As an angler residing in the US, you’ll undoubtedly agree that bass fishing is one of the most popular recreational fishing types in the country. Bass fishing is an activity that involves angling for the North American gamefish.
One of the US’s significant competitions that target black bass fishing is the Bassmaster Tournament Trail by Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (BASS). The organization has been around since five decades ago. In today’s bass fishing world, things have progressed pretty quickly.
Many tournament anglers are trying to bag sponsor deals, but things aren’t as they used to be anymore. Social media has dramatically influenced the way people land sponsorship and all.
If you’re an angler looking to attract bass fishing sponsors, there are lots of things that you need to put into consideration. For that, you need not worry, as I’ll share a few tips with you in this post on how to attract bass fishing sponsors.
Types Of Bass Fishing Sponsors
Before going ahead to share with you the tips to get bass fishing sponsors in today’s world, let’s first talk about the different types of sponsors available.
Although there are many bass fishing sponsors out there, the three most common types include discount sponsors, product sponsors, and money sponsors.
That said, before going ahead to try attracting bass fishing sponsors, you need to decide which of the three sponsors mentioned above you’re interested in bagging.
Discount sponsorships are most popular among anglers because it’s pretty easy to obtain. Nowadays, many companies post on the internet and other platforms, searching for “pro staff members” – this is an excellent example of a discount sponsor. If you’re lucky to become a pro-staff member, you’ll advertise and promote the firm’s products, receiving discounts on them accordingly.
Unlike the discount sponsor, a product sponsor is slightly challenging to bag. However, if you find yourself lucky to land the deal, you’ll advertise and promote the company’s products. In turn, the firm will offer you its products for free.
Since money itself isn’t easy to come by, you shouldn’t expect the last type of sponsor, “money sponsor,” to be easy to obtain. However, if you get lucky to land this sponsor, you will get cash for advertising and promoting the company’s products. That’s not all; you’ll also get free products as well as discounts on some specific products.
For you to land any of the three mentioned types of sponsors, especially the “money sponsor,” there are lots of things that you need to put into consideration.
That said, you can use the tips below to get yourself prepared before approaching different companies for sponsorship deals.
10 Tips To Land Bass Fishing Sponsor
1. Get your fishing resume ready
One of the many things you need to get ready before approaching companies for bass fishing deals is your fishing resume.
If you don’t know, most firms will always ask you for your pro-staff fishing resume to know about you and your accomplishments. Since that’s the case, you need to get the document ready before writing or mailing a company.
Just like when applying for jobs, ensure that your resume is well polished, focusing more on your achievements fishing and how you were able to promote your previous sponsors – if there were ever any.
In case you’re wondering how to write a good fish sponsor resume, you might have to stop worrying about it. That’s because I’ll walk you through a few simple and straightforward steps to make that happen.
Guide to Writing a sponsor resume
Although a good resume alone isn’t the determining factor, having it ready can boost your chances of landing bass fishing sponsors. Here are a few tips for you to create your resume.
- You can start your resume by boldly adding your name, address, home phone, cell phone number, and email.
- Furthermore, add a “Summary.” A good summary should be brief and detailed, explaining what you can do for the sponsors. That’s not all; it should also include how you can help the firms to advertise and promote their products.
- Next, add an “Overview” of yourself. Of course, this should include your marital status, your hobbies, and your date of birth. Moreover, it would also help if you talk about your social life, including how you utilize various platforms to promote fishing activities.
- The next thing you’ll need is to add “affiliations.” For this stage, you need to mention your current sponsors.
- Add “work history.” For this stage, ensure you talk about your experience fishing and link it to your previous and current employer.
- Next, add your “educational background,” listing the schools you attended, the date, and your grade.
- One of your resume’s essential parts is your “angling experience,” and here’s where you need to add it. For this stage, you need to add everything you have ever involved yourself in as an angler. To make things simple, ensure you add a list of the clubs you’ve been a member of, including the positions you held in each of them.
- Next, add a list of your latest “accomplishments.” Doing this can grab the attention of the company. Furthermore, this stage should also cover every win you had in manor tournaments. Also, do not forget to add your previous accomplishments too.
- What is next is to add a new section that covers your “current tournament trails.”
- Lastly, add a new section that covers your media exposure as an angler. In this stage, all you need is to mention your major TV appearance (related to bass fishing) and some other related things.
2. Check your spelling and grammar
Many people don’t know that spelling and grammar are two of the most critical factors to land a bass fishing sponsor. No doubt, both factors aren’t the major determining factors for sponsorship deals. However, they have a way of influencing how you’ll be able to attract different companies.
That said, before forwarding a mail to the sponsors, try checking the spelling and grammar, and correcting every error that you spot. There are several tools out there that you can employ to proofread emails and spot spelling and grammar errors; one of them is Grammarly.
However, if you don’t want to go through the stress of proofreading your emails, you can employ someone to help you tidy them up.
3. Approach familiar companies
Another great idea to land a bass fishing deal is that you should mostly apply to companies you already have experience with. In case you don’t know, most sponsors will start by asking you whether you have experience using their products.
That said, the bottom line is you should always be ready to talk about the company’s products, especially your favorite, including why you love them. And the best way to go about doing that is by purchasing the company’s products first.
4. Have a good pitch
You’ll indeed agree with us that you’re not the only one applying for sponsorship deals in the various companies on your list. Since that’s the case, it means it’s way possible for your application to match those of others.
That said, for you to stand out from the rest, ensure that you have a short pitch. It should explain what makes you unique as an angler.
Furthermore, since you only have a few seconds to grab the listeners’ attention, ensure you communicate fluently as much as possible, making an effort to strike every point that proves you’re the ideal angler for the deal.
