By Jacob Hanson
According to the Education Industry Association, education represents 10% of America’s GNP and is the second largest industry, following only heath care. In this huge landscape, finding a way to break through the clutter is essential.
Industry awards mean validation and credibility, a way to stand out, and will attract the best and the brightest to your business. That’s enough to earn a spot in your marketing campaigns. Below are five reasons why you should add industry awards to your marketing.
- Validation and Credibility
By winning an industry award, third-parties are declaring your product important and worthwhile. Since these validations are likely coming from experts in your field or existing clients and users, these validations are invaluable.
- Stand Out from the Crowd
When a market is flooded with options, one easy way for prospects to start a product search is to look at those that have won awards. Along with positioning your product at the top of the search list, award-winning products are also an easier sell to supervisors or board members when it is time to propose a purchase.
- Tell Your Story
Awards tell a story about how your business can impact a district or school. When your business earns awards, your customers will get a real sense of what your business is and the real impact it can have. Adding this story to your current marketing will be nothing less than powerful.
- Attract the Best
Winning industry awards is one way to attract the best employees. The best and brightest want to work for companies that have distinguished themselves. An award-winning company is an elite one and is poised for continued success—who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?
- Affordable Marketing
Though finding and applying for industry awards can be time consuming, the benefits of winning awards far outweigh the time commitment. If the award draws lots of interest, you may get media coverage, resulting in free promotions. Winning an award is great content for marketing to prospective customers through press releases, emails, social media posts, etc. Your win can also be used as a perfect starting point to touch base with your current customers by reinforcing their purchasing decision was a good one.
Now some of you may be thinking, once you've won your award, how do you leverage it to help you reach your full potential? Take a listen to this recent EdTableTalk, "My product won an award… How can I milk it for all it's worth?" to gain more insight into how you can leverage your industry awards.
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