If you’ve won an award what can you do to leverage that? It’s all very well to announce it on the day you win and for the few days following, but then what?
Here’s my suggestions to get the most marketing from the award without people getting fed up with you banging on about it.
1: Write an article
Explain what the key things that contributed to winning your award. Was it an innovation you’ve developed? Great customer service strategies? Spectacular business growth? Superb staff development?
Whatever the reasons, expand on them and explain WHY you took the steps you did and WHAT actions contributed to achieving the successful business outcome. You might even find that there’s more than one article in there!
2: Post in more than one place
The obvious place to post this article is on your blog, but don’t forget to post it on your LinkedIn profile as an article and maybe on any community or industry blogging sites you belong to. Also consider contacting the industry publications your target audience read and ask if they would be interested. You might have to edit it a bit to fit a particular publication.
3: Soundbite it
Go through your article and soundbite it. Take quotes or nuggets of wisdom that will engage and intrigue people. Use these to create a series of short social media posts suitable for Twitter and LinkedIn updates. You can post these more than once – especially if the article offers real value and learning for the reader. If you get 7 posts from it, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t repost these once a month.
4: Find a suitable image
People read content that comes with an image more than content without. If you have an image of you receiving your award, that’s great for your first social media post, but it’s not very interesting longer term and, as your article should be more about sharing your knowledge than boasting about your award, it’s probably not appropriate.
Take a look at the royalty-free image sites – Pixabay, Unsplash, FreeImages – or get a bespoke image created by a graphic designer or take a photo yourself, if you can produce a professional looking image.
If you have a great image you can post this on your Facebook page, Instagram and Pinterest to engage with a different audience.
5: Break it up
Break your article up into shorter pieces. If you’ve structured it well each section should stand alone sharing one strategy. These sections can make up a short email series to send to your opted in list. You can use a P.S. to add a promotional message or call to action.
6: Go video
Video content is becoming more and more prevalent. People consume it on every platform, YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram. There are two ways to use your article – one is to turn it into a series of very short tips – great for Instagram where 15 second gifs are just what people want.
The other way is to make a longer video where you talk through your article. You could do this as a talking head (you talking direct to the camera) or as an animated presentation or a series of slides that you narrate. You can put this on your website, on YouTube, Vimeo or on Facebook.
7: ‘Rinse and repeat’
Have a posting strategy that isn’t just for the week or month immediately after you’ve won the award. If your article has real value it will keep helping people for months after your award ceremony, building your reputation and keeping you visible.
