It is the season of parties, with many of us donning our best attire for the office Christmas party or even promote our company at a business awards ceremony

With the Sheffield Business Awards taking place (5th Dec 2019) and with Steel City being suppliers of branded awards it got us thinking about how best to maximise a business awards success….

We have linked up with Lucinda White, the founder of bespoke awards consultancy Pure Awards Creative to ask for her top ten tips to maximising and marketing award success:

1. Let everyone know!

It’s amazing how many companies don’t tell their customers, suppliers, staff, stakeholders or service users about their win. Letting people know about your win is vital as they will enjoy celebrating your success with you!

2. Update your print

Re-write your letterhead templates and anything printed which you send to your customers and prospects. That includes all your branded merchandise too. Don’t forget to mention the award, category and add the award logo if there is space. If you can’t change existing literature, consider an insert highlighting the win with a picture of you holding the trophy!

A lot of companies host their own internal end of year awards ceremonies now to reward and acknowledge outstanding performance amongst staff. There are all sorts of branded awards available to suit your company and branding.

3. PR

Write a press release and send it out to all local, regional and industry press – but, be aware that just one win on its own may not send the journalists into a frenzy to print your story. Think of the angle, is the award win part of a bigger strategy with other wins to come. It might be better to hold off and present your exciting multi-award winning story at a later date.

4. Website and social media

Put a news feature on your website and link this to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles/ sites. Always tag the awards organisers into your comments on social media maximising the opportunity for retweets and comment.

5. Emails

Update the email footer for each person to include the name of the award and its logo if available. Then, draft a personalised email to be sent by each member of staff to their company contact base informing the client of your win and success. Enjoy reading the replies and share amongst the team!

6. Plan a celebration event

Consider holding a ‘celebrate our win’ day at your after the awards dinner and invite your contact list to join you for a drink and some cake during the day or after work one evening. You could even offer clients a branded gift to entice them, as well as helping to showcase your award win.

7. Sales pitch

Re-write the sales team’s notes and pitch information to ensure your team are consistent when speaking and writing to clients, referring to you as an ‘award winning company’, or ‘multi-award winning company’ if you’ve won more than one award. And then mention what you won it for…was it customer service, people development, export or leadership?

8. Expert/Influencer

Winning awards give you further exposure as an individual and for your company in order to firmly establish you as an industry expert or influencer, look out for relevant publications to approach and request the opportunity to write your own column or regular article.

9. Presentations

Research the events taking place in the area and put yourself forward as a guest speaker. This will enhance your skills in public speaking whilst also putting you in front of a captive audience and new prospects.

10. Enter more!

The more awards you enter, the better you will become at entering them, the more exposure you will get and the more business you will attract.

So if you have enjoyed a business award success, why not try out these ten top tips of how to maximise a business awards success? Find out more and benefit from Lucinda’s advice and assistance with planning and writing award entries.

www.steel-city.co.uk