One of the lesser-known services that we offer at On Point Copywriting is an award entry writing service. This let’s us share our extensive experience of successful applications, and also takes (much of) the burden away from clients themselves.
Benefits of applying for business awards
What are the benefits of applying for business awards? Well, there are many. But it generally requires a bit of effort, and sometimes cost, too.
First and foremost, it is the prestige of winning an award (or being shortlisted). Social proof is an important part of human psychology. Being able to say that you are award-winning sends a powerful message that you excel at what you do, are trustworthy and better than the competition. Winners, runners up, semi-finalists and those short-listed, they all usually get a logo they can use in their marketing as a stamp of excellence.
The journey towards an award, and a win itself, also provides you with lots of opportunity for publicity. As well as including updates in newsletters and social posts and press releases, there may be articles about it in local, industry or even national press. It all feeds into your marketing machine, spreading the good word about you.
If you choose it to be, it can be a strong motivator for increasing standards of excellence. We know several businesses who have benchmarked themselves against award winners and used it to drive their own performance. Unsurprisingly, with an attitude like that, they have gone on to win too.
Many awards processes are a useful networking space. On the big evening, maybe at a launch event or other publicity days, you may have the opportunity to meet other applicants (across a range of categories, not necessarily direct competitors) and useful connections can be made.
Let’s not forget that if you are shortlisted and make it through to finals night, that there is the chance for a fun evening out too. This can be an excellent way to reward yourself, treat a partner, or show your gratitude to your team.
Types of business awards
If you have ever looked into the world of business awards you may know it does have its murky corners. I am talking about what you might call sham awards which come with a shiny logo and quite possibly a fee but do not mean much to anyone who scratches beneath the surface.
By no means are all awards for which you pay an entry fee a sham – after all, it is an industry that needs to make money. Most people can probably spot red flags though – being called out of the blue to say you have won or been mysteriously nominated, no ceremony, just a fee, a disproportionate award compared to your scale, sounds too good to be true…
You may still choose to accept/pay for these, it’s up to you.
But let’s focus on awards which many would think have more substance. What might these look like? From my experience they might have some or all of the following hallmarks:
- Be associated with an industry body.
- Be associated with a respected publication – national/regional/local – such as in our home city The Bristol Life Awards.
- Have a panel of judges.
- Require a thorough application process.
- Have an awards ceremony
- Have reasonable costs, either through a modest entry fee, advertising packages, seats or tables at the awards ceremony – probably not winners’ fees.
- Have credible winners from previous years.
That’s not exhaustive, just off the top of my head.
What does it take to win an award?
Most award criteria will state that they want demonstrable evidence of success. This might be a mix of positive trends in turnover and profit, customer base, creativity, customer satisfaction, hiring, other awards, case studies, testimonials. They often like to see your corporate social responsibility credentials too. It’s not sufficient to just say you have had a good year, or the best product without some hard facts to back it up.
When we write award entries for clients, we will dig to find as much information as possible through an interview and then carefully consider how we can weave it all together. In our experience, it makes an entry much more powerful if you can find a compelling narrative through which all the pertinent facts can be presented.
What if I don’t win?
It is easy to characterise award-winning as a zero-sum game, i.e. there can only be one winner. And at face value that is, of course, true. Sometimes, another company (or companies) will simply have a better narrative than you.
But actually, in award ceremonies, the winner does not take it all, as the old ABBA song suggests! There is still prestige to be had from being the runner up or shortlisted. When you include a small awards logo on your website, brochure or letterhead, a simple glance by most busy customers will not even discern the difference between winner and shortlisted – they’ll just see that you had a measure of recognition.
More than that, like I mentioned before, if you are ambitious it gives you the chance to run the rule over whoever did win and see where you are currently falling short, so that you improve for next year, or the year after.
How we help with award entries
I do want to stress up front that using us to write your entry does not guarantee success, but that said we do have lots of success stories over the years.
We know what a good entry looks like and will share this with you, whilst discussing your context of why you are entering. We’ll tell you where we think your strengths and weaknesses lie.
If I had to pick one superpower we have in this area, you’ll be disappointed to know that it is not mind control over the judges. But it is that weaving of your story together into a compelling narrative that will hit the right points, have an angle and be persuasive. So not mind control, but positive influence perhaps.
If I may quote an extract from a recent winning entry we wrote:
“As a technology company we are not a sexy SaaS developer or a funky fintech. Rather we’re a wonderful workhorse that lays the groundwork (or should we say data cables) for other companies to benefit from technology.”
Analysing this, there is some nice alliteration, humour, charm. It is humble but extoling that although they are not in the limelight, they are no less worthy of recognition. Obviously, without a good story (backed up by facts) they could not win. But I think this approach framed their application well and did a lot of heavy lifting within the submission.
So we are giving you this layer or two of expertise, but we are also your “wonderful workhorse” in the application process. Writing award entries can be time consuming, especially if you do not know where to start or struggle with word counts (either writing too much or too little).
We are the experts, and once we have the raw information from you, should be able to do it more quickly. We free up this time for you.
Keep in mind though, that making a submission for an award is more than solely copywriting based. You may need to collate other information or, for example, make a video or be interviewed, and you will still need to submit the entry yourself. This is often done either via a portal or good old-fashioned email. So you will always need to spend some time on it, even if you are outsourcing the writing to us.
“I want to be a winner!”
If you want to enter a specific award, or pursue a structured business award strategy, and would like help with the writing, please reach out to us at info@onpointcopywriting.co.uk or by calling 0117 244 0116. We would love to hear what your plans are and help with the writing. If you need a video produced, or another non-writing service to do with the awards submission we can recommend partners who can help with that too.
