Marketing Tips for Nominees

Top tips for leveraging your involvement in the City of Sydney Business Awards from CP Communications

You’ve decided to take the plunge and submit an entry into the City of Sydney Business Awards but there is no point sitting back and hoping the votes will just start rolling in. It’s time to put a campaign into place to let your customers know you’re in the running and you need their support!

To help you get started here are some top tips for leveraging your involvement in the awards and getting those votes happening.

  • Create a campaign to get your business in the spotlight for votes, don’t just expect the public to know you’re in the running.
  • Put out a media release to your local paper and radio stations declaring your nomination in an effort to rally up support. Learn how to write a media release here.
  • Make use of the ‘campaign toolkit’ the award organisers provide which include different size logos for your website, email signature and Facebook page. Including a vote now link on your website and Facebook page makes the voting process easier for the public.
  • For retail and restaurant businesses especially, posters are available to put up in heavy traffic areas with details of how to vote including an online option and an SMS option.
  • If you have a database – email or addresses – use this to contact your customers, send out an email/letter asking them to vote with instructions including the online and SMS option.
  • Use your existing mobile phone number database to send an SMS blast to let customers know you’re in the running and how they can vote for your business.
  • Use social media to your advantage:
      • Start a Facebook page. This is easy and free to set up; you can find advice on how to do set up your Facebook Pages. Include regular updates about your company and your campaign on your page to get votes. Openly ask ‘friends’ to support your quest
      • Do you have a Twitter account yet? Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. You have 140 characters per message and Twitter is a great way to engage with your customers and raise awareness of your brand. Use your Twitter account to generate interest, tweet about the awards and what you are doing to get votes
      • Provide helpful and relevant advice on Twitter and then include a link where followers can vote. Followers are the people whose subscribe to your messages ie. tweets
      • Follow entrants from other categories and re-tweet their messages about the awards-they may return the favour.
      • If you have good relationship with people you follow select a few with a large following and direct message them asking them to re-tweet your messages so they reach a much larger audience.

Winning a City of Sydney Business Award requires a little more thought than simply submitting an application and crossing your fingers, but with a little strategy and strong use of your local community and networks, your business could be the one taking home the top prize.

An extra incentive to get creative with your campaign to get votes, is the prize from Yellow Pages of $5000 of advertising to the business with the most successful and innovative campaign aimed at getting votes.

About CP Communications

CP Communications provides specialist traditional PR and social media strategies that achieve positive media coverage, increased brand awareness and improved sales results. For more information www.cpcommunications.com.au