Top 3 tips for award winning entries

If you’re planning to enter for a business award you’re almost certainly going to be asked to complete a comprehensive entry form.  This is your first chance to make an impression - so make sure it’s a good one.

Award entries vary enormously from a short ‘pitch’ to having to answer several in depth questions (sometimes these aren’t actually questions, but instructions e.g. Tell us about your company’s biggest achievements.)

Here are my tips to making your first submission one that will stand out.

1. Read it all before you start writing 

It’s what your teacher told you in school - read the question first ,,, and answer the question that’s been asked, not the one you would have liked it to be!

Plan your answers out before you start writing.  Do a bullet list of what each one needs to include; this will make writing a focused response much easier.

Do your first draft in Word rather than in the Awards online portal.  This enables you to get your word count right, if there’s a maximum number of words per answer and to run your response by colleagues or mentors.  It also saves accidentally hitting the submit button before you’re ready!

2. Think like a judge

What do you think the judge will be looking for?  Read all the material that exists online about the awards so you get a feel of what kind of thing they’re focused on.  Especially anything that applies directly to the category you are applying for.

Look at previous winners of the category and any judges comments on them that may be available.  If you’re really keen, get in touch and talk to them about what they included in their submission so you can ensure you don’t miss any key pieces of information.

Give your submission to a couple of trusted business people who don’t work in your organisation and ask for constructive feedback.

3. Write with energy and personality

The problem with awards submissions is that they tend to err on the formal and corporate side.  If you want your entry to really stand out use a punchy, conversational style.

Avoid the present continuous (i.e. give, not giving) and use short sentences and short paragraphs.  Stay away from old fashioned and cumbersome phrases and words - so NOT ‘thus’, instead use ‘so’.  When you’ve finished read your entry aloud - you’ll soon spot the bits that don’t work.

Ensure you plan to be well within any submission deadlines - once it’s gone, you’ve missed the boat!

Good luck!

Planning an event?

If you’re planning an event, whether that’s a webinar, a seminar, a training course or workshop, getting people to sign up for it is just the first step to a successful event.

So how do you get people to register for a place?

If it’s a free event - maybe a taster or trial session to upsell a bigger event or a product - lots of people will sign up for a freebie, but about 75% of them don’t show up, so it’s important to bear that in mind.

How do you promote it and get interested people on your list?

1. Email your existing list of contacts - more about that below.
2. Tell your networking connections - whether that’s online on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest or offline at local networking meetings.
3. Run a Facebook ad to get people onto the sign up page on your website.
4. Do a video promotion on YouTube (and maybe a short video ad on Facebook and/or LinkedIn.
5. Create a lead magnet (a free report) to build your list and promote this on your social channels, organically and with paid ads.

Once people are on your list you can email them more information.  People rarely ‘buy’ at first time of asking.  Most people decide to buy after anything between 5-12 reminders - that’s why, if you’re on an online marketer’s list, you’ll get more and more frequent reminders as an event approaches.

The email challenge

Email is still a highly effective tool to get your message to many people.  Most people are comfortable to share their email address, where they are less happy to give out their phone number.

The plus is that with a professional autoresponder system you can set up those reminder emails to go out at times of your choosing.  You write your email series (or get it written by a copywriter) and load them into the system and then you press the ‘go live’ button and everyone who joins your list gets the email you want them to.

If you can get mobile phone numbers, there are systems that allow short messages to go out by SMS too.

The customer experience

Autoresponders are also great for nurturing the people who have signed up.  These messages can include joining instructions, links, useful additional information (e.g. blogs or articles that are relevant) and more.

A good autoresponder email series can help you to build your relationship.  So write in a friendly, conversational style, be authentic and show your enthusiasm and excitement about the event and its subject matter.  In turn this will generate excitement in your audience and improve the number that actually turn up, especially if the event is a free one.

Don’t tell them everything, but do tell them that there will be - a special offer for attendees, a discount, a guest speaker (no name, just an indication of their expertise), anything that generates that ‘I can’t afford to miss this’ feeling.

Set up your messages, hit ‘go’ and then you can forget about them while you do all the other things you need to, to prepare for your event.

Build your boards

Pinterest was relatively late to the social media party, launching in 2012 - but hit 10 million users in record time.  But how does it work?

It’s a very, very simple concept.  You create virtual notice boards for specified subjects and pin digital images to them.

The site works by people looking at what other people have pinned to their boards and then repinning some of their images onto their own boards.  This means that each pin board is a combination of original and shared content.  Some people only have shared content and rely on having an interesting collection to gather interest.

So how does Pinterest work for marketers?

There are 291 million people on the platform every month - so lots of people looking!

People only see what’s more recently been pinned or repinned on the home page - unless they search.  However, that’s exactly what many users do.

Around 80% of users are female and they do tend to use Pinterest as a search tool for products they’re looking at buying.  They use it to plan life events, such as weddings, anniversaries, business courses and such like.  It’s a great place to gather examples of what you want to include in an event.

It’s also a fantastic goal development tool.  People use it to plan décor, workplace equipment, holidays and more.

People shop based on Pinterest.  The current stats state that 55% of Pinterest users actively use Pinterest to find the products they want.  They use it to find clothes, food, accessories, beauty products, fitness, therapies and more.  Put your products or services in visual format and you’ll stand out.  Pinterest has proven to be four time more effective at generating sales than other digital platforms.

Infographics are really popular on Pinterest so use a graphics tool like Canva to create useful information relating to your services and you’ll find it spreads throughout the Pinterest community.  Remember that you have 500 characters to write a description of your pin - and that will include your website - and you can see how powerful it can be.

Great original pins with a promoted pin campaign can do wonders for your sales.

So start planning some interesting pin boards and make Pinterest part of your marketing campaign.

3 top tips for powerful email marketing

Marketing is an ongoing challenge for most businesses.  Should you do social media, blogging, newsletters, webinars, direct mail, email, something else or all of the above?

There’s no ‘one size fits all’ answer, but the place to start is with the people you’re trying to reach.  When you understand your target market, you’ll have a better idea of what they respond to best.  That doesn’t mean you should ignore any strand of your marketing plan, but that some strands may get more attention than others.

So - email - does it work?

If it’s done well, then yes it does, but getting it right isn’t just a case of pinging a sales message off once a week.

Here are our top tips to get you off to a great start.

Lead with value

This doesn’t mean a great offer - it means giving the reader information that is valuable.  This might be a top tip, a tool or a technique they can use in their business.  It might be a link to something free and, of course, useful.

Think carefully about glitzy

When you get an all-singing, all-dancing email with lots of pretty pictures, what’s your response?  Most people think ‘this must be an advert’.  Some companies do this very well - for instance, B&Q gather their wares into categories to make life easier - but it’s still an advert.  Some companies send you interesting blog posts - and that works quite well.  However, you might consider that a ‘normal-looking’ email with your brand at the bottom could work just as well.

I love Kim Roach’s emails - they sound like she’s just emailing me as a friend and her presentation of her offers always includes something free as well as an upgraded version.

Promote thoughtfully

When you’re putting together a promotion or offer, try and see it from the recipient’s perspective.
What would make it compelling?  Don’t forget to mention the pain and gain aspects of your offer - why does the current situation cause a headache?  What will it be like with your offer/promotion in place?  Make sure this is not just your imagination at work, but something that will really connect with your readers.

Don’t start an email campaign, just because you haven’t done one for a while.  We all get enough spam in our inboxes!  Always email with thought and purpose - you’ll get better results.