Everyone loves industry awards, right? They look great on your shelves and can encourage potential clients to put their trust in you, and they also show that you’re well respected within whichever industry you work in. A lot of marketing departments will even try to develop campaigns purely so that they’re eligible for that year’s major ceremony.
Awards are great, but they also have a darker side. This is especially true in the creative industries, where they can distract you from your real goal and lead to you releasing campaigns that look great but which fail to deliver a return on investment.
Awards have their pros and cons, and if you plan to go out of your way to try to win them then you need to recognise that it’s a form of marketing just like any other. Any time and resources that you spent on award entries should be logged somewhere so that you can compare the results to what it took to get them and measure an ROI.
The good news
The good news is that B2B companies are typically better placed to go in for award marketing than B2C companies because it can be a great way to generate leads or to convince current prospects that it’s the right time to buy. On top of that, many awards ceremonies and the organisations behind them will allow you to send out sponsored content on their mailing list, which can be a great way to direct people through to your site and to your data capture forms.
On top of that, you’ll be able to proudly display your award win on your website, and you can test it on landing pages to see if it improves conversion rates. Not everyone is swayed by award wins, but for those who are, it can be a super powerful form of social proof that’s far more effective than any case study or testimonial.
Awards can also be useful if you’re targeting a specific industry. For example, if you provide a bespoke software service for construction companies, an award win from a governing body in the construction industry is likely to boost your sales. Just remember that an award on its own won’t do much. If that same bespoke software service won an award for marketers, it’s less likely to impact their bottom line.
Conclusion
Award marketing isn’t dead, but you do need to approach it strategically. In many respects, it’s the same as any other form of marketing in that you need to measure its impact and determine an ROI. However, it’s also one of those forms of marketing that can be subverted by big egos. It’s a little like TV advertising in that respect. You can spend a huge amount of money just to please your CEO, but if it doesn’t bring in new revenue then the shareholders won’t be happy.
Whether you’re using awards as part of your marketing strategy or not, we’re help you to gather the leads you need to boost your business. Request a demo of Bant.io to find out how we can help your company to grow by sending hot B2B leads directly to your inbox. You won’t regret it.
Dane
Dane Cobain is a published author, freelance writer, book blogger, poet and (occasional) musician from High Wycombe, UK. Before going freelance, he worked as a social media marker, now specialising in writing about publishing, technology and marketing.