Awards-A Perfect Opportunity For Thought Leadership Agencies Constantly Miss

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What do you do when your agency wins an award?

The average agency does one or all of these:

-Puts them on the shelf/in the case with the other awards

-Spreads the word that “we won an award” on Twitter, LinkedIn, FB, etc.

-Sends out an email making the announcement to prospects

-Celebrates

And you should do all of the above!  Always celebrate the wins and let your prospects know the kind of quality work you do.

BUT-the average agency misses an amazing opportunity to provide real thought leadership content to their prospects when they win an award.

And the most egregious part is how easy (I use that term in a relative way) it is for agencies to provide superlative thought leadership to prospects when they’ve won an award, versus how difficult it can typically be to come up with ideas.

How are agencies missing the opportunity, specifically in regards to new business?

Agencies tend to focus on the end result: “we won this award”, when instead, they should be focusing on how they won it-the path they took to achieve the end result.

And that’s what I mean by “easy”. You can craft an insightful content series based on your level of expertise in the category, or quality creative or strategic planning, because you lived it.

And won an award for it! But you can’t just tell prospects you won an award and expect anything to come of it; quite frankly your prospects are typically too busy to care.

So make them care, and take notice, by taking advantage of this prime opportunity to tell a story about your award-winning path, and why your agency was expertly suited to achieve amazing results for your client. (And do mention those results by the way.)

Creating solid thought leadership content for your agency new business program is never easy, so when you win an award, don’t squander the opportunity to tell your story-prospects will become better engaged when you do.

I'm the VP of Sales at RSW/US. We specialize in working with services firms to help drive and close new business-if you need help with that, email me at lee@rswus.com. What I actually do: drive sales efforts to bring ad agencies and services firms on board with RSW, create content around successful new business tactics and help drive RSW/US marketing objectives, including social media channels, blog content, webinars, video and speaking engagements. Dig it.