We are human, so let’s face it, sometimes we like other people to say well done, it can mean more than a financial reward. So, when the business enters awards or applies to have a listing in a professional directory, there is nothing nicer than winning or being listed in the directory. But does it mean anything to anyone outside of your profession.

Having worked across both legal and accounting professions for many years there is something of an infatuation with firms and individuals winning awards, such as the Accounting Excellence Awards or in the legal world being listed in The Legal 500. Whilst these are a great opportunity to receive recognition from within your profession and would certainly enhance any career opportunities, when it comes to marketing it is quite rare to speak to anyone outside of the firm and get a response along the lines of “fantastic, that is what I was looking for when making a decision on who to use”. More often than not the response would be “so what, what does that mean to me, are they going to charge me more…?”.

So is it worth submitting these entries?

From a marketing perspective, I would say yes, it helps provide validation as to the quality of firm you are, but only if you explain to your clients what the award/publication is and why it means something. Your organisation needs to remind itself that anyone outside of the profession is probably unaware of what the Legal 500 or Accountancy Excellence Awards are.

As with all marketing, the real impact is seen after a period of consistent activity, promoting the same message, that places your organisation at the forefront of people’s mind by using different activity where your target audience is likely to see them such as social media, websites, advertising, press campaigns. With regular mentions in the marketing over a period of time, highlighting what has been achieved and what it means, potential clients will see how this differentiates you from your competition.

The lessons to learn are:

• Firstly, running a single mention will have little benefit, so ensure you run the campaign over a period of time.
• Never assume that people outside your organisation know what the awarding body is or what it means, always provide details of what it is.

To understand how to benefit from entering awards and how to use them to win extra business email me.