Awards, Rewards and Kudos

Getting nominated for an award’s short list is good for the ego, but is it good for business?

Some companies enter awards as part of their marketing strategy and a successful award presentation can give you a real edge – as long as you leverage it well.

Getting nominated for the award is only the first step; there are many business awards and industry awards that you can ‘enter’, in other words you nominate yourself.  Success starts to emerge when you get on the short-list, but real success only comes when you win your category.

Let’s be honest, if you know how to get your award presentation put together well, you’ve got a good chance of getting over that first hurdle and onto the short-list.  Mainly because many entrants don’t answer the question asked and simply say what they want to say, without relating it to the question or information requested on the form.

Getting through the second stage to be crowned winner can be purely down to whoever is on the judging panel and their subjective opinion based on the presentation they’ve seen.  However, sometimes the judges actually visit the short-listed companies to get further information in order to come to a decision.

This means that you’ll need to be ready for that visit and be able to demonstrate that all the things you’ve said about your organisation are visible to everyone.  Bear in mind that there may even be the occasional ‘mystery shopper’ who will phone or visit to see if you walk the talk too.

Is it worth it?

Creating an award presentation isn’t a five-minute job, it takes time and effort to collate all the information and then present it in a positive way that will get the attention of the judging panel.  It’s an investment that needs to pay off.

Don’t leave it to the award organisers to do your marketing for you.  Get in touch with the publications that your target audience reads as well as your local press and let them know you’re on the short-list – and why your customers will benefit from the kudos that comes from working with a high-profile organisation like yours.

If you achieve that final reward of winning your category then make sure all the relevant publications know about it, but add value to your message.  ‘We’ve won an award’ is not a story in the eyes of most editors; what’s your spin on being nominated and winning, what can you offer to make the story more interesting?

Don’t delay, get your press release ready to go out right away.  For publications you particularly want to be in, build relationships with their journalists or editors so they know who you are.

Include local radio in your press list.  You may not get on national stations, but local stations are always looking for good stories and people who can talk fluently about their area of expertise in a way that benefits the listeners.

Know why you want the award

‘Because it’s there’ is not a good reason!  Be clear about what an award could do for your business if you leverage it properly.  If you can’t come up with something that merits the time and effort that you’ll need to invest – do something else of more value with your time.

Help your customers on autopilot

Most business people I know find that their customers have post-purchase queries.  Lots of people who sell systems or learning products find that the buyer doesn’t get far along with their purchase before life gets in the way. 

A few customers pick up the phone or fire off an email to get help, but they are in the minority.  Most just stop using the product or forget to go back to their course or membership forum to get the value they’ve paid for.  Let’s be honest – haven’t you done this yourself?  I know I have, more times than I can count.

So how do you help your customer get the maximum value from their purchase?

The simple answer is to set up a follow-up system.  Answer the queries before they ask, remind them the next steps to take, encourage them to do something and get the benefits of their purchase.

The best way to do this is to use an automated email system that delivers an email automatically at intervals you can specify.

Start with the right material

This is the process of identifying what questions customers most often ask post-purchase and the points where people disengage from using systems, membership sites or learning programmes.  If you have a team get them all involved and tap into their experience and knowledge.

When you have a list of subjects that need to be addressed you can start putting together the email series.

Keep it short and sweet

When you’re time-poor and running to get everything done, you don’t need long emails to wade through.  In fact, the chances are you won’t make it past the first few lines, and it will get the ‘delete’ treatment.

Make sure your message is written in a conversational way – as you would speak to someone directly.  Keep the information to the point and always sign off with your contact details so they can easily get in touch if they need to.

Schedule the messages to deliver the information people ask for soon after they’ve bought to arrive before they think to ask.  You can add tips and advice as the series progresses.

Create open-me subject lines

The subject line is like a headline.  It’s the point where people decide if it’s worth exploring further.  That means you need to create subject lines that engage your customer.  What will get their attention and make them want to open your message to find out more?

Set up your messages

You’ll need an online data-management service for this – there are plenty of options including AWeber, ConstantContact, Infusionsoft and MailChimp, these are just some, there are many more.

