Three Tips on how to write a winning award entry

Winning an award, or even being shortlisted for an award, can provide great recognition and boost credibility for a business of any size, regardless of the sector they’re in. An award showcases the value of a product, service or expertise an organisation can offer potential customers. The interest and awareness generated can also be extremely beneficial to a company’s sales and marketing efforts.
There’s a large variety of awards out there, from local to national awards, industry specific awards and employee welfare awards. Whether entering a ‘best place to work’ award or a ‘small business of the year’ award, there’s always going to be competition. So you need to make sure your business stands out from the crowd. Here are our three tips on what makes a great award entry.
Be Concise
Often application forms include very generous word limits. However, just because you’re allowed 200 or even 1000 words to answer a question, doesn’t mean you have to fill the space with that much content. If you can tell the story in 100 words, go for it. Judges have plenty to read, so the more concise the entry is, the better, as it will make sure to keep their attention the whole time.
Use opinion
A great award entry often includes justifications as to why a decision came to be made. You can use opinion to demonstrate your industry expertise by explaining why events in your industry have influenced your decision. For example, did you launch a campaign around a specific event that you knew your target audience would be attending?
Stand out
Judges are responsible for sifting through a considerable number of award entries before they determine the winner or finalists in a category. Whether they have to process 50 entries or five, you need to make sure yours stands out amongst the crowd to have a better chance of getting shortlisted. A great way to do this is by getting a designer involved in order to make your entry look as good as it reads.
We write on average 3-4 award entries a month and our clients get shortlisted 95% of the time. For more information on our award campaigns, please get in touch at hello@jargonpr.com