13 Ways to Turn Business Awards into Marketing Gold

13 Ways to Turn Business Awards into Marketing Gold

Have you or your business won an award? Congratulations!

Once you’ve toasted to your success, it’s time to capitalize on your honor to promote your business. Here are 13 ideas for showcasing business awards in a smart marketing strategy.

Why Awards are Great for Marketing

Awards offer your business powerful marketing advantages. Winning an award enables you to:

• Stand apart from your competitors;
• Position your company as tops in your field;
• Instill pride in your staff;
• Spotlight your staff’s capabilities and achievements;
• Remind clients and prospects of your commitment to excellence;
• Generate positive media coverage.

Once you win, here’s how to make the most of your honor:

1. Share the news with your team. As your top brand ambassadors (and the people whose contributions helped you win an award), your team should be the first to hear about honors for your business. Tell them in person if possible or use video conferencing, email, or your intranet. Host a staff celebration.
2. Tell clients and prospects. If you’ve won a national award or a prominent honor in your industry, call your top clients to tell them personally and thank them for their support. Send an email alert or feature the news in your company’s e-newsletter.
3. Tell the media. Send a news release to your media list. If you’ve won a particularly noteworthy national or international award, consider a news distribution service.
4. Post it on your website. Awards warrant home-page real estate on your website. Consider adding awards to website headers and footers. Create an awards page in your “About” section or add awards to a “Credentials” page. Post pictures (and video-see #7 below) of staff accepting or celebrating the honor.
5. Share the news on social media. Get the word out instantly on your social media channels. Link to the news on your website or the site of the awards sponsor.
6. Add awards to all sales materials. Many competitions provide an awards logo for marketing. Some programs, like U.S. News, require a licensing fee, but others provide the art to winners without cost. Add awards logos to your sales materials, trade show booth, advertising, and promotional premiums.
7. Create video. An award is a great opportunity for video. Shoot the awards ceremony, your internal celebration, interviews with contributing staff members, your CEO congratulating the team, or clients and vendors commenting on your achievement. Post video on YouTube, your website, and social media.
8. Develop signage for your building. Create banners or permanent signage for the exterior of your facilities. Here’s a banner we created when our client Rae-Ann Nursing Facilities in Westlake, Ohio was named one of America’s best nursing homes by U.S. News.
9. Add graphics to your vehicles. Wrap your company vehicles with custom graphics if there’s an awards logo or symbol.
10. Update your stationery. Some awards may be appropriate for inclusion on business cards and letterhead, especially if the award is considered a professional credential.
11. Display awards at your business. Give award statuettes or framed certificates high visibility in high-traffic areas. We have a wall of awards (above) in the reception area of our Cleveland marketing consulting firm.
12. Blog about your honor. Tell followers the story behind your award in a blog post: What you won, how you did it, and why it’s meaningful to you.
13. Consider paying for visibility. If there’s an awards ceremony and you’re offered the chance to buy a table or an ad in a program book or business publication, give it serious consideration if it will significantly increase your company’s visibility with prospects, clients, and influencers.

Winning Awards is a Smart Marketing Strategy

It takes time, effort, and money to enter awards competitions, but the investment can be justified if you’re good enough to win and you know how to capitalize on success.

Looking for ways to boost your chances of success in awards competitions? Follow these 10 tips. Good luck!