Company and personal accolades provide great opportunities for promoting your brand. Not only do the accolades shine a spotlight on what you or your company is doing right, but they are perfect for social media sharing. Whatever form the praise is in can be translated across myriad platforms, sharing the good news and getting loyal customers hyped about the company’s success while drawing interest from new audiences.
But the key is in how the information is utilized. So, what are the best ways to make the most of a company or personal accolade? Below, 13 members of the Forbes Agency Council share insider tips on effectively utilizing accolades.
1. Translate The Accolade Into Sales
A great way to do this is to flip the accolade into something that would be of value to potential clients. For example, if your business won an award for delivering an outstanding campaign, then you could take that and use it as the open for a case study. Then, you could drive traffic to that via social media. It essentially validates your business and personal brand. - Darryl Mascarenhas, LivelyGroup
2. Go Smaller
Often, the intent of a press release is to reach as broad an audience as possible. But you can also take a more focused approach, looking for opportunities to share your good news and its value with a targeted audience. For instance, you might produce personalized videos for your top five prospects, showing how your accolade is proof that your company is a better fit for each of them. - Scott Greggory, MadAveGroup
3. Get Punchy And Creative
Having come from the media world, press releases only go so far. Get punchy and creative. Write a short pitch idea. Pull out the hook and send it to a few targeted contacts and personalize it. And get even more creative on social media. Create a graphic or artwork to promote yourself, post it and tag everyone associated with it. This is a formula that works. -Michelle Mekky, Mekky Media Relations, Inc.
4. Leverage Social Media
Use social-media-sponsored posts to get the most of company or personal accolades. We recommend creating a blog post on your website with details and information on your accolade. You can then share this page on all relevant social media channels. Sponsored advertising can be a cost-effective tactic to gain additional exposure for your accolade to a targeted audience. - Jody Resnick, Trighton Interactive
5. Create A Dedicated Page On Your Site
If you're proud of your recognition by multiple organizations, why not create a page solely dedicated to listing all of your achievements and partnerships? This can present your team as industry leaders. An "Awards and Recognition" page can also become an important factor for leads in a sales funnel to convert into customers. - Arya Bina, Kobe Digital
6. Share It With Existing Cheerleaders
Sharing accolades with people who are proven to be positive cheerleaders for your brand has many long-term benefits. We often implement a multilevel communication strategy that mixes personal phone calls, a newsletter, emails, a blog post and social media messages to reach the right supporters. We contact people we know are excited to hear the news and eager to share with their network of supporters. - Timothy Nichols,ExactDrive, Inc
7. Let Employees Announce It For You
Create a shareable piece of content that every one of your employees can post in their own social media channels. It will not only get the word out to all of their friends and colleagues who may not have otherwise heard the news, but will also convey a collective pride in the company and its accomplishments. - Jess Cook, TMV Group
8. Leverage Custom Audiences And Retargeting
When you have good news to share, pay the bucks to put it in front of your most important audiences. Custom audiences and retargeting are two great ways to ensure those you want to know find out, even if they don’t click to read more. - Dan Golden, Be Found Online
9. Pitch The Media
Identify the top 10 media outlets and contacts that you think would be most interested in your news. Then, personally pitch them not only the accolade but the backstory about your or your company’s journey to accomplishing that significant goal. - Drew Gerber, Wasabi Publicity, Inc.
10. Promote Across Multiple Channels
Promote it across other channels. Announce it on your social platforms, paste the award badge on your website homepage, create a button in your signature and package it up in your monthly newsletter. As with most announcements or accomplishments nowadays, you should always be thinking about the multiple ways to repurpose and distribute content. -Kathleen Lucente, Red Fan Communications
11. Run Facebook Ads To It
Target your ideal customer on Facebook and run ads to an article talking about it. You can upload your existing customer list as a custom audience, show it to them directly and use that to create a lookalike audience of others you want to reach. Chances are they will not know they're being targeted directly and this will give your company more credibility and increased client retention. - Bryan Citrin, Chiropractic Advertising
12. Leverage For In-Depth Profiles
A press release is just the start. We like to take the release and parlay it into a larger pitch/story idea for an in-depth profile piece. Very often, colleges/universities will put together an alumni profile after winning an award or other accolade. After celebrating within the office, we also like to take the imagery and videos from the office celebration and share on socials for added reach. - Durée Ross, Durée & Company, Inc.
13. Tell Your Mom
Outside of the obvious PR, there are dozens of ways to tie back to an achievement. Put it in your email signature or bio with a link, your business card and website. Include it in a content-based email blast or old fashioned direct mail promo. Also, don't forget to tell your mom. She'll brag about you and spread some serious word of mouth. Plus, she deserves to be updated on her ROI. - Sean Looney, Looney Advertising & Branding