6 golden rules for winning a B2B Marketing Award from Joel Harrison editor-in-chief, B2B Marketing
I thought it might be helpful to share some insider info on how to give yourself the best possible chance to win an award this year.
Please note: I’m not involved in the judging, and I certainly can’t influence it (nor would I want to) but I do get feedback from the judges each year about what they like, what they don’t like, what works and what doesn’t.
Don’t leave writing submissions until the last minute! I know what it’s like: you’re busy. You’ve got plenty of other things to do, and your boss is screaming for them all yesterday, but when it comes to entering awards it really pays to think ahead, and not attempt to do it all at the last minute in a desperate rush.
Even if you were personally responsible for the campaign(s) that you’re entering, there’s probably a lot of information that you need to pull together from different people in the company. So plan enough time to do this, and write the entries.
One thousand odd words is not a huge amount of copy, and it doesn’t need to be worthy of the Pulitzer Prize, but it does have to be clear and coherent and allow the judges to understand who, why, what and how without getting a headache. Jumbled, incoherent or confused submissions understandably get short-shrift from the judges – these are awards for marketing after all…
If you’re a guy, you probably don’t believe in instruction manuals, but in this instance this attitude would be a mistake. Read the ‘Guidelines for submissions’ document, which is pretty key in creating your entry – make sure you read it thoroughly. There are lots of subtle nuances related to the category details and our precise requirements for these awards, which may differ from other programmes, and may not tally with your expectations. Best to check these out rather than making assumptions, which could easily be wrong and as a result you may find your entries are penalised.
Who are you actually writing for, and what are they looking for? The judges of the B2B Marketing Awards are client-side marketers, and will evaluate submissions on that basis.
They will want to directly identify with the brand involved in the campaign, to understand the issues that it faced, the solution that was developed and how that worked. This is critical: campaigns are evaluated on four key criteria, but results are crucial, and if you can’t prove that your campaign worked then forget it. Of course, we appreciate that some results are strictly confidential and cannot be revealed to a wider audience. That’s fine: just clearly mark that this information is ‘Strictly confidential’ and it will remain so – judges sign a confidentiality agreement, so they will not repeat or divulge anything that they learn as part of the process.
If you still can’t reveal precise numbers, just talk in terms of percentages of objectives achieved, revenue generated, leads obtained, click throughs, etc. this should give judges a good idea of how well you did, but whatever you do, don’t just ignore results altogether. If you do, your entry will be thrown out.
One final thing – don’t forget to include a quote from the marketers responsible for the campaign. This validation from peers of the judges is also very important.
Make it look nice. Come on, it’s not difficult. Again, it doesn’t have to be a design classic, but just simple, clear design, with all the relevant information presented in the right format (see the ‘Submissions Template’, as referred to above).
Structure the information in a logical fashion, intersperse images where relevant and don’t forget to bind them properly – no judge likes a submission that is falling apart in their hands.
Also remember to include the right info. If you miss anything out, it’s quite likely that the judges will think you’ve avoided it on purpose and will mark you down. We’ve asked for specific information for a very good reason: because the judges need it.
Copywriting is a subtle art: don’t abuse it by trying to be too off hand, zany or clever when writing these entries. Keep the prose simple, straightforward and to the point – don’t over-elaborate. If you’re a judge ploughing through potentially over 100 entries, all you want is to access the pertinent information quickly and easily, understand what was done, for whom, why and what it achieved. Fancy prose, which goes around the houses to describe something simple, wastes valuable word count and actively annoys the judges. Keep it simple, stupid.
The Awards night is all about glory, and if you win but you’re not there, you can’t bask in it. So if you’re shortlisted, don’t forget to book a table. The great and the good of the B2B sector will be there, and even in the unlikely event that you’re not lucky enough to walk away with a trophy, it’s still a fantastic night. And if you’re an agency, bring your client, or clients – it’s a superb bonding experience... if you can remember it, that is...
Find out more about the International B2B Marketing Awards 2019 here.
