Winning a business award is a great way to raise the profile and reputation of your company. Whether it’s for a project you’ve worked on, an internal initiative or an individual within your organisation, getting recognition from a third party can really help you to stand out from the crowd.
Not only is it a great feeling to be rewarded for your hard work and success with shiny trophies, posh certificates and the adulation of your peers, it can also bring huge commercial benefits to your business by endorsing your work and attracting new business.
However, if you’re not among the companies being invited to the black tie galas, you might be wondering why…
If your office is home to an empty trophy cabinet or a few dated certificates, then this guide to awards success could be just what you need.
In it to win it
It might not come as a surprise, but no business ever won an award they never entered. As nice as it would be if there was a group of judges looking out for great businesses to pick out from the crowd and celebrate, that’s now how it works. In reality, behind every award win is a person who took the time to write an entry.
In some cases, it’s the person who claimed the prize themselves. In others, it’s an office junior who’s getting no praise whatsoever. In many cases though, it’s a savvy marketing team or a PR professional who started the business on the road to awards success. Believe me, those perspex blocks are worth their weight in gold for PR and marketing, but you don’t win them by accident.
Think of it this way – people might be slightly swayed by an advert in which a company claims that they’re ‘the best’, but they’ll be more impressed if a reputable organisation they trust said the same thing. With every award you enter, there’s a chance you’ll be a finalist. If you’re a finalist, you get your name on the organiser’s website, in your local paper and in the trade press. If you win the award, you get the coverage you’ve always wanted – your company in the headlines with a big photo of your moment in the spotlight and some lovely comments from a person of authority. Awards really are valuable.
For example, we’ve previously helped one of our clients win three major awards and be a highly commended finalist for three others, all within the space of a month. As a result of those awards, their business appeared in target media platforms 19 times, reaching an estimated 500,000 people. On top of that, they were able to use the awards events as a chance to network, give their team a pat on the back and make sure that everyone in attendance had heard of their business and why it’s so good.
So, why aren’t you winning them?
First of all, you need to do your research and identify the awards you have a chance of winning. You should be confident about yourself, but don’t spend time on an entry where you’ll be competing with multi-nationals in categories where they’re clearly going to beat you.
You should also focus on the awards that are worth winning – there’s no point winning an award if the only people who’ll be impressed are never going to work with you.
When you’ve identified the right awards for you, it’s a good idea to find out what the judges like. Have a look at last year’s winners and the winners of similar awards, and plan your approach to outshine them.
Then, it’s time to write your entry – and it’s at this point that we come to the biggest obstacle, because award entries take a lot of time and patience to write.
How to write an award entry
Awards aren’t easy to win. You need to demonstrate why your business is better than the others and that means speaking to the team, finding the great stories, providing the figures to back it up and writing it all up so that someone who hasn’t got a clue about your business can understand it.
Needless to say, if you’re spending your time running your business and it’s all hands-on-deck throughout your organisation, you probably don’t have time to draft a winning award entry. That’s why outsourcing to companies like us can help. We find the right awards and the right categories to enter, we speak to people throughout our clients’ organisations to get all the information we need, we get the input of key people and we hone the entries to make sure they present our clients in the best way.
But while some awards are excellent, there is a side to the awards industry which you should be a little wary of…
The dark side of business awards
The awards industry is exactly that – an industry. With the exception of awards events organised by charities, there’s always an ulterior motive, and some awards organisers are more brazen in pursuing that motive than others.
With almost every award, there’s a gala dinner or an awards event, and this is part of the fun of entering awards! However, the organisers have to cover their costs somehow, so it’s only reasonable to expect to pay for your tickets. These can often be quite pricey and the high costs can be justified by the quality of the event and the exposure it generates.
But sometimes organisers push things a bit too far. Now and then, you can’t shake the feeling that the organisers don’t really care about the awards and, in reality, their goal is to get as many bums on seats as they can manage. When you come across awards with a ridiculous number of categories and lists of finalists as long as your arm, you can’t help but wonder if everyone who entered has made it through to the ‘final round’.
These awards events are certainly the exception, but you should still have your head screwed on when you research the awards you’d like to enter. If not, you run the risk of paying for several tables at an event on the other side of the country, where you’ll be going home empty handed and hungry with no one caring whether you ‘nearly’ won or not. If the organiser is relatively unknown, doesn’t reach your target audience and has a billion categories you could enter, then it’s probably best to steer clear of their event.
There are plenty of other reasons why companies host awards which are perfectly justified, though. For instance, media organisations might host award events so they can promote their publication to their target customers and get their name heard. After all, everyone likes to see their moment in the spotlight and winners will share the articles that feature them with colleagues, friends and business contacts, which all helps the organiser. Hopefully, in return for the tickets and publicity, they’ll treat the attendees to a great night with good food, excellent networking and some unbeatable coverage of their own.
Love business awards, but don’t love them too much
All in all, business awards are definitely a valuable marketing technique, as long as you do your homework and you’ve got the time to write a first class submission.
The last bit of advice I can give you is an important one to remember during and after the event…
Have a great time, have fun with your colleagues and make it a night to remember, but be selective about which photos you share with the media or post on social media afterwards. That photo of the CEO drinking from the bottle may be hilarious, but should probably never see the light of day! And while a selfie of the whole team together might seem like a good idea at the time, it’s probably not so great if they all look hammered. Try and get the official photos from the organiser, and save the others for the Christmas party!
If that all sounds like a lot of work and you need some extra help, get in touch with our team of experts. We’d be happy to help and get you on the road to awards success!
