Welcome back. In this lesson, you're going to learn all about how to write award entries that maximize your chances of winning awards offer an excellent way to achieve your PR objectives. They help you raise brand awareness, promote expertise, and celebrate success. Awards come in all shapes and sizes from small industry specific awards to large International Business Awards. But whatever word you're entering the process for preparing the entry is the same. So why would you even bother entering awards?
There are four main reasons to include awards in your PR strategy. Firstly, award winning is a really good trust signal that means that people respect and trust your brand. Secondly, awards are usually judged and followed by influences in your industry. So if you want to get on their radars, entering awards is usually a good first step. Thirdly, many awards are associated with leading media outlets, so it's an excellent way to get on journalists radars. And finally, from an HR perspective, awards appeal to current and potential employees, people want to work for award winning organizations.
The first step in writing an award winning award entry is understanding how awards are typically judged. Most awards are judged by senior people working in the industry. They fit their judging responsibilities into their busy schedules, and they do it for three main reasons. Firstly, they like to see what their competitors are up to. We're all a little bit nosy like that. Secondly, they like the prestige and being associated with the awards.
And thirdly, judges get to attend the awards ceremony, which is usually a fun night out. In many cases, the judges are separated into groups, and each given two to three categories to judge. The long list of entries up to 60 per category are sent to the judges in advance to be reviewed and marketing against the award category criteria. This means that each judge might have around 100 entries to read. Following this, the marks are collated and a shortlist is selected. The judges are then invited in for a judging day during which they only go through the five to 10 entries on the shortlist.
They discuss them, and they eventually choose the winner. So what does this mean for how you prepare your award entry? Well, firstly, this information is going into the hands of potential competitors. So you'll need to showcase your business results without providing too much detail as to how those results were achieved. Secondly, submitting an award entry is a reputation exercise entries need to be to a certain standard. You want to impress your peers and competitors.
I still think really poorly of one of my competitors because I judged a sloppy award entry from them. But five years ago, judges are bored by the time they've read the first five entries. They tend to cut corners and skim read. So make sure your entry is Visually and verbally memorable, and that you get only the most important points across very quickly in your summary. Finally, judges can be biased. They tend to favor campaigns they saw on TV, or companies they've already heard of.
So make sure you use words to level the playing field and include your financial figures into entry. Not all awards are judged in this manner. Some are decided by popular vote, in which case you really need to campaign to get your entry to climb the ranks. But for the purposes of this course, I'm going to focus on how to write award winning entries. Before you start drafting your award entry. Make sure you do these things.
Firstly, choose the right category. Carefully read the category criteria and make sure your entry fits them the criteria there for a reason. So don't just ignore them. Don't go straight for the most obvious or broadest category, you stand a better chance of standing out if you can show how your work or campaign fits within a more specific catch. For example, don't go for a best overall business category, if there's a best innovation category, and your entries based on innovation. Secondly, understand the entry format.
Read the entry format guidelines carefully and take note of any word limits suggested subheadings for entry statements, and time periods that the entry method refers to. Again, these are here for a reason and good attention to detail is a positive reflection on the overall entry. Note how the entries will be submitted. Is that a form where you just submit text, in which case you won't need any design? Or do you upload a PDF in which case design will really make your ward stand out. Make sure you have all the information you need.
Quite often you'll be required to submit financial information alongside the main entry statement. This can take a while to get together so don't leave it to the last minute. Thirdly, make a plan determine what you're going to include an each section before you start writing. This will stop you from waffling and repeating content that will only be The judges only note the key points that you absolutely need to get across. Use previously written award entries, particularly those that were successful to inform your style in turn. And as with all writing, less is more here, writing the entry.
Having completed the necessary research and planning you now proceed to draft your entry. Make sure to follow these best practice rules. Firstly, answer the question directly. Simply put, spend time reading the questions carefully understand what exactly the judges are looking for, and deliver it in your entry. For example, if you're being asked you for your company's objectives provide a short succinct and easily readable list of objectives, and not to paragraphs about the company's history and offering. Make the objective clear and specific before coming back to them at the end to show that they were met or exceeded.