Upload your messages and set the intervals.  Most autoresponder systems are triggered when a new contact is added to the list so part of your sales process will need to include adding customers to the list (this takes seconds) and then you can forget about it and the automated system will look after your customers, leaving you free to create more products and services! 

Who loves spam email?

Don’t you love spam email?  Think of all those special offers, sales pitches, products you don’t need, services you already have (or may even provide yourself) – don’t you love opening them to find out what goodies they contain?  No?

Delete, delete, delete!

So when you come to create your own email campaigns are you thinking about:

1. What you want to pitch to your list?
2. What your list will be genuinely interested in?

Tough one – isn’t it?

You don’t want a pitch, so why would others be interested?

If someone happens to be looking for exactly what you want at the moment the email lands in their inbox, you might make a sale, but that’s a blue moon occasion.

The secret is not to sell anything

That’s a bold statement.  Why on earth would you bother creating an email campaign if not to promote your services?

The answer is simple – you need to educate your list of email contacts first.

Let’s turn it around and look at your own inbox.  Which emails do you actually read?

• The ones from your clients
• The ones from people enquiring about your services
• The ones from organisations you’re involved with in some way
• The ones from people who write interesting and entertaining material
• The ones from people who deliver massive value

Are you with me here?  Interesting, entertaining and valuable – what could you write that ticks those boxes?

Winning by sharing

If you share your knowledge with your email audience you’ll build interest and teach them that opening your emails is worthwhile. 

Before you jump in with the question I’m most often asked “Why would I give away all my knowledge for nothing?”  Most people like to know how to do things, but rarely actually end up taking action.  When they finally admit they need help, guess whose name is top of their list of experts?

So create your email campaigns with conversational advice, tips and information your reader will find helpful – and you’ll build an audience of people who rate you highly as an expert in your field.

Does your Facebook page work?

So many people don’t ‘get’ Facebook for business, but if you’re selling to individuals rather than companies, it’s a really powerful platform.

But let’s blow a myth away first.

If you have a Facebook Page everyone can see what’s posted on your personal account.

Not true!

Even though you may be logged into your personal account when you create your Page, you are only linked as the administrator for that Page.  The Page exists as a separate entity.  The only people who can see your personal account posts are those who you’ve accepted as friends – as long as you have set your privacy setting so that only friends can see your posts.

Posts and filters

There are many social media management tools that allow your to schedule posts ahead to go onto your Facebook Page.  Hootsuite and Buffer are just two.  Your posts will be delivered to your page, BUT Facebook filters out posts from external sources so that even the people who have liked your Page won’t see your posts in their home feed.

To get the best reach you need to post directly into Facebook.  You can still schedule posts ahead, but posts that have gone directly onto the platform get lots more ‘brownie points’!

Every picture tells a story

For even more brownie points your post should feature an image.  Since Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, more and more emphasis has gone to posts with an image.  Even better a short video will get even more leverage.

The secret to images and videos being successful is that they are relevant to your audience.  Could you do a series of video tips, an explanation of a process, a demonstration of your product, a photo collage of your products?  Be creative.

Of course, you can use stock images, but the image must help you to get your point across, not be simply eye-candy.

Engagement rules

Or perhaps that should be rules of engagement!  If you broadcast only, you won’t get engagement.  To make your page successful you need to get people talking.  To start with that may be posing a question and then responding when people answer.

Engagement doesn’t just happen between the people who visit your page.  When someone posts a note, you need to respond quickly (within 24 hours), even if it’s just to say ‘thank you’.  If you don’t people won’t come back.  Let’s be honest there are hundreds of thousands of Facebook Pages and probably dozens that offer similar services or products to yours.  You need to make yours stand out.

Consider a Monday Madness, Wonderful Wednesday, Fit for Friday post.  However, you’ll need to maintain this so plan ahead.  It’s a good way to get people to log in at least once a week if your feature post has good content.

Maintaining this means developing a new habit – when you’ve cleared your email inbox, get into the habit of logging onto your Facebook Page and posting your latest information and responding to the people who have left comments.