How to draft an award winning entry for your business?

Winning an award for your business is a great way to demonstrate to your clients that you are really good at what you do as well as being a joy to have the people who work in your business be recognised and celebrated with winning an award.

However, many business owners often shy away from entering awards, even although they would like to win one. Why? There are many reasons, but very often finding the time to draft one is the main issue alongside the fact that most don't really know where to start.

Over the years, I have lost count of the number of successful award entries I have drafted on behalf of other businesses but it is still one of the favourite things I love to write as each entry is different, and every time I draft one I tend to learn something absolutely fascinating about the business.

While you may think there is no real dark art or secret to drafting an award winning entry, but believe me it is harder than you think. Below are some of my tips to help you on your way:

1. Read the criteria carefully - make sure you match your answers specifically to the questions asked. Avoid the temptation to waffle and remember the judges have hundreds of entries to review so find a way to make your entry easy to read and for the judge to mark.
2. Use plain language - do not assume that all the judges will know your business sector very well or that they will understand technical language, acronyms or commonly used industry phrases. Make everything really simple so that anyone can read and understand it. Take the time to read your entry over and over again and ask yourself does this make sense. Even better if you can find someone completely impartial to read and critique it for you.
3. Give yourself time to draft, edit, redraft and edit again - most entries have maximum word counts for each question. Many limit answers to 200 words which is not much when you are trying to present your business in the best light. It is really very hard to write short responses, they take 10 times longer than if you had an unlimited word count to play with so it is important you don't sit down the night before the deadline and try and knock it out!
4. Get strong testimonials - many awards require you to back up your entry with including some third party testimonials. You need to give your clients time to write them and preferably give them some pointers about what you would ideally like them to say in support of your entry. It will not impress the judges if every entry has a testimonial that says something generic such as "ABC company is are a great company to work with we highly recommend them" because it says nothing about why they do or why your unique business should win this particular award.
5. Do not be tempted to cut and paste old entries - or worse still just use info from your website. You must write something bespoke and preferably something that shows off the heart and passion you have for your business. If you are not sure what to say, ask people! Get some input from your suppliers, clients, friends and colleagues you will be surprised what people actually say about your business when pressed. Good or bad you will get something from that exercise alone!
6. A picture tells a thousand words - use them in supporting material if you can to support your entry. Many entries now allow links to videos and animations which are also worth including but only if they are relevant, in context and current.

Finally, if you don't have a good writer in-house then consider finding a freelance professional to help you draft your entries, it is not cheating, it is simply about finding the right skills for the right job. A good writer, does not need to know your business to draft this, they just need to know how to ask you the right questions and they will be able to write a quality and hopefully, award winning entry.

Good luck and go for it!