Business awards you should know about for 2023

As a new year approaches, now is the time to start planning your PR and marketing strategy for 2023. PR queen and awards specialist, Annette Densham, explains why you should include entering awards in your PR strategy and shares some of the best business awards coming up in 2023.

The buzz of standing on stage to receive an award is gratifying and a solid reminder that all your hard work has paid off.

There are many reasons to enter awards – they’ve been covered many times in many articles across the web – from benchmarking your business to rewarding your team for a job well done. But what those articles do not touch on are the incredible serendipities of entering awards, even if you don’t win.

Benefits of entering business awards

Given that we are all human beings, not interstellar beings with superpowers, we crave and desire acknowledgement and acceptance. Awards provide that in the form of social proof.

The reality of business is that we are in business to provide products or services that solve problems for our target audience. It doesn’t matter what you sell; your number one job in business is to market what you do to bring in clients and customers. Awards can help you do that.

Yes, there are detractors who say ‘awards do not sway me’. They are the outliers because for us everyday punters, we want and need social proof before handing over our hard-earned cash. That’s why we gather reviews and testimonials, do videos (even though we don’t want to), write blogs and do all we can to promote our wares. By leveraging the business awards process, you can drop tasty profile-building breadcrumbs that help connect people to your message, purpose and successes.

Awards are also a great confidence booster and restore faith in our business. Being in business is not all sunshine and rainbows – it is hard work, dedication and sacrifice. Going through the awards submission process draws out all the goals kicked throughout a year (often ones we forgot about because we are so busy going onto the next thing) and shines the light on how far you have come. Taking time to take stock is an important aspect of business growth. Business awards are a valuable tool for this process.

People want to work with people who are brave, vulnerable and go-getters. Entering awards is more than words on a page. It is a crazy leap of courage and self-belief to put yourself out there to be judged and assessed for all you do. That takes guts, and who doesn’t want to work with people who back themselves? Imagine what they will do for their clients and customers.

Awards coming up in 2023

As we slide into the end of the year, now is the time to start planning your PR and marketing strategy for 2023 … why not include business awards as one of those tools you will use to shine the light on your business?

Whichever awards you enter, ensure they align with your budget, marketing objectives and overarching purpose.

Some things to keep in mind:

The dates are subject to change.
This is not an exhaustive list. There are many locally-based awards run by councils and chambers of commerce. The best way to find local awards is to contact an award writing specialist or use Google – search ‘business awards + your local area’, or search by industry. For example, IT, Marketing or Accounting.
You generally have one month from opening to when the award closes.
The best way to be prepared – copy the links and dates into your calendar the week before the open date, so you can start preparing.