It is officially time to think about awards entries for everyone in the Aesthetics Industry. Julia has written both her own award entries as well as entries for many of her clients, not to mention her many stints on judging panels, so she has a unique perspective and insight into successful submissions. While it may be a rather time-consuming process, the business benefits of winning, or being shortlisted, more than outweigh the investment in writing your entries. To be award-winning boosts your trust and credibility as a clinic or brand, gains you recognition within the industry and consequently attracts media attention and new enquiries. To take some of the stress away from tackling such a daunting task, here are some bitesize top tips from Julia Kendrick herself:
1. Back up your claims!
While it’s important to formulate a well-written submission, all of those words mean nothing without the tangible evidence to back up the claims you’re making. Performance results are the focus of many awards categories, and it can take some time to gather this information. It helps to enlist the help of your team, and I recommend demonstrating comparisons to when you first launched as well as yearly statistics in order to show your growth. When imagery is required, ensure that everything you submit is of a high quality and meets the requirements.
2. Don’t punch above your weight
It doesn’t help to take, what I call, a “shotgun approach” to award entries and apply for absolutely everything. Go through each category carefully and apply for the ones that you feel you have a real chance of winning with the evidence to support them. A few well-written and relevant entry submissions are much better than multiple, rushed submissions.
3. First impressions make all the difference
You’ll more than likely be asked to briefly describe your clinic or business at the start of any submission, which is your perfect opportunity to make an impression on the judges. Take your time and think carefully about how you want to portray your clinic as this will be used repetitively across your entries, seen by the judges and even the public in some cases. Highlight your USPs, convey your mission and your vision; show what sets you apart from the competition.
4. Don’t find yourself on the fast track to the reject pile by neglecting to answer the questions and meet the required criteria
Read each question carefully and answer it properly using the evidence you’ve collected. Have a fresh pair of eyes go over your entries to double check that you’ve successfully answered the question and not misunderstood what’s expected of you.
5. Third party endorsements!
One of the most effective PR and marketing tools is third party endorsements, such as testimonials. You can incorporate these into your award entries to do the talking for you, boosting your credibility and highlighting the impact of your business or the success of your results.
6. Fine-tuning is very important
Take some time at the end of your application to go back and fine-tune everything. Ensure that you more or less hit the word count, that you have answered the questions concisely and with conviction, and proof-read for silly grammatical mistakes. Make your entries are engaging and interesting for the judges, as a boring submission makes for dull reading and a one-way ticket to the reject pile.
Some final words of wisdom: play to win!
If you happen to win but fail to have planned a marketing strategy, you can find yourself quickly overwhelmed and stressed with the aftermath and exposure to follow. At least begin to formulate a campaign in advance in order to capitalise on your win, which could include blogs, newsletters, emails, offers, social media posts, advertisements etc. Take advantage of the occasion and update your promotional material and your website with the “award-winning”, “commended” or “finalist” tag lines, along with the award logos of course!
If you would like some more information, or would like to enquire about Julia writing your awards entries for you, please do not hesitate to get in touch today!