Hand holding trophy in black and white

No, you can’t win awards by paying for them

Not the ones worth entering anyway. Read on to find out what the deal is.
Award Entry Writing
Awards writing
How to guide

Sorry to burst your bubble, but you can't buy your way to a win.

You might pay to enter or for a seat (or table) at the ceremony, but they don’t guarantee a win.

You’ll need a genuinely noteworthy story for that.

So why should you bother if the top prize is not odds on? Well, there’s more than one way to measure success. As Louise Turner, MD at Awards Writers, says: “90% of the benefits of winning an award can be enjoyed by making the shortlist.”

Whether you win or not, entering awards is still good for business.

Here are three reasons why you should make room for  awards entries in your marketing strategy this year:

Hand holding trophy in black and white

1. Share your success: Win more business

If you’re entering an award category, you’re in it for the win. But as long as you made the shortlist, you can promote the fact you’ve been recognised by the judges as a finalist. 

Use the logos, share the news through PR and on socials, and let people know you’re in the mix. As a finalist, you’re saying to clients you want to be the best at what you do, and you’re not afraid to put yourself out there for the honour. 

And if you win, add the phrase ‘award-winning’ or ‘multi-award-winning’ to your communications. It sets you apart from competitors who can’t make the same claim. In a like-for-like scenario, you know which one you’d choose, right…

The award programme you pick makes a difference – some carry more kudos than others. For example, to set an agency apart in the noisy creative space, I wrote a winning entry for the Prolific North Creative Awards. The Prolific North endorsement validated their claims of being a ‘top creative’ agency in a similar way to client testimonials.

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2. Celebrate your success: Create a ‘winning’ team culture

Initial objectives or goals and a demonstration of how you met (or exceeded them) are central to any awards entry. But when your team is in the thick of it, they often forget how far they’ve come. 

Use award entries to remind your team of the brilliant things they’ve achieved (usually) within the last year. They’re always good news stories, after all.

And that’s before you even get to submission. If you’re shortlisted, attend the award ceremony. It’s a brilliant opportunity for team-building, networking, and spotting new talent.

But as I said earlier, you don’t have to attend to win. I wrote a shortlisted entry for the Third Sector Award, and the (small agency) client didn’t attend the ceremony but went on to win against a national organisation.

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3. Continue your success: Keep growing as a business

Award wins are difficult to write when you try to find the data retrospectively. If your results are not measurable, why should the judges believe you? 

Make award entries part of your marketing strategy. When setting objectives and KPIs, collecting regular data and demonstrating success become routine, it’s much easier to tell a convincing story.

Measuring and evaluating your launches and campaigns is a great way of benchmarking progress and adjusting your strategy towards more growth. 

A large multi-award-winning international manufacturer I worked for entered double-digit award programmes each year. Of course, their many prestigious titles were great for business, but the insight they got was also a valuable contributor to their long-term innovation strategy.

Want more than just this overview? 

If I’ve convinced you that awards should be part of your marketing strategy, get in touch if you’d like help selecting and writing winning entries – let's get you on the shortlist.

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