Five common mistakes with award entries – And what you can do about them

I enjoyed my recent stint of judging for some prestigious awards including the National Technology Awards, UK Business Awards and Digital Leaders Impact Awards.

As a judge, you open the PDF in the hope of seeing a brilliant entry. They rarely are. Most award entries are written by the least experienced person in the business. They lack the subject expertise and have often been poorly supported. Which is why I wrote my book. But the entries themselves are often riddled with the same mistakes. Time and time again.

Here are the five most common mistakes that award entry writers make, and how you can avoid them.

1.       Not answering the question.

It’s easier than you’d think to not answer a question. Ask any GCSE student. Or teacher. Or awards judge! This is often down to the awards organisers themselves. Because most awards have 30+ categories, they can often get lazy with the task they set the entrants. For example:

UK Small Business of the Year – To qualify for this category, you will have successfully transitioned from a start-up to a thriving business experiencing substantial growth. UK based, you will have overcome initial funding challenges and be rapidly expanding. Your business must be over three years old and demonstrate increasing turnover with an annual revenue less than £300,000. You should explain how this growth has been achieved. The wordcount limit is 1,000 words.

In this example, the question is more complex because it also includes the entry criteria. The way to approach a question like this is to take a deep breath. Then do the organiser’s job for them. Re-write the question, separating the criteria from the question and adding detail as required. For example:

Category: UK Small Business of the Year.

Criteria: Entrants must be based in the UK and over three years old. You will have successfully transitioned from start-up to a thriving retail business experiencing substantial growth with an annual revenue less than £300,000. You must answer all questions using a total wordcount limit of 1,000 words.

Question 1. Explain how you successfully transitioned from a start-up to a thriving business experiencing substantial growth.

Question 2. Did you encounter initial funding challenges whilst you were scaling up? If so, how did you overcome them?

Question 3. How did you grow your business? For example, was it through exceptional service, exceptional products or using market insight? Explain, and give examples of your growth strategy.

Question 4. List your turnover for the past three years. Include any other data to demonstrate growth over this period.

Once you have answered each of these questions, you can remove the numbering and re-arrange your answer in an order that makes sense. Use subheadings, bullet points and charts to break the story down.

This approach is particularly useful when you are relying on colleagues to help you, because they’ll get to see the criteria and question broken down too – you’re all on the same page.

2.       Including insufficient evidence.

This kills me. If you are entering “UK Small Business of the Year”, then make it easy for the judges. Explain your growth. Use tables. Use charts. Use real numbers. Include market context. And add percentages to highlight your growth. But do not resort to vague news such as:

·         “We’ve had 3 x EBITDA growth in the past two years”.

·         “We have grown our workforce by 110%”.

·         “Our customer base has increased by 150%”.

All the above claims could be very impressive – but we will not know without the context. And if you cannot include evidence to (in this case) explain your growth, then don’t enter an awards category that needs it.

3.       Writing one entry and submitting it for multiple awards.

It can pay to enter multiple categories with the same award organiser. If, for example, your win rate is 50% and you are shortlisted for two awards in one evening, then you have a better chance of walking away with silverware. If you do enter more than one category, then resist the temptation to shortcut the process. Write a unique entry for each category. Your arguments will be stronger. And your evidence will be relevant.

4.       Using AI to write the entry.

AI is not good enough to write a succinct entry within a specific wordcount. Not yet. AI written answers are easy to spot. They tend to have a slick introduction sandwiched with waffle with a structured close that is flawed because it’s based on the waffle in the middle. And AI written entries rarely include enough evidence, are the AI isn’t smart enough to ask for it. Yet.

5.       Entering the wrong category.

This happens frequently. I have been under pressure to enter an award that we don’t have the evidence for. In this case, it’s best to either wait until you do have the evidence or look for an award that meets your objectives whilst also being a neat fit with the story you can tell.

So, there you have it. Five common mistakes that award entrants make. And how to avoid them. Good luck!