Local sponsorships are only worth the money if you treat them like an investment instead of a charity donation. To see a real return, you need to stop just slapping your logo on a jersey and start getting your face in front of the community, collecting contact details, and tracking exactly which phone calls come from that specific club. If you do it right, a $2,000 sponsorship can land you $20,000 in work; if you do it wrong, you’re just buying the coach a new tracksuit.
Why most local sponsorships are a total waste of money
I’ve sat in plenty of pubs around Milton and Rosalie talking to business owners who are frustrated. They’ve dropped five grand on the local rugby league club or the bowls club, and when I ask them how many jobs they got from it, they look at me blankly.
“Oh, well, we got our logo on the fence,” they say.
Look, a logo on a fence doesn't pay your mortgage. Unless you’re Coca-Cola, nobody cares about your 'brand awareness.' You’re a local business. You need the phone to ring.
Most people approach sponsorships the wrong way. They do it because they feel bad saying no to the club president, or because their kid plays there. That’s fine if you want to donate to charity. But don’t call it marketing. Marketing has to make you more than it costs you.
I’ve seen guys spend a fortune on jerseys that just end up in a bargain bin at the end of the season. No one saw the logo, no one called the number, and the business owner thinks 'marketing doesn't work.' It worked fine—you just didn't have a plan to stop donating and start making money from the deal.
💡 Quick take: If you can't track at least one job back to a sponsorship within six months, you aren't marketing; you’re just being a nice person. Pick one or the other.
How to pick the right club to sponsor
Don't just sponsor the club closest to your house. Sponsor the club where your customers hang out.
If you’re a high-end renovator, you probably shouldn't be sponsoring the local dive bar's pool team. You want the junior cricket club where parents with big mortgages and old houses are standing around for four hours every Saturday morning.
Those parents are bored. They’re looking at their phones. They’re talking to other parents about their leaky taps or their dodgy switchboards. That’s where you want to be.
But it’s not just about the people. It’s about the club’s leadership. If the person running the sponsorship program is a disorganized mess who won't return your emails, your sign will never go up, and your 'sponsor shout-out' on Facebook will never happen.
Before you hand over a cent, ask to see their social media. Do they actually post? Do people engage? If their last post was from 2022, run away. You’re better off putting that cash into local ads that get results instead.
The 'Logo on a Shirt' trap
Every club will offer you the 'Bronze Package.' It usually includes a logo on the sleeve of a training shirt and a small sign on the boundary fence.
Honestly? It’s rubbish.
Think about the last time you were at a footy ground. Did you stop to read the 40 different signs on the fence? Of course not. You were watching the game or trying to keep your kid from eating dirt.
Visibility isn't the same as engagement. If you want people to call you, they need a reason to trust you. A logo doesn't build trust. A face does. A conversation does.
If I’m sponsoring a club, I don't want the sleeve. I want the 'Player of the Match' award. Why? Because every week, I get to stand in front of the whole club, hand over a voucher, and say hello. Now, I’m not just a logo; I’m the bloke who supports the kids.
Making sure your website is ready for the traffic
When you start getting your name out there locally, people will Google you. They won't just call the number on the sign. They’ll look you up while they’re sitting in the stands.
If your website looks like it was built in 2005 and doesn't work on phones, you’ve just wasted your sponsorship money. They’ll click on your site, get frustrated because they can't find your phone number, and go back to Google to find your competitor.
It’s a classic mistake. You spend all this effort on the 'front end' of the marketing and forget that the 'back end' (your website) is what actually turns a visitor into a customer.
"Angus Smith's take — If your website is a bucket with a giant hole in the bottom, don't keep pouring expensive sponsorship leads into it. Fix the bucket first."
— Angus Smith, Founder & Marketing Director
How to get the club to actually help you
Most clubs are desperate for cash, so they’ll promise you the world. You need to hold them to it.
When we help our clients with this, we tell them to get a written agreement. It doesn't have to be a legal contract, just an email saying: 1. You’ll post about us 4 times a season on Facebook. 2. You’ll give us a list of members (within privacy laws) to send one email to. 3. We get to put a marquee up at the finals.
If they won't agree to that, they don't value your money.
One of the best ways to get a return is to offer a 'Member Only' deal. Tell the club that for every member who books a job, you’ll kick back another $50 to the club. Now, the club members have a reason to use you—they’re helping the club by fixing their own house. It’s a win-win.
This is especially effective if you’re trying to win jobs across different suburbs. You can be the 'go-to' guy for the Ashgrove club and the 'go-to' guy for the Grange club.
Tracking the ROI (The boring bit that makes you rich)
If you don't track where your leads come from, you’re flying blind.
I always suggest using a dedicated phone number for each sponsorship. It costs about $10 a month. You put that specific number on the club sign and their Facebook posts. When that phone rings, you know exactly why.
If at the end of the year that phone rang twice, you know not to renew. If it rang 50 times, you double the sponsorship next year.
It’s not rocket science, but hardly any small businesses do it. They just guess. And guessing is how you go broke. If you're worried about going broke while growing, tracking your spending is the first thing you need to fix.
✅ What to do: Buy a cheap 'tracking number' for your next sponsorship. It’s the only way to know if the money you're spending is actually working.
Using social media to amplify the deal
Don't wait for the club to post about you. You should be posting about them.
Take photos at the ground. Tag the club. Show people you’re actually involved. This is how you get local press and community attention without trying too hard.
People love seeing local businesses support the community. It makes you look successful and like a 'good bloke.' In Brisbane, that goes a long way.
If you’re worried about getting banned on Facebook while doing this, just keep it natural. Don't be a spammy salesman. Just be a guy at a footy game who happens to own a plumbing business.
The hidden costs of sponsoring
It’s not just the invoice the club sends you. You’ve got to factor in: - The cost of the signs (the club rarely pays for these). - Your time spent going to events. - Vouchers or prizes you give away.
If a sponsorship costs $1,000 but you spend $2,000 of your own time and extra materials on it, your 'buy-in' is $3,000. Make sure the jobs you're getting cover that.
I’ve seen guys spend every Saturday morning at a club and get zero work from it. That’s fine if you enjoy the footy, but from a business perspective, that’s a massive loss in billable hours.
When to walk away
Sometimes, a sponsorship just doesn't work. Maybe the club members are tight-arses. Maybe the club is poorly run.
If you’ve done the work—you’ve shown up, you’ve offered deals, you’ve tracked the calls—and nothing has happened after a full season, cut your losses.
Don't feel guilty. It’s business. There are plenty of other clubs or marketing channels that will actually make you money.
What to do next
Before you sign another sponsorship cheque, do these three things:
1. Look at your last 12 months of jobs. Did any of them come from your current sponsorships? If you don't know, start asking every caller "How did you hear about us?" 2. Call the club you’re thinking of sponsoring and ask for more than just a sign on a fence. Ask for a face-to-face meeting with the members. 3. Make sure your website actually works on a phone so when people look you up at the game, they can actually call you.
If you want to chat about how to make your local marketing actually work properly, get in touch with us at Local Marketing Group. We’ll help you figure out what’s a waste of money and what’s going to get your phone ringing.
Check us out at https://lmgroup.au/contact.