Following hot on the heels of the European Search Awards is the Global Search Awards & US Search Awards. If you are looking for Top Tips for Award Entry by Experts, look no further. We decided to pounce on a few of our industry expert judges, just released from European Search Awards duty, to get their top tips for entering a We Are Search Award.
So, if you haven’t yet been introduced to, we would like to do the honours. Please meet Motoko Hunt – President, International Search Marking Consulting at AJPR, Lukasz Zelezny – Director/SEO Consultant & Murat Yatağan – Growth Marketing Consultant London here to share their top tips and some of their entry irritations.
Top Tips for making your ‘We Are Search Awards’ entry a winner!
Motoko Hunt
Motoko Hunt / President, International Search Marking Consulting / AJPR
Write an entry specific to the category
Some companies, no names to be mentioned, submit the same entry to multiple categories, which means the entry is not specific enough to win! Each entry should highlight unique strategies and challenges as per the category criteria. Your competition will be specific, so you need to be too. The same applies for companies who submit multiple entries in the same category – they are often identical except for the name of client, budget and results! It is fantastic to see multiple entries but each needs to be unique and personalised for the category. No copy and pasting should be involved!
Answer each form field
We judges score each form field separately which means if you skip any, or don’t provide enough information you won’t score highly.
Keep it simple
Focus on answering the question by highlighting how you entry is uniquely different and award worthy. Don’t repeat or provide similar information for answers the word count is 1000 words only. Repeating means you provide less information.
Provide enough information
Whilst keeping it simple is important, you still must provide information. Don’t expect judges to read between the lines we can’t guess the success of a campaign by looking at a graph or image. State what was done and how clearly.
Lukasz Zelezny
Keep to the Point
Judges have dozens of applications to assess, and this is time consuming and keeps us busy. Only add to your application what is necessary for evaluation. Avoid adding any kind of brochure or un-necessary advertising material as this detracts from the heart of the matter and creates chaos.
Share hard data
You have probably heard it before, but I’ll repeat it. ‘Hard data is important to judges.’ It is worth preparing your client for the fact that in order for your application to be successful and your campaign to win you have to share data, hard data which is closely related to the category in which your application will compete. If it concerns an SEO Campaign, organic traffic or clicks in the search console will be a telling metric.
And last but not least of our judges and very succinct with his top tip is…
Murat Yatağan
Murat Yatağan / VP of Growth / Brainly
Highlight your case’s impact by explicitly focusing on ROI attributed to revenue
We Are Search award organisers, Don’t Panic also wanted to get in on the act for Top Tips for entering a We Are Search Award. They not only deliver the award events but they collate entries, collaborate with judges, manage the judging sessions and feedback and are involved 365 days of the year, minus holidays!
Don’t Panic
Download the entry form for any We Are Search Award you are going to enter. It is a guide to what information needs to be provided and where. It is the ideal planning tool and numerous edits can take place before you submit. Many of our judges comment that they can spot a ‘rushed, last minute entry’ and that ‘planned, whole team entries are far superior in quality of information provided, which makes their lives much easier.’
If you have any questions about entering an Award talk to the Don’t Panic team, they are experts. Sign up for your We Are Search Awards Newsletter here.
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