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:trophy: Awards program question for those that have done it: 1. For a "scaled down" awards program, could the timeline be shortened to 1-2 quarters from starting to finish - any hacks or time-saving tips? How about budget-wise? 2. Also.... do you feel that the benefit of an awards program outweigh the amount of work it takes. speaking from a customer marketing team of 1 here :woman-shrugging::thank_you:
I strongly believe that awards programs are the best way to maximize your advocacy efforts.
With an awards program, you can:
1. Uncover new advocates
2. Tap into accounts that have previously declined advocacy (they might not want to do a case study, but they do want to win an award, for example)
3. Fill your yearly content pipeline from award winners
4. Develop numerous kinds of content (case studies, blog posts, quotes, KPIs/metrics, videos, etc.)
5. I focus on "industry best practices" so the content from the awards program can be evergreen for your company (outside of just the awards program)
I would hesitate to recommend a condensed timeline, as even a scaled-down, or I would recommend calling it an emerging program, will take time to plan and execute. But when you consider that it could be your lead/pipeline generator for all advocacy activities, even as a team of one, I think it becomes an obvious place to invest your time and energy!
Love the above! 👆
From a community launch / spark network building lens, I would add:
• this is a great way to kickoff a community with high sentiment customers and utilize the content to attract new members. If you are planning on getting folks talking in a forum, this is a great way to build awareness around members strengths and the program provides an awesome opportunity to spark conversations authentically when prospects enter and want to know more about the specificities with your product - they know who to turn towards!
Exactly @Ryan Gutierrez, Community Agility Specialist! I included an end of year awards program to generate engagement with my customer community. This was a great surprise and delight moment, empowered advocates to own their new titles as award winners, and gave the rest of the community a north star - a reason to go above and beyond and build a deeper relationship with the business. Customer awards reinforce your organization's promise to be customer-centric. Everything @Alexie Glover said is on point.
As Ryan and Kristin have said, your awards should also be considered as a connector across your other customer programming (community, events, CABs, etc). Because award programs are literally the best 🥹 the hill I will die on for sure