- Probably the most asked question we receive is
can I get a sponsorship?
Can I get a free set of wheels?
Can I have free coilovers?
No.
That's not how any of this works.
The good news is that I'm here to help you out
and give you some tips
for getting sponsorships with your car,
and see if it's something that makes sense for you to do.
If you didn't know over at Fitment Industries
we have our very own street team program,
which is a great way to start out a sponsorship.
It has different tiers where you can earn points
that you can use to buy anything available on our website.
It's super easy to apply for it,
and if you want to be a part of the street team,
our website will walk you through the steps,
so make sure to check it out.
Okay, so that was a shameless plug first tip,
but it truly is a great way to start earning
some parts for your car if you wanna get into
that sort of thing.
But let's keep going though,
and if you have any questions,
make sure to drop a comment down below and ask.
We will be replying to all of your stuff.
Anyways, sponsorships,
I think it's almost every single car enthusiast dream
to have their car in a magazine,
win a show or an auto cross event, or get sponsored.
Car parts are expensive as (bleep),
and us as car enthusiasts,
we picked one of the goddamn
most expensive hobbies there is.
I don't know what's wrong with us.
If you know, let me know,
so if a company is willing to believe in us
enough to hook us up with parts for free
or even at a discounted price,
it's a pretty big deal for you and your car.
However, people 90% of the time go into this
with the complete wrong mentality.
Companies aren't going to give you free parts
outta the kindness of their hearts,
or because they understand things are expensive
and you're broke.
Nope, I'm sorry, but let's be real about that.
They are a business.
They have employees.
They need to pay 'em, all that good stuff.
They're not gonna make it far if they're just handing out
free parts to everyone and their buddy with a bolt-on WRX.
So, chubby orange beard guy, what does it take?
Well, I'm glad you asked, rude commenter.
Out of thousands and thousands of enthusiasts
asking for sponsorships,
you need to stand out in a positive light
but more importantly,
you need to remember it's not just asking for free parts.
It's explaining what can you do for the company
you're trying to get sponsored by.
If you're not giving them money
you have to be giving them something.
One of the best places to start
if you're not racing or placing at shows is social media.
Let's rip this off like a bandaid too.
No, I'm not talking about the dude with 80,000 followers
that gets 130 likes on a post.
Yes, we know you bought your followers,
and yes we can see that actual engagement
you have with your audience.
Get that (bleep) outta here.
If you have good enough engagement with your followers,
meaning they're liking your posts,
they're commenting,
you're commenting back in a positive way,
and you have some good vibes going on,
you're off to a great start already.
This goes for any platform, too.
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok,
and the more you're on the better.
That also doesn't mean the only way to get a sponsorship
is to have a billion followers.
Yes, more helps,
but what really helps is how healthy
your relationship is with your followers
and the car scene itself.
If you're out on Facebookland
ripping apart people getting into the hobby,
or talking (bleep) about other people's cars,
that's just not good.
It's not a good look.
One, you're an (bleep),
and two, if you're going for a sponsorship,
you're looking to represent a brand.
Brands do not want (bleep).
Obvious enough but sometimes it just needs to be said.
It's important.
Go look at what you're posting right now.
Is your feed clean?
Are you posting consistently?
Do you just post pictures of food and mirror selfies?
Or are you posting videos and photos of your car?
If you're not active on your socials
that's a big red flag right out of the gate,
along with posting random things
and not having an overall theme to your account.
Guys, we have a ton of inventory.
(upbeat music)
I'm not kidding.
Like, a lot of inventory.
We have all the inventory on wheels, tires,
and suspension that you could ever want,
and the good news is if you don't have the cash right now,
we offer as low as 0% APR financing.
That way you can get your wheels, tires, or suspension
for as low as a cell phone payment every month.
Check it out fitmentindustries.com.
All right, so let's say your socials are established,
you have a decent following,
and you've been putting out some pretty cool content.
You're ready to reach out and partner with someone.
If you want to make it easy on yourself,
go look at some of your favorite brands
and see if they have sponsorship offerings
or they're looking for people.
Believe it or not, some brands do this.
They'll have it listed right on their website,
looking for sponsorships.
They do want people to represent their brand.
This is a lot easier to get into a partnership
than cold calling,
but I would 100% recommend going with a brand
you truly believe in and enjoy.
If you're getting free parts just to get free parts
it's gonna end up hurting you,
and the brand you're trying to promote.
And if you are genuinely interested in
the part you're getting,
it makes it so much easier to make content around it
which leads into the next part.
You got the following.
You know what you want.
Now you need to reach out.
Hopefully you found a brand looking to sponsor,
but if not, well, that's okay too,
but you need to get into this smart.
DMing the company on Instagram and saying,
"How many likes for free wheels, please,"
is pretty much the worst way you could go about it,
and you have no idea how many messages
I've even received that are exactly like that.
It will be ignored.
Get an email to reach out to the company
and write a proposal,
introduce yourself,
let them know what you're interested in,
link to your socials,
and most importantly,
what all this has been leading up to,
explain in detail what you can do for this company
and why you should represent this brand.
Can you do an unboxing video?
Can you provide high resolution images?
Are you the first to be running this part on your platform
and you can reach a new audience for them
that they haven't tapped into yet.
These things are huge and what they wanna hear.
I wouldn't do just one of them either.
I'd offer as many of those options as I could.
Also, if you don't have examples of partnerships
you've done in the past that have been successful,
and maybe this is your first time doing something like this,
just ask for a partial sponsorship,
meaning you can get a certain percentage off
instead of just getting them for free.
You wanna build that relationship a little bit.
Build a relationship with the company
and who knows, maybe the next time you reach out
you can get something even better or even more money off.
Just know that asking for free stuff
with nothing in return for the company
isn't going to ever lead to a yes
and there will be work involved.
That's essentially what a sponsorship is,
instead of trading that paper money that you make,
you're trading work.
Think of it in that sense
and I bet you'll see a lot more success
with reaching out.
Now, these are a bunch of helpful tips,
but that doesn't guarantee anything.
You're asking alongside thousands of other car enthusiasts.
Make yourself stand out in a good way
and you'll have a lot better chance.
Again, a great place to start would be
the Fitment Industry's Street Team,
so make sure you go check that out,
and if you're not looking to do all that sponsor work,
we will give you a set of air suspension for free.
I won't even make you write a proposal.
We partnered up with Air Lift Performance
for the month of February to give you guys
a set of 3P air suspension.
All you have to do is pick up
some dope car shirts or a poster.
It's that easy.
And if that isn't enough,
with every purchase we will be making a donation to
Hope for the Day,
a nonprofit organization that empowers
the conversation on proactive suicide prevention
and mental health education.
We lost one of our very own here at Fitment Industries
and Custom Offsets in 2019
so this one means a lot to us.
Mental health is extremely important,
so even if you can't make a donation, that's perfectly fine.
I understand,
but why don't you go out on Instagram or TikTok
and leave one positive comment
on a random person's post of their car,
so we can get some more positive vibes going around
in the car community.
I think all of us could use that.
But I hope this video helps you guys out
on your car build venture,
and if you learned anything,
it would mean a ton to me if you were able to
give it a thumbs up and subscribe.
We'll talk to you later.