You've been busy. You've been travelling. You were at a tradeshow. You were out sick. Your boss wasn't available for approvals. Whatever the reason, you didn't get around to submitting entries to this year's American Business Awards. But you've gotten a reprieve. For the first time in its 13 year history, the final entry deadline of The American Business Awards, the preeminent business awards program in the U.S.A., has been extended - through this coming Friday, May 1.
We know, you're still busy. Your calendar this week is still chockablock. But surely you can find 10 free minutes. Because in 10 minutes you can prepare and submit an entry to the ABAs and potentially win a Stevie®, one of the most coveted trophies on the planet.
Here are a number of ways you can do that.
Repurpose Nominations From Other Awards Programs
The submission requirements for the ABAs are fairly open-ended, and there's a wide variety of categories to choose from. If you've entered any other awards programs this year, simply repurpose the nominations you wrote for those competitions for the ABAs. Most categories require only the submission of an essay of up to 650 words and a bullet-list summary of the achievements portrayed in the essay. It should be fairly easy to reconfigure your other awards nominations for the ABAs.
Repurpose Your Press Releases and White Papers
It's likely you've already done the heavy-lifting of describing your organization's achievements, your innovations, your new products and services, your marketing and PR campaigns, etc. Throughout the year you've been trumpeting your successes through press releases and white papers. Simply comb through your output over the past year and cobble together the text you've already written into a short essay. Note that the 2015 ABAs will recognize your achievements since the beginning of 2014.
Repurpose Your Press Clippings
With every ABA nomination you have the option to attach any number of press clippings, work samples, video clips, photographs, etc. to your essay, to help paint the picture for the judges. Does one or more of your press clippings feature a compelling story that can be the basis of the essay for your ABA nomination? There's no need to reinvent the wheel if it already exists and you can reuse it.
Hire a Consultant
Did you know that there are a number of consultancies that specialize in preparing and submitting awards nominations on behalf of their clients? There are quite a few in the U.S.A., and they've been remarkably successful over the years in winning Stevie Awards for their clients. Contact us if you'd like a referral to one of them who can take the process of getting entries into the ABAs off your hands this week.
Submit Media Work
Sometimes you hope to win a Stevie for a specific reason - for a major achievement, or a member of your team - but sometimes you just want to win a Stevie, for any reason. If that's the case, take a look at the categories in the ABAs for videos, apps, websites, publications, and live events. It's really easy to enter these categories. These categories generally require only a short essay of up to 125 words, describing the nominated work's purpose and results to date, and the nominated video or app, etc., itself.
Resubmit a Nomination From Another Stevie Awards Program
Did you have success with a nomination in the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, or the Stevie Awards for Women in Business? One Stevie Awards competition has nothing to do with another, and resubmitting a nomination from one program to this year's ABAs is a valid strategy followed by many organizations.
Contact Us for Help
You'll save a lot of time by letting us do some of the important work for you. We'll save you the trouble of plowing through our category lists to find the category that's right for you, for example. Contact us, by email at help@stevieawards or telephone at +1 703-547-8389. Tell us what your organization wants to be recognized for, and we'll suggest the best category for your nomination.
Whichever strategy you choose to get your ABA nominations written and submitted this week, do get them submitted this week, because the deadline will not be extended further!
Ready to enter The 2015 American Business Awards? Begin here
