Business Awards
Gaining attention and credibility through awards
All businesses can, and should, enter a business award. There are a huge variety of awards to choose from including local, national, industry based or with specific criteria. Awards are normally promoted through the local chamber of commerce, local and business press, Governments, and the internet.
The benefits of entering a business award include:
- Free marketing – Just being shortlisted can improve brand awareness and promote your business to new customers.
- Differentiation – Awards set a company apart from competitors and differentiate the quality of its achievements from others.
- Validation – Provides third party endorsement of your achievements which is very powerful as it places you ahead of your competitors. It is a sign of quality to potential customers.
- Benchmarking – The application process forces businesses to compare themselves to their competitors and ensure they stand out (whether that’s through innovation, diversity, growth, customer service, or strategic thinking.)
- Employee motivation – Can boost employee morale and improve motivation as employees are focused on what is great about the company they work for and can feel proud to be a part of it.
- Attract talented employees – The ‘best’ businesses attract the best employees and are the most successful, e.g. Google.
- Testimonials – Being shortlisted or wining an award serves as testament to a company’s work ethic, dedication and unique specialty. It attracts new customers and reinforces the loyalty of existing customers.
The benefits that awards can have on the company, employees, customers, and potential customers make it important that businesses have a strategy to enter business awards. Due to the time and effort involved the award entered needs to be determined to get the best result.
