Are Awards Good for Business?

October 25, 2017

Being part of a digital agency that has grown from strength to strength over recent years, we have only recently decided to take the step into award submissions. It’s not that in previous years we have thought winning awards wasn’t for us, far from it, it’s more a case of them being something that were always on our to-do list but we just ‘hadn’t got around to it’… until now.

 

I had the pleasure of attending and collecting awards from  The Northern Digital Awards, the national Ecommerce Awards and the Northern Ecommerce Awards in the last 12 months alone.

But the question is, does winning awards help you as an agency?

In a previous life I was torn 50/50 as to whether winning awards did anything for businesses, but as Commercial Director of a 20-strong team I can now safely say that they do!

No matter the size of your business, agency or not, you can benefit from the recognition that the right award gives. Here are my top 3 reasons for pushing forward with that award submission.

 

Employee Satisfaction

Take giving your employees pay rises every other day out of the equation, the next best way to keep your colleagues motivated is to recognise their hard work. Knowing that the work you did contributed to that nomination, or better yet, that award victory surely gives that member of staff an extra spring in their step.

I’ve always been a believer that supporting your colleagues and acknowledging their hard work will, selfishly, pay back twice as much to you in the long run. A happy motivated staff member will always go that extra mile to hit that deadline and not think twice about opening up the laptop to answer a query after hours!

As an agency always on the lookout for the next member of staff, having awards under your belt helps to attract the next Bill Gates to your business. And who doesn’t want to work for a multi-award winning agency…. right?

 

Sales

Not that this should be the one and only reason behind winning awards but someone, i.e. me as the Commercial Director, has to think about where the next client is coming from.

Winning awards can help the next stage of your business in many ways, from strengthening your working relationship with the client you won the award on behalf of, to a seal of approval for your future sales pitches. Again who doesn’t want to work with an agency that has an industry award to their name in the industry you work in?

 

Free Publicity

Everyone loves the word free, it rarely actually means free in my experience. There will be a cost to any award submissions you decide to go for, from paying for the submission itself, to the time taken to write the submission, or to the cost of attending the glitzy ceremony, if you decide to go all out to celebrate (a great way to keep employee satisfaction up).

Winning that award should send your PR machine into overdrive, publications and local news sources love to hear about a success story, so make the most of shouting from the roof tops.

Updating your documents and websites you use on a daily basis to show the award can only help differentiate you from the competition.?

 

If you’d like to speak to us about how we can help with your marketing strategies, why not contact us here or drop us a Tweet or Comment. We look forward to chatting with you soon!