Entering an industry award is a great way to improve relationships with all your stakeholders and boost employee engagement. But the only way to win an industry award is to make sure you have the highest quality entry. This blog gives five tips to help you craft award-winning entries.
Follow the judges’ criteria
We’re sorry to have to say this, but when it comes to awards entries, you don’t know best. It often seems that writing entries can be rather formulaic, particularly if you are in the creative industries, so it can be tempting to try and do something clever. But judges must assess many, maybe dozens, of different projects. They need parameters within which they can compare apples with pears. If you ignore what they want, you won’t win.
Enter where you have the best chance of winning
Sounds obvious, but make sure you enter the category in which you have the best chance of winning. Not the one which seems to offer the greatest prestige, not the one your boss would like the firm to be known for. Be ruthless about your chances and respond. If in doubt, ask two questions:
- For which category do I have the most convincing results?
- Which category is likely to provide the least convincing competition for this project?
Tell them a story
Don’t over-compartmentalise the entry. Even if it is broken into sections, try to use each part to move the story on towards the conclusion. You need to demonstrate why this project deserves to beat all other entries. Make your summary count – get the main benefit of your project across in the first few sentences of the entry. Do not repeat facts or benefits in different places – it’s just a waste of words.
Use proper results and substantiation
If you don’t have statistics or defined results to demonstrate success, you won’t win an industry award. Quote the main statistics in the entry and add graphs to the supporting material. Unsubstantiated claims communicate hyperbole and should be cut from the final draft because they can damage the credibility of the entire entry.
Get decent photography & support material
Most industry awards give you the opportunity to add supporting material. This is the place for all those graphs and infographics and media coverage which make the point that your entry is a success. But don’t overdo it; judges will primarily base their judgement on the entry so make sure it is complete of itself. Generally, they only turning to support material to help differentiate between close entrants.
This blog is the second part of a two-part blog series on awards. Check out the first part on why you should enter industry awards here.