A Smart Investment Wins Awards
By: Caroline Kings
Tags: Marketing, Copywriting, Awards, Entering Awards, Freelance Writing

It feels great to have award winning clients — they’re clearly at the top of their game and it’s a good feeling to be a part of their success. But why do awards really matter? And who can help you reach the awards’ dinner?

There are numerous benefits to entering awards and the fantastic feeling of your endeavours being recognised cannot be overlooked — let’s start with that.

Recognition

Recognition has many guises when it comes to entering awards. On winning, of course, your product or service is recognised as being the best in its category. This is a huge boost for business owners and it has a knock-on effect too…

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Staff feel proud to be part of a “winning” team; they too feel recognised for their contribution to success. This sentiment helps with staff retention — new joiners cost money to recruit and train — leading to lower staff turnover which helps businesses build on the foundations of their success and continue to thrive.

Marketing

Entering awards is great for marketing — don’t believe me? Read on. Becoming a finalist or on a short list or noted as being ‘one to watch’ and the like, demonstrates business quality and credibility, regardless of whether you go on to win. As a business, you must spread the word!

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Publicise the fact that you’re a finalist or on a short list — add it to your email signature, add it to the home page of your website, create flyers to have in your shop or office, note it in your monthly newsletter. It will attract custom as people want to be associated with winners and they want quality products or services.

It goes without saying, I hope, that if you win, it’s essential that you use your victory in your marketing campaign. Show pride in what you’ve achieved (bur definitely do not brag or boast), sharing with followers on social media the awards’ night, the trophy or award back at your business HQ and your celebrations and notify customers via email. You’ve worked hard for this and your customers have certainly been part of your journey to success so let them in on it too!

Focus

And this is possibly the reason that you haven’t thought about before.

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The act of applying for an award, submitting your entry, focusses the mind on what it is about your business that merits credit. What is your USP? Why does your customer service shine over others? What is it about your business that has led to growth?

The process of applying makes you stop and think, remember what you’re good at and what you need to develop. It’s an unbelievably useful exercise that all business owners should perform more often — award application forms provide the motivation and opportunity, if nothing else to consider these points.

Help is at hand

You might be wondering why all this matters to a copywriter like me. Well, aside from the fact that I should take my own advice when entering awards, you may be surprised to learn that businesses employ copywriters to help them with their awards’ application forms.

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An awards’ form is a little like someone’s CV or resume — you want to show your business in its best light but it needs to be well-written and concise (often there’s a word limit). Blips in your business’s journey need to be diplomatically handled or “spun”, just as they do on a CV. If you don’t like writing or don’t have the time to dedicate to writing the form well, then a copywriter would be able to help.

There would need to be an investment of time at the outset so that the copywriter could interview you: understand more about the business, why you’re entering, what needs to be promoted within the form and the difficult points that need to be conveyed. Sometimes business owners are too modest and feel uncomfortable shouting about their achievements and this is another bonus of hiring a copywriter — we are more objective, know what needs to be included in order to stand out and will shout about how far you’ve come for you!

Of course, you as the business owner have final sign-off on the form and you and your copywriter should collaborate on the final tweaks — some of the content may make you cringe in its seeming self-praise, but we know that it needs to be included!

So, pick the award you want to win, check out what you need to do and contact your favourite copywriter (the wonders of technology mean we can all work remotely). And just remember to invite them to the awards’ dinner!