Winning a business award is a huge achievement for a company – mostly because writing the nomination can be a real pain in the proverbial. Writing winning business awards nominations is a real skill that takes time and effort to get right.
As an award-winning B2B PR agency ourselves, we know the labour involved in entering awards. Honestly, the jubilation of getting nominated is only topped by taking home the trophy – but the nomination itself is HUGE.
Why? Because – as anyone who has grappled with writing their own résumé knows – singing your own praises is tricky. And when there’s important client work to do, it’s hard to prioritise your own company’s marketing strategy.
So, we’ve decided to share 10 of our top tips and tricks for writing winning business awards nominations. Now, how’s that for sharing the love? We hope they help – good luck!
Stick to the word count
The word count is a great box to work within. It keeps your thoughts focused and on-point. Don’t waffle ad nauseum in the hope that the panel of judges will have the time and interest to sift through and pull out what’s relevant. They won’t – and you’ll only earn a thumbs down. Business award judges typically have hundreds of nominations to read. So, be as precise as possible. And if there is no prescribed word count, less is more.
Be relevant
If the nomination asks for results in Q3, don’t throw in Q1 and Q2 too. I know, you want to look as impressive as possible, but we assure you, providing unasked for information will not win you any brownie points. Seriously, only provide information that is required.
Meet the criteria
Check that you meet all the entry criteria before tackling the nomination. It’s a massive waste of time to get half-way through only to discover that to qualify, you need an office presence in Tasmania or Timbuktu.
Choose your category
Again, before you begin your nomination, choose your category carefully. There may be a couple of categories that seem relevant – but if you don’t pick one and stick to it, your nomination will read all over the show.
Avoid technical jargon
We may think using clever language is impressive but it’s often alienating, not to mention off-putting. Remember, some of the judges won’t be from your sector so keep it simple to make sure that everyone understands what you’re talking about.
Use case studies
A good case study or two can really bring an otherwise somewhat dry business award nomination to life. Including testimonials, evidence, facts and figures can be a really effective and positive way to get the judges’ attention.
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Stay away from superlatives, over the top adjectives and unnecessary punctuation like exclamation marks. To describe something or someone in your nomination, you need to stick to the facts and show how it or they delivered real results.
Spell Check
Spelling and grammatical mistakes are such rookie errors that will immediately detract from the quality of your nomination. With all the spell-checking apps and programs available these days, there’s really no excuse. Whatever you do, check it all thoroughly before hitting send.
Stay focused
Your checking process also needs to look at your messaging. Make sure you’ve stuck to the main message and haven’t gone off-topic accidentally. Be ruthless and remove any unnecessary words. And, if you’ve used too much fluff and filler copy, edit it down or better yet, replace it with case studies and statistics.
Provide supporting information
Some awards entries will ask for supporting information and some won’t. Either way, if you think it adds to your nomination and crucially, will help the judges, then send it through. It could make all the difference between winning and losing.
If you’d like to start winning some business awards, work with us – we can help you produce campaigns that deliver real results. Give our directors a call for more information.