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International Karting Industry Buyer's Guide

GO KARTING!
A Guide To The World's Most Popular Motorsport.

Kart Expo International

Too many racers I talk to seem to object to the idea of spending a few bucks to promote their projects. This is out of step with the way business works – and if you don’t know (or realize) that motorsports is a business, then you gotta wake up and smell the coffee. Your racing IS a business! Anything you do where you spend money and where there is at least a potential for income that offsets or exceeds expenditures is by definition – a business.

The only question is whether you run this business at a profit or at a loss. To make money in business you need to invest in MARKETING. You need to invest in making yourself known to potential buyers of your product or service. You need to reach and sell yourself to people who are potential purchasers. This is one of those “ruthless rules of reality”.

You must allocate part of your total budget for marketing and getting and keeping sponsors. How much should you spend? Is 3% to 5% of your budget enough? Probably, if you are established, but if you are just beginning a sponsor search, you will have to up the ante considerably.

Typically, the racers we’ve trained in getting sponsors can put in an hour or two per day and succeed. But the point is... you should invest as much time and funding as is appropriate for you – because, the power to make your program ultimately visible over time is SPONSORSHIP. Not putting in the time and effort – and proper funds – is like trying to race with a junkyard motor. It just isn’t very professional and you won’t do very well.

In this context, “Sponsorship” is your racing business product or service: what you offer in the marketplace. Your customers are businesses who could gain from an action-oriented, go-get-‘em sports and event marketing program. Why then, do racers persist in ignoring marketing, spending all their hard-earned dollars running junk without putting the bucks into a well-thought out strategy to get sponsors and keep them. I guess it’s because racers will do anything to tear around the track, but that emotional approach has to be tempered by a little practical pragmatic business savvy. Otherwise, you end up spending your rent money on tires.
 

Article Courtesy of: Ernie Saxton’s Motorports Sponsorship Marketing News
 

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