It’s one thing to tout your expertise and leadership directly through bylined articles and white papers, but the third-party validation that comes through industry awards can go a long way in building trust and credibility for your brand. Just like securing notable media coverage can underscore a company’s capabilities and expertise, awards and accolades serve as meaningful endorsements that showcase a company’s solutions and services, along with the impressive work they achieve on behalf of customers.
Incorporating an effective awards strategy as part of your PR program takes time, planning and effort, but the rewards go well beyond a shiny plaque for your trophy case. Here are some key considerations for creating impactful award opportunities:
Prepare in advance – Do the research to create and maintain a catalog of available awards that make sense for you and your business. Keep an eye on key dates so you can plan around deadlines. Rushing to pull together an award application rarely produces a winning entry, so make sure you allow yourself reasonable enough time to assemble the essential resources for a winning application.
Be strategic – Hone in on awards and other accolades that are relevant to your company, product or customers. Think about where you’d like to enhance your credibility and focus on awards to strengthen that specialty. For example, if you want to be better known for your innovative solutions, identify awards with that specific focus.
Adhere to the criteria – This one may seem obvious, but it must be stated. Overlooking eligibility requirements can needlessly waste resources or lead to automatic disqualification; so it’s important to keep track of the details. For example, if the rules say the work highlighted in your entry must have taken place within a certain timeframe, ensure your initiative occurred during the required timeline to qualify. Most nomination and eligibility forms state exactly what the judges will be looking for in a winning entry. Make note of each item the judging committee seeks and write your nomination to directly answer those questions.
Go the extra mile – Beyond answering all the required elements of an award entry, don’t sell your company short by leaving out all relevant details. Even when an item is optional on an award application, complete it if possible. Take any opportunity to provide the judges with further evidence to support the case for why your work deserves recognition above the rest.
Highlight every accomplishment – Some award programs will name finalists before they select winners. If your company makes it as a finalist, there’s value in sharing that accomplishment widely, whether touting the recognition on social media channels, through a blog post, adding a finalist badge to emails or celebrating in communications to company staff and customers. Then, of course, if your entry wins, you can promote your company as an industry leader and take another victory lap by weaving the award win into sales and marketing materials, promoting it through social and editorial media. Anytime your business is named alongside the best and brightest in the industry, it creates a sense of prestige and brand awareness amongst your top competitors and prospective customers.
Ask for feedback – If you don’t win, don’t be afraid to ask the judges how you can improve upon your nomination next year. They may tell you what was missing from your nomination or why they selected another winner. Applying that feedback can help improve your chances for success in the future.
While award opportunities can be a considerable investment of time – and in some cases money – with no guaranteed results, if executed effectively, an award win can be just as valuable as other elements of a PR program.
A well-composed award application – whether it secures a win or not – can have a long shelf life, providing solid material to promote through various marketing and PR efforts throughout the year and even beyond. Completing an award application provides a great way to evaluate your company’s offerings and forces your team to look at the business from a different perspective by opening up discussions on your company’s impact, what sets you apart from the competition, how your offerings drive innovation and more. By reflecting on these differentiating factors, a business can better identify its strengths, as well as areas for improvement.
In addition to the third-party credibility that comes with industry awards, receiving recognition can help boost morale – within the company and with customers. Employees take great pride in knowing that their work is providing value to their company and customers often appreciate the chance to showcase business success.
Don’t underestimate the power of pursuing award opportunities. On top of industry cred, your company will gain a critical view of your operations, an ongoing challenge to improve and an opportunity to celebrate good people doing great work.
Want help putting together an effective awards strategy to differentiate your business from the competition? Contact PR Return and we can help put the wheels in motion.