I hope by now you know Anne from Love the Here and Now. I did a Q&A with her earlier this month (which you can read here if you missed it), and have loved following her and her blog for the past year. And if you blog, or want to blog, she has some of the best blogging tips anywhere on the internet.
Welcome, Anne!
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People often ask what the toughest part of offering sponsorships is. For me, without a doubt, the answer would be staying organized. If you are not organized, sponsorships can be a nightmare. People are paying you for a service and you owe it to them to follow through. Keeping track of highlights, blog takeovers, and other services you offer is crucial. Today I am sharing one of the things that has helped me most; using Google Drive to stay organized with sponsorships.
I have both a blog and personal gmail address. I love all of the options that gmail provides; Blogger, calendars, hangouts, and more. Google Drive allows you to create spreadsheets, forms, and documents. All of your information is kept in one place and can even be shared and edited by others. Google forms are a wonderful way to request and store information from your sponsors.
Log into your google account and click on the grid in the upper right hand corner. There you can access all of the wonderful things available to you. Click on Drive.
Under the "Create" tab you will find a drop down menu. We will be working with forms.
Each form is customizable. Google offers several themes to choose from or you can upload your own design.
Once you have chosen your theme, it is now time to create your form. Each sponsorship spot I sell has its own options. For example, some ads come with sponsor highlights so on my forms, I ask the questions that you see on my highlight posts. The forms allow you to ask open ended questions or multiple choice questions. It's also nice to add a quick note to your sponsors at the top of the form.
Here's a glimpse of one of my forms.
I created a form for each ad spot I sell, as well as a sponsorship survey that I send to my sponsors after their ad ends. Getting feedback is key to improving your sponsorships.
You may be wondering, how do your sponsors get the forms? Easy. When your form is complete and you open it, in the upper right hand corner is an option to send the form. Click on that and you will be taken to this screen.
I simply copy and paste the link into my welcome email sent to each new sponsor and send it.
Each time one of your sponsors fills out the form, their answers are recorded in a spreadsheet.
You can access the responses by going into each form. You will see exactly how many people have responded. Click on "View Responses" and a spreadsheet will open.
You can also set it up that each time someone responds to the form you will be notified via email.
What has helped keep you organized with your sponsorships?
