[thelist] High profile awards

Janet Green JGreen at desmoinesmetro.com
Wed Feb 20 15:50:00 CST 2002


>>>My boss is trying to increase the profile of the web
development side of the business (ie., me) and he thinks awards are the best
way to go about it.  In Ireland, perhaps that's the case, but I think there
must be better ways <<<

Michael, I hate to sound disagreeable again... but... our experience with awards was that they were actually very useful. They generated a LOT of additional traffic for us, because we submitted our site in awards competitions sponsored by the types of groups we *wanted* to visit our site. It also resulted in a lot of additional web business for the design firm that originally worked on our site, because they were able to use it as an "award-winning portfolio piece."

In my marketing-oriented opinion, the best way to build the web development side of your business would be to gather testimonials from satisfied clients, couple those with an analysis of what you actually accomplished for those clients, and find a compelling way to present that information to your prospects in a format (CD? online portfolio? Power Point presentation?) that they are likely to respond to and that makes you look good. If you are going to focus on awards, focus on submitting your work for awards that are meaningful to your prospects... and use any awards you do receive as the topic of a press release sent out to publications that your prospects are likely to see. (What I  mean is, it doesn't do you much good to win design-industry awards if you don't promote them and/or if your clients don't give a hoot about what's going on in the design industry.) Maybe you can pitch this angle to your boss, and s/he'll be impressed with your ability to focus on the prospect's needs.




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