How to Use Awards Recognition to Build Strategic Brand Credibility
If your awards content doesn’t reflect your strategy, you’re wasting the moment.
Most awards content feels like fluff. But executed with purpose, it can reinforce your market positioning, appeal to future clients, and strengthen your brand story. This post unpacks how we used a Webby nomination for Erewhon to support Delve’s go-to-market strategy—without overhyping or diluting our message.
Treat awards as brand signals, not announcements
Use format and tone to reflect your GTM positioning
Pair short-form (LinkedIn) and long-form (Newsroom) content for distinct goals
Recognition content works when it supports—not distracts from—your buyer narrative
Most Award Posts Don’t Work. Here’s Why.
Let’s be honest: most recognition content falls flat. It’s self-congratulatory. It’s vague. It interrupts whatever narrative your brand is trying to build.
But that’s a missed opportunity.
Handled right, award content can become a GTM asset.
If you’ve done great work, you don’t need to say it.
Just show the world what that work reflects—about your taste, your standards, and your alignment with the brands you want to attract.
How We Used a Webby Nomination to Support GTM Strategy
Delve had recently sharpened its GTM positioning around digital product innovation—especially for clients in health tech, wellness, and premium consumer experiences.
Erewhon’s mobile app nomination gave us more than a reason to celebrate. It gave us an opportunity to reinforce that strategy.
We weren’t promoting a project.
We were spotlighting a brand partnership that embodied our design philosophy—and hinted at what future clients could expect when working with us.
Designing Content to Serve Different Strategic Roles
We paired two assets:
A newsroom article
A LinkedIn post
But we didn’t copy-paste the same content across both. Each had a specific job.
The newsroom article went deeper—highlighting the app’s design principles, the collaboration with Erewhon, and the product vision that made the nomination meaningful. It served as a credibility piece: showing how Delve’s UX approach translates premium brand values into digital experiences.
The LinkedIn post took a tone-forward approach—celebratory, brand-aligned, and intentionally restrained. It used design-savvy language to reflect Erewhon’s premium positioning and included a light-touch CTA to vote. While hashtags were used, all links were placed in the comments to preserve native engagement—another deliberate decision aligned with platform best practices.
This wasn’t about clickthroughs. It was about signaling Delve’s ability to deliver elevated, brand-driven experiences—and doing so in a way that matched both the client’s identity and LinkedIn’s unspoken tone norms.
Use Awards Content to Reinforce Buyer Perception
The Erewhon campaign gave us a chance to:
Reinforce our design taste and UX fluency
Signal our ability to partner with premium, brand-forward clients
Stay in control of the narrative—no overselling, no deviation from our voice
We used tone, format, and sequencing to make sure the award didn’t stand alone. It landed within a content system built for brand alignment.
How to Turn Recognition Into a Strategic Signal
Don’t just announce—translate. Show what the award says about your brand, your values, and your ideal clients.
Let tone carry the brand. A well-crafted LinkedIn post or article can reflect design fluency and market alignment better than a headline ever could.
Design the format to fit the function. Use each channel with intention—LinkedIn for reach and vibe, newsroom for depth and control.
Embed soft content into your system. When aligned with your pillars and positioning, even celebratory content becomes a GTM asset—not a detour.
Recognition content builds future-facing credibility. Done right, it reinforces the kinds of clients you want next—not just the ones you’ve already won.
Here’s how seemingly “soft” content types can play distinct roles within a go-to-market-aligned system:
These assets may not drive leads directly—but they reinforce your position, signal fluency, and keep the system in motion.
See This Strategy in Action
About Me
I lead content strategy for B2B brands that need high-leverage assets—not just volume. I specialize in aligning storytelling with go-to-market priorities and executing strategic content systems end to end. This post is part of a series on how even “soft” content—like award announcements—can be executed to reinforce strategic positioning. The example here comes from my work at Delve, where we transformed a recognition moment into a GTM signal that spoke directly to our next best clients. Explore the full series.
