You wanna know what makes me cringe? Seeing racers post about their need for new sponsorships on social media.

“We have marketing options available! #sponsorme” or something along those lines, you know you’ve done it or seen it. Does it work? 99% of the time NO. Don’t tell your followers about partner opportunities with your team or that you’re looking for sponsorship help or how interesting you are. Instead, show it through valuable content and build hype with these content ideas:

Product Testimonials

• Be authentic about using the products from your sponsors, give an honest review and do an unboxing or tutorial video
• Show your audience how that product is better than its competitors and how it gives you an advantage
• Videos + photos of your race performances, practices, and team-building are more powerful than posting only stats or race recaps after the event. Show yourself in action and bring your audience along for the ride during the entire weekend!

Personality

• Show what you’re up to while you’re up to it between events! You don’t have to try to be overly interesting. Tell them about the weird music you listen to pre-race, the hobbies you have, or how you’ll drive 45 minutes to get your favorite meal.
• Your personality is what separates you from everyone else in the pits and online. Use Stories to let your personality shine through. Ever visited another racer’s profile and thought “wow they have the best pictures of their car”, but you feel like you don’t know who they actually are? Show your reactions and emotions on Stories so your followers don’t think the same about you.
• Regularly engage with your followers to build personal relationships, plus it will increase your engagement rate which is what potential sponsors are looking for.

Activations

• Do you do car shows or displays with your race car? Spread the news by building up hype before the event, document the entire thing including unloading and talking to spectators, and make a post-event highlight carousel or Reel. Sponsors will want to see how you’re building your name (and theirs) off the track!
• Anytime you are signing autographs, make sure to get a selfie with the fan and tell them to tag you so you can share it to your feed. Also snap a few with your phone, or have a friend there to take some pictures and videos of you interacting with the fans.
• Don’t hide your pit area from the camera – show your garage or trailer area online and it will give potential sponsors ideas of how they can put their branding in that area for extra exposure.

We (as racers) tend to make mistakes on social media when we’re rushing to get sponsorships. And I get it: you want to make your full-time racing dreams come true! But trying to speed up the process by cutting corners isn’t a good idea. You don’t want to come off as desperate: you want to MAKE your sponsors connect with you and feel the need to work with you!

I’ve seen racers make the mistake of announcing on your social media platforms that you’re looking for sponsors often, and this is a big no-no! It may make people wonder, “why haven’t they been able to get sponsors yet?” All of this can put them off from partnering with you. So steer clear of making big announcements on social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook (however, LinkedIn would be a better option). Instead, use social media to show how valuable you can be to a potential sponsor using these ideas.

Also, sending out cold emails with your sponsorship deck to everybody on your newsletter list or all of the business cards you collected at the last conference is not advised. When you get a super impersonal email trying to convince you/sell you something, how do you feel? Does it make you want to buy it right away? Didn’t think so. It’s the same with your sponsors: impersonal emails with your deck attached lack connection. It just seems like you emailed your entire list (which perhaps you did!). When trying to connect with your sponsors, you need to actually think of making a genuine, personal connection. You need to let your content do the talking and show how interesting you are!

Want to maximize your engagement on social media, but don’t know where to start? I got you! Download my free guide for engagement for beginners here: