10 Top Tips for entering awards
Entering awards is a great opportunity to celebrate achievement, recognising excellence within your teams and to generate positive PR about your business, projects and people. Attending an awards gala dinner provides you with the opportunity to network with other businesses, while celebrating the team that helped get you there.
Here are some top tips to ensure your entry stands out to the judges!
- Pick the right category to enter
There are a range of categories to choose from - projects, innovation and people. You want to make sure you are picking the right one for your story, and if your story fits into more than one category it’s an opportunity to tell that story with different filters. - Check the rules
There will be terms and conditions for any awards entry process to ensure fairness amongst entries. Ensure you make a note of the deadline, any restrictions on eligibility or number of categories a business can enter, plus details of the awards ceremony. - Read the criteria
Use the criteria of the category to structure your entry. Pick out key words - these will tell you what the judges want to hear from you, so make sure you don't miss anything out! Ensure each submission relates to the specific criteria you are entering, especially if you are entering more than one. While you can enter your business for multiple categories - avoid repeating a submission across multiple categories otherwise the judges may overlook them. - Plan your time
It's unlikely that you will be able to write a winning entry in 30 minutes, so give yourself plenty of time to perfect your submission. Share the tasks across different people from different levels within your business. This is an opportunity for your employees to see what the business does in depth, the impact their part has on the business and can also help you see potential in your employees – this is becoming more important as we all feel the impacts of the country’s current skills shortage. It is important to block off time in your diary to tackle writing and/or to bring your team together to help write your entry. Ensure you give yourself enough time for planning, writing and editing. - Tell a story
Think about what you want the judges to learn about your business when they're reading your submission. Take them through the stages of your success to bring out an emotional response. What impact did you make each step of the way, what did you learn, how did you grow, what were the risks and the impact of those risks. Tell a story, keep your judges captivated through story telling. - Use the full word count
The word count is a great indication of the amount of detail the judges are expecting to make an informed decision when deciding on the shortlist. Aim to submit at least 90% of the word count to ensure you tell the judges everything they need to know. - Avoid jargon
While many judging panels are made up of business professionals and industry experts, all types and sizes of civil businesses are encouraged to enter the awards and therefore could be inclined to use wording, phrases or acronyms that are not necessarily common terms. When writing your entry, think about the person reading your submission and make it as easy for them to read and understand your story. - Include statistics
Stats, quotes and percentages are great tools to back up the points in your story! If you can demonstrate measurable improvements or provide testimonials from customers, clients, subcontractors or staff; the judges will see this as proof of success which boosts the credibility of your claims. - Upload supporting evidence
We give you the option to upload supporting evidence which further backs up your written submission. This can be imagery, testimonials or quotes, screen grabs, charts or graphs etc.
Don't use this as a place to provide further wording as it will not be marked as part of your entry but will be taken into account by the judges to support your submission.
Make sure you include high resolution photos of the project – these will be used at the gala dinner. We want them to be high quality and so do you.
- Meet the deadline
The most important element when entering awards! If you miss the deadline, you miss out on the opportunity to win.