The OpenWater Blog

How to Create a Successful Awards Program in 4 Steps

An awards program is a feel-good solution to two persistent association challenges:

• Increasing prospect awareness of your association
• Improving member engagement

Awards inspire and celebrate members in your community by recognizing their individual and organizational innovations, contributions, and achievements.

The prospect of launching a new awards program initially seems intimidating. But with a proven plan—like the four steps below—you can keep things rolling throughout the awards cycle no matter what else is on your plate. 

Step #1: Agree upon the goals, responsibilities, and structure of your awards program

One person on staff takes ownership of the awards program—the project lead or manager. But they don’t work alone. An awards committee, work group, or advisory council helps the project lead make strategic decisions about the program. This group should include representatives of all member segments to avoid introducing bias that longtime volunteers might unintentionally bring to the work.

Clarify your goals. They determine what awards you’ll offer and what you’ll prioritize during each phase of the awards cycle.

For example, if your primary goal is to boost the prestige and awareness of your association:

• Open up the awards to non-members
• Recruit industry influencers as judges
• Recognize innovative products and services
• Use paid advertising for a broader reach

If your primary goal is to inspire, engage, and recognize members:

• Limit awards to members
• Give contribution awards for different levels of volunteerism based on membership tenure and career stage
• Feature award recipients at online events and in newsletters

Clarify who (staff and members) does what and when. An awards program has many moving parts. You must rely on the expertise of colleagues to handle some aspects of the program.

Assign responsibilities to staff on the awards team:

• Website content development, upload, and updates
• Marketing plan development and implementation
• Award submission management
• Judge recruitment, training, and management
• Gala event planning and production
• Winner recognition and publicity
• Awards content repurposing

Make sure you can count on your colleagues’ cooperation. Get their supervisors’ approval so there’s no chance of them backing out. Keep your boss and/or executive leadership informed about the additional responsibilities taken on by team members.

The awards committee and project team members make decisions about:

• Awards program name
• Award categories
• Judging criteria and scoring
• Eligibility requirements
• Judge qualification and selection
• Role of sponsors
• Entry fees
• Project timeline
• Confidentiality and conflict of interest policies

Decide on program success metrics so you know what you’re aiming for.

Step #2: Gather content for your awards website

Dedicate year-round pages on your association’s website to awards information. Once you’ve settled on a name for the awards, buy an SEO-friendly URL that goes to the awards program home page.

Besides being informative, website content must also reflect a transparent, fair, and unbiased awards process.

The website must thoroughly explain:

• Award categories
• Eligibility requirements
• Submission process
• Selection criteria
• Process for becoming a judge
• Winner recognition and gala details

Anticipate and address frequently asked questions (FAQ) and update them with questions that come in during the awards cycle.

Step #3: Develop your marketing strategy and materials

Treat the call for entries or submissions as a marketing campaign. Does the target audience include segments of members (and non-members) who have different reasons for participating? Do different award categories require a segmented approach? Develop targeted marketing messages for different segments if they increase the likelihood of members opening emails and taking action.

Take a multi-channel approach to marketing your awards program. Some members will respond to emails, while others are more likely to notice your messaging on LinkedIn, TikTok, or Instagram.

Consider paid advertising on search engines and popular industry podcasts. Figure out how to reach underrepresented member segments so your awards program is inclusive.

Optimize your award web pages for search engines. You’ll have more opportunities after announcing award winners to optimize their stories and interviews for search engines.

When developing marketing materials, emphasize the benefits of participating for the individual or company member. The marketing tactics you use to encourage awards submissions will also help you recruit judges.

Step #4: Plan awards recipient recognition and publicity

Winner recognition includes:

• Awards announcements and publicity for winners
• Awards gala
• Awards content repurposing

Use all marketing and communication channels to recognize winners. Short videos about the winners work well on social platforms.

Refer to judges’ comments when writing press releases. Start with a template, but make each release stand out by sharing why each winner was award-worthy and what that means for the industry. The better story you tell, the more likely other people and organizations will share it.

Event planning is a profession with its own comprehensive skill set. Arrange for the help of co-workers or contractors with event-planning expertise.

Award recipients—individuals and companies—have stories to share that will educate and inspire members. Interview them for video and audio snippets and recordings. Repurpose these success stories and lessons learned for:

• Magazine articles, blog posts, newsletter items, and website content
• Webinars and conference sessions
• Podcast episodes
• Online course case studies

Before too much time passes, survey award applicants, judges, recipients, sponsors, and gala attendees to learn how you can improve the program for next year.

A bonus step that supports the entire awards cycle

Your life will be so much easier if you use awards management software to save time and keep everything organized. Awards software helps you collect submissions online, facilitate the judging process, communicate with applicants and judges, and track success.

With awards management software, like OpenWater, you can eliminate manual drudgery, save hours every week, and speed up processes so you have time to focus on the other work on your plate.

You’ll be ready to take charge of your awards program after getting an Awards Management 101 education. These free videos and worksheets take you through the awards cycle step-by-step.

Debbie Willis

Debbie Willis is the VP of Global Marketing at ASI, with over 20 years marketing experience in the association and non-profit technology space. Passionate about all things MarTech, Debbie has led countless website, SEO, content, email, paid ad and social media marketing strategies and campaigns. Debbie loves creating meaningful content to engage and empower association and non-profit audiences. Debbie received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing Information Systems from James Madison University and a Masters of Business Administration in Marketing from The George Washington University. Debbie is a member of Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority, American Society of Association Executives and dabbles in photography.

What You Need to Know About Managing an Awards Program for the First Time