Microsoft Partner Awards Archives - Maven Collective Marketing

Achieve Your B2B Award

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

Intended Audience: B2B Business Owners, Microsoft Partners, SaaS Business Owners, Tech Company Owners

You do impactful work. It’s time you get recognized for it. You may think it’s a bit late in the year to be talking about award entries, but we are here to make sure you have ample time to get a head start on the B2B, technology, and partner awards for 2022. Creating an award submission that helps you stand out and showcase your talents takes time, and nobody wants to be thrown in the deep end as the clock ticks towards the deadline.

To craft a piece this significant, we are here to share with you the ingredients of a winning entry from the multi-award-winning Mavens at this Collective:

1. Carefully Read & Review the Guidelines

Award guidelines exist for a reason. Take the time to read and review them thoroughly to ensure you understand what is expected. Guidelines provide important insight on how to structure your entry and what details to include. They include details on the eligibility marking scheme, weightage of different components of the entry, judges’ expectations, as well as official deadlines and contact information for any queries. If you want to be an award-winning entrant you need to be very familiar with the requirements and scoring of each award entry.

2. Selecting the Appropriate Category

Developing an award submission proposal under the wrong category can cost you, both in time, money and endless frustration. Take the time to conduct research on the various categories to plan how your body of award-winning work fits into them. By selecting the correct category and knowing that your solution/service/product is eligible for entry, you are setting yourself on the path to success. This will take some planning and discussion on your part to determine the perfect fit, but rest assured it will be worth it!

3. Stick to the Subject

It is easy to run astray when writing lengthy submissions. Stay conscious of the requirements and scoring criteria are for each B2B award. Speak directly to the requirements and criteria while providing a unique and entertaining storyline that animates the true problem, challenge, solution and outcome for each entry.

Be mindful of word limits! Most B2B, technology and partner awards demand a maximum word or character count limit. This is something you must plan for from the start. It can be very challenging to cut down on details once you have drafted the complete submission.

4. Prove It

Evidence is everything when it comes to technology awards. If you can show measurable results for the work you have done, it will have a significant impact on your submission. Using metrics and testimonials is a powerful way to demonstrate your impact. Customer case studies are a great resource to capture your influence.

5. Add Visuals

Videos, screenshots, photos, and other media help the judges visualize your work. Even if they are not mandatory to the submission, do try and include visuals if possible in every entry package. The judges usually come from all walks of life and some may not be well-versed in your product or service. In such cases, visual representation delivers the most impact in the fewest characters, which we all know are mercilessly counted.

6. Take Your Time

This might not seem like a big deal, but trust us when we say that award entries are time-consuming and you do not want to rush it. Your B2B award submission is not a race, it’s a marathon. Therefore, you must take your time to plan your submission, map out what needs to be done and strategize an approach. This is the real secret, giving your award entry the time and attention it deserves to truly showcase your soon-to-be award-winning work.

7. Reuse and Repurpose

Reduce, reuse and recycle your B2B award entries throughout the year. This simple entry can be a very fruitful content piece for you to repurpose in a blog, in a case study, into another award entry, transformed into a presentation for a virtual event, edited into a guide of best practices, and much more. Don’t let these award-winning works sit stagnant after all the initial effort to get the award entry up to snuff. Reuse this excellence in the many mediums that showcase the outstanding work your business delivers in multiple means through many channels.

Upcoming Technology, Microsoft Partner & B2B Awards

Microsoft Inspire Awards – The largest partner event of the year, Microsoft Inspire awards recognize the outstanding success of Microsoft Partners from over 100 countries. In addition, Microsoft introduced a new category in 2021, the Social Impact Awards, to drive innovation through community response, inclusion, and sustainability. Award entrants must submit by April to be considered.

Microsoft Canada Impact Awards – This is hosted by Microsoft to recognize Partners that create solutions leveraging Microsoft products, services and technology, and drove exceptional customer excellence in Canada.Award entrants must make their submissions by April to be considered.

P.S. We have had the pleasure of taking our clients to the finalist circle last year!

Deloitte Awards – These awards recognize the unique strengths of Canadian innovation. Some noteworthy categories are: Technology Fast50 & North American Technology Fast500. Award entrants have deadlines ranging from April through summer.

Fast Company Innovation by Design Awards – Honors people and companies solving problems of today and tomorrow through innovation. Award entrants must submit by April to be considered.

SaaS Awards – The Software-as-a-Service awards celebrate software solutions that solve business challenges. Award entrants must submit by May to be considered.

Stevie Awards – Acknowledge the positive contributions of organizations worldwide, Here are some awards hosted by them, relevant to our North American audience: International Business Awards & American Business Awards. Award entrants must submit by February to be considered.

P.S. We have had the pleasure of taking this award in years past!

The CANIE Awards – The Candian Innovation and Entrepreneurship Awards promote and encourage innovators and entrepreneurs in Canada to create unique solutions year after year. Award entrants must submit by April to be considered.

IT World Awards – Honoring achievements in every field of information technology, IT World awards provide industry-wide recognition. Regular deadlines are in January, but you have the option to submit late entries until April.

Future of Tech Awards – Celebrating the leading product and innovation in the US technology sector. Award entrants must submit by November to be considered.

That’s not all, there are several regional and global awards that take place throughout the year. Put your best foot forward as you step into 2022 by celebrating your hard work.

