How to make a copywriting agency work during awards season
Entering awards and writing submissions can be a challenging task, especially when you’re trying to create entries that that stand out from the pack. For the best chance to win, you need to tell a compelling story that also follows a formulaic approach and responds to set criteria.
This can be time-consuming and overwhelming, especially for under-resourced marketing teams. And, when you have numerous submissions to complete in a short amount of time, it can seem completely unachievable. However, working with professional writers in-house at an integrated marketing communications agency that offers copywriting services can help your business succeed.
For the best results, you need to know how to effectively work with your copywriting agency and give them everything they need to craft awards submissions that stand out.
1. Respond to the award submissions criteria
Every award submission has criteria that illustrate the standards your submission needs to meet to be considered for the win. It’s critical to carefully review the submission criteria to understand what the judges are looking for before you approach your copywriting agency. This will let you check any potential projects against the criteria to see if they are suitable before investing time and money into a submission.
Your copywriting team will use the award criteria as a guide for the story they tell and will likely run through the criteria with you and your subject matter experts (SMEs) to flesh out the submission. Your copywriting team won’t be able to fill any gaps left in the story if you’re unable to respond to their questions, so it’s important to prepare answers and information ahead of time to give your copywriting team the best chance to showcase your organisation’s success and create an award-winning submission.
2. Be ready with the information your copywriting agency needs
Just as bad data can dirty your analysis and results, the information and care you provide for your award submissions can colour the finished product. Even experienced B2B copywriters have their limitations and will be challenged to create something truly award-worthy from nothing, especially if they don’t have the support of your team and their on-the-ground knowledge and experience.
While your content writing team may have experience with your business and industry, their primary focus is to create content. They won’t necessarily understand the nuances of your organisation, projects, and industry, and will rely heavily on your team to provide the information they need to tell the story effectively.
To support them in this endeavour, you will need to coordinate conversations for your copy team with relevant SMEs and customers. Where additional facts and figures are needed to strengthen your award submission, your copywriting team will leave placeholder content throughout your draft for you to fill in later. This is a crucial part of the process and one that shouldn’t be overlooked: failing to adequately support your copywriting agency can lead to incomplete drafts with insufficient information that won’t stack up against the competition.
3. Give time to your professional writers
Awards writing takes time; in fact, it could take you upwards of 40-80 hours each to craft submissions in-house. Working with professional writers that are experienced in writing quickly can help to streamline the process, but even expert writers can only do so much. Time is one of the most valuable tools you can give your writers if you want to succeed.
It’s crucial to keep an eye on award submission dates and engage your copywriting agency as soon as submissions open, especially for any annual awards that you enter each year. This will give you ample time to involve all necessary stakeholders, including internal SMEs, and coordinate briefing calls between your team and agency. Careful planning will ensure you can receive a draft relatively quickly, which will subsequently give your team adequate time to review submission and fill in any gaps with supporting facts, figures, and other information.
The benefit of working with a copywriting agency is that professional writers are excellent at writing quickly, which means they can meet most deadlines. This is essential for any last-minute award submissions you want to apply for. However, if you want to have a chance at winning, your copywriters still need time to create something well-written, even at the last minute.
Doing your due diligence cannot be understated, even for last-minute award submissions. As much as possible, take the time to check the criteria and collect information before engaging your copywriting agency to set them, and your company, up for success.
Be prepared for awards submissions
Business award season can be stressful, especially for under-resourced teams. Working with a copywriting agency that gives you access to professional writers and supports you with copywriting and proofreading services, can set you up for success and support you with award-worthy submissions.
You need to know how to work effectively with your agency to get the best results, so it’s essential you put in time to understand what you need to provide so they can give you their best work.
Outsource—part of The Recognition Group, Australia’s leading group of PR and marketing specialists—has an experienced team of professional writers available in-house to support you with crafting strong award submissions. For more information, contact the team today.
