Your Six-Step Guide to Writing Award Winning Entries
Ever wondered how you can improve your success in awards? Here, our PR team gives our top tips on creating an award-winning entry.
It’s awards season, let’s get cracking!
As soon as we hear that Strictly is announcing its line-up for this year, we know the awards season is just around the corner. And this year is no different.
Awards fever is upon us and some of the most prestigious construction trade, manufacturing and regional awards have entry deadlines in the next couple of weeks and months. For that reason, we’re working hard with our clients to gather all the information we need and drafting it up to make the awards entries as relevant and hard-hitting as possible.
So, to mark the official start of the awards season, here are our top six tips for putting forward an award-winning entry.
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Read all the criteria and guidelines carefully before you start
Some awards are very specific and you’re required to respond to set questions, for example the TMMX (Manufacturer of the Year) awards. Others will allow you a set number of words and ask you to describe why you should win. Always have the criteria to hand when you’re working on putting the entry together and tick off each point as you cover it.
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Check the word count and stick to it
It’s imperative that you stay within the word count and ensure your entry is as concise as possible. Often word counts are strictly imposed and it’s not possible to upload any further words that exceed the total. If you still have relevant information which you think needs to be included when you have reduced the word count, include it in the additional documents that you are often allowed to attach.
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Submit the entry in good time
Often companies leave submitting their award entry to the last minute and with so many uploading their documents on a set day, for example The King’s Awards, there’s always a risk of a glitch on the system! Try and get the entry submitted at least a couple of days before the deadline.
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Choose quality not quantity
Don’t be tempted to enter too many awards for the sake of it. It is better to enter fewer awards and spend your time preparing a high quality, impressive submission and this is guaranteed to give you a higher chance of success. We have had clients where we help them enter 10 or more categories but I would only recommend this on rare occasions, for example where a company has seen rapid growth, or introduced a whole series of new products that have rocketed in the market. It also means a lot more work!
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Run your award by a third party
Once your entry is drafted, give it to a couple of people within the business, ideally from different departments, to ask for their opinions. They may spot something that can be improved upon, or extra information that can be added to enhance the application.
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Publicise your success should you be shortlisted
Once you get shortlisted, it is worth publicising this in the local/regional press and on social media. Make use of social media to drum up interest in the final awards event and research their hashtags in preparation for the announcement. This can be a great way to generate more interest and engagement from clients, supporters and your network.
It’s always best to be prepared! So, be sure to have a press release drafted in advance of the event in case you are the winner. Also prepare social media posts with a view to winning. You can always amend these after if you only made it as a finalist. It’s best to strike whilst the iron’s still hot and send out the press release as soon as possible the following day, to keep up momentum.
Don't forget to share photos from the awards events alongside the press release and on social media. Most photographers will upload images to a file sharing site the next day and winners should be given a code to download and use them as they wish.
A couple of obvious but final pointers on award writing. Make sure your entry is written in the third person (ie Group Rhodes is a manufacturer of … not we are a manufacturer of…) and include only the most relevant supporting documents and images.
We hope this advice has been useful, but if you need a hand to draft award entries for your business, our PR team are experts in writing award entries for national, trade and regional business awards.
Dragonfly PR is a dedicated B2B PR and marketing and Public Relations agency that specialises in the construction and manufacturing sectors. Based in South Yorkshire, we offer a competitive award writing service, which are compiled by a team with over 20 years’ experience in writing winning award submissions and managing PR campaigns.
Call our team now on 0114 349 5341 or email hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.