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You’re considering applying for South Carolina’s Fastest Growing Companies, but may wonder if the potential benefit is worth the time and effort.
Following is an article by Buster Kennedy of Elliott Davis outlining the benefits of marketing through corporate awards. You’ll find both recognition and business benefits can result from winning one of these contests. As a winner of South Carolina’s Fastest-Growing Companies, you could enjoy benefits ranging from increased publicity, to valuable business contacts and improved credibility with customers.
Ask those the “Academy” has honored over the years: the addition of “Oscar-winning actor” or actress can sure punch up a resume. The award, one of their industry’s most visible, adds credibility and notoriety to the winners and nominees it touches, and can be the defining moment of a career.
While we can’t all clutch a golden statue before a crowded theater and international television audience, plenty of industry awards are available to small businesses and larger corporations alike, providing the opportunity for professionals and their companies to stand out. And just like the Oscar, these accolades can offer more than a moment in the spotlight before peers. Real business benefits, from a credibility boost to a public relations touch point, can result from a well-earned industry award.
Choose an awards program wisely, create a stellar entry and use those ensuing wins to best advantage. The benefit: a solid opportunity to build business and enhance reputation.
Choosing the Right Awards Programs
Local and national, objective and subjective, awards programs and the submissions they require take a wide range of forms.
Play to Your Strengths
First, examine your company’s strengths. Search for and enter one (or a few) awards programs that play to those pluses. Have a compelling story, with business owners showing great creativity, or succeeding despite challenges? Does your company take special pride in its satisfied employees and innovative programs and benefits? Focus on essay-based entries, such as a program to honor women entrepreneurs, or one for business owners who have overcome adversity.
The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce co-sponsors one such subjective awards competition, The Best Places to Work in South Carolina. The survey-based award program considers both company practices and employee satisfaction surveys, and chooses companies with a favorable work environment for employee opportunities.
A strong company project, such as a marketing campaign or product launch, may qualify for an innovation award or one honoring best practices. These awards programs are sometimes sponsored by local chambers of commerce, industry organizations or business publications. The SPARK! Awards for Marketing Excellence, sponsored by the Charleston Chapter of the American Marketing Association, is one such program.
Businesses with strong financial or area growth over a fiscal year might consider an objective awards program with a local or regional focus. Become certified as one of the “Top,” “Most Innovative” or “Fastest Growing” companies in your field with one of these numbers-heavy awards.
Balance the Time Commitmen
Some awards submissions require basic company information and the hard numbers, like financial reporting, while others call for essays, detailed project outlines or employee surveys. Be realistic about the time required for each submission, and focus on those for which you have both a strong case and the time to complete the entry.
Consider Your Audience
National contests, professional organizations or business publications are an option, or a local award may prove more compelling for the customer audience you hope to impress with a win. Emily Allen of FGP International, a human resources recruiting agency with offices in Greenville and Columbia, S.C., found a state-wide award well suited to her company’s goals.
“FGP’s appearance in the 2007 list of South Carolina’s Fastest Growing Companies helped us build a state-wide company,” Allen says. “It was nice to have the credibility of a state-wide competition, and our local clients truly appreciated it.”
Using Your Win
You’ve entered the perfect awards competitions for your company, and have impressed the judging panel enough for a win. Now that you’ve won, how can the award be used to full advantage?
Maximize Public Relations Outreach
Chances are strong the organization through which you received the award will use public relations to announce its winners, garnering free publicity for your company. Stay in touch with the organization’s publicity contact, and complement his or her efforts with a little publicity push of your own. For example, you may get interest through trade magazines that serve your company’s industry in addition to the general business coverage the awards organization is seeking.
Strengthen Marketing Materials and Other Communications
Don’t be afraid to list your awards on your sales sheets, future press releases, on your Web site and anywhere else it makes sense. In addition to these applications, Allen’s company created a direct mail piece to announce the award to their customer database.
“Our customers were happy for us; many of them sent congratulations to FGP International for the win,” she says. “Plus, it was a great opportunity to reach out to our customers and stay top of mind.”
The Intangibles
Far more important than the trophy or certificate itself, an industry award can add an invaluable third-party endorsement to your company’s credentials. This endorsement can both strengthen your company’s position, and improve your standing with new business leads.
Leslie Dunn, senior vice president and human resources manager for South Carolina Bank and Trust, also saw benefits for both current and future employees when her company was named one of the Best Places to Work in South Carolina.
“In addition to the recruitment edge the win gave us, we also saw a boost to employee morale,” Dunn said.
Next time a salesperson or account executive in your company assures a new customer your company is reliable, healthy and growing, he or she will have a handy award to back up the claim. And just like the Oscar on the mantle, the award may lead to a few new quality gigs.
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