WINNER: How to Win Business Awards

Denise O’Leary was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, and retained her love of the countryside, now living in Chippenham Wiltshire.
Denise launched her marketing agency Purpol Marketing in 2014, as a home-based business offering brand, marketing and bid strategy consultancy specialising in the manufacturing and construction industries. From railway brake engineering via plastic drainage to construction, Denise saw the marketing ‘fluff’ delivered by some agencies and wanted to offer credible, hard-headed and logical suggestions to clients that actually work. Denise spotted a gap in the market for a tailored service for high-level bid support and marketing director expertise on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis.

Why did you write the book?

From bids to grants to award entries, Denise saw the similarities and wanted to help others navigate the awards entry process.
Winning has become a business for Denise, as a multi-award winner and professional bid writer, who has helped clients win opportunities valued at over £3.6bn. From marketing construction to chocolate, lingerie to legionella monitoring, the company Denise built has helped businesses of all types and sizes create winning marketing campaigns and successful bids.
Her love of winning started with ‘slogan’ competitions. Denise studied competitive behaviour as her thesis for a bachelor’s degree, gaining a first; and she wrote about the impact of the internet for her Master of Arts degree, gaining a distinction. From winning TVs to mountain bikes, holidays and even two years’ worth of tights, Denise understands what makes a compelling competition entry and has transferred this knowledge into winning business awards.

Having won dozens of awards herself and for clients, Denise shares her winning secrets so other business owners can gain winning recognition. Denise writes for many large companies and trains staff in bid writing. She also speaks nationally and internationally on “how to win”.

What value does the book offer?

Many business owners and small businesses dream of the profile they could create and look on in admiration at other award-winners. They wonder how they can achieve that success for themselves and their business.

Lack of confidence is an often-cited problem for small businesses alongside limited time and resources. They are keen to understand what benefits will be derived from winning awards, based on tips from prior winners and judges and, just as importantly, they also need to know what to avoid.

The process for winning awards is very similar to Denise’s proven formula for winning bids – each award entry needs to be treated as a bespoke marketing campaign.
In easy to understand chapters, the book takes the potential award-winner on a journey to success. Starting from “Has My Company Got What It Takes to Win an Award”, right through to “How to Make Your Entry Stand Out” and ultimately what you can expect from an awards event with the “Tales from the Ceremony”.

We include real life tips from winners and what they have included with their entries in order to get winning appeal. Also important are the hints from awards judges as to what they look for when assessing an entry. All stages of the process are explained and then supported with Top Tip graphics to summarise the learning.

What’s happened since you published the book?

Sharing knowledge on how to win business awards increases the success of the award schemes – so more of them are run to enable more businesses to win and get the recognition they deserve.
By publishing WINNER Denise has achieved her aim of helping others to win more, more often and especially smaller businesses to gain the PR rewards available from an award win.

WINNER: How to Win Business Awards (Published by Panoma Press) is available to buy on Amazon. 

Connect with Denise: LinkedIn – Twitter – Instagram

Winners of The Business Book Awards 2021 will be revealed online on Tuesday 25th May 2021.