Length: 4-minute read.

Quick Summary: Working with a copywriting agency with professional writers in-house can help you craft award submissions that stand out. Learn how to work effectively with your content team and put your best foot forward this awards season. 

Working with a copywriting agency during awards season

Writing awards submissions that stand out from the pack and set you up with the best chance to win is both an art and a science. On the one hand, you need to follow a formulaic approach and respond to set criteria to ensure you meet the brief. At the same time, you also need to craft a strong and compelling narrative.

Awards submissions can be time consuming, which can be overwhelming for under-resourced teams. However, working with an integrated communications agency that offers copywriting services, and is supported by a team of professional writers, can help your business create strong submissions every time.

For the best chance of success, it’s imperative that you know how to best work with your copywriting agency to ensure they have everything they need to write an awards submission that stands out.

1. Be prepared to answer questions for award submissions

Award submissions have criteria for a reason: they clearly outline what the judges are looking for and what standards your submission needs to meet to be considered. Carefully review the submission criteria before approaching your copywriting agency. If you have a project in mind, check it against the criteria to see if it will fit the bill.

Your copywriting team will rely on the criteria to form the basis of the submission they develop and will use this information as a guide for the story they tell. If you’re unable to answer the criteria, there will be gaps in the story that your writers won’t be able to fill. Ensuring you’re prepared ahead of time will give your copywriting team the best possible chance to create an award submission that really shows your business success in an award-worthy way.

2. Give your copywriting agency the information it needs 

The saying “garbage in, garbage out” can be true of many things, including awards submissions. Just because you’re working with an experienced copywriting agency with a team of professional writers doesn’t necessarily mean they can create something truly award-worthy from nothing.

Even the most experienced B2B copywriting agencies and professional writers cannot create truly award-winning content without your team’s on-the-ground knowledge and experience.

While your copywriting team will specialise in developing content, and they may have experience in your industry or with your business, they may not necessarily have the requisite comprehensive understanding of the ins and outs of your business, projects, and industry to be able to tell the story effectively. They will rely heavily on you and your team to provide the information they need to craft a good story.

To this end, you must be able to facilitate conversations for your copy team with relevant subject matter experts (SMEs) across your company, or with any relevant customers. You must also be able to provide, or source after the fact, the facts and figures they need to strengthen your award submission. In the meantime, expect that your copywriting team will leave placeholder content throughout your draft where they need you to fill in the information.

Failing to support your corporate communications team with this information or access can lead to incomplete awards drafts with insufficient information.

3. Give your professional writers the time they need

Some awards could take you upwards of 40-80 hours per submission to craft in-house, and while a team of professional writers is experienced in writing copy quickly, they can only do so much. It’s important to give your writers as much time as possible to develop an award submission.

For the awards you enter every year, keep an eye on award submission dates and engage your copywriting agency as soon as submissions open. Engaging your team quickly when submissions open gives you ample time to involve all necessary stakeholders, including internal SMEs. This means you can arrange and conduct briefing calls for your SMEs with the copywriting agency, and receive a draft relatively quickly. You will also give internal teams adequate time to carefully review submissions, and fill in any gaps that need to be filled with relevant facts and figures to bolster the content.

For professional writers, content writing is their bread and butter, so they’re good at creating content quickly to meet most deadlines. This is good news when you come across an award submission last-minute that you want to apply for. However, even last-minute awards drafts take time to craft, especially if you want to submit something that is well-written and worthy of winning an award.

For last minute submissions, do your due diligence as much as possible before engaging your team: check the criteria to ensure that you have a project that meets the brief and collect as much background information as you can to share with your copywriting agency to support their drafting.

Preparing for awards submissions

Writing submissions for awards isn’t as cut and dry as it may seem. Working with a copywriting agency is an effective way of preparing submissions for Australian business awards. A copywriting agency that gives you access to professional writers and supports you with copywriting and proofreading services, can ensure your business is best positioned to craft award-worthy submissions.

However, to get the best bang for your buck, you also need to know how to work effectively with your agency. That means coming to the party with the knowledge and understanding of what you need to provide so they can do their best work for you.

Write Away Communication—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 your awards writing and submissions. For more information, contact the team today.