How to Win a Business Award

Win business awards and and market your business in the process.

By Anita Campbell, CEO and Editor, Small Business Trends LLC

Want to put your business on the map and get free PR? Try applying for business awards.

Awards and recognitions for your business are more than just vanity. Awards are excellent for triggering positive PR and media coverage. They validate your success, and can be highly motivating to you and to your employees. Awards are useful for sales and marketing, too, as prospective customers do look at them when making buying decisions.

The majority of business awards are free to enter. The following are some tips to make sure awards are in your business’s future.

Consciously seek out awards to enter

The first step to winning business awards is to find awards and apply for as many as you can. Good places to learn about awards are in the business section of the newspaper, in email newsletters, and on websites. Ask around, too. You also can do searches in the search engines for "small business award" or similar search phrases.
Try: Set up a Google Alert for the phrase "small business award" to be notified when new awards are announced. Wikipedia also offers a list of awards. Most are not applicable to small businesses, but the list may trigger ideas as to where to look for awards and the type of awards available.

Look around at organizations for awards

Awards are offered by governmental entities (cities, states and even the Small Business Administration). They are offered by organizations, including membership organizations such as chambers of commerce, economic development agencies, and nonprofit organizations. Look also to local business organizations in your area.
Try: The U.S. Small Business Administration makes small business awards each year. See Small Business Week activities.

Don't overlook vendors

Pay attention to your vendors' mailers and e-mail newsletters. Increasingly, awards are offered by large corporations that sell to the small business market.
Try: Apply for Dell Small Business Awards.

Nominate your own business

Some business owners feel it would be narcissistic to nominate their businesses. Get over it. Awards are good business, not vanity.
Try: Read: The Strategic Value of Corporate Awards

Nominate a customer's business

Nominate your customers, also. Sometimes customers will discover who nominated them and feel honored that you thought of them. Even if they never find out, it is always good business to make your customers more successful. And nominating others is good practice for spotting the elements that make a business worth nominating. It will make you think more about your own business and whether your own business is "nominate-able" or what you need to do to make it so.
Try: Read: The Power of Corporate Awards Marketing

Follow the award application guidelines to the letter. Take the time to fill out the award application completely. Many awards do not have a formal application form -- just a few broad guidelines.
Create a template for award submissions. If you do not know where to start for creating a template, look to proposal writing guides and tips available on the web.
Be persuasive. After all, you have to convince the judges that your business should win. So put your best marketing hat on. Just remember to be authentic.
Create a compelling story. Awards are in large part about PR. The businesses that have interesting, well-told stories always have the advantage over businesses that can't seem to get across the impressive things they have accomplished.
After you submit your award application, save a copy and use the document as a starting point for applying for other awards in the future. It will make the process of applying for awards more efficient, and save you time.