5 top tips for entering business awards

Entering awards brings numerous benefits—credibility, enhanced PR, new business opportunities, increased client trust, staff motivation, stakeholder confidence, continuous business improvement, and positive impact on the bottom line. Essentially, it provides powerful external validation.

If you’ve never entered business awards before, here are my 5 top tips to give you the best chance of reaching the finals.

1. What do you want to be famous for?

Start by identifying several award categories relevant to your business and think strategically about what winning a specific category will mean for your business. This may be around sustainability and ESG, excellence in training and development, or business innovation. Then dig deeper: review the judging criteria and understand exactly what the judges are looking for.

For each category, compile an outline list of evidence that proves your achievements, that sets you apart from competitors and proves why your business is award winning. Always consider entering more than one category as it may increase your chance of winning.

2. Read the questions and ask ‘so what?’

Start crafting your story, question by question making sure you are covering each point. This is a great opportunity to brainstorm with your team as they’ll pick up things you might not think of. One of my clients did this with her husband who reminded her of some achievements she’d completely forgotten about as she focused on building her successful business.

Once you’ve written your first draft – don’t worry too much about wordcount at this stage – give it to someone else to read. This is where I apply the ‘so what?’ test for key points as that’s often when you find some real nuggets of gold. Reinforce every fact with evidence.

3. Solid financial story:

Many awards categories will ask specific information on your financial performance including turnover and profit. Some will ask your forecasts over the next 1-3 years. Your financial story needs to be robust and credible. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ve increased profit every single year. Graphs are an effective way of showcasing this information and you can annotate where you’re reinvested into the business, or your turnover dropped as you lost a client to a competitor. The important thing is to demonstrate how you deal with the inevitable challenges all business owners face.

4. Attention grabbing headlines

Headlines and statistics are really important and a very effective way of capturing the judges’ attention. Think of the headlines on the news; interesting and compelling headlines make us want to know more. Can you include one or two really interesting case studies which really brings your business to life, such as an example of where you and your team really went the extra mile for a client.

5. Evidence, evidence, evidence

Backing up your story is crucial to prove why you’re worthy of the win. Include key statistics and make things as visual as possible. Testimonials from clients and staff are powerful. If you work with some known brands, include their logos. Montages of press coverage, showcasing your branding and demonstrating engagement with social media all bring your business to life, as do staff retention and client satisfaction metrics. Increasingly important is what you and your business contribute to your professional and local communities.

Winning awards isn’t just about trophies—it’s a strategic tool to elevate your brand, validate your efforts, and accelerate growth. By carefully selecting categories, compiling robust evidence, telling a compelling story, and delivering a polished, visually engaging application, you’ll significantly boost your chances of success—and the business gains that come with it.

 About the Writer: 

Kate Adam is an awards expert with an impressive track record of helping businesses from all sectors win business awards. She has honed her craft over many years, backed by a wealth of marketing expertise.

Her talent is creating and writing award-winning entries to help businesses get the recognition they deserve. Over 90% of her clients reach awards finals, and 60% have won awards locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

Kate works hard to drill down the figures, get underneath the business and tell your story so a judging panel can assess the information clearly and concisely.

Connect with Kate:   

✍🏼 Kate Adam - Meredith Marketing Ltd

📧 [email protected]

📱07970 280084

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kateadam/

🎧 Listen to her podcast episode on The Glowgetter Mentor Podcast 

Kate Adam ~ Awards Writer Extraordinaire