5. Build an audience
When it comes to landing a bass fishing sponsorship deal, another factor that can boost your chances is your audience. So, the question is, do you have the right audience, that is – the people that are ready to listen to you and any product advice?
In case you don’t know, the best way to build your fishing audience is through various social media platforms, including Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Snapchat, Website, and many more. Furthermore, ensure you connect with multiple tournament anglers and industry experts, letting them know about your achievement and all.
How to build your social media account
In case you’re interested in building your new fishing social media (Instagram) account, here are a few steps that you can follow.
- Create relatable content
First, ensure sure that you post creative and relatable content. In case you don’t know, there are tons of content that you can post on Instagram to attract potential audiences.
One of them is by creating short clips, sharing with your audiences the different fish, including the simple and straightforward steps to help them become better anglers.
Furthermore, you can also take the audience along with you on your fishing adventures, letting them know the best ways to land fish using different fishing approaches.
- Make use of hashtags
Apart from creating relatable content, another great idea that you can employ to boost your fishing social media account is by using hashtags. If you don’t know, hashtags have a way of expanding a user’s account reach. However, while trying to use hashtags, ensure you utilize the right keywords.
- Ask your followers to create and share content
Another way to boost your fishing social media account reach is by asking your followers to recreate and share your content. What do we mean?
As soon as you start noticing an increase in your followers, ensure you encourage your audience to use your content, including videos and images. Ask them to recreate the photos and videos into different content and share.
- Partner with influencers
If you’re looking to increase your chances of having a massive boost in your social media account, one way to do that is by working with influencers. It would help if you can talk to them and ask them to feature you on their pages. This way, you’ll get more visible to millions of people across various social media platforms, attracting potential audiences.
- Automate your posts
If you’re very serious about attracting more followers to your page, you must always be ready to introduce fresh content from time to time. Here’s where the automation of your Instagram posts comes into the scene.
By automating your posts, you’ll be able to provide your audience with fresh and relevant fishing content. Interestingly, you don’t even have to be online to keep your followers posted with relatable content.
That said, to start automating your fishing Instagram posts, all you need is to search online for effective apps. The fact remains that many applications exist out there that can help you automate your post and even add relevant hashtags to expand your account reach.
- Engage your audience
You can also increase your fishing Instagram reach by engaging your followers regularly. One of the many ways to do that is by posting eye-catching content. That’s not all; while posting content, also add captions that’ll attract them to engage with your post.
6. Achieve a measurable fishing success
Another factor that can boost your chances of attracting a bass fishing sponsor is your fishing success. That said, the question is, do you have measurable fishing success?
If you’re a competitive bass angler, there’s a chance that you’ll have achieved a few successes on the water. If that’s true, ensure you let your sponsors know about them to boost your chances of landing a deal.
In case you have had no success in the past, it’s not too late for you to start achieving something, even if it’s small. You can always build yourself from there and achieve your desired goals.
7. Work on your attitude
According to the famous saying, your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine how much success you’ll achieve in life. Well, the expression is very much practical if you’re very serious about landing a bass fishing sponsor.
That said, ensure you work continuously on your attitude and never forget to be nice to everybody that crosses your path, regardless of who they are.
Of course, being nice to people doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be confident in yourself as an angler. The fact remains that people tend to remember you pretty quickly if you’re nice to them, which is one of the features you need to attract sponsors.
8. Opt for attainable goals
As anglers, one of the things we’ll advise you if you’re very serious about landing a sponsor deal is that – “you need to opt for attainable goals.”
That said, the question is, what does choosing attainable goals mean?
As earlier mentioned, there are three significant bass fishing sponsors out there; product sponsor, discount sponsor, and money sponsor. Of all of them, the discount sponsor is the easiest to land, while the money sponsor is the hardest to bag.
In case you don’t know, most companies or sponsors only add the top 5% of high-level tours on their payroll. With that, it means you might be wasting your time if you are not close to the top 10%. So, instead of applying for a money sponsor, which is pretty difficult to attain, I’ll advise that you try other options, such as the discount sponsor.
The bottom line is that you need to start with small companies if you’re just getting started and build your portfolio from there.
9. Volunteer
We know many people don’t like to hear this, but volunteering to work for tackle and boating companies can also boost your chances of landing a bass fishing sponsor. Although you won’t get paid for this service, this is one of the best options for you to get yourself out there for sponsors to see you.
That said, start today by finding a local fishing firm that you can work for free with so that other people interested in anglers can get to see you.
10. Network
According to most people, networking during a job or seeking sponsorship deals means calling people and asking them for a job. However, that’s not always true. As an angler, there are several options for you to network to boost your chances of landing a bass fishing sponsor.
One of the best and easiest ways is by meeting sponsors through other people. However, to do that, you’ll need to stick around with friends and acquaintances, especially those that have what it takes to connect you with top officials of tackle and boating companies.
If you don’t know, not all pro-staff managers have enough time to go through emails. That’s where the importance of networking comes into the scene.
However, you need to understand that the network will only get you to meet with folks at potential sponsors. To get there, you’ll need to prove yourself to be suitable for the deals by sharing your achievements and using the rest of the tips above.
The Bottom Line
The tips above are essential if you’re pretty serious about landing any of the three bass fishing sponsors mentioned in this post. If you’re interested in a discount sponsor, which is the easiest to bag, one of the best ways to find it is Google searching—of course, that’ll involve using the company’s name and adding a “pro-staff application” behind it.
For product and money sponsors, there are several options. One of them is to wait for companies to notice you. Besides that, you can also write them or connect with people who will recommend you to them.