Marketing Your Business

Awards were a big part of our marketing strategy in my first business. Once we had started to grow and had some early successes, I started looking at how entering awards could support our marketing and PR opportunities. We had some early successes (and failures) but I learned as I went along which were the best awards to enter and what information was needed to ensure we had the best chance of winning.

Business awards are often misunderstood as being “nice to have” or purely ego-driven. In reality, when used intentionally, they can be a powerful strategic tool for growth, motivation, and credibility; especially for growing businesses.

Awards Drive Focus and Strategic Clarity

One of the most overlooked benefits of entering awards is the process itself. When I first started putting our business forward for awards, we had been trading for almost two years. We had experienced rapid growth but also operational challenges.

We had a steady supply of leads from Google ads; but I knew we needed to become more strategic with our marketing in order the accelerate our growth. One of of those strategies was entering awards. Although the motivation behind it was from a marketing perspective, what we gained was so much more.

The process of award applications helped me to step back from the day-to-day firefighting and ask:

☑️ What have we actually achieved?

☑️ Where have we grown?

☑️ What makes us different?

☑️ What impact are we having on customers, employees, or our market?

Research into goal-setting and performance consistently shows that clear reflection and articulation of success improves future results. Awards provide a natural framework for this reflection. For growing businesses; especially founder-led ones this kind of structured review often doesn’t happen otherwise. Even though we didn’t always win the awards, the process itself made it worthwhile.

Recognition is a Powerful Motivator for Teams

Another major benefit was the positive impact it had on our team. While I often attended the awards myself; as we grew I normally asked one of the team to join me. From a leadership point of view, recognition is one of the strongest drivers of engagement. Studies on employee motivation consistently show that people are more motivated by recognition, purpose and progress than by pay alone.

Awards provide external validation that reinforces that “our hard work matters” and “what we’re building is visible and respected.” Winning an award, or even being shortlisted creates a shared moment of pride. Plus, as a young team, they always enjoyed the opportunity for a party with free food and drink plus live entertainment!

Importantly, awards:

🥂Celebrate collective effort, not just the founder
🥂 Create momentum during tough growth phases
🥂Help teams reconnect with why they do what they do

For founder-led businesses, this can be especially powerful because teams often work incredibly hard behind the scenes with little public recognition.

Awards Build Credibility and Trust Externally

From a commercial perspective, awards act as third-party validation, and that’s critical in competitive markets. Potential customers, partners, and even future employees often use awards as a shortcut for credibility, a signal of professionalism and reassurance that a business is established and trustworthy.

Psychologically, people trust independent recognition more than self-promotion. An award logo on a website, pitch deck, or email signature subtly reduces perceived risk. Awards also help with PR opportunities, media coverage, speaking invitations and partnerships with other credible businesses. Awards ecosystems naturally bring ambitious, growth-minded founders together.

Awards Strengthen your Brand Story

Awards don’t just recognise performance, they help shape narrative. Every award category is essentially a positioning statement. We entered many different types of awards; some were industry specific such as “Best Specialist Tour Operator” or more general such as “Best Call Centre.” What they had in common was the opportunity to show case our business and our brand across a wide audience.

Choosing which awards to enter allows a business to decide how it wants to be known. This is powerful because brand is built through repetition and consistency, awards give you language to describe your success and they provide proof points for marketing and sales. For founders, awards also help shift identity from: “a business we’re building” to “a business that’s recognised.”

Awards Support Long-Term Growth (when used Strategically)

Awards are most effective when they are are aligned with business goals, relevant to your market and communicated well internally and externally. Used strategically, awards can support growth phases, improve retention, strengthen culture and open doors to new opportunities

They don’t replace good strategy, but they amplify it.

Yet many businesses feel they are too busy, and applying for awards is just not a priority; and yes I get this especially in the early stages of growth; but once you have a few people in your team, you will find investing your time in entering awards will pay dividends in so many ways.

Other founders feel that if you’re good, you don’t need awards. They believe that great businesses speak for themselves and awards are self-congratulatory. This mindset is more common in female founders, especially value-led leaders who don’t like self-promotion. However silence doesn’t equal credibility and in crowded markets, visibility matters. Awards provide third-party validation, which is often more trusted than self-promotion, especially by customers, partners, and employees.

The other reason small business owners don’t enter awards is because they think only big businesses with well-known brands stand a chance of winning. but many awards are specifically targeted at SME’s or are regional or sector specific. Industry specific awards with categories for small, medium and large businesses are a great place to start. And remember it’s not just about the winning; it's about the process, the team, the connections and the increase in brand awareness.

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