How to Write A Winning B2B Marketing Award Entry

With awards season in full swing, we caught up with one of this year’s judges in The B2B Marketing Elevation Awards, Conor Coughlan. As a seasoned B2B SaaS business professional and the Chief Marketing Officer at asset intelligence cybersecurity company Armis, we asked for his thoughts on writing an attention-grabbing, winning B2B marketing award entry. Conor says, “I am honored to be a judge in this year's North American B2B Marketing Elevation Awards. Thank you to the organizers and the governance committee for selecting me. I have to confess that I am super impressed by this year's applicants and the overall level of talent and expertise. While not a formal recipe for success, here is some guidance on submitting awards entries. 

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Tip 1: A Clear Strategy

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At ideation, your strategy was set with the intention of meeting a specific goal. Presumably, that goal was met, and now you’re looking to communicate that successful strategy clearly in an award entry. In your submission, consider answering; How did you formulate your strategy? How did it evolve as the project played out? How did it impact and inform the overall outcomes? Give a concise overview of your marketing initiative from concept to go live, including the objectives, target audience cohorts, martech stack, and more. 

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Tip 2: Leverage Your Numbers

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Go beyond surface-level metrics. Open rates and reach give the judges a feel for the top-line performance. Leads generated, engagement scores, pipeline impact - this is where you can show real value that leaves an impression. The tangible, real-world impact of the campaign/project. Speak to the metrics directly linked to the goals of your initiative and the category you’re trying to stand out in. 

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Tip 3: Keep It Simple

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Don’t overwhelm the judges with too much information. In most cases, judges are limited to spending 15 minutes on each entry. When writing your entry, state the facts, simplify the narrative, and get to the point quickly. Start by presenting your entry as a 10-minute elevator pitch, and fine-tune it from there. Find the balance between storytelling and accolades. 

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Tip 4: Tell A Story

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Remember, the judges were not in the room with you and your team when your campaign/project happened. Draw the reader into the process and explain the strategic thinking behind the choices made. They need to understand what happened and come away inspired. 

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Tip 5: The Power of Consistency

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Excellent B2B marketing can often be attributed to consistency. Messaging, creative treatment, dedication to testing and learning, channel deployment, and consistently enabling data to inform decisions. You already believe your entry is award-worthy; that tells me you’ve got the above in place. Consistency can be overlooked as a powerful element when, in fact, it is potentially the qualifier that encourages you to use this very campaign/project for your award entry. Don’t be fooled into thinking consistency in what you did doesn’t have a part to play in the success of the project – speak to it.

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Tip 6: Efficiency

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B2B marketing often moves at considerable speed. Award-winning growth and channel marketing initiatives often showcase an efficiency in the team’s ability to adapt to what the performance metrics told you. Reflecting on how you used the resources available to you and demonstrating dexterity makes for a great narrative in your entry. 

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Tip 7: Don’t Be Afraid of Setbacks

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Every marketing initiative often looks different from brief to execution. As a marketer myself, I’ve experienced the challenges an idea can throw at you as you move through the motions. Tell us about the bumps in the road and how you and your team successfully managed and reacted. Show us the real side of the campaign, and entice us with your story of overcoming all odds. Back this up with the data you used to make those informed decisions that later resulted in optimized performance. Demonstrating your ability to adapt to changing market conditions is something not every team can boast. 

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Tip 8: Competitive Advantages 

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B2B marketing is a saturated field, one that’s often tricky to innovate. You’ve arrived at the point in which you believe your entry is award-winning, but what will make it stand out from the crowd? How does your entry differentiate your marketing department from its competitors? Perhaps a sustainable, long-term impact on customer loyalty and brand awareness. An expected result generated from a late addition to the initiative. Or a true gap in the marketing landscape you secured as your own.  Every entry is competing against one another; don’t shy away from showing your own competitive edge.

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Tip 9: Collaboration

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I am a firm believer that effective, award-worthy marketing is often a result of best-in-class communication. In your entry, I’d be looking for the dynamics of collaboration involved in creating and executing the initiative—between leadership, your team, your client’s team, AI tools, creative vs technical, digital vs in-person. Stories of lengthy email chains and 200+ hours of calls are impressive to some judges, concerning for others.  Pivot that narrative to highlight how expert delegation among the parties involved led to the right skills being used in the right places. Share examples of how the output from dynamic leadership, interpersonal connections, and team cohesion contributed to the end result.

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Tip 10: Do Not Use AI to Write Your Entry

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Please don’t. It is really easy to tell when you have done so. We use AI in our amazing platform, namely Armis Centrix ™, and in our day-to-day activities for undertaking marketing at Armis. However, when it comes to writing copy, you always need a human touch. To be clear: Talking about the use of AI in your marketing is great; using it to write your actual entry, not great. Your submission is the culmination of your team’s effort, skill, and ingenuity and has a very real human element behind the creative process. AI will not do that human involvement justice. You’re up against a large volume of entries, and the challenge of differentiating yourself in the B2B market. Another entrant might be briefing AI systems with the same award guidelines, thus giving you both similar entries. (In short, we will be able to tell if you’ve used AI.)

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Creating a winning B2B marketing award entry requires a blend of authenticity, storytelling, and demonstrable impact – the recipe of a great marketer!  Remember that clarity and simplicity are key, and a human touch is essential. Go forth, impress, and inspire with your creativity and innovation. 

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If you’d like to discuss your thoughts on cybersecurity or B2B marketing, you can reach me directly on LinkedIn. Canvassing for existing award entries is strictly not permitted, and I can’t discuss anything about this year's applications—so please don’t ask me to.”

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Conor Coughlan is Armis's Chief Marketing Officer and a seasoned B2B SaaS business professional. He has over 25 years of experience in cybersecurity, Fintech, and media, with a clear focus on growth and scalability. Conor is a passionate advocate of emerging talent, diversity, and inclusion. 

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About the Awards

The Elevation Awards celebrate excellence in US B2B marketing. They recognize those who are setting new standards, raising the bar, and showing the world that B2B marketing can be just as—if not more—creative and innovative than B2C. Learn more about The Elevation Awards here.

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