Wondering how hiring an awards agency works? Maybe you’ve thought about entering your business in awards, and never considered the possibility that an agency could do it for you?
If either of the above is true, you’ve come to the right place.
Green Door Co is one of the leading awards agencies in Australia, with a shortlist rate of 97.5% from over 400 award submissions. Our team has extensive experience writing and entering awards for businesses, individuals and organisations across the Asia Pacific region.
There are many preparations that go into the awards submission process, from managing awards research, to understanding which of the hundreds of awards are right for you. Keeping on top of multiple awards deadlines, and writing shining awards submission, alongside your regular business priorities, can quickly become overwhelming.
Hiring an Award Agency such as Green Door Co takes all this stress away, by giving you the best chance at receiving well-deserved recognition. We do this through crafting compelling award submissions, and guiding you through our Awards Process, which covers three key areas:
- Strategic Research
- Clever Copywriting
- Project Management
These three key areas are then broken down into the following 11 Steps, to help you put your best foot forward:
Step 1: Discovery
To begin, we need to find out who you are!
In this first step, we require you to be brutally honest about your business, reflecting upon why you deserve to be recognised and how you are exhibiting excellence. This will enable us to understand the core of your business through its achievements, purpose, processes and journey, and will reveal whether you are ready to enter an award.
Step 2: Awards research
Once we have gained a thorough understanding of your business and how you are exhibiting excellence, we will undertake awards research.
This helps us to understand which awards you have the best chance of succeeding in. We will form a list of recommendations based on the awards t suited to your business, by reviewing a range of awards, their categories, entry requirements and your business objectives.
Step 3: Project management
Awards can be a tricky process to manage, with many competing deadlines which can change year on year. By establishing a project timeline, our team will ensure that you never miss a deadline, and are aware of the entry requirements ahead of time.
With extensive experience in managing awards submissions end-to-end, we take care of the planning, execution, and delivery so you don’t have to.
Step 4: Interview
Hiring an awards agency like Green Door Co gives you access to a team of awards experts, with experience conducting interviews that get the most compelling responses.
Asking the right questions allows us to get accurate information about your business, as well as unearthing personal stories that make your business unique. It is the type of questions we ask, and the way we combine factual information with personality, that helps you stand out from the crowd by adding character to your submissions.
Step 5: Copywriting
At Green Door Co, we work with journalists and professional copywriters to draft the best award submissions for your business. With variations in word counts across awards and industries, painting a captivating picture of your business – that answers all questions in an articulate, captivating way – can be challenging.
This is why we only work with copywriters that are able to showcase leadership and excellence qualities in both long and short form, knowing what points to focus on, what to include and most importantly, what to leave out.
Step 6: Supplementary evidence
For many awards, supplementary evidence is required. The type of evidence you provide will determine whether it strengthens your award submission or devalues it.
We will help you determine the best supplementary evidence to provide, to ensure you have the best chance of winning the awards. . Award submissions may require videos, photography, testimonials, positive media coverage, facts and figures, or financial reports which have been audited and sourced from your accountant.
Step 7: Review and feedback
Once your awards consultant has put together an awards submission which smashes the awards criteria by representing your business in a compelling manner and remaining within the word limit, we will send it over to you for review and approval. We will then make any necessary changes based on your feedback.
Review stages may seem trivial to the untrained eye, but as experts in the awards space we know how important this stage is. Specifically, ensuring that financial figures and forecasts are up to date and accurate, that the word limit has been adhered to, and that the awards submission is unique.
Step 8: Submission
After we have triple checked your awards submission, our team will submit your entry on your behalf. You don’t have to do a thing!
Working with a variety of different awards submission processes give us a unique insight into how best to submit a winning entry. This includes adhering to the technical submission requirements like file and document sizes and formats.
Step 9: Judging
After we submit your entry, we’ll be in contact to let you know the timelines for judging and the expected announcement. As many of our clients enter 5+ awards per year, this judging time is often used to conduct research and interviews for the other award submissions.
Step 10: Shortlist announced
Once the judges have reviewed all submissions, the shortlist will be announced, and we will be able to see whether your business has been listed as a finalist. A timeline of shortlist dates are likely to be on the awards website – so keep an eye out!
Step 11: Winners announced
Finally, the winners will be announced, and all the hard work pays off! Winners will be chosen from the shortlist, and may be announced at a glimmering awards event, within a magazine, through social media platforms, and/or via the awards website itself. Make sure to keep an eye on the key dates which are likely to be listed on the awards website so you understand when the results will be released!
So what next?
We are excited to guide you through this process, and help you become award-winning! Reach out to the team at Green Door Co to start your awards journey today.
