If you’ve never considered entering your business into an award before, you should. Awards are very often overlooked as a marketing tool but they can work wonders for your business. There are a whole range of business awards out there that you can enter – from local ones to national ones, to very niche sector specific ones.

If you’re looking to raise your brand awareness, think about what you’d like to be known for and consider entering awards or categories that are most relevant to you. For example, if you’re a small business, the FSB Small Business Awards might be for you, or if you’re a construction business looking to raise your profile in the industry, then the British Construction Industry Awards would interest you.

We’ve come up with 5 reasons why you should enter awards, which we hope will persuade you to pluck up the courage to enter yourself and your business into one.

FREE marketing and PR for your business

We all know there’s no such thing as free, but entering awards is about as free as you can get. Most awards only require your time to put together an entry submission. If you’re asked to pay for your award, then in our opinion, it’s not the kind of award you want to enter. Awards that you have to be nominated for, or be judged by a panel of experts are the kind you want because you’ll be awarded based on your own merit and have a greater sense of achievement.

If you’re nominated as a finalist for the award, you’ll very often receive free PR from the award organisers – this might be a shout out or feature on social media and on their website, in the event programme and sometimes even in the local or national news. They’ll very often add a link back to your website on their website which can really help with SEO and building back-links.

Awards are often sponsored by other businesses who may get in touch with you after the event and other businesses often look to get in touch with award finalists and winners, meaning you’re getting your business seen by a new and different audience – all for free.

Recognise and reward your team’s hard work and commitment

Awards recognise your achievements and those of your team and they can really help to boost morale and productivity.

Build your business’ credibility

It’s always nice if you can say you’re an award winning business! You can use the most of being a finalist or an award winner throughout the rest of your marketing. You’ll often receive a branded finalist or winner logo that you can use in your marketing material and on your website. Awards demonstrate you’re a trustworthy business and people want to buy from businesses who are the best at what they do. They essentially act as an endorsement, a bit like receiving a testimonial from a client.

Awards evenings are a good excuse to network

If you’re nominated for an award, the awards night is a great place to meet new contacts and network with other people. There’s normally a real buzz on social media around the awards ceremony with businesses supporting other businesses online, meaning your business is getting in front of a larger and possibly different audience.

You may find you’ll gain a number of new followers or connections on social media and it’s always worth following up and keeping in contact with those you meet on the evening – who knows, you may want to collaborate or work together in the future.

Can help attract new talent and new clients

Business awards can help you attract new employees who want to work for the best businesses. If you’re the best, the best will want to work with you. Use your award-winning status in your job descriptions and adverts to set yourself apart from the rest.

We hope you’re feeling inspired to enter an award, if you’d like help with your award submission, our team can help. We can write it from scratch or give you a second pair of eyes to review it. Please get in touch here to find out more.

5 National Awards that may be of interest: