What do I look for in a winning entry?
Now that I’ve served as a judge on several awards events, I can tell you what it takes to get shortlisted and be in a position to win a search industry award. I highly recommend you keep the following in mind if you’re trying to show off your work.
1. Draft, peer-review, and edit before submitting your entry.
I know this sounds like a no-brainer, but I’ve seen a number of entries that looked like the person wrote it up during a 15-minute break between meetings. Spelling errors, grammatical errors, sparse content, etc. really detract from the actual campaign. Maybe your work was brilliant, but you’re asking me to see its brilliance amidst a write-up that seems rushed and unimportant.
Seriously. You’re spending $225 USD ($275 USD if you submit past the entry deadline) per entry. Why throw that money away by half-assing the entry form?
2. Don’t leave any required field in the form blank.
Psst. Let me tell you a secret. As part of the judging process, we give a score for each field in the entry form. We then tally the scores for each entry to determine the shortlist.
Did you catch that? Each field has a score, and your overall score is the result of adding those fields together. If you leave a field blank or put “N/A” in the field, you get ZERO points. And that more than likely will result in your entry NOT being shortlisted.
If you’re worried about including financial information in the budget field, first of all, don’t. All of the judges are contractually restricted from sharing anything about the entries. So, you’re covered under an implicit NDA. However, if that’s not good enough for you, find a way to talk about the financial aspect of the campaign in percentages or … anything. Give us something to work with.
2.5. Stick to the script
As an addendum to the second item, don’t go off script and forego the entry form in lieu of a beautifully designed PDF document. If you go off-script, it makes mapping scores for your entry to our judging form very difficult, and this could result in you not even being shortlisted.
If you want to create a beautiful promotional document in addition to your entry form, that’s great. Submit it as well. It’ll offer additional color to your entry. Just don’t try to substitute your document for the official entry form.
2.75. (For tools) Provide a login … or at least really good screenshots
I feel like I need to set aside space in this list specifically for tool providers. These categories require us to, in a very short period of time, get to know your tool or platform and make an assessment of that tool. And, just like those customers you’d love to woo, I can’t make a judgment of your value without getting a look around.
Don’t rely on your ability to write good copy to sell me on your tool. Set up a demo account that I can play around in. Your competition in that award category has.
Another option is to include screenshots of your tool or platform in action. Better yet, include video footage. Anything to give me something with which to evaluate you against the 5 or 6 competitors for the award.
3. Make sure your results match your initial challenge and goals.
I like happy coincidences as much as the next guy, but when it comes to judging your campaign, I want to see that you got the results you intended and perhaps then some more. If your goal was to increase revenue by X percent, and instead you got a Y percent higher Click-Through Rate, I’m going to assume you failed to reach your goal but were trying to put a positive spin on it. That’s not going to work with me.
I’m going to look at the first few fields of your entry for your goal, and I’m going to go straight to the Results portion of the form. If I don’t see alignment, I’m going to greatly reduce my score for that field.
4. Supplement your entry with data, testimonials, video, etc.
To be fair, I have given the highest score to someone who solely used the entry form to tell their story. If the story is good enough, you don’t need any supplementary material. However, if you really want to vie for that Number One spot, include additional material that the judges can use to evaluate your performance.
- Customer testimonials are really valuable for showing your value beyond your own view.
- Video content can show off your tool or platform, walk us through the data, add emotion to the story.
- Live links to the content you’ve created can help us judge its merit.
- Additionally, some entrants have included marketing material they use to tell this story to the rest of the world.
5. Be award-worthy
If you apply SEO best practices or PPC best practices or SMO best practices, you should see positive results. There’s really nothing special about that. Thousands of good search marketers see these types of results daily. When you submit an entry for the US Search Awards, ask yourself, why is this award-worthy?
We’re looking for exceptional submissions – the best tools, the best platforms, the best SEO campaigns, Wow-inspiring results, impactful stories that inspire, etc.. Tell us that kind of story, and we’ll see you on the shortlist.
Judging Ain’t Easy
One last request: make my job as a judge difficult, not with incomplete entries with ho-hum results, but with too many great entries. I know I’m asking for trouble there, but I’m also serious.
Despite spending 8 to 10 (and more) hours reviewing entries, pre-scoring them, and discussing in committee who should win, none of the judges are compensated for their time. We’re honored to participate because most of us want our industry to be elevated by the great efforts of our award winners. So give us your best.
