Writing a Sucessful Sponsorship Application: Byalee Stables
Hi guys,
Welcome to the Lynbrae Blog!
Over the coming months we will feature blogs from our members of the Lynbrae Team. This first blog is about our sponsored stables Byalee Stables, home to the well known stallion, Byalee Briar (pictured). I will also write about what we, at Lynbrae, look for when we look for sponsored riders to add to the team and an extract from the Byalee application will be included and reasons it was successful.
Byalee Stables current competition stallion Byalee Briar (pictured above), by Bjorsells Briar 899, was imported from Sweden by Ann-Maree and is winning at advanced level on an average of 65%, and shows huge talent for piaffe and passage. He should be Grand Prix within the next 12 months.
Briar is renowned for his amazingly quiet temperament and according to his pet farrier Shannon Norley, he is possibly the quietest horse he sees in the whole of the Hunter Valley, not just the quietest stallion!
Byalee Briar is a real pet – the only time he acts like a stallion is when he serves.
He adores Arnotts NICE biscuits and will inhale five or six at a time before stopping to crunch them up. He hates for any other horse to be fed his favourite treat while he is within sight and hearing. When Briar serves a mare, he cuddles them with his neck before trotting back to the barn in hand for his ‘bikkit’ reward.
However, no amount of bikkits will bribe him to collect for interstate AI – he likes his girls real! We can occasionally trick him into creating frozen semen.
Briar is the kind of horse you can cuddle up with when he is asleep in his box, and he has passed this party trick onto his offspring – but sadly they all snore just as badly as he does! He also loves a scratch and will move himself forwards and backwards up against the bars of the stable or next to people in his paddock to indicate the magic spot. Sometimes he even hangs his tongue out sideways so it can have a scratch too!
Byalee Briar’s mother in Sweden is still sound and healthy and being ridden out at the age of 23 after an FEI career, while his sire Bjorsells Briar 899 has retired from international competition in Sweden.
Byalee Stables are also sponsored by Foalsafe Alarms, WOW Saddles, Imperial Floats and of course, Lynbrae Equine.When I read sponsorship applications, there is always a section that in my opinion needs to be included; 'what I can do for Lynbrae Equine'. To me, that is one of the most important information to include. You can be a successful rider, but if this isn't going to benefit the business you're applying for then the sponsorship wont last. When reading the Byalee application, they had an extensive list of ways to help me grow my business, which they have continued to do for the past months.
"Byalee Stables has an extremely successful Facebook page, featuring more than 7500 likes. To put this in perspective, Dressage NSW boasts only 100 more! This is an incredible following. Byalee Stables runs active social media campaigns and competition reports, and Lynbrae Equine will feature regularly on that page.
Byalee Stables has a well-established website, which includes a ‘recommended’ page. Byalee Stables is currently sponsored by WOW Saddles Australia and Foalsafe alarms, with support from Adam Wrobel. This page would be updated to include links to Lynbrae Equine."
The above extract from the application that was sent is less than half of what was included in their lists of ways to support Lynbrae Equine. Byalee Stables were also uses of products we stock and already had product knowledge. Another thing to include in your application would be about the products the business sells. It shows you have at least looked through the website and taken the time to notice what they sell. Link your social media accounts!! If you plan on using that as a platform for promotions. As a personal thing, I don't like seeing political or controversial posts set as 'public', I don't have an issue if you share your views with friends, but i wouldn't like to see something very controversial and then the next post be Lynbrae Equine related.
If you have other sponsors, write about what you do for them, It's important to show what you're currently doing. You don't need to be winning everything you compete at to be sponsored, a lot of the time, I like to see what type of volunteer work you do for your Pony Club, Dressage Group, Eventing Club, ect. Seeing what you do for others rates above competition results for me.
List you're skills outside of horses, another of my sponsored riders, Sarah Walker, is also very talented at photography and has taken some amazing product photos for me. Issy Preece, is a talented artist as well as rider, which can come in handy for joint giveaways and promotions to benefit us both.
Send photos/videos with your application! Social Media is so important now, so the more photos I can get of you in products the better. Come up with creative ways to promote our products, don't just share the posts we have made, create your own. It always draws more attention if it's not just shared. Demonstrate that you're capable of supplying me with photos, even if i don't post them all, they can be shown to customers who are interested in a product and want more photos.
If you're one of the lucky people chosen, do as much as you can for whoever is sponsoring. The more you do for them and the more sales you produce, the more you will get in terms of sponsorship. If you're not actively promoting and engaging with potential customers, the business will simply find someone else.
My last piece of advice would be to keep trying, just because you weren't successful with your first application, doesn't mean you do't have a chance next time around! I recently went back to someone who had applied before and offered to sponsor them, despite not going with them when riders were decided upon. Don't forget it's not as simple 'as getting free stuff' a lot goes into being a sponsored rider and it's not easy!