Welcome to the next episode of The CMA Newsletter where 550+ marketers get better at building Customer Marketing programs and strengthening relationships with their customers in less than 5 minutes.
See past episodes of the CMA Newsletter here. đ
Hello again! Iâm a bit more calm going into Part 2 of Customer Award Programs. đ€Ł If you havenât read Part 1 you can access it here.
We left off with the nomination landing page. This year we went with the âLate Night Showâ theme. I loved the concept! It was a chance to be Jimmy Fallon for an hour at the award ceremony event.
Youâll notice that in addition to describing the award categories, I also promote what is in it for them! In some of the follow up emails, I even lead with those perks!
Timing
I launched nominations on Aug 1st. Youâll notice that LP says entries submitted by August 31st and the event on Sept 28th⊠BAHAHAHA I didnât even come close to hitting that. The event is now Oct 27th. You have to leave some âOh shitâ time. Maybe I would have hit that if everything went smooth but it never does.
Here is a good 2 month timeline table.
Letâs start with after you launch nominations. Now donât be sad if they arenât rollin in. Youâll get the majority of the in the final days.
In addition to CSMs reaching out to promotions nominations, you can create email signature banners and in app pop ups. đ
About 2 weeks in start identifying strong nominations. Reach out to them with the intent to book a 45 minute call to get more details. Add your writer to this call. In the chance that this customer wins, you will have the bones of a case study ready to go!
Here is the email:
Subject line: Sendie Award Nomination
Hi X,
Thank you so much for submitting a nomination for the 2022 Sendie Awards. Your submission was top notch!
I'd love to hear a little more about the strategy behind this campaign. Can we jump on a 45 minute call to go over some details?
Does next Aug 23 or 25th at 10am work for you?
The day the nominations close, meet up with your committee and narrow down the finalists. Then send this email right away in order to get legal approval to move forward. This is by far the most important step in this entire program. It dictates everything.
Subject line: Sendie Award Nomination Update
Hi,
I wanted to give you an update on your Sendie nomination. Your submission is strong enough to land you on a list that the judges are moving in and out of other categories.
At this time, we would like you to loop in your PR/Legal team to understand if we have would have permission for:
Logo Usage
Case Study with results (link a sample case study)
Appear on a Landing Page (link your case study page)
Here is verbiage we use for PR/legal for approvals.
By participating in this case study, you agree to allow Sendoso to distribute, and disseminate the information in any manner. You also agree to allow Sendoso to retain rights to the produced media for potential future use in marketing, sales, and in all other public distribution.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Youâre getting legal approvals upfront before you put anymore time into that story. They do not think they won at this point just that they are a finalist.
If approvals are passed⊠here is my email for your winners:
Sendie Winner Email
Subject Line: Sendie Award Winner! Congrats!
Hi
You read that subject line right! You all have won the 2022 Sendie Award in the X category! What can I say, you are all sorts of amazing and perfect for this award!
Here is the Sendie Award page from last year to set your expectations on what this year's Landing Page may look like. It will the link to your case study.
We promote the story on social media and are looking to do a 1 Customer/Prospect Event on Oct.27th at 1pm where you will speak to the campaign and 1 Prospect event called CONNECTED in 2023.
As the winner, you all will get an invitation to our private Slack Workspace by signing up here, an awesome swag bundle as well as a brand new trophy design!
Let me know if you have any questions.
At this time, I would love to collect high resolution headshots and any pics of sends we are highlighting as well as a transparent logo for a white back logo!
Thanks so much! Congratulations again! I will be in touch with digital assets and the timeline for launching winners!
Okay so for the other nominees, I would be super quick to send the âyou didnât make itâ email. I had 2 people this year back out and conversations were awkward. Iâd wait a solid week to send it. You could even send an email stating the below but tweak it a little and say âYouâre a runner up if for someone backs out you would be nextâ or something to that nature.
Loser email
I cannot think of a nicer word ^ đ€Ł
Hi,
Thank you so much for your submission to the Sendie Awards. This came down to the wire.
We had the most nominations we have ever received for the Sendie Awards this year. Your submission was strong enough to land you on a list that the judges moved in and out of other categories. That being said, sometimes that works in someone's favor, and other times it doesn't make for the best fit. You were amongst the strongest nominations that did not make the category which makes us all sad at the end of the day.
Thinking forward to 2023 we have already considered some ideas around the "judge's choice" finalist for this exact reason. Where we can showcase some that may not have fallen in the "the number one spot" of a category but deserve the recognition of being on a list like this.
We would still love to feature your story at the Sendie event and put you in the spotlight!
Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. It always means so much when customers take the time to participate.
I will be sending you a gift for your efforts and I do hope you apply next year.
All my best,
Leslie
When you have your winners start submitting the names to the design team for all the assets:
Winners Landing Page
Award Show event Registration page
Case Study
Social Posts
Winners Badge for their social
Trophies!
Okay this is getting too long. Tune in next week for the last episode of this series where we will cover the planning and execution of the Award Show event!
Love your CMA Soulmate,
Leslie