Use plain English. Don't assume the judges are familiar with industry terms and jargon. Communicate in plain English without using overly complicated or wordy sentences were appropriate. For example, when listing results or objectives, use bullet points for clarity and succinct. Don't think you have to meet the word count. In fact, it's better not to, the judges will look more favorably on entries that get straight to the point.
And always make sure you have at least two other people proofread the entry before it's submitted. Fill in all sections, filling in all sections and an award entry sounds obvious, but it's not. For example, if there's an optional aspect to the entry, for example, an optional summary of your company or optional supporting material, it's not optional. Completing the entries to the fullest extent reflects on the time and effort you put into it. You need to do it. Don't make it up.
This ties back to answering the questions directly. Don't attempt to skip around what the question is actually asking. If the entry is for best x of 2020 you need to explain in no uncertain terms why X was the best award criteria was spelled out how they define best, so make sure you stick to those criteria. If you can't do that, then it's probably not worth entering the award to begin with. Don't lift sentences and paragraphs directly from your marketing collateral, or from your company website. It's very easy to spot as a judge and not likely to answer the questions.
In any case, don't inflate your success. Judges won't be afraid to call you out on unrealistic things. If you're entering high profile Business Awards, your entry may need to be followed by a presentation with the judges themselves, at which point you will be further pressured to back up in the games. Use stats and testimonials. Stats give an air of legitimacy to the entry and measurable legitimate achievements or what the judges will be looking for. The same thing applies with testimonials.
If you can secure quotes from happy customers or clients, it will only add to entry. But always make sure any testimonials are pre approved first. Think of all the bits of evidence you might be able to pull together what metrics show that this campaign or this company has been really successful. discuss this with your team beforehand and make sure you're focusing only on these metrics. As it's often not immediately obvious. Always start with a summary of your entry.
When a judge sits on an award panel, they may have to trawl through 100 entries in a week, it gets boring first, help them to identify why you're winning in 100 words, to save them the time as simple yet compelling summary looks like this. Here's what we did. This was the outcome. And that's why we should win. Use subheadings. Simply put, it's easier to read a document that contains subheadings make life easier for the judges, they will appreciate it.
Make sure your sub headings correlate with the award criteria, as the judges won't likely have a checklist in front of them listing the award criteria. So make it easy for them to see how you meet these. remove anything boring or irrelevant. Take out all the fluff, stick to the key points and keep it punchy and interesting. cuts it down. If you finished your first draft, cut it as much as you can, so you're only focusing on the most important points.
And finally, get it designed. When you finish drafting your entry, get it designed so that it really stands out. Most entries are badly formatted Word documents help your standout by making it look different, colorful, including images and just looking really stylish, not only as a good way to get noticed, but it also demonstrates effort put into the entry. Once you've been nominated for this award, this is definitely something to be celebrated. And you should be posting the nomination announcement on your blog, sharing it with your team, publishing it on your social channels and including it in your email signature. However, I do recommend a healthy degree of skepticism here.
Avoid falling into the trap of getting overexcited about your nomination and buying 200 tickets for your entire company and their partners and all your favorite clients to attend the award ceremony. The reason this is a bad idea is that if you don't When you end up having quite a demoralizing evening ceremony, it's rather worth sending a small group or just not booking your ticket at all. He has a trade secret for you. If you're going to win the award and you haven't booked a ticket for the ceremony, the organizers will need you there. So they'll eventually get in touch, strongly suggesting that you buy a ticket. You don't have to spend any money until that's happened as your PR budget is limited, and you should be spending it on the most valuable activities.
Quick recap. award winning is worth going for. But there's a very clear process for running a successful awards program, which involves researching the categories and tailoring your entries to the judging criteria. Judges are busy and most order entries are boring. Make sure yours is punchy standout. In the next lesson, we're going to have a brief look at how to use your own publicity channels to promote your brand.