportunity there. It's just about thinking outside of the square about the benefits that you can offer the prospect going forward. So even without major race results, team, you can offer value and you are sponsorable. You just need to think like a marketer. And of course if you ever do get stuck stuff, I'm always here to help and offer a free strategy call that you can simply book in. I will put the link in today's show notes.
Belinda Riseley [00:08:28]:
All right team, so number four, practice your pitch before you send anything. So before you hit send on that email or dm, take a minute to think about the business owner on the other end. Again, when it comes to sponsorship or marketing opportunity, sponsors want to know ideally what's in it for them. Okay, they may be interested in your race results depending on what type of sponsorship you're going to negotiate with them. But realistically, when you're talking to them and especially first up, you need to have an understanding of what's in it for them. Okay? So instead of leading with I need sponsorship, try something a little bit more like hey Belinda, I love what your business is doing in our local community. I love to have a chat about a potential partnership that can give you more exposure through my racing. Okay team, to see how just simply rewording that sentence can mean a completely different meaning and it will have more value to the prospect.
Belinda Riseley [00:09:27]:
So because sponsorship is a relationship, it's definitely not a donation. Ask about the prospect's goals, their current marketing, what are their activations, what's in their plan, what matters to them? When you focus on them first, you're going to get a far better response if you get stuck or wording's not your thing. Please utilize AI tools a lot like ChatGPT or like Perplexity. There are free tools around that can help you rewrite your sentences. That's going to be in your brand voice and tone after some education. But don't be scared to utilize those tools to help you become a better wordsmith. Number five team is be consistent and not perfect. You're not always going to get a yes from everyone in.
Belinda Riseley [00:10:17]:
Realistically you'll probably get more no than yeses. But the ones who say yes, they will often say yes after a follow up or after you show up week after week. So being consistent, make sponsorship part of your weekly routine, just like your training or your sim work. Okay, I see so many athletes focus so much time on social media where when it comes to race results where they're racing and everything, it's not really specific to sponsorship or to or it has a why really around like what is that post around? Like why are they posting that? I prefer motorsport athletes who are needing sponsorship, that are needing to stay onto the track to allocate more time to, to be seeking sponsorship, to make sponsorship part of your weekly routine. As I just said, like your training or your sim work, you know, make a goal. Each week you're going to send out one to three outreach emails. You're going to share one story about your racing or you're going to try and get some testimonials for some old sponsors. Thank one supporter publicly.
Belinda Riseley [00:11:21]:
Whatever your goals are, set them each every week and have about three to five goals when it comes to seeking sponsorship. Put that time into your diary so you can actually sit down and, and focus purely on motorsport sponsorship because I can assure you you'll get to a point into your career where you'll. I don't have any sponsorship. I also don't have any time. Maybe you're at school full time and maybe you're working part time and then you're racing and said that when it comes to doing any of these off track development, you just don't have the time. Of course I can always assist you. I've got lots of programs and services that can work with you or I can do it for you. That's for another time team.
Belinda Riseley [00:12:03]:
But today those five things about getting started with sponsorship is about starting local. Think about your socials, think about your brand, how do you want to be seen? Be consistent with your socials. Identify what benefits you can offer prospects. Practice your pitch, identify your 30 second pitch. Okay, what kind of motorsport athlete are you? So if anybody speaks to you and saying oh okay, well that's great, I'd love to know more about your racing career. Belinda, what can you tell me? Make sure that you've got all down here, up here so you can't see me update into your brain that you can. It just rolls off to your tongue. Practice that, practice it in front of the mirror, practice it with your mom or dad or with a sibling.
Belinda Riseley [00:12:46]:
So again, you need to become like a walking, talking billboard when people do ask you about your racing that you can clearly articulate who you are, what you raise and hopefully ideally how they can work with you going forward and team. Be consistent, be consistent with your approach, be consistent with your planning, be consistent with your social media and be consistent with your sponsors once you actually have them on board when it comes to your communication team. If you want to make this even easier, I've created a free sponsorship kickstart checklist that breaks down these steps into simple actual tasks you can tick off this week. So so again, that link will be in today's show notes. You can grab the Checklist now at motivatetraining.com au and it will pop up onto that front page. And of course, if you are ready for more support and done for you templates and life coaching, you're always welcome inside the Motorsport Sponsorship club. If you want some more information, raise that link in the show notes or again over on that Motivate Training website. Thanks for listening team and let's keep building the off track side of your motorsport career until next week.
Belinda Riseley [00:13:57]:
I'm Belinda.
