Third-party validation of your brand doesn’t always have to come from traditional PR and media relations. Corporate award programs can be another powerful tool for bolstering brand credibility.
But given that each award you pursue takes considerable time, effort, and (usually) money to craft and submit, how do you decide which ones deliver credibility and value?
Here are four questions you should ask when evaluating award opportunities:
- Is the award credible?
Not all award programs are created equal. Many are spun up just to collect application fees. These tier 2 and 3 awards typically have the following characteristics:
- A large quantity of broadly scoped categories – Awards that specialize in everything likely specialize in nothing. A broad range of categories dilutes the meaning and suggests that the criteria for winning are effectively unsubstantiated.
- No visibility into judges or methodology – If the process of selecting a winner is a black box, it suggests that the submission fee is the most important part.
- More information on fees and promotional packages than the award program itself – Corporate awards that lead with galas, trophies, and add-on packages are often selling the experience more than the prestige of the award itself (if attending is a requirement for winning, you should pass).
- Not affiliated with a reputable organization – Amplification is the most valuable aspect of an award, but amplification only matters when associated with reputable organizations. For example, a media outlet like CRN usually includes a dedicated winners page, write-ups on the winners, information pushed out through social media channels, etc. That amplification – and backlink – on a high domain authority site is the most valuable part of winning an award.
- Is the award realistic?
Knowing when an award is an uphill battle instead of a slam dunk can help you determine where best to spend your time and marketing dollars. If any of the following are true, you might consider passing on the award submission:
- Nominating a B2B company for an award with overwhelmingly B2C honorees.
- Nominating a small or mid-size brand for an award that favors large, recognizable companies and industry heavy hitters.
- Nominating a for-profit company for an award that mostly favors non-profit or otherwise philanthropic work.
- Nominating something intangible when specific products or services seem like the focus.
- Nominating without compelling data or customer validation.
Note: there are some cases where submitting a nomination (for a top tier award) is warranted as a tactic for getting on the radar of the judges. Your PR team can help you make that distinction.
- Is the award the right fit?
Each award program tells its own story. Sometimes this is evident in the headline or description of the award itself. For example, the Inc. 5000 describes itself as “an annual list of the fastest-growing private companies in America,” ranking honorees ordinally based on their percentage financial growth within a defined window. That’s very cut and dry.
Other times, it’s more ambiguous, like the Business Intelligence Group’s “Woman of the Year” award in their Big Awards for Business program. In these cases, you can gauge the overall narrative through the application itself. Is it asking about hard metrics, like financial results or employee headcount? Is it asking for anecdotes of an executive’s exemplary leadership or descriptions of a product’s differentiating factors?
Understanding the questions helps you understand what the award really represents (and if the submission questions were thoughtfully curated). If recruiting talent isn’t a focus, you may deprioritize awards that celebrate workplace culture. If you’re looking to bolster awareness of a solution you’ve recently launched, you could consider putting it forward for awards highlighting outstanding new products.
It seems straightforward, but it’s easy to get caught up in what awards you could feasibly apply for instead of what you should be pursuing. Taking a step back and comparing award focus to organizational priorities helps to restore clarity and narrow your options.
- Is there an opportunity for ROI?
Nomination fees can be expensive, typically costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Even if there is no application fee, the time it takes to craft a winning submission can be just as costly.
Ensure that the award you’re applying for offers the right promotion opportunities. This could be:
- Inclusion in a press release announcing the winners, positioning your brand among other reputable companies.
- A standalone press release highlighting your brand on its own.
- A ceremony aligned with a key industry event (and part of the event agenda).
- Third-party social media promotion.
- Licensed (or free) assets like badges that you can leverage for your own promotion.
- Winners featured on reputable landing pages with backlinks.
Be wary of awards that don’t guarantee visibility even for winners, or that charge extra for licensing on top of the application fee.
Furthermore, ensure that your award win reaches a strategic audience. The purpose of award programs is to bolster third-party credibility of your brand. If the people who see your accolade aren’t relevant to your brand, your win might as well exist in a vacuum.
Awards can feel like a gamble, and it’s uncomfortable to pay a submission fee for something that may or may not result in any recognition. But earning a credible award can be an extremely powerful tool for putting a compelling, externally endorsed narrative in front of a key audience (investors, customers, prospects, etc.). The more strategic and targeted you are in selecting the awards and crafting your submissions, the more likely you are to reap the benefits.
Want to take a more strategic approach to awards? Reach out to the Voxus team to learn how we can help.