How to Market a New Award Program

By: Irene Byvalkevych
Date: Sep 12, 2019
Comment: 0
Category: Awards Marketing

Depending on the event format, audience lifestyle, circle of attendees, sphere of interests, professional activity, etc., an awards ceremony always means something different. Nevertheless, what remains the same is the need for effective award program marketing to succeed.

Reasons to promote your award program

Like any other event, to promote your awards means investing in the chance to increase your brand awareness, elevate company prestige, engage new partners/sponsors, boost sales, or even raise some funds for nonprofits, etc. There are numerous reasons for organising awards:

Promoting your awards program helps to improve your award website SEO. The company website offers a number of opportunities to showcase third-party recognition and help with other SEO strategies.
Awards programs remind customers why they partner with you.
Awards industry recognition provides extra prospects for you.

You have as many good reasons to promote your awards program as you have for any other event. Do it wisely to cope with the inherent challenges and avoid any awards pitfalls.

Challenges & pitfalls

Guests often can’t hear hosts and winners’ names very well. Clearly, outdoor awards ceremonies present both challenges and opportunities. If we’re talking about online awards, source the best images for your event website. Getting sponsors, juries, avoiding registration overload that turns potential attendees off, and check-in queues all remain problematic. Some advertising may be inappropriate or unavailable, so you should also engage copywriting and SEO tips for a maximum return on your website investment. So, how to promote an awards program despite the hardships?

Ways to promote & best practices

Find some effective ways to promote your awards and market them in the best possible way for your company.

Registration form & website

Create an event landing page with just a few clicks. In the end, you will win even more customers with Judgify awards management. What’s the most important consideration for awards? An effective website, of course! With a good website builder, you will create a seamless awards management experience for both the participants and the team, while also promoting your brand.

Email marketing

Use email marketing and personalised letters to promote new awards program. Using email signatures in your email marketing strategy is a great way to promote various campaigns and awards programs.

Media coverage & press releases

Issue a press release. Share it with all your fans, friends, followers and the media. Also, create media coverage to contact and invite media outlets/personalities.

Social media

Social media remains one of the cheapest and most effective ways to market an awards ceremony, make it viral and boost your sales. Choose any social media platform and market your ceremony for success!

Sponsorships

Event sponsorship is an excellent way to increase brand awareness and attract more attention to the awards. Any prestigious event that will showcase outstanding companies and recognise locals will need to take advantage of sponsorship opportunities.

Great content

The events industry is a great opportunity to promote your videos and attract media attention, opinion leaders and sponsors via high-quality, useful and engaging content.

Events posters and branded walls are sometimes used in public places or other outdoor advertising forms. You may also engage banners and other social media ads online.

Social sharing

Allow social sharing and install social walls at your events. This leverages your professional network and encourages your crowd to be engaged, interested and active in terms of awards program participation.

Public voting

It’s hard to keep the buzz going about your awards program. Public votes will warm up the ceremony interest and create additional engagement with the awards program.

Creating a strategy to promote your awards program

Before starting a promotion company, you will want to gain some experience in the area. There are many ways to create an awards marketing strategy. To develop a strong promotional plan:

Identify your target audience.
Warm them up.
Create a strategy and make it flawless.
Create a clear, concise and memorable message that impacts your targets and contains the brand values.
Cater it to the audience through your awards theme and goals.
Consider your budget.

Draw up your business plan based on S.M.A.R.T. objectives. They can also be the start of a prosperous relationship with your new customers!

Checklist

To plan your awards program professionally, you will need to come up with a clear event checklist.

decide the budget
define the event objectives
decide on the format and awards theme
develop an awards program
create a guest list
send out invitations
find a space
select your ticketing or registration platform
approach sponsors, if any
take care of marketing and advertising, if any
identify and hire other vendors
delegate responsibilities
keep staff well-informed
make final preparations
decide on what to do after the event
choose suitable ROI metrics to analyse
make reports

Use our tips to improve the process.

Tips for awards marketing

Incorporate some (or all) of the tips listed below in your marketing plan and increase your sales through successful awards programs.

Marketing awards should be on your agenda.
Learn how to promote an awards program.
Create a beautiful awards website.
Manage submissions.
Organise a flawless check-in process.
Allow public voting.
Put together a list of best practices to help you win marketing awards.
The easiest strategy for introducing a new awards program is offering your attendees an exclusive format or event theme, charity or networking opportunity, etc.
Use established products or services as door-openers.
Give away taster sessions, promo codes, demos, free samples or discount vouchers when you make a sale of existing awards program tickets.
Include special offer combinations.
Have a judging panel of peers.
Use Judgify to improve your awards promotion and create effective special offers.

Awards management software

To handle awards management and achieve great results in marketing your awards, event management software is highly recommended.

If you’re interested in tools for awards management online and creating working strategies to promote awards program, event organising & marketing for event planners, Judgify is your best choice. It acts as an awards & abstract management system that can be used for multiple types of contests and diverse nomination types.

This is a perfect solution that works for all types of awards events, contests, academic conferences and more. It allows for deeper insight into the event-planning process and detailed event organisation, as well as measuring marketing success and so much more.

Call to action

Don’t forget to choose a reliable awards management & marketing platform to optimise your awards ceremony and organise a seamless check-in process. Judgify is a simple-to-use contest tool for contest automation of any size and type. Free event planning software is also available for starters, which makes Judgify’s features your best choice.

How Judgify can help you

With the help of tips and expert solutions, effectively organising events like awards ceremonies will be easier. Judgify is designed as a professional event organising and marketing tool for event planners online of any size and type. It is a system that can be used for multiple purposes, including marketing and promotion. You do not need specific skills to use the system, but it can significantly help you succeed with managing events.

Conclusion

A good event is one that many people attend. Prepare your awards ceremony program with the help of Judgify’s expert tips and awards management solutions. Use our platform to better understand award program meaning, for your event check-in and ticketing, awards management and event success analysis, etc. Sign up right away to access more useful award ceremony ideas or ask for successful awards solutions!

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