Why enter industry awards? Awards are as valuable in business as a great TripAdvisor review for a hotel – holding a great deal of prestige and kudos. So what is the first step? Finding the right awards for your company and these can include:
1) Relevant to the industry your company specialises in
2) Championing your business as a whole
3) Solutions and/or products that your company offers
2) Highlighting the talent within your company
Apart from the shiny trophy you may receive, award wins are a great way to elevate your brand’s presence within the industry. Winning an award for a ‘Best of Show’ or ‘Product of the Year’ carries weight throughout your business, from sales pitches to potential customers to boosting morale within your team.
Award judges could also be potential customers or employees and industry influencers so how can your business stand out from the crowd of other submissions for your award? Ask yourself, is your product an industry first? What makes this product so unique compared to your competitors’? If you’re submitting an entry about a member of staff, what qualities made them stand head and shoulders above others? As a business, what have you done that is a game-changer? Judges will have a large number of entries to sift through, so always ensure that you’re including top level information that will help your submission shine. This could be statistics, customer feedback or testimonials. Taking the above in to consideration, it is not just about winning per say, it is also about getting seen in front of a panel of judges who are now aware of your latest innovations and company news, gaining you further exposure. Don’t be shy to highlight your achievements, and most importantly – don’t waffle!
Entry requirements can sometimes ask for 100 words, 300 words or 3000 words, so you need to be on point with the content you are providing. It’s all about structure and ensuring the right information is included to make the entry engaging, leave an impression on the judges and stand out from the rest. A checklist of the top three to five highlights to include in an entry will be helpful to help you formulate the best submission. These highlights include:
- Have I included everything the award brief requires?
- Does what I am submitting match the criteria they have specified – ensure that you tick all of these things off
- Have I kept the information in the award entry streamlined?
- Have I included testimonials?
- Have I included images/supplementary materials to accompany the submission?
- Does this stand out? Does this say I/they/we should win because…
Once you have been shortlisted (and hopefully when you have won) promotion is the next step, highlighting the company’s success to your stakeholders, from customers and potential customers to shareholders, employees, competitors and journalists.
Keeping an annual awards calendar database will help you identify which ones are relevant for you to enter. This calendar should be reviewed at the beginning of each month, so everyone is aware of entry deadlines and which submissions may need to be drafted or adapted in order to submit.
At Bubble, we are huge advocates for industry awards, having written submissions for the majority of our clients – and we are thrilled to have been involved in over 15 awards wins in 2020.
Be bold, be informative and be confident, and go out there and claim your wins!
If you are interested in learning more about how Bubble Agency can assist in writing a great award entry, email: hello@bubbleagency.com