How to Send Cold Emails for Sponsorships: A Complete Guide

Looking to secure sponsorships through cold email? This guide shows you exactly how to do it, based on sending thousands of sponsorship outreach emails.

Whether you're seeking sponsors for content, events, or platforms, you'll learn the complete process from infrastructure to closing deals. We've followed this process for 600+ B2B companies in even the most random niches you've never heard of.

After helping creators and brands secure partnerships through cold email outreach - from newsletters to podcasts to events - here's the exact sponsorship outreach process that works. Each step builds on the previous one.

Step 1: Get Your Infrastructure Right

Why This Matters: Your email infrastructure is the foundation of your entire sponsorship outreach. Get this wrong, and your perfectly crafted sponsorship proposals will land in spam folders instead of inboxes. Most creators waste months sending great emails that never get seen because they skipped this step.

Your sending infrastructure needs depend on your volume:

For Low Volume (200-300 prospects)

You can keep it simple with:

1. GSuite business account with a secondary branded domain

2. Basic email authentication (SPF/DKIM through GSuite)

This setup works fine if you're reaching out to a targeted list of a couple hundred potential brand partners.

For Higher Scale (2000+ prospects)

You'll need a more robust setup:

• Minimum 10 warmed-up domains

• 50+ carefully configured inboxes

• Full authentication setup on each domain

• Proper warm-up protocols

• Separate IPs for each sending cluster

This more complex setup is only necessary if you're planning to do serious volume sponsorship outreach.

Some of our clients are sending 100k cold emails per months to 20,000+ prospects…. that's serious scale.

Step 2: Build Your Target List

Why This Matters: List building is where 80% of sponsorship success happens, but most people rush it. Sending the perfect email to the wrong person is a waste of time. More importantly, sending to unqualified prospects kills your sender reputation and makes it harder to reach the good prospects. Take your time here - it's the difference between a 2% and 20% response rate.

Use Sales Navigator or Apollo to find:

• Marketing Managers/Directors at relevant companies

• Brands already sponsoring similar content/events

• Companies actively scaling their marketing spend

• Brands sponsoring your competitors

Pro tip: Look for companies running ads on Facebook/LinkedIn or sponsoring similar channels. They have budget for marketing and understand the value of reaching targeted audiences.

Step 3: Write Your Cold Email

Why This Matters: Your first email needs to do just one thing: get a response. Most creators try to close the deal in their first email, overwhelming prospects with information. Instead, think of your cold email like a movie trailer - show enough to get interest, but save the full pitch for the call.

Subject Lines That Get Opened:

• "[Platform] reaching [X] [Specific Audience] monthly"

• "Question about reaching [Audience] through [Your Platform]"

• "Sponsors seeing [X]% engagement in [Your Platform/Event]"

Email Body Structure:

1. First Line: Show you did homework "Saw [Company] is scaling up sponsorships in [industry/platform] - noticed your recent spot on [Similar Platform]"

2. Second Line: Your relevance "We reach [X] [their exact target audience] through our [platform/event/content]"

3. Third Line: Proof "Current sponsors like [Similar Company] are seeing [specific result]"

4. Call to Action: Make it easy "Worth a 10 min call to explore?"

Here are real examples that landed deals:

For a Podcast:

Subject: 50K developers who need cloud solutions

Hey [Name],

Noticed [Company] just launched your new developer tools - saw the Product Hunt launch yesterday.

Our podcast reaches 50K+ developers weekly who actively discuss cloud infrastructure. Recent episodes about development tools averaged 47K downloads.

[Competitor] saw 300+ trial signups from their recent sponsor spot.

Worth a 10 min call to explore?

-[Name]

For an Event:

Subject: 500 fintech founders in one room

Hey [Name],

Saw [Company] is expanding into payments (caught your recent TechCrunch feature).

Our annual fintech summit brings together 500 founders and CTOs, with 70% running companies doing $1M+ ARR.

[Similar Company] met 40+ qualified prospects at last year's event.

Worth a quick call to discuss sponsor opportunities?

-[Name]

Step 4: Send One Strategic Follow-up

Why This Matters: About 40% of responses come from follow-ups, not first emails. But here's what most people get wrong: they spam prospects with 5+ follow-ups, killing their sender reputation and looking desperate. One strategic follow-up, timed right, is all you need.

Send this 2-3 days after your first email:

Hey [Name]

This follow-up works because it:

1. Adds social proof

2. Creates urgency

3. Provides new audience insight

4. Keeps it brief

Don't send more follow-ups. They hurt deliverability and make you look desperate.

Step 5: Handle Responses the Right Way

Why This Matters: This is where most creators blow it. They get excited about a response and dump everything they have into a long email - pricing, media kits, statistics, testimonials. This overwhelms prospects and kills deals. Instead, your only goal is to get the call.

If They Ask for More Info:

"Happy to share more details. Our [type of sponsorship] typically drives [X specific result] for companies in your space. Here are our upcoming opportunities: [2-3 specific dates/slots]

Want to hop on a quick call to discuss how we could position [their product]?"

If They Ask for Pricing:

"Our [sponsorship type] typically starts at [price]. Recent sponsors in your industry saw [specific result].

Would you like to jump on a quick call to discuss what's working best?"

If They're Ready to Buy:

"Great to hear. I'd love to hop on a quick call to understand your goals and make sure we position [their product] right for our audience.

Here's my calendar: [link]

What's your ideal outcome from this sponsorship?"

The Real Truth About Sponsorship Outreach Success

After securing partnerships at scale across different types of sponsorships, here's what actually determines success in your sponsorship email outreach:

1. Getting in front of the right potential sponsors

2. Using the right sending infrastructure to stay out of spam

3. Having a clear value proposition for brand partnerships

4. Following up appropriately to close the deal

Focus your energy accordingly. Perfect sponsorship proposals won't save you if you're targeting the wrong companies.

Pro tip: The best prospects for your sponsorship outreach are companies already investing in similar brand partnerships. They understand the value and have budget allocated. Find them and show them why your audience is uniquely valuable.

This guide comes from years of helping 600+ B2B companies grow their business with cold email. While we offer done-for-you services here at Outbound System, this is the exact process we've used to succeed with cold email outreach for sponsorships.