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Want to save time on marketing your awards program?

When you’re planning your awards program and marketing strategy do you sometimes feel like the white rabbit from Alice in Wonderland? Running late, things overdue, no time to stop and relax? It can be exhausting trying to get everything done properly and on time. But despite being so busy you still want to a great job marketing your program to ensure a successful year.

So if you could find ways to market your program without it sucking up all your time, how cool would that be?

While you’ll still have to spend some time on it, there are things you can do that are both effective and time-saving. I’ve put together five different time-saving ideas to use when working on your awards marketing campaign.

1. Social Sharing

Suggested social sharing is a pretty awesome tool. It allows an applicant to fill out a form announcing what they’ve done on various social platforms. Not only does it give the applicant a chance to share their excitement, it’s also a great marketing tactic because it provides free advertising for you. All the applicant has to do is push a button and it helps spread the word! It shows that people are engaging with your program and are excited and passionate enough about the awards to want others to know about it.

2. Public Vote

Public vote works really well in tandem with social sharing. It can help your program go viral by encouraging applicants to share news of the program with their friends and acquaintances. These people may not have otherwise known about your program and are now not only getting information about it, but also engaging with it! Using this tactic helps spread the word about your program and gets others to engage more readily. And the best part for you? All this is done by your applicants – no extra work for you!

3. Sponsorship Emails

Email is always a great way to market your awards program. But not all kinds of email marketing require a lot of work on your part, for example, sponsorship emails. This type of email isn’t actually one you send out, instead your information is included in another industry-related organization’s email or newsletter. All you have to do is craft a simple, but informative call to action with some important information about your program for whoever is sending the email and boom! you’re done. (Note that possible costs should be considered before pursuing this route.)

4. Content Calendar/Planning

I know what some of you are thinking. How is planning and creating a content calendar time saving and not just another thing to put on the to do list? Well, I went into it a little bit here, but let me break it down. Creating a content calendar helps get you organized and focused on your awards marketing strategy. Failing to create a well-organized plan can lead to confusing content, poorly executed efforts, and an ultimately unsuccessful campaign. So when your program starts and you already know what you’re going to tweet and such, it will ultimately save you time from scrambling around, trying to figure out what you’re doing.

5. Templates

Templates are one of my favorite things. They’re a huge time saver because you’re not always having to start from scratch every time you want to create a new piece of content, a header for your twitter, or cover photo. Create a good base file (with guides, colors, etc.) that you can continually come back to and format to fit your specific needs. The trick here is to avoid creating pieces from your template that all look alike. My advice is to have 2 – 3 different templates for each piece of content to help keep the formatting fresh and interesting.

So what do you think? What tricks have you developed over the years to save time on your awards marketing efforts?

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Miriam Hancock

Miriam Hancock
Miriam is the Marketing Coordinator for OpenWater. When she isn't writing and designing content she paints and cooks for her own personal blog.

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