Onecom had the privilege of recently being shortlisted for the CSR Initiative of the Year and Unified Comms Dealer for the Mobile Industry Awards this year, giving us an opportunity to shout about some of our successes as a company.
That being said, we’re not here to just brag about our own achievements (although, we’re pretty chuffed about them). We work with heaps of businesses of all sizes, not just to help them with their communications, but also to understand their business and how we can help them to achieve their goals.
Business awards bring a range of advantages for companies from enhancing the business model to creating a noticeable presence in the industry. Regardless of whether you actually win the award or not, we highly recommend getting your company entered into local and national business awards so that you can reap the benefits.
1) Stand out from the crowd
Gaining a competitive edge is key to helping your business grow and drive profits. By entering your company in a business award within your industry you are able to benchmark yourself against your industry peers. Entering an award shows that you’re forward-thinking, proactive and that you’re declaring as one of the best in the industry.
By being open and sharing your successes, you can demonstrate the value you create not just for your customers but for your employees and the industry as a whole. Whether you’re innovating, educating, training or growing there are plenty of ways you can highlight your impact on the world.
2) Increase brand awareness
Awards are a great way to get your brand out there amongst other industry professionals as well as creating opportunities for PR in both the local and national press. It also brings about opportunities for social media and companies running the event will often share, retweet and mention your brand on their own sites.
Awards can essentially bring about free marketing for your company which is a great way to increase your brand presence. Stay involved in what’s going on, share your involvement and connect with others to take full advantage of the added brand exposure. Furthermore, the comments you receive about why you were entered or won the award can help add further collateral to your press releases.
3) Build credibility
A business award, whether you win are shortlisted or nominated gives you added credibility for your business. It allows you to position yourself as an industry leader and creates a positive message you can send to your customers.
Business awards can give you a real competitive advantage that can help leverage new relationships with suppliers, investors and clients. Awards can help to improve the value of the brand, especially when you find the right awards that match your story and meet your business needs. Not only can you attract new customers, but you can also enhance customer retention and loyalty, reinforcing their reasons for working with you in the first place.
4) Positive internal message
Awards don’t just allow you to attract more customers and get you a step ahead of the competition, they can also help to create a positive internal message amongst your employees. Entering awards recognises the hard work of your employees and can bring teams together in their efforts to get all the material and evidence ready to enter the award.
Entering your employees individually as well as the business as a whole can really boost morale in the company. You’re not just recognising hard work internally, but on a public level too.
What’s more, inviting employees to the award night itself can really help to add to motivation. When there’s a feel-good feeling around the business and company-wide there is an understanding of the achievements you’ve made, it can be easy to create a great place to work and even easier to hire new staff.
5) Find new networking opportunities
Business awards are entered by the leaders in the industry, with most of them attending an event at the end. Even if you don’t win, you can place yourself in a room with some of the best in the industry.
Although you may not be building bonds with the competition, often industry-wide events can bring similar businesses into one space. This could lead to new investment, partnerships or even sharing skills and knowledge which can help leverage your business further within the market.
6) Enhance your business model
Awards will often lay out certain criteria that you need to meet in order to enter for the award. When bringing together evidence, it can highlight areas of both strengths and weaknesses. Whilst it’s great to preach about your strengths, entering awards can also help you to refine your business processes and enhance the business model.
Entering awards can make you look at your business from a different perspective. But also helps to add value to the work that is already being conducted. If you don’t win, you can then look at where you can make improvements for next time.