The entries are in and now the first round of voting in the A4U Awards has been finished, the judges have each submitted their shortlists from the 80 or so entries for this year’s A4U Awards.

After ploughing through that many entries I thought I’d pass on a few tips for anyone who might be thinking about what it takes to ‘make the cut’ next year. To be honest it’s not that hard if you start thinking about it now, and the focus could really help your programme:

1) Read the rules
A handful of entries went by the wayside because they simply were not relevant to the category they were being entered for.

2) Take time on your entry including presentation
There are a small number of points available for the presentation of your entry. After all, this is a marketing award, to be won by people who are expert in communicating and persuading, right? Judges are only human, make it easy for them to see the main points you are trying to get across.

3) Talk about what you did that was different
I was amazed at the number of entries that did no more than what I’d consider the basics. A few commission bonuses here and there and some updated creative for Christmas does not make your programme an outstanding winner. Talk about how you went the extra mile for your affiliates or your merchants and you’ll stand out like a real champion.

4) Talk to your network and agency today

Plan for the rest of the year and you have a very good chance of success, not just in the awards but in your business.

Make sure you are using ALL the tools at your disposal to maximise the number of affiliates you can reach. Although some of the entries did no more than use the tools at their disposal, the effort in making sure that these were the best quality they could be and that every affiliate was given a hand in using the right parts of the ‘toolkit’ for them really shone on some entries.

Talk to your affiliates or merchants, and draw up a plan of what you’re going to do over the next 12 months, then just get on with it.

5) Be accurate, and do your background research.

3 merchants claimed to be the first to offer video adverts!

6) Talk about your affiliate programme, not just your business.

Too many entries went off track and talked about their business success without being clear how, or even if the affiliate programme had contributed to that success. Having a strong business, and an affiliate programme is not the same as having a strong affiliate programme.

Tell us what your affiliate programme did that helped your business.

7) Just get on and enter!

I was glad to see that amongst the multi-million pound programmes, there were plenty of small businesses and even some one-man-bands entered. Often the smaller merchants and affiliates were the ones with something unique to say. An award, or even a short-listing can give some excellent exposure to your business so it’s well worth a punt.

Remember, you’ve got to be in it, to win it!