The short answer is ‘yes’. But I can’t end a blog there, can I now? So I’ll share with you why we at Writers believe that industry awards are worth the time and effort that they demand.
Entering an award brings its own rewards
The simple act of entering the award speaks volumes about how you feel about your team’s work. It shows them that you think their work was awesome, and that you are proud enough to tell the world (well, industry at least). That validation should keep morale high for a good while.
The criteria for entering awards can be arduous. Going through the motions of preparing an award submission is a good way to review the project with the benefit of hindsight. You might be surprised by what you learn along the way. You’re sure to learn something you can use in the future.
Hard work is rarely its own reward. If your team has completed some outstanding work recently, go looking for an award to enter it into. Your industry bodies/authorities are a good place to start.
You won? Now, go tell the world
Congratulations! Pens down, keyboards away. Celebrate your victory – now, before it becomes old news.
When the hangover clears, focus on milking that award for all it is worth. And it’s worth a lot. Nothing says ‘we’re the best’ quite like a nod from a prestigious, independent industry group.
You’ve created an opportunity to grow your business – now take it and go fetch yourself some new clients. There are so many avenues you can use to spread the word. If you’re clever about it, you can live off this for months to come.
What media exposure can you glean? Cover as many angles and outlets as you can.
Use your own content channels as well. An award win makes a great newsletter story. And you can probably break it down into quite a few blog articles. And don’t miss the opportunity to turn your work into a case study.
Start posting on every social network you have – LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. Try to be clever with your visuals as they are what catch the eye. Stretch yourself beyond the standard ‘CEO accepting award with a cheesy smile’ pic.
If you need inspiration, check out Writers’ UK Twitter feed around 1 April when their 2016 Transform award for ‘Best use of copy style/tone of voice’ for client Carbon Law Partners was posed as a fruit bowl, coaster, and doorstop.
An independent viewpoint
Let’s be honest. For most people the idea of writing an award submission can be quite daunting. Oh, where to start? And, where to find the time amongst all the other things on the to do list?
If that’s not reason enough to engage an external professional writer, here’s a few more:
- We’ve written winning award submissions before… many, many times.
- We know how to structure them so they are clear and concise. We are used to working within the constraints of word counts.
- We know the right questions to ask (and the people involved are less likely to modestly hold back when speaking to an independent party).
- We know how to draw out the key achievements and make them sing.
And you know what? At the risk of having you scoff and call me a word nerd, I’ll confess I enjoy writing them.
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