An Award Submission Masterclass with no-nonsense marketing guru and cofinitive founder, Faye Holland

I couldn’t even hazard a guess at how many award submissions we have made as a business, or how many I’ve been involved in across a three-decade career. But what I can say with confidence is that we know how to represent our clients with award-winning submissions, gaining for them an assortment of coveted awards from the ultimate Queen’s Award (now King’s Award) through to industry and regional awards such as Disruptor of the Year.

cofinitive ‘judges’ over 300 companies each year for its own #21toWatch programme, and I personally judge multiple award entries and pitching competitions each year.

Combined, this means we have probably ‘seen it all’ and it gives us a very high success rate of wins for our clients, which I am happy to share:

Start by researching the awards that are open to you. Is it more important to be recognised in your industry or in your region? Or is a more high-profile, national business award great profiling for you? It’s very important to look at the previous winners – are they the types of companies you would like to compete with or sit alongside in the hall of fame? You want to be compared to your peers. For example, a deep tech company in the same category as a brownie-making company isn’t really going to be very beneficial for you.

Once you have selected the type of award that fits your profile, think about the award category you’re going to enter. Does it reflect what you do or give you competitive advantage in a certain space? Within some awards, we see companies ticking multiple categories - but this can come across as ‘chancing your luck’ to the judges. A good way to look at it is to imagine you’re writing a CV for your very first job. You can’t quite decide if you want to do digital marketing, project management or data analysis, so you send the same CV and cover letter to each one. But guess what, you won’t get an interview for any of them because you’ve not focused or targeted your application. And the same applies for an award entry.

Always be prepared that the judges may view you differently to the way you see yourselves and they may change your entry category.

Every year, we judge up to 30 entries for the One to Watch category at the #SciTechAwards alone. We have a finite amount of time to review them and, if we want to dig further, we generally do it because we are interested in the company, not because we have to research what the company actually does to understand their entry! ?However, if your entry doesn’t immediately answer the fundamental question, ‘What do you do?’ - that mistake could cost you and lose you a shortlisting from the off.

As with any elevator pitch, you have 30 seconds to help me (or any judge) understand why we should read on. ?Clearly, a confusing, waffly, badly written submission isn’t going to make me want to do that. And talking to other judges and funders/investors, we all agree that one of the biggest frustrations with entries is the lack of a clear and concise opening statement. So, when you’re crafting your submission, be sure to answer these three questions: (1) Who is your ideal/ target customer? (2) How will your offering solve your customers’ need? (3) Why are you different/ What’s your Unique Selling Point (USP)? Try to include facts and figures which show the scope of what you are trying to achieve.

Most importantly, keep in mind that everyone has different knowledge and experience. You could be talking to a lay audience or an academic expert, so you need to pitch your content accordingly. We all know you are clever, and your technology/ offering is undoubtedly brilliant – but no one likes to be bamboozled. So, use simple language that cuts through the jargon clearly, gets your core message across, and creates intrigue. The litmus test to knowing when you have got the right balance is if the reader/ listener wants to know/ hear more. It’s the sort of thing you can practise, for example, when you’re at a networking event. If the person you’re speaking to goes glassy eyed after 30 seconds, it’s not worked, and you need to go back to the drawing (writing) board. If they say: ‘Wow, that’s interesting, how do you do that?’ and a slew of other questions, you’ve cracked it.

The other thing you need to consider is the amount of time you spend on your submission. Take time. Think carefully about your audience, message, and desired outcome. Treat writing a submission the same way you should writing that all-important blog for your company. You wouldn’t just quickly cobble that together, would you?

It’s also important to remember that your business has its own character, so use the same tone that expresses your company’s brand and core values in your award submission. Showing your personality will help you stand out from the pack.

You know your company and business better than anyone. If you do outsource the submission writing, make time to review it first before submitting. One of the worst submissions I have ever read was from a PR company! It took all my might not to email the nominated company to let them know how poorly they had been represented.

Lastly, don’t, under any circumstances, ask for an extension to the submission deadline. Running awards is a tightly oiled machine and no special privileges should be requested or awarded. If extensions are given, I would question the validity of the awards and whether they have received enough decent submissions! And you are better than that!

To recap:

·??????? Research awards that will add genuine value to your company

·??????? Allocate enough time and resource to submit a good entry

·??????? Don’t use alienating jargon or unexplained acronyms

·??????? Don’t be afraid to add a bit of character

·??????? Don’t waffle, especially (and I can say this) don’t use marketing fluff

Before I sign off, I just wanted to say something about paid-for awards. These really get my goat. I am sure many of you have received emails saying things along the lines of: You are the in the Top 100 of the most amazing, inspiring, technological geniuses on the planet! You all know the ones I mean. And for $insert fee, they’ll even give you a write up. Well, there is only one place for these to go – and that’s in your junk folder. They’re what we call in the trade ‘vanity awards’. They are worthless, lacking in all credibility and best avoided.

The same applies to those that, once you have been shortlisted, ask you to pay for a table to get to the final. These we call ‘pay-for-play’ awards, and they are similarly lacking in credibility lining the pockets of the organiser rather than helping to raise your profile.

However, don’t confuse these with awards that charge an entry fee. These are likely to be discipline-led awards (e.g. Legal, HR, PR, compliance etc). Industry-validating awards typically charge an upfront fee to cover operational costs. If you do submit for these, they are also likely to be considerably more detailed submissions, requiring financial information and supporting material. If you are investing money as well as time, make sure you do them properly.

Whoever said: ‘It’s not the winning, it’s the taking part’ was right. Winning is great, but being shortlisted can also net you lots of exposure – and so be sure to make the most of the run-up to the awards and don’t just focus on the event ceremony.

In summary, choosing the right award for your business, and making a good submission, can help you elevate your business. So, what have you to lose? Stop umm-ing and ah-ing about whether to submit a well-selected ward, and if you’re just not sure, give us a call!