With the submissions deadline for the B2B Marketing Awards 2011 now approaching (it’s Wednesday June 15th, just for your info) I thought it might be helpful to share some insider info on how to give yourself the best possible chance to win one 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.
So here’s number 1 of my Seven Golden Rules for winnig a B2B Marketing Award – the remainder will feature over the next seven working days… so stay tuned!
1. Give the submissions writing process some respect – plan ahead
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…
Not registered yet? The deadline was supposed to close last week, but we’ve extended it to Wednesday May 18th. Click here to register and we’ll send you all the info that you need to put your entries together.
