How winning an election is nothing like winning an award
June 4, 2015
Motivating your staff to reach for the stars
July 17, 2015
We’ve previously talked about ways you can use your award win or place on the shortlist as part of your marketing strategy. In this blog we’re going to focus more on the PR side of things, and how you can create some great business opportunities through positive coverage.
One of the key things to bear in mind is that you don’t have to wait for the awards to roll in before you plunge into the world of PR. Public relations should already be part of your promotional activities, and while you can get some great coverage off the back of an award win, you can also use positive press to help back-up your submissions – view it as a circular strategy and you’ll reap the rewards from both sides of the coin.
After the event
So, you’ve won an award or been shortlisted, now how do you use this for PR power? Here are our top 5 tips of ways you can raise your profile through post-award PR…
- Local press – unless your win was pretty spectacular, has wide-reaching human interest, or you’re already a household name, you may not be able to secure coverage in national press. However, local newspapers often love a local business success story, which will get your name in front of many thousands of people – and people like doing business close to home.
- Sponsorship – as your reputation grows, so do your opportunities to put your name in the hat for sponsorship deals and charity affiliations. Use your award-winning status as a hook for building this type of relationship – speak to your local football club, sponsor a roundabout (strange but true!) or get involved in a community venture.
- Recruitment – depending on the type of award you won or were shortlisted for, you could use it for a new recruitment drive, or to raise your profile as a good employer. This could bring opportunities to appear at seminars and conferences as a speaker – even beyond the subject of recruiting.
- Radio – keep an eye on current affairs and try to monitor what’s happening on local radio. If you have a PR department, they should start nurturing relationships with the radio stations, making sure they know that you’re available for phone-ins, or to appear on an expert panel if they’re due to run a segment that relates to your industry. Local radio often run newspaper reviews on their weekend programmes and doing this can be a good way to get your name known by the producers at the station, as well as by listeners.
- Industry publications – again, it’s all about building those partnerships. You have something to offer to your industry, and trade publications are much more likely to choose a ‘go to’ person for comment/opinion/advice if they know you’ve already received real recognition for your skills.
As we’ve said , it pays to be doing these things anyway, but if you have an award or nomination to back it up, then even better!
