Megan Meyer Ready to Help Racers Find Sponsors with New Motorsports Marketing Tips

While Megan Meyer stepped away from full-time competition after winning back-to-back NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster world championships in 2019-2020, she remains just as involved in the sport through a variety of roles. She still runs the occasional match race in a GUNK-branded A/Fuel dragster owned and tuned by her father, Randy Meyer, and she serves as the team manager of his multi-driver Randy Meyer Racing team. That includes managing the team’s relationships with industry-leading brands, and now she’s offering to use what she’s learned to help other racers achieve their sponsorship goals. 

Meyer previously offered an online course that walked racers through the ins and outs of acquiring and maintaining sponsors in an ultra-competitive motorsports marketing environment. Her new business, Motorsports Marketing Tips, is a full-service agency that offers resources for racers who want to have a better understanding of what it takes to secure a major, paying sponsor. As Meyer points out, many of the strategies racers use today are outdated. Through more than a decade of experience, Meyer has learned what works and what doesn’t.

Just days after launching her new website, MotorsportsMarketingTips.com, Meyer sat down for an interview about the new project and its goals. 

What inspired you to launch this new business?

This new business has been in the works for years, I just didn’t know the right steps to get here. I learned through trial and error over the past decade as a freelance designer and social media manager what racers and teams want when it comes to branding, marketing, and advertising their team and sponsors. When I began my career in Top Alcohol Dragster, I had a degree in graphic design and made a logo, but didn’t know where to start when it came to promotions and getting sponsors. What my dad taught me was outdated and didn’t work, even for a girl. 

Thankfully, I have some amazing mentors and connections that helped me learn quickly and become successful off the track right away. I want to be that resource and have everything a racer or team would need all under one roof from designs to printing to digital marketing and sponsorship activities. I am super passionate about the business side of drag racing and that’s the part that most racers don’t look forward to. So, if I can handle all of the content, posting, and creating materials for sponsors, they can focus on driving and winning.

How is this different than what you’ve done in the past?

Essentially it’s the same, but more professional, expanded, and well-rounded. I have some amazing team members that are experienced racers or have been around drag racing and other motorsports for a while, so they understand the lingo and types of content that perform well and the demands of sponsors. Before, it was just me doing all the work and getting burned out fast. 

Now, I have built a proven, dedicated team and we are offering more professional services but at an affordable cost to grassroots and sportsman racers. It’s been a dream of mine to create a place where racers can come and get everything they need under one roof, instead of going to multiple different vendors and losing track or having pieces that don’t match or are off-brand. We work with all types of racing disciplines and are able to deliver quickly and make a team look – and treat them – like they’re a pro.

How do you plan to use what you’ve learned over the years to help other racers succeed?

One thing I have done for almost a decade is to treat social media, websites, and any digital marketing as a tool and not just as a piece of content I’m posting. Every photo and video and article online can provide you with insights as to who and how people enjoyed it. I gather this data and create a strategy that is custom for each of our clients to make sure they are reaching their target market and potential sponsors. We use strategy when it comes to the date and time of posting, the type of photo or video, the caption length and wording, having it be part of a funnel or email campaign, and so much more. 

I have a passion for learning, and as everyone knows, the internet, including social media, is changing almost every day. That means I have to stay on top of what’s viral, what will become trending, and what’s new. Not everyone has the time to do research and find out the latest trend or app or design style, but we make it a priority. I carve out time to read books, watch videos, take courses, make new connections, and see what’s working and what’s not so we can stay at least one step ahead. 

What’s the biggest mistake you’ve seen or heard about when it comes to racers approaching the whole sponsorship search process? 

There are so many mistakes I see when it comes to sponsorships! I cringe every time I see a post on social media asking for money or saying there’s a spot open on the car and begging someone to claim it. Unless it’s your grandma or uncle that wants to support you, that will never work. 

The key to getting big title sponsorships is to do research on a company and figure out who and where their customers are, and what problems they have. Simply advertising and offering exposure has very little value to a company; you need to offer them a service that will provide 4x ROI. In order to do that though, you have to have a strategy and key performance indicators in place. That’s where we come in. 

We won’t do the actual sponsorship acquisition and communications for you. Instead, I will teach you the tactics and give scripts and an outlined step-by-step process so you can learn the ins and outs of sponsorships. We can also manage it for you once you have a contract signed and handle all aspects of the deliverables promised. This is what I love to do, but it can be really intimidating and overwhelming to a racer that wants to go from free to paid!

What’s your quick-hit, “elevator pitch” advice to racers who are starting to think about finding sponsors for the 2025 season? 

Great question! It starts with the basic understanding that you can provide so much value away from the racetrack and you don’t even have to actually race to get sponsorships. It’s so easy that people make it harder than it actually is. Long-term sponsorships are no longer about performance bonuses or exposure; it’s about maintaining consistent communication, being active and engaging on social media, having a personality that fans like, and solving a problem they have. 

Reach out to brands that align with your values and audience, and offer them a clear picture of how partnering with you can benefit their business, not how you can buy better race car parts to go faster and maybe win a race. 

Remember, it’s not just about asking for money; it’s about creating a mutually beneficial partnership. Need a hand? Check out our free resources at MotorsportsMarketingTips.com to get started!

This story was originally published on July 22, 2024.

The post Megan Meyer Ready to Help Racers Find Sponsors with New Motorsports Marketing Tips first appeared on Drag Illustrated.