Stand Out in the Sea of Sameness

All of this can seem overwhelming, and that’s where we come in. Maven Collective Marketing is well-versed in the curation of exceptional award submissions. We are storytellers that capture all the essential components of your work and streamline the otherwise overwhelming process of submitting one or multiple B2B award entries. That is exactly why we are here today, to give you a gentle reminder that it is time to start thinking about how you can make the most of this opportunity with us. We know how demanding and time-consuming B2B award proposals can be. Let’s not forget that if something is worth doing, it is worth doing well. Maven Collective Marketing can not only help you strategize your proposal, but also weave the complete entry to tell your riveting story. Leverage our expertise to create entries for any B2B, technology, or product innovation award, and check out our Business Awards Submission Service for more details on how we can assist you. Maven Collective Marketing is dedicated to your success, and hence, we have decided to work with a limited number of award entries in the coming year. We limit entries to ensure we will be able to give every unique entry the time and resources they deserve to podium in 2022. For 2022 award entries, if you would like us to work with you to craft that top-notch submission, then you must act fast! Reach out to us while there still are limited spaces to help you leap ahead.

Get The Recognition You Deserve With Business Awards

Estimated Read Time: 5 minutes

Intended Audience: B2B Business Owners, Microsoft Partners, SaaS Business Owners, Tech Company Owners

Award ceremonies are more than just a red carpet, a trophy, and a speech, especially in the B2B and technology industry. B2B Awards and competitions for companies are a powerful way to get recognition in your field of expertise.

This recognition is often underestimated by businesses as they are skeptical of the resource investment that goes into preparing a nomination submission. Let us change that for you and show you why it is worth the effort. Since, both the B2B and technology industry is highly competitive; opportunities like business awards become even more essential to help stand out in the market.

Let’s briefly glance over the types of awards and then dive straight into the advantages of entering business awards.

Ranging from local, national to international, awards of all kinds are available, they can be industry-based or narrowed down to a particular criterion. So, no matter the size of your business or the impact of your service, there is something for everyone. If you are a B2B company, you should definitely be exploring awards relevant to your business to achieve that edge over your competitors.

What is the Significance of B2B Awards?

There are many benefits to submitting your B2B company for an award:

Earn Credibility

Think of awards as a stamp of approval for your business. What is it that your audience is recognizing when you enter or win an award? Your expertise, knowledge, expertise and know-how! Just by entering for an award, you are able to showcase that your product or service is worth knowing and talking about. It is a great way to get larger audiences to learn more about what you do and gain credibility for your work in your industry.

Level The Playing Field

No matter the scale of your business, there is an award out there for you. In fact, many awards allow businesses of varying sizes to compete against each other. In this case, a small startup could be pitched against a larger enterprise. What matters here is your unique solution, process/approach and business model.

Motivate Employees

All that hard work that organizations channel towards their services deserves attention. Awards are a great way to boost the morale of your team and keep them motivated to deliver quality results time and again. These wins are very important for teams and you should not hold back in celebrating together.

Attract Customers

Business Awards can bring in new customers and open new avenues for your business. A lot of award organizers provide media coverage to winners, which can help your company get more attention, so enter the arena and increase your market share.

Boost Your Marketing Strategy

Of course, we know that companies enter with the aim to win, but you can repurpose your award submissions for other marketing opportunities too. Once you have won the award you can utilize its PR toolkit of award badges, certifications, and other components to update your own marketing material.

Engagement and Brand Awareness – Having an award logo on your website, company-client documentation, and social media channels helps with brand awareness regarding your achievements and drives engagement for your product.
Link Building – Winning an award can get you featured on reputable websites with high traffic, in turn, impacting your website’s organic search performance.
Content Marketing – You shouldn’t think that all your efforts towards writing that perfect submission come to an end with the award. You can make use of your submission and create various kinds of content around it like a case study, multiple B2B blogs, short video clips, or even conduct a live webinar session that talks about how you attained your project goals.

When is the Best Time to Enter a B2B Award?

If you think you have missed out, don’t worry, award season isn’t limited to a single month of the year. Since there are so many different types of business and technology awards, they are all open for nominations at different times of the year.

Consider your B2B award nominations it an ongoing effort, honing the nomination pitch after pitch. This is not as time-consuming as it sounds, you could subscribe to business press or just do a simple sweep at the beginning of each quarter to keep yourself abreast on forthcoming business awards.

Once you know the deadlines and requirements for the award you are aiming for, it is important to make sure you have enough time and resources to prepare for the submission. We understand that with so many ongoing projects and customers to serve, it can be hard to make the time for this as well. That’s where the Mavens come in.

Captivating Business Awards Submissions with Maven Collective

The Maven Collective team is fully equipped to draft a compelling submission for you. Not only are we an award-winning marketing team ourselves, but we have also helped many clients successfully enter several B2B and technology awards and win!

Each year the Mavens work with clients to create captivating submissions for prestigious awards like the Microsoft Inspire/Impact Awards, Nielsen Norman Group Intranet Design Awards, FastCompany Innovation by Design Awards, Ragan and PR Daily Awards, StepTwo Intranet & Digital Workplace Awards, BC Tech Technology Impact Awards, Les Prix Canie Awards, and the Web Excellence Awards to name a few.

With the Neilson Norman Group Intranet Design Awards submission deadline fast approaching, we are actively curating some riveting applications for our clients.

From our experience, we have learned how demanding award nomination proposals can be, but we also understand what it takes to create a notable, award-winning entry. Starting right from strategizing your approach to weaving storytelling and testimonials into your submission. We extract the right information from you teams and your clients that allows you to shine in a way your organization hasn’t before. Let us be your storyteller and build your captivating award nomination you and your team will be proud of.

If you would like us to guide you through any B2B, technology, or product innovation award submissions, check out our carefully crafted services or send us your queries at mavens@mavencollectivemarketing.com today!

Tag: Microsoft Partner Awards

The Secret to a Winning B2B Award Entry