One thing we get asked a lot by our early-stage tech clients is "should we do awards?"
It’s a good question. There's time and oftentimes money involved in entering an award. The chances of winning vary, and it can be hard to measure if they will really help drive your business forward. I mean, how do you count applause?
So here are 6 things to consider when making a decision on whether to throw your company’s hat in the awards ring.
How would you feel if you decided not to enter a prestigious industry award (hey, we get it - you’re busy) and then your biggest competitor won? The answer to this question should help you make a decision.
Visibility doesn't necessarily equate to business results, it’s true. But entering an award and getting to the final - or perhaps even winning - can give your company, product or team additional credibility in the eyes of customers. Think of it like getting in the upper right-hand quadrant of a Gartner quadrant. An award is another reason for people who don’t yet know you well to believe in you, and for your customers to feel good about choosing you.
For any awards, it’s worth checking out who the judges are (hello, investors and potential customers and strategic partners 👋) before taking the plunge. Talk to the organisers and find out who's likely to attend the award ceremony - awards can be a great place to meet customers - hey, it’s likely you’re all in the same industry.
If you're in the early-stages of scaling your start-up and mingling with VCs over dubious canapés is a goal, then pick awards that attract investors - and most importantly give founders like you access to them.
A great example of an awards event designed to get early-stage companies infront of investors is TechCrunch editor-at-large Mike Butcher’s brainchild, The Europas. This year, The Europas will be held in Lisbon for the first time in its 14 year history, running alongside WebSummit so the pool of investors attending will be even more global than ever. If you’re attending, we (and three of our clients who are in the award finals) will see you there!
Ever seen a sad face on those pictures of teams going up to collect an award? Putting a smile on the faces of your hardworking team is as good a reason as any we can think of for putting your cynicism aside for a moment and entering that award.
Ok, perhaps you’re a cynical, world-weary founder with an aversion to anything that could be described as “hype”. But remember, your team aren’t. They want to tell their mum about the brilliant company they work for in a way that their mum can understand. Being nominated for - or even winning - an award gives them away of sharing why your company is important without having to break out the spec sheets. It vindicates their long hours at work and at awards dinners, teams - and the customers they might invite along - bond. Hence the smiling faces.
Entering awards is a great discipline to instil in your team - particularly if your marketing team is nascent or even non-existent. Awards require planning and preparation, upskilling your marketing and comms function.
We find that, in general, the most successful award entries are the ones with hard data on the difference your product, platform, service or solution makes to real customers in the real world. That means talking to your customers and drawing out that story, negotiating the use of your customer’s name (it’s a process and a skill), and laying out the ROI.
Remember, everything you and your team pull together for an award submission has huge potential value in your sales and marketing efforts, but it’s often the strict deadlines of awards that gets this stuff over the line.
If you’re saying to yourself that your customers won’t ever let you go public with their name, a word to the wise: it’s all about “the ask”. We’ve seen big companies who have a blanket ban on vendors using their name suddenly open the kimono at the mention of an award they rate and want to have on their desk. Once the award you share with your customer is out in the public domain, it opens the door to all kinds of other co-marketing - even PR. Basically, awards are the marketing equivalent of a gateway drug.
We find that the biggest barrier to entering awards is not the time it takes to enter or the lack of great customer results or ground-breaking innovation to shout about. The biggest barrier is the fear of failure - the fear of what happens if you don’t win.
Do bear in mind that companies that don’t make the final list aren’t generally revealed. And if you make the finalist list but don’t end up winning - there’s still fantastic brand exposure for your company, often alongside more established businesses who also made the final list. So even if you don’t end up walking away with the silverware at the end of the night, you still get credibility from the endeavour.
If you’ve made it through our list of 6 things to consider and are still on the fence, we’d love to know why. Perhaps there is a reason we’ve not considered or heard before and, being a curious bunch, we’d like to know what that is so do send us a message.
If, on the other hand, you’re keen to put your company name out there but still unsure about what makes a successful award entry, buy us a coffee and we’ll happily spill some more of our beans on how we get award results for our clients. Remember, it’s all in the ask.