How to win a business or industry award

At different points in a year, various industry awarding firms stretch their hands to receive award applications from brands in the industry to determine which companies have performed best for that calendar year.

As you may already know, these awards are a great recipe for PR and brand reputation. Some customers even want to buy from you just because they see on IGTV that you’re the winner of one of the most hotly contested awards in your industry. Whether or not you buy real Instagram views to get the video in their feeds is not their concern. The fact that they see you winning an award is enough to woo them.

Such is the influence of awards on prospects.

But, of course, before you can win these awards, your application needs to appeal to the award committee. So, how can you do that?

Let’s find out!

Approach your application from a different angle

Already you know that when entering into an award contest, you’re competing not just against random businesses in the industry, but against some of your biggest competitors – businesses that are doing extremely well, if not better than yours.

So to beat them, you’ll need to appeal to the soft-spot of the judge. And the best way to do this is by approaching your application from a different angle.

Already, the award committee expects applications that talk about industry-related matters and how each business solves them. But you can grab their attention by highlighting something your brand has that others don’t – something unique only to you, something you’ve got that the rest can’t copy.

Seek ideas from your team members

No entrepreneur can run their business alone. Even a solopreneur still gets help. So, why try to do all the heavy lifting when it comes to business awards? You never know, some of your team members might have contributed significantly to the award success of their previous employers. But by sidelining them in your own award quest, you’ll be missing out on the wealth of knowledge they can bring to the table.

Consult with them (all your team members), and hear their views. Perhaps someone might have something intriguing to say to improve the context of your application.

Highlight your strongest points

Truth be told, no one business is perfect on all fronts. You might be great with the service you provide, excellent with your payment systems, and unrivaled in your delivery service, but you might suck in your customer service.

But guess what? Your competitors also suffer the same fate.

However, the advantage you have – which they don’t – is that you have access to a post like this.

Depending on the category of award you’re moving on, you might have a strong point that aligns with what that category focuses on. This point is what you want to focus on in your application!

Perhaps it’s an award for the best customer service provider in the industry, and you render awesome customer services on multiple fronts while also adopting some of the newest tech tools that most of your competitors (including the award committee, Lol) might not know about. Don’t you think the award committee will be captivated if you make a mention of this point in your application?

Study previous winners

If this is not the inaugural launch of the award, then someone must have won it before. Find out who they are, what they represent, who their competitors were, and what stood them out for the award. These points are what you want to address in your own application to beat the rest.

Get nominated by someone reputable

Award nominations can either come from third-party nominations or self-nominations. If you want to stand a better chance of claiming an award, you’re better off getting someone to nominate you, rather than nominating yourself.

But be sure that the nominator is someone reputable in the industry. Most award committees take a reputable third-party nomination more seriously than self-nominations.

Go after awards you have a good chance at

There is no shame in conceding that your brand is not yet ripe for some categories of awards. Trying to compete with the big boys when you’re just a small business in its infancy is not a wise move at all. So, before you decide to go after an award, consider the nature of the award and who the likely contestants are.