How to enter a Business Award Competition

A corporate award is an often overlooked marketing tool, which can take your business to a higher level more rapidly than many conventional routes. The following provides general guidance on how to enter – and perhaps win – a business award. Awards can help your business in many ways:

• An award provides an opportunity to show your customers and suppliers how successful you are
• It is an independent endorsement of the quality of your business
• It provides credibility and status
• An award can open doors to new customers, and suppliers, raising your profile and extending your marketing reach
• It provides invaluable free publicity. The media are interested in stories of successful small businesses.
• Potential partners or investors will be attracted to an award-winning business
• Winning an award can have a great impact on staff morale and can also help you attract and retain staff who want to work for such a company
• Including staff in your party at an award ceremony is also a good way of saying “thank you” for their contribution to the success of the business
• Winning an industry award – or even being short-listed - usually has a beneficial effect on your bottom line
• Even if you don’t win, the process can help you focus on your business issues, give you ideas and sometimes give you valuable feedback from the judging panel

How to Enter

• First, find an award which is relevant to your business, then determine the appropriate category for you to enter
• Entering an award competition usually requires you to provide a detailed description of your business, sometimes accompanied by financial information. It is important to set aside sufficient time to complete the application properly and well within the set deadline – most award entries arrive on the closing date!
• Read the award rules and conditions, make sure that you understand exactly what the judging panel will be looking for and tailor your entry to the particular competition you are entering.
• Make sure you begin with the basics – who you are, the nature of your business, your rationale for entering this particular category of this particular set of awards
• Keep your application simple and easy for someone new to your business to understand. Concentrate on facts as they apply to this particular competition, not generalities.

For example:

• For a service or training award, the judges will want to see examples of excellence, backed up with details of systems introduced or training programmes implemented
• For a marketing award, judges will be looking for examples of innovative or outstanding campaigns and value for money. Include samples of your publicity material, a selected few press cuttings or other relevant matter.
• It is important to be able to evaluate the service procedures or marketing ideas you have introduced. Have these changes improved your costs, profit, customer attraction, staff recruitment or retention? If so, describe in detail how you have been able to measure that improvement.
• Judges are always interested in the cost benefits to the business.
• Show passion and pride in your business.  Describe what you did differently, show creativity, results, how you went the extra mile.
• In every category, genuine third party endorsements will be very valuable
• When you have completed your award application, get an “outsider” to read it over, to check spelling and grammar and spot any inaccuracies
• Meet the deadline!

How to Gain Benefit from Winning an Award

Business awards represent a marketing opportunity for owners who want to grow their businesses. Here are a few suggestions for actions after the win:

• Thank your suppliers and customers for their support and patronage.
• Celebrate your achievement with all your staff.
• Reprint press articles for use at trade shows or in other sales material.
• Accept offers to speak at events which will provide beneficial publicity and enhance your business’s reputation
• Contact the press or use a PR agency to increase media exposure.
• Teach your staff – especially those involved in selling to customers - how to use the award win to attract more business.
• Make sure your industry association is aware of your company achievement and that it is shown on everything relating to your company.
• Update your marketing materials with the business award logos, including business cards, website, newsletters, brochures, PR releases, and all sales material. Display prominently in public and staff areas of your business.

The above is a compilation of information contributed by Barbara Clark at VisitScotland.