Why YOU should enter awards
My LinkedIn feed is filling up with good news as people and projects are being shortlisted for awards. After the chaos of the past 18 months it’s nice to be seeing some sort of normality. Oh and I don’t believe the myth that ‘only people that sponsor an award win anything’ if anything the reverse is more likely to be true. If you’re umming and arrghhing about whether you should put in a submission for your project, company or team here are some reasons why I think it’s worth putting in some effort and trying to win something:
Boosts morale
Often overlooked, but people in the construction industry work really hard and having recognition from the industry at large and your peers that you’re delivering awesome work is definitely a morale boost.
3rd party endorsement
It’s always nice to have someone else ‘blowing your trumpet’ – when a third party says you’ve done something great – it’s always that bit more convincing than you harping on about your own greatness.
Networking
Pre-award events and the events themselves are great chances for you to network with the movers and shakers in the industry. They’re also a brilliant opportunity for you to bring together some of your key clients, potential clients and partners - who knows what work opportunities and connections that can lead onto.
Chance to build relationships with judges
The judging panels for major industry awards often comprise of many of the industry’s leading lights so submitting an entry is a great way for you to get your business on their radar. I’ll never forgot that for an industry award entry that I supported, when we received the judges’ comments back, one judge had said he’d never heard of us but that we as a company were now on his radar and that he’d like to work with us in the future. If that’s not a brilliant intro to use as part of a follow up - I don’t know what is!
Free press
It’s often hard to gain coverage in the industry press as everyone is competing for precious column inches so awards are a good channel to gain exposure for your practice and work.
As long as you pick a credible award organiser – awards shortlists and winners supplements are a lovely way to raise your profile. I often use judges’ comments in winners press releases and on websites – particularly if they’re well known figures. Also, you can do emails out to your contacts and run-ons of the award supplement to really get the most marketing milage out of a win.
It’s nice to share good news
It’s always good to have something positive to talk about in social media – you can share your news about your shortlisting, attending the event, who you’re going with and what happened on the note and the awards supplement. All brilliant content and people do love to congratulate others which even better in terms of boosting engagement and your reach.
Raises your profile
Even if you only make the shortlist – you can still shout about it and make some noise out to your industry.
Hopefully this post has inspired you to dust off those writing cobwebs and to get on with crafting some stunning prose about why you deserve to win the best widget in the UK award!! Enjoy.
