Are awards on your marketing radar?
Many businesses produce amazing results for their customers, but not all get recognised for their efforts. Each year, a plethora of awards exist to recognise outstanding achievements for businesses in their respective categories, as well as overarching success including innovation, leadership, and employee satisfaction.
Pursuing an award is an excellent opportunity for managers and business owners to reflect on achievements, determine future goals, and hopefully, soak in all the glory that comes with placing or even winning! Rarely does winning an award happen by chance. Like any other project or business development endeavour, it takes time, consideration, planning and action.
Strategic selection
When considering your options, determine your budget and create an awards calendar. Submissions are deliverables that require scope, budget, time, and a draft and review process. With many up for grabs each year, choosing the right awards to enter is key to improving your chances of success and contributing to your overarching goals.
- Enter categories that make the MOST sense to your business, its future direction, and what you most want to be recognised for. Only enter categories that tie back to your business objectives.
- Ensure the competition is recognisable, reputable, and well respected in your industry.
- Look at competitions where prominent brands are submitting so you can stand out against competitors.
Improve awareness
Having your business name appear in the award’s marketing material will bring your brand top of mind amongst industry leaders and other competitors, as well as boost your online presence. When it comes to search engines, links are popularity votes, so reputable websites featuring links to your page will improve your overall search traffic.
Boost business promotions
It goes without saying that winning business awards are an opportunity to showcase your impact, spotlight your creativity, stand out against competitors, and build more industry influence. When entering an award, create a plan for how you’ll share and maximise your results and participation, whether that involves sharing it amongst your team, your networks, or with your clients.
Expand networking opportunities
Networking is key to success in business, but often, it’s easier said than done. The award submission process will provide opportunities to network with other participating industry leaders, making for an easy conversation starter and opening your business up to an expanding network. Participating in and potentially winning business awards will prove that your business is credible and invested in success.
Build competitive advantage
An often overlooked benefit of entering awards is the chance to better understand your business’s areas for improvement. The process requires questionnaires, submission forms, and proof of success. It will most likely require you to dig up and articulate business wins to date. Even if you don’t win or place, it’s an excellent opportunity to reassess, refocus and improve your chances next year.
Energise your team
Perhaps one of the greatest things that come out of the recognition and achievement of winning business awards is a boost in morale, contributing to individuals’ professional development and giving teams a chance to celebrate their hard work.
An award, nomination, shortlist, or a WIN, is an endorsement for your business. It will help benchmark your company, motivate employees, and refocus strategic goals.
Whether your company is growing, merging, or even just starting out, it can be a challenge to prioritise your own business development. If you’d like to better understand how awards could benefit your business, don’t hesitate to reach out to the Focused Marketing team. We’d love to help you MAKE IT HAPPEN.
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