With entries for The British Conveyancing Awards now open, here’s all you need to know on the value of entering awards ceremonies.
When planning out your marketing strategy, do you consider including awards ceremonies? For some marketeers awards can be a distraction, an inconvenience. Other see them as a fantastic way to build up a firm’s profile, and boost team morale.
How many awards are you planning on entering this year?
Sometimes it can feel like there a few too many awards ceremonies in certain sectors, and too many LinkedIn posts of winners in black ties and ballgowns toasting success at one awards dinner or another. Awards can provide a huge boost to your business and you should consider how they might fit into an overall marketing strategy over the next one, three and five years.
Increase your profile
Win or lose, in the lead up to the event, during the event and afterwards, the name of your business will be splashed around, with industry experts, clients and potential clients becoming aware of your business name delivering a welcome boost to your brand.
Reinforcing your reputation
In your marketing and communications you can extol the virtues of being involved in a credible and high quality judging process, independently recognised by your peers for service excellence and achievements.
It is prudent to carefully consider which awards are most relevant to your strategy. For example, should you wish grow a reputation in a niche area of the law, entering awards and categories which cater for that will support your efforts to grow your reputation.
Effective as part of your overall marketing strategy
Making your local community aware of your success sets you apart from your competitors. Should you be recognised by an awards ceremony you will want to ensure you are in touch with your local news outlets to make them aware; then this can boost your chances of being instructed.
Again, thinking about particular consumer friendly categories, perhaps around service excellence and expertise, can help with building a local brand.
Greater influence through association
An award can raise the profile of your company; the effect can be stratospheric! Positioning your firm in the presence of similar industry greats will certainly improve your firm’s profile.
Six months of marketing for a nominal fee
The awards organisers have a vested interest in making as much noise as possible about the ceremony. Engaging with them through social media will amplify your firm’s involvement. Entry opportunities often start up to six months before the event itself so even allowing for an entry fee, you get up to six months of ongoing promotion opportunities for a nominal fee.
Return on investment
Add to that the possibility of being nominated for an award and your return of investment goes through the roof. A nomination alone will see your success spread far and wide both through the awards’ organisers and your own messaging.
You will benefit from the awards’ press coverage, marketing collateral and social media coverage. These benefits alone will more than cover the entry fee and will expose your firm to new sections of the market.
Don’t forget to celebrate!
And finally, go along to the awards themselves, even if you’re not shortlisted. They are a fantastic networking opportunity and you get to meet like-minded businesses and individuals… and you might learn a thing or two about your submission for next year!
And if you are lucky enough to be a winner or a runner up, don’t forget to celebrate. The euphoria of winning an award could do wonders for morale in the organisation. As well as the undoubted benefits of the external publicity, don’t forget to recognise and celebrate those within your business who made the win possible. It’s a great chance to stop and celebrate success generating a feel-good factor and goodwill that’s hard to replicate on a day-to-day basis.
Entry for the British Conveyancing Awards 2023 is now OPEN – entry closes 12th December 2022. For more information, click HERE.
