6 steps to winning awards for your brand

Celebrate achievements through award recognition

Entering and earning awards is an exceptional way to build credibility and positive press around your brand and company. There are a number of benefits behind winning business, industry and community awards. They can elevate your company’s status; educate and attract new customers and new employees; improve company morale; and raise your credibility.

Despite all of these benefits, many companies still shy away from entering for awards – even if they’re highly qualified for them – because they don’t know how, don’t realize they qualify, feel daunted by the task or they don’t have the support they need to enter. There are some awards that are relatively simple to enter while others can be far more time-consuming.

If you’re looking to gain credibility and share with others how great your company is, then you should consider entering (and winning) awards.

Here are six tips to keep in mind as you seek to successfully enter awards:

Research the award you want to enter the company or nominate an employee for.
There are a number of different awards available for companies to enter from local, regional or national to community, business and industry awards. Search your local business journals, newspapers and regional and state magazines.

You may qualify for awards based on your company’s:

Services
Ethics
Growth
Community service
Employment excellence
Leadership
Products

Keep in mind your unique culture and solutions, your good corporate citizenship and that you are a great place to work and a caring company.

Develop an editorial calendar of deadlines for award entry opportunities.
This is a living document that you should review and update quarterly, monthly or more frequently. It should contain information like deadlines, submission progress and where to submit the entry/nomination.
Dedicate time to enter the award.
Some awards require several steps and involvement from multiple departments and entities, especially awards that include an audit like “Best Places to Work.” Typically, award programs will send you a form or a list of questions that you can save on your company’s local area network, server or cloud. If possible, delegate sections to different team members like HR or your “Green Team.”
Submit the award.
Verify that you fully and accurately responded to all questions and stated criteria. Submit the award by the deadline. Wait for the results.
Promote the win.
Congratulations! Your company was recognized as an award winner. Be sure to promote it on your social media channels and list it on your website under the Awards section. Share your good news with current and prospective clients. Depending on the award, the local media and industry trade media may also be interested in knowing that you received this recognition.
Persist.
If you didn’t win, be persistent and resubmit next year. Even the best entries don’t always win on first-time submissions. For individual awards, we find that while most people are well qualified for the award based on their career accomplishments, the winners are almost always very actively volunteering in the community, as well, and that’s important to judges.

Engage an expert for help

Most companies aren’t experts in entering for awards and promoting those successes. For added support, consider hiring a public relations firm that specializes in awards. Axia Public Relations is an award-winning PR firm that knows how to do the legwork required to find and persuasively enter your company for awards that will make it shine and set it apart from your competition. We develop an editorial calendar of deadlines for award entry opportunities and work with you to select the top opportunities among that list. Axia uses its AwardAbility service to earn award recognition for its clients. Reach out today to get started.

Marjorie Comer is an award-winning PR professional at Axia Public Relations. She graduated from Rockhurst University with a Bachelor of Arts in communication. Marjorie cheers for her hometown Kansas City Royals. Follow her on Twitter @Marjorie_Comer.